New to DVD ripping Questions regarding settings and proper aspect ratio choices

[ThePaladinTech]

I am SOOO confused!

I've read Stangers post on aspect ratios http://forums.sagetv.com/forums/show...78&postcount=5

As well as this article: http://www.doom9.org/index.html?/aspectratios.htm

I'm just starting to rip DVDs (movie only) - And I *just* became aware of all the different aspect ratios. I thought 4:3 and 16:9 was all there was. I'm using DVDfab to rip the video as Generic mp4 H264 aac - I've gone in and told it to do a 2 pass encode. but beyond that I've changed no settings.

The default settings are not making sense to me- original frame resolution is 852x364. Also, there are two tabs: Resize and Crop. again default settings are as follows: Resize tab 720x306 with the 'size zommed in/ out on source' - Crop is set to 'automatic'

I think I am getting it a little bit. Do I want it to leave crop set to automatic? when that is OFF the aspect ratio remains 1.77:1, which is the original aspect ratio, but I think I will be ripping black bars? when I leave it on the aspect ratio goes to 2:34:1, and nothing but video.

I want to be able to use Sage aspect ratio's and make it fill the screen without it looking funny, or have it showing the full widescreen again without looking funny.

[bialio]

If you have space just rip the DVD without re-encoding it - you can pull out just the movie into a .mkv file with MakeMKV, which preserves the original encoding.

Space is "cheap" these days, or so they say. The only reason to re-encode to H264 is if you want to save space.......

[gplasky]

Originally Posted by bialio

If you have space just rip the DVD without re-encoding it - you can pull out just the movie into a .mkv file with MakeMKV, which preserves the original encoding.

Space is "cheap" these days, or so they say. The only reason to re-encode to H264 is if you want to save space.......

+1. I use DVDFab for both DVD and Blue Ray and I just use the default. I do rip the Blue Ray to a 25 GB if I still want a somewhat HD picture and to save space. I've also ripped the Blue Ray to DVD which works well for the kids videos. (Or a full if the movie justifies it.) But for DVDs to use 4GB up around 7GB of disk space isn't really much. I would only transcode it if I was putting it on an Android or IOS device.

Gerry

[ThePaladinTech]

So can i just rip the movie as a MKV with DVDfab? or do I need to use the other software? (I already own DVDFab). and what settings (if any) would I specify??

I don't think space is much of an issue, I had been ripping the DVDs to folder structure, but realize we very rarely watch anything but the movie. So movie forward I am just doing the movie.

Thanks for the quick answers.

[reggie14]

I use MakeMKV for both DVD and blu-ray movies (and sometimes TV shows, but that's more work). MakeMKV is free for DVDs, if I remember correctly.

[wrems]

+1 MakeMKV no compression. Plus, it's WAY faster than waiting for an h.264 encode process to complete.

[stanger89]

Originally Posted by ThePaladinTech

I'm just starting to rip DVDs (movie only) - And I *just* became aware of all the different aspect ratios. I thought 4:3 and 16:9 was all there was.

Well first things first, understand that there are two different aspect ratios to talk about with DVD. There's the aspect ratio of the video "file" on the DVD, which as you thought, is either 4:3, or 16:9 (usually labeled "Anamorphic" or "Widescreen enhanced" or something similar).

The other aspect ratio is that of the "content" (the movie), in that video file. That can be anything under the sun, and is padded with bars to fill out either the 4:3 or 16:9 DVD frame.

I'm using DVDfab to rip the video as Generic mp4 H264 aac - I've gone in and told it to do a 2 pass encode. but beyond that I've changed no settings.

The default settings are not making sense to me- original frame resolution is 852x364. Also, there are two tabs: Resize and Crop. again default settings are as follows: Resize tab 720x306 with the 'size zommed in/ out on source' - Crop is set to 'automatic'

We need to back up here just a bit too. DVDs are 720x480 pixels, every one of them (at least every one I've seen). However since most displays use or assume square pixels, for anamorphic DVDs, you basically have to stretch it out to about 850x480.

