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301 DVDs I want to get on a drive

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With enough space, you can manually copy disks 1:1 for speed, then set up some scripts to auto-transcode them over time for size considerations.
 
frowertr said:
This.

I can tell zero difference in the quality between straight Video_TS rips and transcoded H.264/.mkv if they are done with the correct settings. Handbrake is suprisingly easy as hell to use. I went into it knowing nothing about about it and in a few days I converted my entire DVD library while learning and having some fun at the same time! Again, I reduced my library size by approx 75% by transcoding all of my movies.
Click to expand...

yea but it took an assload of time, and you lost all the features.
space is cheap now.
 
0roo0roo said:
yea but it took an assload of time, and you lost all the features.
space is cheap now.
Click to expand...

30 minutes a movie minutes isn't what I would call an "assload" of time. It took three days to transcode them all. My HTPC server is on 24x7x365 anyway so it isn't like I had to go out of my way to do this. To me, part of the fun is tinkering with the system anyway and finding better ways to get things done. And what features? The directories commentaries I have NEVER watched a day in my life?! If those are the features you are referring to then, yeah, I guess I "lost" them...

Again, it really depends on what exactly the OP wants to do and what his individual situation is like. Transcoding made sense for me. It might not for everyone else. I backup my movie library to an additional external hard drive. So, if I had filled up my primary movie library drive I would have had to go out and spend $250 bucks to upgrade my system to accomidate more movies. Would have had to purchase a PCI SATA controller (out of SATA ports on my MB), yet another 2TB internal drive to hold future movies on, and then finally a 2TB external drive (backup of the additional movie library drive.). So in my situation it was much easier (and cheaper!) to spend a couple days transcoding than upgrading the server.
 
Last edited:
Thanks for all of the info - all of you. I found DVD Decrypter to copy 1:1, then tried Handbrake to create the .mkv or .avi file. I then installed TVersity to stream to my 360 (the 360 didn't recognize the .mkv or .mp4 extensions and TVersity "decodes" them while streaming so the 360 can read them.)

I ran across DVD Decrypter only because I don't have any software that can get past the security, which is on pretty much all of my DVDs, and I don't have extra $ to buy anything right now and DVD Decrypter is free.

It takes about 20 minutes to rip the DVDs then about 1 hour to change them to .mkv or mp4 - I'm running a Core 2 with 3gb RAM.
 
Cienja said:
Thanks for all of the info - all of you. I found DVD Decrypter to copy 1:1, then tried Handbrake to create the .mkv or .avi file. I then installed TVersity to stream to my 360 (the 360 didn't recognize the .mkv or .mp4 extensions and TVersity "decodes" them while streaming so the 360 can read them.)

I ran across DVD Decrypter only because I don't have any software that can get past the security, which is on pretty much all of my DVDs, and I don't have extra $ to buy anything right now and DVD Decrypter is free.

It takes about 20 minutes to rip the DVDs then about 1 hour to change them to .mkv or mp4 - I'm running a Core 2 with 3gb RAM.
Click to expand...

just rip the dvd. no need to transcode. unless you are really concerned about drive space.
 
So, I'm ripping them into /moviename folders. Within the folders are VIDEO_TS and VTS files. Which file do I "play" on the 360? The 360 isn't recognizing the files. I can see the folders and the VIDEO_TS/VTS files on the 360.

Edit: Or should I be creating an image file instead?

Thanks!
 
Last edited:
Cienja said:
Thanks for all of the info - all of you. I found DVD Decrypter to copy 1:1, then tried Handbrake to create the .mkv or .avi file. I then installed TVersity to stream to my 360 (the 360 didn't recognize the .mkv or .mp4 extensions and TVersity "decodes" them while streaming so the 360 can read them.)

I ran across DVD Decrypter only because I don't have any software that can get past the security, which is on pretty much all of my DVDs, and I don't have extra $ to buy anything right now and DVD Decrypter is free.

It takes about 20 minutes to rip the DVDs then about 1 hour to change them to .mkv or mp4 - I'm running a Core 2 with 3gb RAM.
Click to expand...
The 360 does recognize mp4 but you have to make sure you have the correct audio codec as it absolutely must be 2 channel aac. In other words it cant be AC3 or MP3 and it cannot be 5.1 or 6 channel or any of that stuff. Just make sure the audio is AAC dolby pro logic 2 and the 360 will recognize the files no problem, but it will not play mp4 with any other audio codec.
 
Cienja said:
So, I'm ripping them into /moviename folders. Within the folders are VIDEO_TS and VTS files. Which file do I "play" on the 360? The 360 isn't recognizing the files. I can see the folders and the VIDEO_TS/VTS files on the 360.

Edit: Or should I be creating an image file instead?

Thanks!
Click to expand...
I dont believe you can play TS/VTS files on a 360 in any way.
 
kingzfan2000 said:
The 360 does recognize mp4 but you have to make sure you have the correct audio codec as it absolutely must be 2 channel aac. In other words it cant be AC3 or MP3 and it cannot be 5.1 or 6 channel or any of that stuff. Just make sure the audio is AAC dolby pro logic 2 and the 360 will recognize the files no problem, but it will not play mp4 with any other audio codec.
Click to expand...

