What do people use to compress?

[dvd_maniac]

I have been going around in circles for a couple weeks now. I want to put all my dvd's on my Sage Server and be able to play them on clients. I also want to compress the movies I record in Sage for the same purpose. I have tried the Nero mp4 files and although they look great, even at 700kbps, they do not play in client. I am trying an xvid encode right now to see if it will play, and if the quality is decent enough at around the same bitrate.

But I would like to know what others are doing? What compression format do you use and does it play on Client as well?

[mls]

Although I don't have an answer to your question, I do have a reverse question. With the cost of larger hard drives dropping so much lately, I'm curious why all of a sudden everyone seems to have such an interest/need to compress files smaller?

[dvd_maniac]

I have over 1000 dvd's and would like to place alot of them on Hard drive to:
1. Eliminate the huge space they take up.
2. have EVERYTHING media wise in ONE place.
3. never worry about finding, scratching or breaking a disc.
4. Compressed to around 1GB per movie on my 800GB raid drive = around 800 movies, uncompressed movie average 5GB = 160 movies.

[mls]

That makes sense. Of course that raises another question... Why would anyone actually own that many DVD's to start with? But, I do know that there are quite a few people with rather large CD and DVD collections. Heck, my neighbor has a collection of over 300 VHS tapes.

[Cayars]

I do a RIP with DVDDecrypter and then use Dr. DivX to compress using theater mode with a bit rate of 900 for things like this. Works preety well.

[sudipto]

Dr. DivX

... I wish there was a more automated solution though ...

[dvd_maniac]

Of course that raises another question... Why would anyone actually own that many DVD's to start with?

My wife has been the type to go to Walmart or BestBuy every week and buy almost everything that comes out. It is like a religion to her..... and costs me a fortune...

I do a RIP with DVDDecrypter and then use Dr. DivX to compress using theater mode with a bit rate of 900 for things like this. Works preety well.

Hey Cayars. Do you play these files fine on SageClient as well?
&
Excellent work on your STV's. Can't wait for out of the box compression with ver16.

[Cayars]

As long as you can access the file outside of sage on the SageClient machine (same drive mapping on UNC) then yes and with no problems that I can find.

[stanger89]

Originally Posted by dvd_maniac

But I would like to know what others are doing? What compression format do you use and does it play on Client as well?

Let me say this again, if it plays on the server it will play on the client PROVIDED, you have the client set up correctly (the right decoders, network mappings UNC paths).

If you've got .mp4s to play on the server, then there's something wrong with your client config.

[dvd_maniac]

If you've got .mp4s to play on the server, then there's something wrong with your client config.

Hey Stanger,

I'm sorry. I think I was unclear in what my problem with mp4 is, I can in fact play the files on the client pc. They play fine in powerdvd, WMP, Nero Showtime, just not INSIDE client. The codecs are setup correctly. FFdshow is also setup correctly as it is being shown for decoding audio & video in WMP under file properties.

Edit: If you say that you can play mp4 files on Client than I will redo my system and start it from scratch to make sure.
My mp4's have *.mp4 extensions

[stanger89]

OK, first sorry if I came of harsh, but I've seen your posts about this a few places and you never seem to follow up.

OK, on to your trouble, you say they play in WMP, etc, that's the first step. Now when you play them in SageClient, what is the exact error you get. It could be as simple as a path problem.

FWIW, no I haven't tried any mp4s, but if they play in the server there's no reason they shouldn't in the client.

[dvd_maniac]

Not home right now, sop I can't check error. Still at work. What path problem could there be? Since the Client seems to get the path of the file from Sage Server? I have it in the imported videos folder.

As for coming off harsh.... I do not think this is the case. I was Presumptuous in thinking you were a mind reader. I should have stated the playback problem was in Client itself. My Bad!
You have been truly great with your words of wisdom.

and I do try to follow up where applicable:

http://forums.freytechnologies.com/f...6163#post76163

http://forums.freytechnologies.com/f...5769#post75769

http://forums.freytechnologies.com/f...5314#post75314

http://forums.freytechnologies.com/f...3&page=1&pp=20

These are the threads you saw me post to in regards to this particular problem. As you can see, none of these posts are ready for me to follow up on. I check them regularly as putting together my ultimate media server is important to my wife.
If there is indeed a thread where I haven't followed up regarding this, I am sorry and would like to know which one it is.

[Lester Jacobs]

Originally Posted by mls

Although I don't have an answer to your question, I do have a reverse question. With the cost of larger hard drives dropping so much lately, I'm curious why all of a sudden everyone seems to have such an interest/need to compress files smaller?

I take the train to work which gives me an ideal opportunity to watch some shows on the way in. Since I have a PocketPC I'd like to put shows on the PocketPC for watching (I prefer watching shows on my PPC rather than always having to drag my laptop with me on the train, especially with the limited seta space). With the limited memory available on PPCs I need to compress shows down to about 100mb or so. Currently I do this using Pinnacle Studio 8 to reduce the Sage mpgs to 100mb wmv files. The resulting quality is actually very good since the resolution of the PPC is so low.

Cheers
Lester

[dvd_maniac]

I'm going to wait til H.264 becomes playable on handhelds. Superb quality at VERY small file sizes. and Nero Recode makes the encode process simple.

[stanger89]

Originally Posted by dvd_maniac

and I do try to follow up where applicable:

And I don't always read as closesly as I should

[dvd_maniac]

at home now,

here is the error I am geting on client. Playing the same nero digital non avc mp4 file.

[nielm]

The first 5 results in a google search for directx 80040111 suggest that the video codec is not correctly installed. The second result has a bunch of troubleshooting suggestions...

[Bathman]

I use AutoGK from

http://www.autogk.net/

It's cheap (free/donation) and very easy to set up.

I compress to XVID and it takes between 16-24 hours to compress a movie with GBPVR and bitorrent running 24/7 at the same time.

As my PC is a lowly fanless VIA 1.2 C3 with 512meg it takes a fair amount of time. I know of people with Athalon 64 compressing films in around 4 hours.

I also like AUtoGK because you can que more than one job at a time.

Give it a try you have nothing to loose.

[flagg0204]

Originally Posted by Bathman

I use AutoGK from

http://www.autogk.net/

It's cheap (free/donation) and very easy to set up.

I compress to XVID and it takes between 16-24 hours to compress a movie with GBPVR and bitorrent running 24/7 at the same time.

As my PC is a lowly fanless VIA 1.2 C3 with 512meg it takes a fair amount of time. I know of people with Athalon 64 compressing films in around 4 hours.

I also like AUtoGK because you can que more than one job at a time.

Give it a try you have nothing to loose.

I would like to second this. AutoGK is great and the xvid codec is surpassing divx in quality IMHO. XvID is also compatible with Divx. If you want a more indepth look at xvid and AutoGK checkout www.doom9.org they have lots of tutorials and FAQs on the subject

[dvd_maniac]

Long time member of Doom9. I have checked it out and I came to the same conclusion. I finished an encode of Manchurian Candidate last night. 2hr 9min movie encoded to 700mb took 3 1/2 hours to encode. I definitely would rather get H.264 mp4 as the quality is far superior, however I will work more with AutoGK and see if I can't tweak it a little.