Now a lot of movies are not 16:9 but wider (2.35-2.40:1) so for these there are letterbox bars added so the effective active area of such a DVD is about 850x360 or so when you figure for square pixels.

I think I am getting it a little bit. Do I want it to leave crop set to automatic? when that is OFF the aspect ratio remains 1.77:1, which is the original aspect ratio, but I think I will be ripping black bars? when I leave it on the aspect ratio goes to 2:34:1, and nothing but video.

It really shouldn't matter, as long as the encode is done right, Sage should display it fine. It might take a little extra space if you leave the bars present.

That said, I agree with the others, it's better to just leave it in native DVD format, recompressing doesn't do anything positive but reduce the file size (at the expense of quality).

I want to be able to use Sage aspect ratio's and make it fill the screen without it looking funny, or have it showing the full widescreen again without looking funny.

I'm not sure what you mean, Sage should handle it right regardless. There's no way you're going to make a 2.35:1 movie fit a 16:9 display without cutting something off or "looking funny".

[ThePaladinTech]

Thanks for the details. What I meant by 'looking strange' is I did one movie last night and my nephew said "why are the people all stretched out" ... Turned out how I had Automatic aspect ratios set. I had that set to default to 'fill', which has been working great for 4:3 tv channels. But I think a DVD needs 'fill wide' to look right, so we toggled it and it looked fine.

I've downloaded MakeMKV, And will try it out soon.

[wrems]

IMO, I'd leave it displayed as source without any processing to fill the entire screen. You're always cutting something off that way. The black bars are actually good to keep everything proportional.

[ThePaladinTech]

Thanks for the info everyone... I ripped the movie with DVDFab using default settings, and I Ripped it with MakeMKV.

File size for DVDfab 1.4gb Size for MakeMKV 6.6gb

the MakeMKV rip retained the chapters where the DVDFab one did not.

Any idea why the MakeMKV rip will not show up in my library? I have to browse to it, and I've done a media scan in sage, and it is located in a video import folder.

One more question- When I rip the DVD to it's folder structure the DVD winds up in 'DVDs' is there some way I can make all my movies show up there even if they are MKVs? or is there some other way to give them there own menu choice?

Edit: OK another question - I just ripped the 'movie only' to a folder structure... it is smaller in size by over 1gb in comparison to the MakeMKV file. What are pros and cons of folder structure vs MKV?

[panteragstk]

Originally Posted by ThePaladinTech

Thanks for the info everyone... I ripped the movie with DVDFab using default settings, and I Ripped it with MakeMKV.

File size for DVDfab 1.4gb Size for MakeMKV 6.6gb

the MakeMKV rip retained the chapters where the DVDFab one did not.

Any idea why the MakeMKV rip will not show up in my library? I have to browse to it, and I've done a media scan in sage, and it is located in a video import folder.

One more question- When I rip the DVD to it's folder structure the DVD winds up in 'DVDs' is there some way I can make all my movies show up there even if they are MKVs? or is there some other way to give them there own menu choice?

Edit: OK another question - I just ripped the 'movie only' to a folder structure... it is smaller in size by over 1gb in comparison to the MakeMKV file. What are pros and cons of folder structure vs MKV?

Since mkv supports chapters you aren't gaining or losing anything. The only difference I can see is the fact that you have one file instead of a folder with sub folders and files. Someone will correct me if I'm wrong.

[Taddeusz]

I use Handbrake to create anamorphic trancodes of my DVD's. I tried doing MakeMKV for a while but I found that at least for my HD100 and HD200 the quality of MPEG2 video was really hit or miss from DVD to DVD. Not sure about the HD300, but the HD100 and HD200 are both strictly flag based decoders. So even if there is progressive film encoded into the interlaced video if there are no progressive flags it will assume interlaced and the video will have a flicker to it. I notice this with a lot of animated material and lower cost DVD releases. They just don't take the time to encode the video properly. Most A-list movies are ok but there is still some variation there.

So I don't necessarily use Handbrake strictly to reduce size but to make the video quality better. However, I think I'm the only one in the family who really cares. My wife and daughter don't really care, or can really tell, if something is in HD. While it is obvious to me it's not to them.