Topic: Managing DVD's (Read 18785 times)

Magic_Randy · « **on:** January 27, 2007, 01:56:01 pm »

I would like to manage some of my DVD's within MC. I want to rip them so I can store them on my hard drive, play them from my hard drive using MC, and sync them to my iPod.

I assume I need additional software to do the ripping. Any suggestions on the tools I need and the workflow required to achieve this?

Thanks in advance...

Osho · « **Reply #1 on:** January 27, 2007, 02:52:45 pm »

Quote from: Magic_Randy on January 27, 2007, 01:56:01 pm

I would like to manage some of my DVD's within MC. I want to rip them so I can store them on my hard drive, play them from my hard drive using MC, and sync them to my iPod.

I assume I need additional software to do the ripping. Any suggestions on the tools I need and the workflow required to achieve this?

I wrote a MC12 wiki page about managing DVDs in MC12.. you can check it out at

http://wiki.jrmediacenter.com/index.php/DVD_Library_in_Media_Center

This should be a good place to start.

Osho

Magic_Randy · « **Reply #2 on:** January 27, 2007, 03:43:55 pm »

Osho,

Thanks...

I actually started by looking at wiki but could not find anything on the subject. I did a search on DVD with no results and could find nothing by going through the index. I still can't find it using the index. With a search I can, but I have to say "DVD Library" to get a match. Maybe I'm slow, but I don't find wiki to be very good.

Randy

Magic_Randy · « **Reply #3 on:** January 27, 2007, 03:51:56 pm »

If I extract the DVD's to either a ISO file or Video_TS folder, can I sync it to my iPod? Is one format better than the other for this purpose?

Osho · « **Reply #4 on:** January 27, 2007, 09:00:53 pm »

Quote from: Magic_Randy on January 27, 2007, 03:43:55 pm

I actually started by looking at wiki but could not find anything on the subject. I did a search on DVD with no results and could find nothing by going through the index. I still can't find it using the index. With a search I can, but I have to say "DVD Library" to get a match. Maybe I'm slow, but I don't find wiki to be very good.

I think Wiki is good but the search feature in Wiki seems busted. For example, searching for DVD, CD or CD rip all give no results!

I don't have any iPod that can do video so I haven't tried copying DVDs to video.

Osho

ThoBar · « **Reply #5 on:** January 27, 2007, 10:09:03 pm »

Quote

I wrote a MC12 wiki page about managing DVDs in MC12.. you can check it out at

http://wiki.jrmediacenter.com/index.php/DVD_Library_in_Media_Center

This should be a good place to start.

Osho

Thanks for the link and the work there Osho, I hadnt considered that way of integrating ISOs into MC, but will be using it from now on.

Kudos to the JR team for making such a flexible product.

Osho · « **Reply #6 on:** January 28, 2007, 10:55:09 am »

Quote from: Magic_Randy on January 27, 2007, 03:51:56 pm

If I extract the DVD's to either a ISO file or Video_TS folder, can I sync it to my iPod? Is one format better than the other for this purpose?

I would recommend VIDEO_TS folder, it works easier with MC in my experience.

Osho

Magic_Randy · « **Reply #7 on:** January 28, 2007, 12:07:12 pm »

Quote from: Osho on January 28, 2007, 10:55:09 am

I would recommend VIDEO_TS folder, it works easier with MC in my experience.

OK. I'll create a VIDEO_TS for one of my DVDs and try to sync it to my iPod.

Magic_Randy · « **Reply #8 on:** January 28, 2007, 02:51:36 pm »

I created a Video_TS file. Actually 40 files were created for my DVD. Of these 22 were imported to MC. Maybe the other 18 files are not needed by MC. I can play the DVD using MC, but I cannot sync it to my iPod. I get a message that says:

None of the files can be transfered. Common errors include insufficient rights or unsupported file types.

How are people getting DVD synced to the iPod?

jmmttu77 · « **Reply #9 on:** January 28, 2007, 02:57:32 pm »

DvdFab has a Platinum version that I believe will do what you want. Try dvdfab.com for info.

