What video format should I convert my DVDs to?

[Ricochet]

Just built a HTPC with a 1.5T drive and getting ready to put a lot of DVDs on it. What are some of your preferences for video format? Divx, mpeg, avi, mp4, etc? I would like to preserve 5.1 sound. Could care less for menus and extras. Recommendation of free tools would be a bonus. I have Nero and DVD Shrink btw.

I'm sure this is not the first time this topic came about, so provide link(s) if you scream repost. My searching sucks.

 

[Slick5150]

Just strip all the extras out and leave it as an .ISO file. That way you're not degrading the quality at all. Most movies wind up around 4-5 gb that way (once you remove all the bonus features, strip out extra audio tracks you don't need, etc..)

 

[Ricochet]

I was hoping not to leave them as ISOs as they do fill up the drive pretty quick. Slight video degradation is acceptable.

 

[imported_Mike]

Originally posted by: ricochet
I was hoping not to leave them as ISOs as they do fill up the drive pretty quick. Slight video degradation is acceptable.

1 TB drives are down under $90 now. I would go with ISOs.

 

[jtvang125]

1.5gb divx files look pretty good on a computer but anything larger than a computer monitor and it looks like crap. You can try x.264. Also you'll be looking at about 2hrs to encode a movie depending on how fast your computer is.

 

[Ricochet]

What do you guys use to play ISOs?

 

[abaez]

Any program that plays DVD's will work. ISO is just like having a disc in the drive.

 

[sivart]

I use VOB2MPG to convert all of mine. That way my PS3 likes the files and can play them back without installing Linux to allow for ISO playback. I store them on my NAS box.

Free program -- download link: http://software.badgerit.com/VOB2MPG.html

 

[bobdole369]

Drives are SO cheap - rip directly and leave it as is in a folder on the drive. No time spent transcoding - no trouble playing. For less than $500 you can have a RAID5 of terabyte drives for over 4TB of space - enough for 850 DVDs.

 

[MrPickins]

I use xvid at about 1GB/hr, but I'm not a stickler for visual quality...

 

[88MVP]

I use Handbrake to encode to x.264 mp4's.

I encode at 63% Constant Quality with most of the high profile features turned on (CABAC Entropy encoding, no fast p-skip, no dct decimate). I keep the 5.1 AC3 track in addition to a ProLogic II AAC track so I can play it back on a variety of devices. Takes about an hour to encode on a quad-core and the resulting files range from 1-3GB, depending on the title. (Shrek came in at 1GB the other day while Star Wars came in at close to 3) To my eyes the resulting files are nearly identical to the actual disc on my 50" plasma.

 

[QueBert]

Originally posted by: 88MVP
I use Handbrake to encode to x.264 mp4's.

I encode at 63% Constant Quality with most of the high profile features turned on (CABAC Entropy encoding, no fast p-skip, no dct decimate). I keep the 5.1 AC3 track in addition to a ProLogic II AAC track so I can play it back on a variety of devices. Takes about an hour to encode on a quad-core and the resulting files range from 1-3GB, depending on the title. (Shrek came in at 1GB the other day while Star Wars came in at close to 3) To my eyes the resulting files are nearly identical to the actual disc on my 50" plasma.

QTF, that's good advice. I find AVI/MKV easier to work with too.

One thing I do recommend, use XBMC for your front end, it might take you a bit to configure it and get use to working with it. But it makes for the sweetest HTPC interface out there. XBMC + either Mediastream (skin) or Aoen (skin) is pure win. XBMC can mount and open DVD in ISO format.

 

[erwos]

Originally posted by: bobdole369
Drives are SO cheap - rip directly and leave it as is in a folder on the drive. No time spent transcoding - no trouble playing. For less than $500 you can have a RAID5 of terabyte drives for over 4TB of space - enough for 850 DVDs.

Ripping 850 DVDs is a nightmare of disc swapping and lost weekends. For $500, you can buy 2 Sony 400-disc changers and not have to deal with that - not to mention the hassle of admin'ing yet another file server. I've personally been down that path, and it's just not as easy as some people make it out to be. I'm guessing it's more appealing if you're single and/or have nothing else to do with your time.

But, like I said, I do have some experience with this. If you're dead-set on ripping, I'd go for a straight VOB rip if space isn't at a premium. If it is, transcode to MPEG-4(H.264+AAC-5.1), keeping the video at a 1.5-2mbit/s bitrate. Warning: the second option is going to make the ripping process even more of a PITA, and you'll want a setup which can either encode to DD-5.1 / DTS or output surround PCM over HDMI.

 

[The Boston Dangler]

Originally posted by: erwos

Originally posted by: bobdole369
Drives are SO cheap - rip directly and leave it as is in a folder on the drive. No time spent transcoding - no trouble playing. For less than $500 you can have a RAID5 of terabyte drives for over 4TB of space - enough for 850 DVDs.

