Sage a ghost in the machine?

[drvnbysound]

Originally Posted by KryptoNyte

Give me a day or two on this. Instead of actually writing a text based guide, I'll just write some short directions and then provide screenshots of the various Handbrake screens. Handbrake can be a little flakey at times, not saving your settings from one file to the next like it probably should, but you get used to it.

Notice I'm using HandBrake 5312svn (nightly release) because it had some additional features that the official release didn't have yet (I can't remember what they are now, but it may have been DTSMA audio capability).

That would be awesome! Definitely no rush. As mentioned, I've only got about 5 BDs on there now, and I think we've watched one of them, once. It's been more common for me to just pop the BD into my PS3 and watch it.

I've basically been trying to write my own guides for things such as this (generally Word docs with screenshots; could be converted to PDF). It seems that so many of these things are documented in text on one forum or another, but it's been difficult to find any documents that have already been written for sharing with others.

Originally Posted by KryptoNyte

AnyDVD is probably the best tool actually. Here are a couple things that might cause problems with the 'grab the largest file' method.

1) On every bluray there is an index file (or files) that explain the bluray disc structure to the bluray player. Many times you'll find that your bluray movie (or DVD even) is broken up into many smaller files, and the index keeps all this straight - sometime it's hard to know which files you need, and if you bring the entire disc, Handbrake will usually help you navigate this confusion.

2) On TV Series blurays, there are always multiple files with the desired content. Handbrake will also help navigate those, most of the time.

So, would it be OK to simply copy/paste the contents after AnyDVD has run? As they don't (yet) have a CloneBD tool. However, it seems that it may finally be coming around, now deemed Slyce (https://forum.slysoft.com/showthread...ION-Topic-v1-6)

[KryptoNyte]

Sorry about the thread hijack, Toony.

[drvnbysound]

Originally Posted by KryptoNyte

Sorry about the thread hijack, Toony.

+1. Maybe, some of this info would also be helpful and apply to the HD300 ???

[KryptoNyte]

Originally Posted by drvnbysound

So, would it be OK to simply copy/paste the contents after AnyDVD has run? As they don't (yet) have a CloneBD tool. However, it seems that it may finally be coming around, now deemed Slyce

I suppose that would work. You may have to play with this a bit, there are likely a few methods for you. If you're patient, you might even be able to run Handbrake on the disc itself, after AnyDVD has authenticated it - this might be painfully slow, however, and may put unnecessary wear on the bluray drive.

[drvnbysound]

Good deal. I'll definitely play with it a bit. I appreciate all the help!

[KryptoNyte]

Originally Posted by drvnbysound

+1. Maybe, some of this info would also be helpful and apply to the HD300 ???

Yeah, definitely. Do keep in mind that the HD300 has the capability to decode DTS (and maybe DTS-HD, I don't recall), so the AC3 track isn't necessary.

I believe this situation applies to all devices these days. I have now found that every file ever encoded using this method will play on every device I own, including the Galaxy S4 for example. So finally, I can do what I want with the media I own.

[drvnbysound]

Originally Posted by KryptoNyte

Yeah, definitely. Do keep in mind that the HD300 has the capability to decode DTS (and maybe DTS-HD, I don't recall), so the AC3 track isn't necessary.

I believe this situation applies to all devices these days. I have now found that every file ever encoded using this method will play on every device I own, including the Galaxy S4 for example. So finally, I can do what I want with the media I own.

That was my plan (to purchase HD300s)... then I logged onto SageTV.com to find that the store was closed #LateAdopter At the time the HD300s were MUCH more expensive than the 200s (eBay), and I ended up buying (4) HD200s; (3) for use, and (1) for backup. Since they've been working well, I haven't bothered to look into replacing them. I was actually VERY surprised when the built-in IR receiver worked so well when the 200 was hidden behind my wall mounted LCDs!

[KryptoNyte]

One more thing for now, the key to testing with Handbrake is to use the "Preview" option button once you have all your settings in, and then render a 30 or 60 second file that you can test on various device. Once the preview file is working to your satisfaction, add that job to the Que and move on to the next one.

[KryptoNyte]

Originally Posted by drvnbysound

That was my plan (to purchase HD300s)... then I logged onto SageTV.com to find that the store was closed #LateAdopter At the time the HD300s were MUCH more expensive than the 200s (eBay), and I ended up buying (4) HD200s; (3) for use, and (1) for backup. Since they've been working well, I haven't bothered to look into replacing them. I was actually VERY surprised when the built-in IR receiver worked so well when the 200 was hidden behind my wall mounted LCDs!

