What format to use?

[DarkTXKnight]

I have around 200 or so DVD's that I would like to rip to my home theatre system. The idea is to keep the collection on my drives to play via my HTPC upstairs and file away the hard copies in the downstairs office. My question is what type of file should I put these in?? The output on my htpc is to a panasonic 50in plasma, so id like a pretty picture of course. Would just like some guidance as to what I need to do next

Thanks In advance!

 

[MustISO]

It depends on how much drive space you have. Personally, I would keep them in their native format. Movie only, with one soundtrack.

 

[DarkTXKnight]

well right now i have one 400gb disk. I will add more as needed, but i dont want the file sizes to be huge. I will still have all my origionals safe , i just want an easier way to get to them via my htpc

 

[DarkTXKnight]

bump

 

[BlueWeasel]

Well, assuming you compressed each DVD down to a single DVD-5 using Shrink/whatever, 200 DVDs would take approximately 875GB (4.37GB each x 200). Obviously, just ripping the DVD files at their original sizes would be much larger.

I'd convert the DVDs to Xvid format using the original resolution of 720xYYY with a filesize of 1500-2000MB each. For an average movie, the bitrate will be fairly high (>1000kbps) and should look good on your setup.

200 DVDs at 1500MB each is only 300GB. You might be happy with slightly lower bitrates, resulting in smaller filesizes and even less overall space used.

 

[DarkTXKnight]

Blueweasel, thats more like what I want. Is there any place with good step by steps in what to use? I read about so many tools here but I just really want something that I can use consistently (and teach the wife to use) Id appreciate the help

 

[BlueWeasel]

AutoGK works great, is free, and there are plenty of guides available.

FairuseWizard is better, IMHO, but I think the free version limits you to a max filesize of 700MB or so.

You can't go wrong with either one.

 

[nordloewelabs]

AutoGK is free and has no limitations whatsoever. most of the
procedure is automated (as the prog's name implies). very
straight-forward. guides are widely avaialable on the net, but not
really necessary, IMHO.

you can use the 2CD profile for movies longer than 90min.
that would generate two 700Mb files. resolution is chosen for
you *automatically*, but it can be set manually too if you want.

unless you're very-very picky, or planning to watch your movie on a
LCD/Plasma TV bigger than 37", the 2CD profile should suffice for
most backups. try it with a few movies and draw your your
conclusions.

 

[0roo0roo]

i'd just choose which movies are worth bothering with ripping.
narrow it down, rip in uncompressed unaltered format.
in a year or two a terabyte will be cheap and you can finish your mammoth task of ripping stuff.
better than ripping 200 films into divx and then well.. once the space becomes avaliable reripping them? too much trouble.

 

[DarkTXKnight]

well the only issue is that most of these are movies we'd watch quite a bit of. If I have these on disk as divx how can I get my xbox 360 to play them on it's extender. Do I have to find something to convert??


OrooOrooo - While the idea of sorting a few out and rippig uncompressed is an idea, I also like the idea of portability. Having several movies @ 1.5 to 2 GB is a lot easier to put on other machines and players. Im not doing this for archival per se as I'll still have the media and even 2 years from now if I changed my mind I would simply rip the newer ones as uncompressed and leave the others as divx,there's no reason I couldnt mix and match.

 

[DarkTXKnight]

bump

 

[0roo0roo]

you really rewatch the same films over and over?
you really gotta get netflix or something and catch up on documentaries/classics/past oscar nominees/indi films etc. theres too much good stuff out there to waste time rewatching the same thing over and over again.

 

[dealmaster00]

Originally posted by: DarkTXKnight
well the only issue is that most of these are movies we'd watch quite a bit of. If I have these on disk as divx how can I get my xbox 360 to play them on it's extender. Do I have to find something to convert??


OrooOrooo - While the idea of sorting a few out and rippig uncompressed is an idea, I also like the idea of portability. Having several movies @ 1.5 to 2 GB is a lot easier to put on other machines and players. Im not doing this for archival per se as I'll still have the media and even 2 years from now if I changed my mind I would simply rip the newer ones as uncompressed and leave the others as divx,there's no reason I couldnt mix and match.

Nah, I'd rather have DVD-5 than 1.4GB Xvid files. The difference is noticeable, especially on a big TV. Plus, technology will scale up to your needs faster than you might think.

 

[tw1164]

Originally posted by: BlueWeasel

I'd convert the DVDs to Xvid format using the original resolution of 720xYYY with a filesize of 1500-2000MB each. For an average movie, the bitrate will be fairly high (>1000kbps) and should look good on your setup.

200 DVDs at 1500MB each is only 300GB. You might be happy with slightly lower bitrates, resulting in smaller filesizes and even less overall space used.

Are you keeping the AC3 soundtracks?


Personally, If you're using a HTPC, I would be using x264 for video, and AAC for the soundtracks. You can use MeGUI to make it a pretty painless process.

 

[Slick5150]

Originally posted by: tw1164
<div class="FTQUOTE"><begin quote>Originally posted by: BlueWeasel

I'd convert the DVDs to Xvid format using the original resolution of 720xYYY with a filesize of 1500-2000MB each. For an average movie, the bitrate will be fairly high (>1000kbps) and should look good on your setup.

200 DVDs at 1500MB each is only 300GB. You might be happy with slightly lower bitrates, resulting in smaller filesizes and even less overall space used.</end quote></div>

Are you keeping the AC3 soundtracks?


Personally, If you're using a HTPC, I would be using x264 for video, and AAC for the soundtracks. You can use MeGUI to make it a pretty painless process.

AAC loses the discrete surround sound channels thought, doesn't it?

 

[BlueWeasel]

Originally posted by: tw1164
<div class="FTQUOTE"><begin quote>Originally posted by: BlueWeasel

I'd convert the DVDs to Xvid format using the original resolution of 720xYYY with a filesize of 1500-2000MB each. For an average movie, the bitrate will be fairly high (>1000kbps) and should look good on your setup.

200 DVDs at 1500MB each is only 300GB. You might be happy with slightly lower bitrates, resulting in smaller filesizes and even less overall space used.</end quote></div>

Are you keeping the AC3 soundtracks?


Personally, If you're using a HTPC, I would be using x264 for video, and AAC for the soundtracks. You can use MeGUI to make it a pretty painless process.

Good point. I didn't include the AC3 tracks, so that's going to add a little bit to the overall filesize versus MP3 audio.

 

[tw1164]

Originally posted by: Slick5150
<div class="FTQUOTE"><begin quote>Originally posted by: tw1164
<div class="FTQUOTE"><begin quote>Originally posted by: BlueWeasel

I'd convert the DVDs to Xvid format using the original resolution of 720xYYY with a filesize of 1500-2000MB each. For an average movie, the bitrate will be fairly high (>1000kbps) and should look good on your setup.

200 DVDs at 1500MB each is only 300GB. You might be happy with slightly lower bitrates, resulting in smaller filesizes and even less overall space used.</end quote></div>

Are you keeping the AC3 soundtracks?


Personally, If you're using a HTPC, I would be using x264 for video, and AAC for the soundtracks. You can use MeGUI to make it a pretty painless process.</end quote></div>


AAC loses the discrete surround sound channels thought, doesn't it?

Not that I'm aware of, I think it supports 10+ channels. I've been using it to make the 5.1 audio.