- Nov 27, 2001
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I've got quite a large Blu-Ray collection, and I've started getting into ripping it so I can access the videos easily on my TVs via a HTPC. However, I've got two rather pressing questions in regard to ripping and encoding.
Ripping:
So, for ripping, I'm currently using MakeMKV. It's still on the 30-day trial that you start off with, but I'm not happy with it. Every 1-3 discs, the software screws up, and fails to unmount the Blu-Ray disc. The only way to fix this problem (that I've found) is to reboot the system. It also takes forever to reboot (~5 minutes), because the failed unmounting screws up Explorer. Well, anyone that knows me knows that I don't like restarting my machine; so, I'd like to move away from MakeMKV toward something that works better.
The two big kahunas that I've seen are AnyDVD HD and DVDFab. The latter is an all-encompassing suite, but they also have a program specifically for ripping Blu-Rays. I'm really curious about any sort of user testimonials. Do these programs get updated enough to tackle newer securities? Have you run into any annoying bugs like I mentioned above? MakeMKV is $50 and the other two are over $100 for a lifetime license. I don't want to spend that sort of cash (more than I spend on an OS license!) and regret it.
Encoding:
Now, this might end up being a bit subjective. So, I'm using Handbrake for encoding, and I don't have any problems with it. AnyDVD HD can actually perform the rip and encode and DVDFab also has Blu-Ray encoding software. However, Handbrake is free, and it has one really nice advantage, which is the main focus of my question. That advantage would be support for Intel's QuickSync. QuickSync is just ludicrously fast compared to me encoding via the CPU. On my stock i7-4770k, I was encoding an episode (1080p->720p, 22 Quality, x264, audio pass-through) at about 30-40 FPS. I installed the Handbrake nightly on my server (uses an i5-4670k + iGPU), and using QuickSync (1080p->720p, 22 Quality, Intel QS, audio pass-through), I encoded at about 220 FPS.
This really sounds like a no-brainer situation, but I keep jumping back to the Haswell HTPC review on Anandtech where there were complaints about Haswell's QuickSync quality. I played both episodes side-by-side in Media Player Classic - Home Cinema, and I wasn't really able to discern a difference. I think the only negative aspect is that QuickSync was slightly blotchier in areas with a lot of the same (or similar) color. Have driver updates improved QuickSync? Does anyone here swear by it?
I was able to easily enable the iGPU along with my dGPU in my desktop, so I can use QuickSync even with my dGPU. The only negative aspect that I've run into is that I now have two cursors visible on my screen. There's one in the top left corner that just sits there. If anyone knows how to get rid of that (My Google Fu wasn't able to find anything), I would appreciate that as well.
Ripping:
So, for ripping, I'm currently using MakeMKV. It's still on the 30-day trial that you start off with, but I'm not happy with it. Every 1-3 discs, the software screws up, and fails to unmount the Blu-Ray disc. The only way to fix this problem (that I've found) is to reboot the system. It also takes forever to reboot (~5 minutes), because the failed unmounting screws up Explorer. Well, anyone that knows me knows that I don't like restarting my machine; so, I'd like to move away from MakeMKV toward something that works better.
The two big kahunas that I've seen are AnyDVD HD and DVDFab. The latter is an all-encompassing suite, but they also have a program specifically for ripping Blu-Rays. I'm really curious about any sort of user testimonials. Do these programs get updated enough to tackle newer securities? Have you run into any annoying bugs like I mentioned above? MakeMKV is $50 and the other two are over $100 for a lifetime license. I don't want to spend that sort of cash (more than I spend on an OS license!) and regret it.
Encoding:
Now, this might end up being a bit subjective. So, I'm using Handbrake for encoding, and I don't have any problems with it. AnyDVD HD can actually perform the rip and encode and DVDFab also has Blu-Ray encoding software. However, Handbrake is free, and it has one really nice advantage, which is the main focus of my question. That advantage would be support for Intel's QuickSync. QuickSync is just ludicrously fast compared to me encoding via the CPU. On my stock i7-4770k, I was encoding an episode (1080p->720p, 22 Quality, x264, audio pass-through) at about 30-40 FPS. I installed the Handbrake nightly on my server (uses an i5-4670k + iGPU), and using QuickSync (1080p->720p, 22 Quality, Intel QS, audio pass-through), I encoded at about 220 FPS.
This really sounds like a no-brainer situation, but I keep jumping back to the Haswell HTPC review on Anandtech where there were complaints about Haswell's QuickSync quality. I played both episodes side-by-side in Media Player Classic - Home Cinema, and I wasn't really able to discern a difference. I think the only negative aspect is that QuickSync was slightly blotchier in areas with a lot of the same (or similar) color. Have driver updates improved QuickSync? Does anyone here swear by it?
I was able to easily enable the iGPU along with my dGPU in my desktop, so I can use QuickSync even with my dGPU. The only negative aspect that I've run into is that I now have two cursors visible on my screen. There's one in the top left corner that just sits there. If anyone knows how to get rid of that (My Google Fu wasn't able to find anything), I would appreciate that as well.