Funny, I did pretty much the same thing. I believe I paid over $200 for nearly each of my HD200's. I never actually owned an extender while Sage was still alive. I've found decent deals on the HD300's since and upgraded to them, but the HD200 is a very capable device, even the speed is nearly the same best I can tell.

[toony]

Originally Posted by drvnbysound

+1. Maybe, some of this info would also be helpful and apply to the HD300 ???

Originally Posted by KryptoNyte

Sorry about the thread hijack, Toony.

No problem, I'm reading along with interest.

Besides this one audio codec issue I had which seemed to be because it was encoded with Flacc, my issues are with video encoding, still interesting to read about.

The HD200 never gave any issue for me except with DTS audio which I fixed by getting an av receiver. Other than that it plays everything my 300's do.

[stanger89]

FWIW, you can setup Clown BD to add an AC3 track as you rip your BDs. I believe you have to enable the NMT (Network Media Tank) audio options, and you select AC3 and Native (not sure I've got the right terminology there).

[drvnbysound]

Originally Posted by stanger89

FWIW, you can setup Clown BD to add an AC3 track as you rip your BDs. I believe you have to enable the NMT (Network Media Tank) audio options, and you select AC3 and Native (not sure I've got the right terminology there).

Yeah, I realized at some point last night during the discussion that I was previously using ClownBD to help automate eac3to, tsMuxer, and imgburn processes. My problem was really that I had no idea what I was really doing before... just trying to follow along with some threads that I had found discussing it (this was a while back).

[trk2]

Just wanted to chime in here to discuss what I do with my library. My Sage setup has transitioned from a strict dvr service, to more of a media server. I currently have around 9TB of movies and recordings. Since I value quality, none of these files have been compressed. Even my music files are ripped as FLAC.

For movies I use AnyDVD and rip to file mode which works great. For discs with episodic content (tv shows on bluray or dvd), I use MakeMKV which automatically detects each episode and will rip them to a seperate MKV file. For modern bluray discs, you also have the option of keeping the existing HD audio file (TrueHD or DTS-MA), or keeping the DTS or AC3 core, or a combination of both. There is no compression in this method. The quality is the same that is on the disc and the time required is limited to read rate of the bluray-rom drive.

The only issue with MakeMKV is that the sage extenders seem to ignore the forced subtitle flag in the mkv format. My personal workaround is to only rip the forced English subtitle (assuming it is an english speaking show), and then leave subtitles on when watching a MKV file (which will then only show the proper forced subtitles).

MakeMKV has been in free open beta for the last couple years.

[Skirge01]

You might want to check out MakeMKV as well. I own AnyDVD HD and have used Handbrake, but if you want the simplest method for ripping at the highest quality, I can't recommend an easier tool than MakeMKV. My 2 cents.

EDIT: Looks like trk2 beat me to the MakeMKV recommendation...

[pjpjpjpj]

Dang, page two of this thread should be relabeled as "audio track help for ripped discs" (or something like that) and made into a sticky. Good stuff, guys!

[KryptoNyte]

You folks still want a quick guide for Handbrake, or do you have enough hard disk space to just rip direct with MakeMKV?

[drvnbysound]

Originally Posted by KryptoNyte

You folks still want a quick guide for Handbrake, or do you have enough hard disk space to just rip direct with MakeMKV?

I'd still like one if you don't mind. Just tried MakeMKV; first attempt produced a bunch of errors (displayed in the running log), second attempt it wouldn't even locate my BD drive

[KryptoNyte]

That's strange. That's usually a pretty solid piece of software. I'd probably use it if it wasn't for the massive files that result.

[drvnbysound]

Originally Posted by KryptoNyte

That's strange. That's usually a pretty solid piece of software. I'd probably use it if it wasn't for the massive files that result.

E.g. 30-50GB?

[KryptoNyte]

Pretty much, 18 to about 40 GB is typical. On a 70" television, a 28" LCD computer monitor, and any other viewing device in the house, I can't tell any visual quality difference between that original 30GB video file and that 5GB post compression file. Add that to any shows commercial cut and compressed (compression ratio between 4:1 and 3:1 or so), it can start to add up.