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[Mysticeti]

Anyone out there using MC to manage their DVD collection?

I'm just starting to think about this and I'm wondering what the "user experience" like?  Is it essentially identical to playing the DVD itself?

Any recommendations on a particular program to rip DVDs?

Thanks!

[kiwi]

I've been thinking about it, and playing with it a bit.  There were some issues the last time I used it.  The first is probably inherent in the system, that the tags seem to be only stored in the DB... not a huge issue.  The second is that all of my ripped DVD files always showed a red X over them, signifying that the file is missing.  The file plays just fine.  This may have been fixed in later versions, I haven't tried it in a while.  

kiwi

[kiwi]

As for the best options for ripping, you should check out AVS Forum.  There was a thread called ripping 101 (and I think a second one called ripping 102) that gave a lot of good information.

kiwi

[kiwi]

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=320902

[Mysticeti]

Wow!  That is a long thread.  Thanks for the pointer.

With the dollars per GB falling through the floor and the possibility of using Media Center as a front end for a virtual DVD Jukebox this project is looking more and more appealing.  If the rip process is nearly as simple & robust as it is for a Audio CD I might go for it.  Reading now....

[jsosow]

Have you checked into Mpeg4.  This is a way to rip DVD's in to a much more size friendly file.  I have aprrox 150 movies on 186 gigs of space.  (Compared to 750 or more to hold the dvd's on your drive.)  This is only a good option if you don't mind only having the movie on the drive and not the extras or menus for the movies.  But you can get very good quality this way at a much smaller size than the original. Most of mine are in 702x480 and on a TV they are very close if not DVD quality.

You need the following:

1.  Divx Codec.  (I recommend 5.02) Cost $
2.  Gordian Knot (A free All-in-one DVD to MPEG4 program) Read the guide at www.doom9.org

That is it.  The best place to get these are www.doom9.org.  This is the best Divx site on the internet.  It has all of the software (at least the links if not there) and it has the best guides.

[LonWar]

Ok Stupid Question Here,

I have a DVD in my DVD drive and if I click on rip in the AW it say's to insert a CD and click here.

Is MC supposed to be able to rip dvd's or not? Me realllllly confused with this dvd stuff.

I just thought it would be cool to have my concerts on my PC....

Thanks,

[pipsqueak]

MC doesnt rip DVD's. Most DVD's are encrypted and breaking this encryption is illegal in the US. There are a bunch of freeware programs that can do this task. However, this isnt the forum for such programs. Try the Doom9 site for more info.

Once the content is on your drive, MC will recognise the .vob and add them to the library. But they have the red x's on them and are removed if you ever use the clean library function.

To get round this you can either change the .vob to .mpeg or transcode to DivX / XVid avi files. This is a fairly cumbersome process, but once its done the files are smaller and may be catalogued like your music. I've done this with my DVD's and once its set up the usability is fantastic.

pip

[cascius]

One more thing to add to pip's post: if you go the divx way, I found that aiming for a 1.4 Gb (2 CDs) file provides the best quality/ size ratio.

-Cascius

[IanG]

One more thing to add to pip's post: if you go the divx way, I found that aiming for a 1.4 Gb (2 CDs) file provides the best quality/ size ratio.

-Cascius

How's the sound?  Can you retain 5.1 in DivX / XVid?

Ian G.

[jgourd]

Yes you can retain the AC-3 soundtrack for 5.1. Check out Doom9 for more  info.

[pipsqueak]

AutoGK is easy to use, free and allows to to use the 5.1 AC3 soundtrack:

http://www.autogk.net/web/index.php

[Mysticeti]

Thanks again for the advice.  I should point out that at this point I'm not particularly interested in recompressing the extracted video.  If I were to do this it would be only if I could retain the full DVD experience (100% quality, menus, the whole lot).

[pipsqueak]

you can compress and still retain quality - so thats its indistinguishable from the original but you will lose the menus / commentaries / other info.

if thats important to you then just rip to your hard disk and leave them uncompressed. But play around with changing the extensions to mpeg so that they dont have the red x's in MC

pip

[loraan]

Personally, I don't see the advantage of ripping DVDs. For me, DVDs are not a "random-access" medium, like music. I never need a playlist of DVD tracks, nor do I ever want to remix them. In addition, I don't watch any given DVD very often. That last point is also true for my music, but space to hold my entire music collection is cheap, so when you add in the first two points, it makes sense to rip my CDs. On the other hand, it would be very expensive to buy HD space to hold all of my DVDs. When you consider the minimal advantage, it's not worth it.