Ripping 850 DVDs is a nightmare of disc swapping and lost weekends. For $500, you can buy 2 Sony 400-disc changers and not have to deal with that - not to mention the hassle of admin'ing yet another file server. I've personally been down that path, and it's just not as easy as some people make it out to be. I'm guessing it's more appealing if you're single and/or have nothing else to do with your time.

But, like I said, I do have some experience with this. If you're dead-set on ripping, I'd go for a straight VOB rip if space isn't at a premium. If it is, transcode to MPEG-4(H.264+AAC-5.1), keeping the video at a 1.5-2mbit/s bitrate. Warning: the second option is going to make the ripping process even more of a PITA, and you'll want a setup which can either encode to DD-5.1 / DTS or output surround PCM over HDMI.

http://www.videohelp.com/

dvdfabdecryptor - rip .vob's (remove p-uops, etc.)
handbrake - enqueue several video ts folders for overnight crunching

 

[QueBert]

Originally posted by: erwos

Originally posted by: bobdole369
Drives are SO cheap - rip directly and leave it as is in a folder on the drive. No time spent transcoding - no trouble playing. For less than $500 you can have a RAID5 of terabyte drives for over 4TB of space - enough for 850 DVDs.

Ripping 850 DVDs is a nightmare of disc swapping and lost weekends. For $500, you can buy 2 Sony 400-disc changers and not have to deal with that - not to mention the hassle of admin'ing yet another file server. I've personally been down that path, and it's just not as easy as some people make it out to be. I'm guessing it's more appealing if you're single and/or have nothing else to do with your time.

But, like I said, I do have some experience with this. If you're dead-set on ripping, I'd go for a straight VOB rip if space isn't at a premium. If it is, transcode to MPEG-4(H.264+AAC-5.1), keeping the video at a 1.5-2mbit/s bitrate. Warning: the second option is going to make the ripping process even more of a PITA, and you'll want a setup which can either encode to DD-5.1 / DTS or output surround PCM over HDMI.

Ripping is a project, while time consuming I could teach anyone how to do it in probably 10 minutes. When I ripped my 350 CD's, I used my pc + a lappy + GF's + her sons all at the same time. I was spending a good amount of time running from room to room to swap discs but when I was done I was done Movies rip a lot slower than a CD but with a couple computers and some free time it would be a nice lil' project. 850 DVD's would be a pretty long project though. And 850 DVD's fully ripped is going to take a whole lot of HDs. I like to rip my discs so I don't have stupid previews and all sorts of messages come up when I play a movie.

 

[BoberFett]

I would never use ISOs myself, I never watch the bonus material and it takes up far more space than it needs to. Even a 1TB drive fills up quickly at 5GB+ per movie. And it's hardly like Mpeg2 is a high quality format so you're really not losing much going to a better format.

I used DVD Decrypter to rip the disc then AutoGK to convert to Xvid in batches. I use a set quality in AutoGK of 75% rather than a set file size. After lots of experimentation I just found that 75% gives a good ratio of quality to size. Depending on the movie files range from 1GB to over 2GB, but on average I find that it's about 1GB per hour. I also set it to retain the original audio track rather than downsample. I want the 6CH AC3 track preserved as is rather than downsampled to 2CH MP3.

We then have an Xbox with XBMC on every TV in the house. I've ripped everything we own to a couple of TB drives (not raided, I'm crossing my fingers that nothing dies until I've had a chance to set up a proper file server) and we have a few hundred movies, several hundred CDs, and thousands of episodes of our favorite shows available with a couple button presses. It's media heaven.

Good luck with your project.

 

[dwell]

DVDShrink to ISO minus menus, bonus features, unused audio tracks, etc. Why waste hours encoding for lesser quality when 1TB hard disks are ~$99???

 

[pennylane]

I'd just go straight to ISO (or .vob files so absolutely no extras) also. Mainly considering the price of TB hard drives, the effort/time to encode, and the nagging "maybe it'd look better if it was a straight dvd rip" feeling.

 

[abaez]

Originally posted by: Chris
DVDShrink to ISO minus menus, bonus features, unused audio tracks, etc. Why waste hours encoding for lesser quality when 1TB hard disks are ~$99???

Just learned how to do this - reauthor the DVD with just the main movie file in DVDShrink. No compression, save as ISO. Saves about 2 gigs of space per image and when you load the ISO the DVD starts right off with the movie.

 

[Ricochet]

Thanks for all the info, guys. DVDShrink is by far my favorite tool to strip the menus + extras from the DVDs. For now I'll stick with vob files and not hassle with the encoding process. I'll give Handbrake a shot once the HD capacity start to fill.