Magic_Randy · « **Reply #10 on:** January 28, 2007, 03:02:27 pm »

Quote from: jmmttu77 on January 28, 2007, 02:57:32 pm

DvdFab has a Platinum version that I believe will do what you want. Try dvdfab.com for info.

Thanks, I'll look it up.

jmmttu77 · « **Reply #11 on:** January 28, 2007, 07:32:18 pm »

Quote from: Magic_Randy on January 28, 2007, 03:02:27 pm

Thanks, I'll look it up.

The gold version kicks a$$ and they are constantly updating the software. If you get the platinum verson, let me know how it works....I have a psp that I would be interested in converting video for, but dont know if I would use it enough to justify buying it.

Magic_Randy · « **Reply #12 on:** January 28, 2007, 07:37:15 pm »

I'm trying DVDFab as I write this. It looks like it will work, but I'm spending a lot of time just to convert one DVD. It took over 1 1/2 hours to copy the DVD to the PC. The result was a Video_TS file. This format could not be synced to the iPod. They have a function to convert it into a format for the iPod (mp4), but this is taking a long time. I'm almost 3 hours into the conversion and I'm only on step 2 of 8. If the next steps are not faster, this will turn out to be an all day job for one DVD.

While this has been processing, I've been looking around the web. It looks like there are 3 products that do what I'm trying to achieve:

Roxio Creator 9
Nero 7
DVDFab

Anyone have any opinions regarding these 3 products? Or any other suggestions?

jmmttu77 · « **Reply #13 on:** January 28, 2007, 07:52:31 pm »

Quote from: Magic_Randy on January 28, 2007, 07:37:15 pm

I'm trying DVDFab as I write this. It looks like it will work, but I'm spending a lot of time just to convert one DVD. It took over 1 1/2 hours to copy the DVD to the PC. The result was a Video_TS file. This format could not be synced to the iPod. They have a function to convert it into a format for the iPod (mp4), but this is taking a long time. I'm almost 3 hours into the conversion and I'm only on step 2 of 8. If the next steps are not faster, this will turn out to be an all day job for one DVD.

While this has been processing, I've been looking around the web. It looks like there are 3 products that do what I'm trying to achieve:

Roxio Creator 9
Nero 7
DVDFab

Anyone have any opinions regarding these 3 products? Or any other suggestions?

I have a fairly new laptop I use and it takes about 20 minutes from Dvd to hard drive. If your pc is old, you could run into problems. Converting the video from the standard Dvd files to mp4 will take even more processor power. You might take a look at your task manager and see what things look like. If your CPU is maxing out thats part of the problem. I would doubt the other software you mentioned would work any better, but if you end up trying them out I would be curious to know how they stack up to DvdFab.

Magic_Randy · « **Reply #14 on:** January 28, 2007, 08:47:37 pm »

Quote from: jmmttu77 on January 28, 2007, 07:52:31 pm

I have a fairly new laptop I use and it takes about 20 minutes from Dvd to hard drive. If your pc is old, you could run into problems. Converting the video from the standard Dvd files to mp4 will take even more processor power. You might take a look at your task manager and see what things look like. If your CPU is maxing out thats part of the problem. I would doubt the other software you mentioned would work any better, but if you end up trying them out I would be curious to know how they stack up to DvdFab.

My PC is not the best, but should be more than enough for this task. It is a 3.2 GHz Pentium 4 with 1gb of memory. DVDFab is consuming ~50%f the CPU. That's not too bad, but it looks like the entire process is going to take 11-12 hours. At that rate I won't be converting many DVD's. The conversion part alone (to mp4) has been going for more than 4 hours and is less than 50% completed.

