DVD Storage

[heffneil]

I know this has probably been covered about 1000 times but now I am running up to a road block. The question is how do you rip and store DVD's. I don't want to know which tools you use more about the mechanics. Let me explain: I usually rip my dvds and then put them all together in to a single mpg or vob file. This has been absolutely fantastic for me HOWEVER recently with the HD200 and the HD100's newest firmware I can see subtitles. The problem is since it is a single file I don't get the subtitle menu and this is normal according to SageTV. Not knowing this was a problem I never unchecked the subpicture option in my ripping software of choice. Hence all my movies now have annoying subtitles with no way to disable them without re-ripping the DVD's. It is a sizable collection and now I would have to get them all out of storage and re-do it. All I am really trying to accomplish is what I was doing and watching the main movie. I don't need other languages, extras or menus. I prefer not to have any of that junk. So the big issue is that with VLC or any other viewer I can disable the subtitle and not see them. I don't think I can convince SageTV to add a menu option but one is needed when just playing the single file video. Some research indicated the subtitles are embedded in the video but I disagree because a HD100 without the firmware upgrade doesn't show the subtitles and the newer HD100 firmware does! It has prevented me from upgrading my firmware because of this problem. Regardless I am hoping to understand better how the community is achieving this task of storing their DVD's on their media servers.

Thanks!

Neil

[freedml]

I use DVDFab HD Decrypter. I use the free version, and one drawback is that the dvd ends up in several files rather than just one. I assume if I upgraded that it would not do that.

[stanger89]

I store my per the appendix in the manual, ie DVD format. For movies, I just rip the main movie with DVD Shrink. This retains all the DVD functionality that's necessary/desireable (chapters, audio/subtitle selections) but eliminates menus and extras.

[fidget]

Originally Posted by stanger89

I store my per the appendix in the manual, ie DVD format. For movies, I just rip the main movie with DVD Shrink. This retains all the DVD functionality that's necessary/desireable (chapters, audio/subtitle selections) but eliminates menus and extras.

Some studios (like Disney) try to make it very hard to rip a DVD. For those, use AnyDVD (or AnyDVD HD if you think you will be wanting to store BluRay disks).

[stanger89]

Well, I do have AnyDVD running in the background And I've been using a ClownBD like process for my BDs, which have drastically reduced the number of DVD's I've purchased lately.

[Fuzzy]

with the cost of storage being so low, I see no reason to even bother with any sort of processing. I run AnyDVD, and just copy the entire disc to a folder on the HDD. for BD's, I use MakeMKV to get a single file, but that's just because sage doesn't support the menus.. if it did, I'd probably copy the entire BD structures as well.

[stanger89]

Originally Posted by Fuzzy

with the cost of storage being so low, I see no reason to even bother with any sort of processing. I run AnyDVD, and just copy the entire disc to a folder on the HDD.

I agree, but I like to get rid of the menus and other associated crap.

for BD's, I use MakeMKV to get a single file, but that's just because sage doesn't support the menus.. if it did, I'd probably copy the entire BD structures as well.

I leave them in BD structures, but just the movie.

[aflat]

Originally Posted by stanger89

I agree, but I like to get rid of the menus and other associated crap.



I leave them in BD structures, but just the movie.

I use MakeMKV as well so I can pick the correct audio stream, I assume you have something to decode the DTS streams? If not, is the audio stream selectable in Sage?

[stanger89]

Originally Posted by aflat

I use MakeMKV as well so I can pick the correct audio stream, I assume you have something to decode the DTS streams?

MKV is nice, but almost nothing supports chapters. Yes my SSP handles DTS.

If not, is the audio stream selectable in Sage?

yes it is.

[Fuzzy]

Mine supports mkv chapters... :-)

Utility: Blu-Ray/MKV Chapters to .EDL

[personalt]

Do you guys call any of these programs from the command line or from inside sagetv?

I want to be able to start the conversion either directly from sagetv or with my touchpanel calling a script. I was/am using DVDfab but from the command line I cant get it to close properly even if I use the /CLOSE tag. You need to manually click a button in the GUI after the rip finishes to get it to close.