Good info. Thanks!
 
frowertr said:
30 minutes a movie minutes isn't what I would call an "assload" of time. It took three days to transcode them all. My HTPC server is on 24x7x365 anyway so it isn't like I had to go out of my way to do this. To me, part of the fun is tinkering with the system anyway and finding better ways to get things done. And what features? The directories commentaries I have NEVER watched a day in my life?! If those are the features you are referring to then, yeah, I guess I "lost" them...

Again, it really depends on what exactly the OP wants to do and what his individual situation is like. Transcoding made sense for me. It might not for everyone else. I backup my movie library to an additional external hard drive. So, if I had filled up my primary movie library drive I would have had to go out and spend $250 bucks to upgrade my system to accomidate more movies. Would have had to purchase a PCI SATA controller (out of SATA ports on my MB), yet another 2TB internal drive to hold future movies on, and then finally a 2TB external drive (backup of the additional movie library drive.). So in my situation it was much easier (and cheaper!) to spend a couple days transcoding than upgrading the server.
Click to expand...

30 minutes x 301 = 150 hours.
you can watch 75 movies instead.
and as i've said, you are preserving obsolete dreck when you can rent a bluray.

you are archiving this.
348260d5.png

90a70071.png


when you could be watching this
f78b44b0.png

c6e4ea9b.png



movies aren' like mp3s, you don't juke box play them, so ripping them has far far less utility.
 
0roo0roo said:
30 minutes x 301 = 150 hours.
you can watch 75 movies instead.
and as i've said, you are preserving obsolete dreck when you can rent a bluray.

you are archiving this.
348260d5.png

90a70071.png


when you could be watching this
f78b44b0.png

c6e4ea9b.png
Click to expand...

I hate you. You just single handedly convinced me to start the Bluray migration in my own collection. :$😵😱:awe:
 
0roo0roo said:
😀


hehe yea its just so pretty..I just cant be bothered with dvds anymore.
Click to expand...

I'm confused. Are you advocated ripping or no? Are you saying to don't rip anything or only rip Blurays?

Blurays are just too big to store. 1 movie = 50GB of space. That will fill up a 2TB drive in no time. Now of course we can transcode them but, damn, that takes an "assload" of time to do that and you still end up with a file around 15GB if you want excellent quality out of it.

This is the primary reason why I still only purchase DVD's. I'd rather have a massive DVD movie library that we can play over and over again (I've probably watched the Hangover on and off over the last few days 5 times) than to have only a small fraction of Blurays that occupy the same space. I'm not "into it" enough to setup another dedicated machine in order to run UnRAID and archive my movies there. For now, a single 2TB HDD will store approx 1000 DVD movies on it if I transcode them all with an average size of 2GB (I think I did that math right) per movie.

When HD manufacturers start making bigger drives in the 5TB, 10TB, 15TB, etc... I will change my opinion. But I just don't think 2TB is big enough for these damn blurays yet.
 
Why rip? Is it really that hard to walk up to the shelf every 2 hours and grab a bluray to pop in?

Why spend your time ripping your way to an inferior and obsolete experience.
 
0roo0roo said:
Why rip? Is it really that hard to walk up to the shelf every 2 hours and grab a bluray to pop in?

Why spend your time ripping your way to an inferior and obsolete experience.
Click to expand...

Part of the "cool" factor with an HTPC server (I run SageTV) is that I can stream to all four TV's in my home. Having all my movies centralized on a hard drive provides the ability to play to all 4 of these TV with a few clicks of the remote control. Hell, I don't even own a stand alone Bluray/DVD player. The only Bluray drive I have in my entire house is in my HTPC server.

Of course, movies are only a small fraction of what we watch but it is still important for the WAF (Wife Acceptance Factor) that the expierence be easy to use in all 4 rooms for anyone and everyone.

I agree that DVD's are essentially a dead technology. I'd love to be able to start archiving Bluray's if I could figure out a way to do it in a time/cost/energy efficient matter...
 
I use AnyDVD HD and CloneDVD to rip to ISO, no compression. Single files for me so my young kids can find them the easier on the server. I playback on main TV with Gen 1 AppleTV with XBMC and with Patriot Box Offices in the kids' rooms, all from my WHS.

Note that ISO files don't play on XBox360 or PS3 without transcoding first.
 
Slug said:
I use AnyDVD HD and CloneDVD to rip to ISO, no compression. Single files for me so my young kids can find them the easier on the server. I playback on main TV with Gen 1 AppleTV with XBMC and with Patriot Box Offices in the kids' rooms, all from my WHS.

Note that ISO files don't play on XBox360 or PS3 without transcoding first.
Click to expand...

Plays on Argosy HV335T Mobile Video HDD Media Player:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...&SID=u00000687 :

Audio Support: MP3, WAV, OGG, WMA, AAC, FLAC, Dolby Digital, DTS

Video Support: MPEG-1(MPG/DAT), DVD Folder(IFO)/DVD ISO, MPEG-2(MPG/VOB/TS/M2TS), MPEG-4(Xvid/AVI/MP4/MOV/M4V), H.264/AVC/AVCHD(AVI/MKV/FLV/ MOV/M4V/TS/M2TS), VC-1(AVI/MKV/M2TS) , WMV9 (AVI/WMV/MKV), RM/RMVB(720p)

File Extension: AVI, MKV, MPG, VOB, IFO, TS, M2TS, MOV, M4V, WMV, FLV, RM, RMVB, ISO
 
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