Osho · « **Reply #15 on:** January 28, 2007, 11:14:55 pm »

Quote from: Magic_Randy on January 28, 2007, 08:47:37 pm

My PC is not the best, but should be more than enough for this task. It is a 3.2 GHz Pentium 4 with 1gb of memory. DVDFab is consuming ~50%f the CPU. That's not too bad, but it looks like the entire process is going to take 11-12 hours. At that rate I won't be converting many DVD's. The conversion part alone (to mp4) has been going for more than 4 hours and is less than 50% completed.

Video processing and converting is probably one of the most CPU-consuming tasks out there so what you are experiencing is not too surprising. If you update to a top-end Core 2 Duo, I would expect that would reduce by about half (just an educated guess) but still it will take some time.

Osho

Magic_Randy · « **Reply #16 on:** January 28, 2007, 11:19:52 pm »

Quote from: Osho on January 28, 2007, 11:14:55 pm

Video processing and converting is probably one of the most CPU-consuming tasks out there so what you are experiencing is not too surprising. If you update to a top-end Core 2 Duo, I would expect that would reduce by about half (just an educated guess) but still it will take some time.

Osho

I think you're correct in your analysis. I will probably upgrade my PC in the spring. I want to wait until Vista stabilizes.

dcwebman · « **Reply #17 on:** January 29, 2007, 08:54:45 am »

Randy, I am using DVDFab Platinum to rip DVD's to sync to my iPod. I have not seen the problems you have mentioned and so far it works flawlessly. There are other free tools out there to get video on the iPod but there is more than one program to use and takes longer.

I just select the iPod option and in less time than the length of the movie I have a mp4 file that I simply sync to the iPod. Not sure why yours is taking a lot longer. I have a less powerful system but do have 2GB memory so maybe that's it.

Magic_Randy · « **Reply #18 on:** January 29, 2007, 09:27:32 am »

In part it may be because I'm ripping everything- all the extras plus the main movie. I'll do a couple more movies so I have a larger sampling size.

Magic_Randy · « **Reply #19 on:** January 29, 2007, 09:58:41 pm »

The reason for the long long process is becoming a bit clearer.

The test I'm doing is using a Neil Young DVD. There is a music video and and music documentary. There is also a playing all section of the DVD which contains the video and documentary. So to start, I converted the bulk of the DVD twice.

There is also a high-rez audio. DVDFab does not like this format at all. I saw one part of the conversion that took ~4 hours. This was the one. And after all of that, the sound is terrible.

I'll try more DVD's before I draw any conclusions, but I think the speed will be much better as I gain some experience doing this.

Magic_Randy · « **Reply #20 on:** February 01, 2007, 12:43:00 am »

I'm trying to decide if I hate DVDFab or like it.

I've pretty much worked out the speed issue. But that is through trial and error. I just stopped doing things it should never have let me do in the first place.

This may be a great piece of software, but it is a terrible product. There is absolutely no documentation, no help, nothing. I guess you can camp out at their forum and ask basic questions, but that is silly.

So if anyone has any suggestions on a product (software with at least some documentation) that has similar functionality, I would appreciate it. Otherwise I will work my way through this one.

Magic_Randy · « **Reply #21 on:** February 04, 2007, 04:16:38 pm »

Thanks for all of the input. Based on my testing:

1) I think the VIDEO_TS folder is a very easy way to manage the DVDs on the PC
2) DVDFab works well for copying the DVD to the PC in the VIDEO_TS folder. The speed is fast (maybe less than 50% of the play time)
3) Converting to mp4 files for the iPod is a slower process, but works. This is part of the Platinum version. It takes about 1.5 times the playtime to do the conversion. I think this is slow, but acceptable.

I have had one problem using DVDFab. Some of my DVDs have high-rez audio tracks. DVDFab takes a long to to convert these to mp4 files, and after the conversion they don't work. All you get is hissing. The video part works, only the audio tracks don't work. The conversion time is 4 times the playtime, which is very slow. The slow speed is probably because it cannot cope with this audio format. Does anyone know how to convert a VIDEO_TS with a 24 bit 48kHz uncompressed PCM soundtrack to a mp4 format?

