Best software for making *.mkv files?

[rimmi2002]

Hi I am looking for the best software to make *.mkv from DVDs or other sources. It would be nice if the software can also upscale movies to 720p. Any idea what would work best free or for purchase. Thanks.

 

[0roo0roo]

lol.
i don't think you understand upscaling.
you cannot create detail.
upscaling is nothing more than resizing an image to a higher resolution which is easily done during playback. encoding "upscale" would simply make your files huge as an upscaled dvd would have 3x more pixels to encode at 720p, but no more detail than a dvd played back on an upscaled player or with the tvs upscaler. the reason for upscaling is to fit the pixels of the hdtv. automatically a tv will upscale content to its own resolution, whether that be 720p or 1080p. furthermore it might scale to its own actual pixel resolution which maybe something different all together as well. the only reason "upscaling" exists on things like dvd players is the assumption that some tv's upscalers are low quality, so they do it at the dvd player instead. that and that it might be better to blow up the image earlier in the process before sending it down the wire perhaps. but in any case..its not magic. when you watch a youtube video in full screen mode you are "upscaling" it😉 video still looks like sh*t doesn't it?😉

handbrake is a good encoder. but at h.264 and good settings for near transparent encode quality it will take quite a while to encode. you are probably better off just popping a dvd into the player every couple hours... the only way to get a 720p file is to encode a bluray. and thats just more trouble than its worth. you'd just be better watching the damn bluray.

 

[rimmi2002]

okay how about then something to rip the dvd in mkv format?

 

[seemingly random]

Maybe this might work: MKV Video Converter. There's a trial download.

 

[SSWilson]

I use DVDFab to rip the DVD's and Megui to encode with x264 and create .mkv's. I play these with a WDTV media player and they tend to upscale real nice and seem to look as good as the original source, I really can't tell a difference. Using the SDHQ profile in Megui (2 Pass) turns out good quality. It is not a one click process, there are a few steps but is pretty easy.

DVDFab
Megui Download
Megui Wiki

 

[theprodigalrebel]

MeGUI gets another vote. The interface makes it a lot easier to customize/tweak encode settings all you desire. The hard part is figuring out what encoder settings strike the best balance between encoding speed and final picture quality. Sometimes, you can more than double your encode time (which is a lot when you are comparing 12 hours to 24 hours!) with no perceptible gain in picture quality. An x264 encode (opensource encoder) targeting a video bitrate of ~1.5Mbps for DVD-resolution video works fine and should please most people.

Try loading the DXVA-SD-HQ profile, drop 'Number of Reference Frames' down to 4 from the default 8 and give it a whack. You should be impressed with the results. Run a test encode with another profile like DXVA-SD-Balanced, same target bitrate. Determine if the tradeoff in speed/quality is worth it.

Edit: I posted a link but the Wiki linked above has a better page explaining all the options. Definitely give that a read, I'm doing it too!

 

[fatpat268]

Handbrake!

I used to rip my personal collection into xvids using AutoGK, but now I solely use Handbrake with the x264 codec. Works great, I get full dvd resolution (which I didn't get with xvid, unless I bumped the filesize up).

 

[0roo0roo]

well it comes down to this, you spend a couple hours of computing time per film...and a bit of your time as well. you loose menus/special features and a bit of quality. all to save a trip to the dvd shelf😛

 

[seemingly random]

Originally posted by: 0roo0roo
well it comes down to this, you spend a couple hours of computing time per film...and a bit of your time as well. you loose menus/special features and a bit of quality. all to save a trip to the dvd shelf😛

Yes, but if one is rigorous about not only can the trip be eliminated but the shelf also.

The computing part doesn't necessarily need to be done. The dvd can just be copied to the hd in 20-30 minutes.

 

[TheStu]

Originally posted by: 0roo0roo
well it comes down to this, you spend a couple hours of computing time per film...and a bit of your time as well. you loose menus/special features and a bit of quality. all to save a trip to the dvd shelf😛

My laptop bag has a finite amount of space, and I can fit more compressed DVDs onto my hard drive than I could carry in my bag anyway. And even if I couldn't hold as many as I could, a 500GB external USB drive can certainly hold a few hundred movies (at 1.4GB file size, which is generally pretty solid for DVDs, though I actually use a 1.5Mbs setting in Handbrake, so the file size is variable, but the quality stays consistent)

 

[0roo0roo]

yea but if you actually had to take a trip thats the time you'd rip a few dvds right before. ripping your entire collection before hand is a waste of time.

 

[fatpat268]

Originally posted by: 0roo0roo
well it comes down to this, you spend a couple hours of computing time per film...and a bit of your time as well. you loose menus/special features and a bit of quality. all to save a trip to the dvd shelf😛

Meh, everything gets done overnight. I'll grab a random stack of dvds and rip them during the day when I'm doing something else, and at night, right before I go to bed, I'll queue up 3 or 4 movies for Handbrake to encode.

I don't like menus, and I generally don't watch extras, so for my HTPC, this is a better option than simply ripping the dvd leaving menus intact.

 

[reallyscrued]

Originally posted by: rimmi2002
okay how about then something to rip the dvd in mkv format?

You are beyond confused about the way digital video compression works.

Look around at Club CDFreaks.

 

[tw1164]

If you don't care about compression use MakeMKV. It will copy the video, audio, subs; putting it into a mkv file. It doesn't compress anything, just copies.