Because of this I want to change software and was looking for something I can run from the command line. Can anyone make a recommand an alternative?

[stanger89]

Originally Posted by personalt

Do you guys call any of these programs from the command line or from inside sagetv?

I do it from my desktop/workstation.

I want to be able to start the conversion either directly from sagetv or with my touchpanel calling a script.

Can I ask why? I've never had a desire to go down to the HT, fire up the projector, fire up the HTPC, get out the mouse/keyboard (or remote) just to rip a disc when I can just pop it in the drive in my workstation, when I'm probably already there to check email or something......

I'm just curious, is this the neverending quest for complete, do-everything-ness ("Because we can!"), or if I'm just odd in my seeing lack of utility in wanting to rip discs while I'm in my HT.

[gplasky]

I'm the same. Rips, fanart, burning, etc I continue to do from the PC in the study. It all gets saved to the WHS. (Windows Home Server) Plus it's the fatsest PC and it deosn't interrupt any TV watching for the rest of the family.

Gerry

[paulbeers]

I concur with Gerry and Stanger. It also doesn't make a lot of sense for me as I am almost completely extenders now (I run placeshifter a bit on my laptop). So I don't even use a client with a DVD drive in my home theater, this functionality would be completely lost on me. I spend enough time in front of my home office pc for work related tasks, that I can rip a couple of dvd's while working away.

[personalt]

My sagetv PC is right off the living room and on 24-7..

My desktop PC is upstairs and is usually not even on. Around the house I use a laptop with no DVD drive.

The easiest thing for me is to drop the DVD into the sage box. But since it is headless and keyboardless the easiest solution for me is to call the DVD rip via batch file. I can call other batch files via my touchpanel and I bet I could call these via sagetv as I know there is a button to run comskip inside sage.

My issue was that that I was looking for a way to rip from the command line so I dont need to remote into a headless box. DVDfabs command line interface almost works, except the /CLOSE doesnt really close the program. What I was looking to see was if anyone rips dvds using just the command line.

[gplasky]

If /CLOSE isn't working correct let the developer know so he can fix it. Maybe use a command line to kill the process as a last resort such as taskkill /F DVDFab.exe.

Gerry

[will]

Does anyone know if Sage will support BD menus in the near future? I am just starting to archive my DVDs and plan to start on my BD collection next.

I like how Sage handles DVDs because if I ever needed to I could burn the DVD folder to a DVD to watch in a regular player (as apposed to a MKV file).

[Fuzzy]

Not sure if they will support BD menues in the near future. However, theres nothing to prevent you from doing the same thing with the blu-ray's as you do with the DVD's. Most work just fine on the extenders playing back the main feature (some are detected wrong, so you might have to modify a couple to remove the wrong playlist). If you are running on a PC based client, you'd be far better off playing back the BD rips in TMT3, where the BD specs are fully supported.

[will]

Originally Posted by Fuzzy

Not sure if they will support BD menues in the near future. However, theres nothing to prevent you from doing the same thing with the blu-ray's as you do with the DVD's. Most work just fine on the extenders playing back the main feature (some are detected wrong, so you might have to modify a couple to remove the wrong playlist). If you are running on a PC based client, you'd be far better off playing back the BD rips in TMT3, where the BD specs are fully supported.

So if I am playing back from an HD200 in client mode I shouldn't have any problems?

I like the idea of copying the entire folder over and if I can't access the menus for now that is ok.

To make sure I am understanding the process, I would copy the unencrypted folder with the video and audio over like a regular DVD onto my server. After loading the BD I would then hit the previous channel key to go to the next chapter to start playing, correct? And I would be playing this while the HD200 is in the client mode?

Thanks for the help.

[Fuzzy]

The BD Format will be detected and added to the video llibrary in the same way it detects DVD's. The only difference is when selcting it to play, instead of playing it will full menues, it will look at the playlists, choose the longest one, and start playing that (which is normally the main movie on most discs). This is the case on the HD-200, in extender(client) mode. The actual PC based client doesn't do anything, and just throws an error when choosing it (unless you use the import in my profile to launch TMT3 instead).