Magic_Randy · « **Reply #22 on:** February 04, 2007, 06:56:53 pm »

It looks like my problem will be fixed by the DVDFab team. I'll just wait until they provide an update. They said:

DVDFab does not support LPCM audio track input - we will add this in future release.

Other than this feature, and lack of documentation, I think DVDFab is a product worth recommending.

dcwebman · « **Reply #23 on:** February 05, 2007, 08:10:50 am »

Quote from: Magic_Randy on February 04, 2007, 06:56:53 pm

Other than this feature, and lack of documentation, I think DVDFab is a product worth recommending.

And you can't beat free lifetime upgrades.

Magic_Randy · « **Reply #24 on:** February 05, 2007, 09:08:32 pm »

One thing I learned from this is ripping DVDs and converting them to mp4 files for the iPod takes a lot of space.

14 DVDs = 101gb.

I've been trying to have 3 backups of my PC and music/videos. I guess it's time to buy more backup storage.

glynor · « **Reply #25 on:** February 05, 2007, 10:05:34 pm »

Quote from: Magic_Randy on February 04, 2007, 04:16:38 pm

Does anyone know how to convert a VIDEO_TS with a 24 bit 48kHz uncompressed PCM soundtrack to a mp4 format?

Sorry. I haven't been paying attention and reading this thread....

Have you tried using AutoMKV? It's a pretty slick MP4/AVI/MKV converter (and it's completely free). If it can't handle it (which it probably can), I'm sure the guy working on it would try to implement it for you, especially if you have an example or a bunch of them exist.

Check it out: http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?t=113811

For iPod, you'd just want to use MP4 as the container, X264 as the codec, and PD-iPod or PDiPod5.5G as the profile. It's pretty slick, and worth checking out. That plus RipIt4Me is how I convert all my DVDs and MPEG files.

Magic_Randy · « **Reply #26 on:** February 05, 2007, 11:37:40 pm »

Quote from: glynor on February 05, 2007, 10:05:34 pm

Sorry. I haven't been paying attention and reading this thread....

Have you tried using AutoMKV? It's a pretty slick MP4/AVI/MKV converter (and it's completely free). If it can't handle it (which it probably can), I'm sure the guy working on it would try to implement it for you, especially if you have an example or a bunch of them exist.

Check it out: http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?t=113811

For iPod, you'd just want to use MP4 as the container, X264 as the codec, and PD-iPod or PDiPod5.5G as the profile. It's pretty slick, and worth checking out. That plus RipIt4Me is how I convert all my DVDs and MPEG files.

glynor,

Thanks for the suggestion. I tried to do a quick test, but I could not make it work. I got everything installed, but there were errors with the extraction. I ran it anyway, but it just hangs. I'll give it another try when I have more time. I probably did something wrong. For now I just uninstalled AviSynth and removed AutoMKV.

Randy

dcwebman · « **Reply #27 on:** February 06, 2007, 07:53:51 am »

Quote from: Magic_Randy on February 05, 2007, 09:08:32 pm

One thing I learned from this is ripping DVDs and converting them to mp4 files for the iPod takes a lot of space.

14 DVDs = 101gb.

You must be doing more than just selecting the iPod format. An average movie is about 700MB so that would only be about 10GB for 14 movies.

glynor · « **Reply #28 on:** February 06, 2007, 09:21:28 am »

Quote from: dcwebman on February 06, 2007, 07:53:51 am

You must be doing more than just selecting the iPod format. An average movie is about 700MB so that would only be about 10GB for 14 movies.

Yeah. I strongly suspect that he isn't recompressing the video files, but is just wrapping the MPEG-2 data in a MP4 container. 101/14 = 7.214 GB per movie (which is basically the size of the main track on a dual-layer DVD).

Quote from: Magic_Randy on February 05, 2007, 11:37:40 pm

Thanks for the suggestion. I tried to do a quick test, but I could not make it work. I got everything installed, but there were errors with the extraction. I ran it anyway, but it just hangs. I'll give it another try when I have more time. I probably did something wrong. For now I just uninstalled AviSynth and removed AutoMKV.

