Need help to convert DVD ISO to MP4?

[Lothar1974]

Hi,

I have ripped all my movies to ISO's and am now trying to convert to MP4 and keep the same size for the file (or smaller) but still have perfect picture when watching on 46" LED TV. I will be using a desktop as a Plex server and passing through to Xbox One to watch on my TV. I have Pav tube but when converting using best settings in h.264 (mp4) the file gets huge. Tried using Handbrake, files are smaller (3gig roughly) but don't look sharp when playing. Need suggestions please. Any help is appreciated!!


Lothar

 

[C1]

I dont get it.

If you ripped movies then they are VOB (ISO is just a single file).

Unpack the ISO to VOB, then use "Shrink" to compress to the file size you want (within reason).

If you are, as you say, "converting" (to different formats) then that's your issue as you are reporting seeing/experiencing observable quality losses.

PS: Just because a "conversion" results in creation of a larger file size does not mean that the quality must be better. In general, "conversion" results in losses.

 

[John Connor]

Don't rip to ISO would be my suggestion. Handbrake has a forum too. https://forum.handbrake.fr/

 

[smitbret]

Hi,

I have ripped all my movies to ISO's and am now trying to convert to MP4 and keep the same size for the file (or smaller) but still have perfect picture when watching on 46" LED TV. I will be using a desktop as a Plex server and passing through to Xbox One to watch on my TV. I have Pav tube but when converting using best settings in h.264 (mp4) the file gets huge. Tried using Handbrake, files are smaller (3gig roughly) but don't look sharp when playing. Need suggestions please. Any help is appreciated!!


Lothar

I would like to know a little more information.

When you say they "don't look sharp when playing" do you mean in general or do you when you play the DVD on the TV it looks a lot sharper than when you watch the .mp4 on the same TV?

No DVD is going to look particularly sharp on a 46" TV at normal viewing distances and you can encode a DVD to .mp4 that is visually transparent at less than half the size of an original DVD with the right settings. I would like to know the Handbrake settings you used if it is an issue of Original vs. new .mp4 on the same display.

There's also a huge possibility that Plex is transcoding your media a 2nd time when you are streaming to the TV. That has the potential to be a huge quality crusher. After checking out supported containers and codecs for the Xbox One:

http://support.xbox.com/en-US/xbox-one/xbox-video/mkv-support

http://support.xbox.com/en-US/xbox-one/system/media-player-faq#0306489a1b71423597d202f09fa19ec6

I would think .mkv is a better choice than .mp4, anyway. You should be able to convert your DVD to .h264 and just pass through the AC3 5.1 track and get a completely compliant file that doesn't need any transcoding.

You may even try just mounting the .iso files and then ripping just <Main Movie> out of them with DVD Shrink. That will give you 1 single .vob file (MPEG-2) as long as you unselect the option to break up the file into 1GB chunks. That usually shaves a GB or 2 off of the size and is 100% the same quality as the original and much faster than completely re encoding.

 

[dlerious]

I've used DVDFab for ripping as well as Handbrake / MakeMKV. There's a trial of dvdfab if you want to take a look. I haven't used Plex , so I don't know if there's a way for it to mount the ISO on a virtual drive.