Best way to copy\shrink\store DVD images for DVD copying noob

[DarkTXKnight]

Ive been looking around the forums here and am just a little slow on where to start with this, so I think I'll just ask the masters for their advice.
I have 150 + DVDs that I would like to put in a file format so that I can store them on my htpc and stream them to the other htpc untis in the house. I want the files to be small~medium size and good video quality and sound.I have seen some suggestions that they be put into divx or some other format, but id like to know where to begin. I always see some people likingd dvdshrink, dvddercrypter,and AutoGK. Can all of these applications do the same thing? or should I be looking at using one app for one thing and then the other app for another thing etc.All help is greatly appreciated.

 

[CalvinHobbes]

Disk space is cheap. Keep them in DVD format but strip out the un-needed soundtracks and extras. IMO it's silly to compress them to Divx just to save space.

DVDDecrypter does what it sounds like, it decrypts the files and copies them to your HD.
DVDShrink will strip out menus, extras, etc and can compress as well.

If you want Divx, see this thread:
http://forums.anandtech.com/messageview...atid=33&threadid=1777282&enterthread=y

 

[DarkTXKnight]

well my interest in saving space comes into play with streaming and coying the files to other machines. If I can keep a great playback quality but compress it just a tad, then i think its worth doing just to make it easier to move the files around.
Im going to look at this link though and see if it helps

 

[MangoTBG]

Originally posted by: DarkTXKnight
well my interest in saving space comes into play with streaming and coying the files to other machines. If I can keep a great playback quality but compress it just a tad, then i think its worth doing just to make it easier to move the files around.
Im going to look at this link though and see if it helps

Consider xvid instead. AutoGK will do this. Open source rocks!

 

[Maximus96]

dvddecrypter + dvdshrink for me too. but in reality dvdshrink alone does the job. but i started using dvddecrypter to quickly rip first, then re-encode with dvdshrink at a later time.

 

[DarkTXKnight]

whats the difference in divx and xvid ?

 

[BlueWeasel]

Originally posted by: DarkTXKnight
whats the difference in divx and xvid ?

Not sure exactly, but I believe Xvid provides better quality at higher compression rates.

Personally, I think DVD movies converted to Xvid using an output filesize of 800MB - 1000MB look pretty dang good.

Since the OP stated he's got 150+ movies he wants to convert, the difference between 150 - 1GB files in Xvid format versus 150 - 4GB files in VOB format is 450GB.

 

[Traire]

Originally posted by: DarkTXKnight
whats the difference in divx and xvid ?

Divx and Xvid are variations on the MPEG-4 compression format. There are actually lots of different variations of MPEG-4. Divx, Xvid, WMV9, 3ivx, h.264, Elecard AVC HP, libavcodec MPEG-4, NeroDigital ASP, QuickTime 7, etc....

There are lots of subtle technical differences between all the codecs. Some are better at certain things. Some are faster, some have sharper images, some have better color, some are better at getting the file size exactly right, etc. Most of the technical differences are hard to understand for someone new to video compression.

Most mp4 codecs fall into two groups, "ASP or Advanced Simple Profile" and "AVC or Advanced Video Codec." Divx, Xvid, 3ivx are all ASP. NeroDigital AVC, h.264, Atem HD and QT7 are AVC. Generally, AVC will give you better overall quality, but require more time to encode and a more powerfull CPU to play at HD resolutions, but since your converting DVD video at 480i resolution, CPU power for playback wont be an issue. These are the types of codecs being used on Blue Ray and HD-DVD. ASP, while still pretty good quality, will encode faster, and can be played back on pretty much any system. There are even a few stand alone DVD players that will play ASP MP4 encoded video burned onto a regular DVD.

There are lots of free and very easy to use tools for Divx/xvid encoding, like AGK and Fair Use. h.264 encoding takes a bit more knowledge on what your doing, since there is no automatic tool to configure the settings for you. There are some good guides for doing divx, xvid, Nero and h.264 manual encoding here: http://www.doom9.org/divx-encoding.htm And there are some quality comparisons here: http://www.doom9.org/codec-comparisons.htm