Not sure exactly what you were trying to do, but here's how I do it...

I rip all my DVDs to my hard drive using RipIt4Me (which is a front-end to DVD Decrypter) in IFO mode. In RipIt4Me's Wizard mode this is called "Rip Movie Only". IFO mode allows you to select the actual title that you want and only rip that file. I generally rip them to a folder on my hard drive called: C:\video\rips\<movie_title>

There's a really nice animated tutorial on using RipIt4Me available here: http://forum.digital-digest.com/showpost.php?p=422827&postcount=1

You'd probably want to follow those instructions exactly, only use "Rip Movie Only" mode and don't bother with DVD Shrink at the very end (since you want then to compress it with AutoMKV instead). You could actually rip directly using AutoMKV and DVDFab but I've never done this, so I can't help there. I like RipIt4Me better because it can handle all the DVD encryption techniques they use and it's simple.

Once I have the decrypted VIDEO_TS folder inside my path I mentioned above...

I open up AutoMKV, and set the following settings:

and

(the only thing I change here is circled in Red).

To convert to iPod format, you'd want to change the Profile on the Basic Settings tab to either PD-iPod.xml or PD-iPOD5.5G.xml depending on what type of iPod you want to support. I use HighProfile because I don't need to support iPod and HighProfile is a bit better quality. The Disk Settings drop down gives you a bunch of presets you can choose from, or you can choose Custom and then just type in a file size in MB (which is what I usually do, 1024MB generally will make a pristine copy of a 2 hour movie).

Under the Filters choice, the default (Remove Grain) works very well. I also sometimes use the Convolution3D settings for movies and (especially) animation. I also keep the "set width resolution" to AutoCrop Only to have the max possible resolution. I think for iPod you'd need to have it resize the video -- set it to 640 or 320 and you should be good to go. The only other thing to check on is the Audio settings. You'll probably want to use the NeroAAC encoder. You might have to click on the !!! button and enable LC mode and then play with the Quality slider until it works. I'm sure you could also just ask on the AutoMKV thread for iPod related settings help, because I'm not clear on what iPod supports and what it doesn't.

Then, just click either "Start" (which will start that encode immediately) or click "Add to Queue" which will save the settings so you can set up a batch and then start them all at once. The encoding will take a LONG time. Compressing to MPEG-4 is no easy task, even for a modern CPU. Dual-core and newer CPUs (plus lots of RAM) help to speed the process significantly. However, in the end, you can have a very nice 700MB - 1GB copy of your DVD in MP4 format that'll play just fine in MC and on your iPod.

Magic_Randy · « **Reply #29 on:** February 06, 2007, 08:01:44 pm »

Quote from: dcwebman on February 06, 2007, 07:53:51 am

You must be doing more than just selecting the iPod format. An average movie is about 700MB so that would only be about 10GB for 14 movies.

Right you are.

I'm actually doing 2 things. I'm ripping the DVDs into VIDEO_TS folders. I'm then converting them into iPod format (mp4 files).

The mp4 files are very small. A full movie is about 700mb. Some of the extras are only 15mb.

The VIDEO_TS Folders are 10x larger. That is what's taking all the space.

So on the PC I can watch the movies using the VIDEO_TS folders, and for the iPod I have the mp4 files.

All of the ones I've ripped are actually music DVDs. Concerts and the like with interesting extras. I have lots of DVDs for regular movies, TV programs, and magic stuff. I would never use this approach for those as it takes too long and takes too much space. I have:

Movies/Specials - 640 DVDs
TV Series Episodes - 908 (Not DVD count - multiple episodes on a single DVD)
Music/Concert DVDs - 85 DVDs
Magic (history plus other) - not properly cataloged but ~50 DVDs

Magic_Randy · « **Reply #30 on:** February 06, 2007, 08:25:15 pm »

glynor,

Thanks for all of the detailed information. I will give this a try when I have enough free time (this weekend I hope).

What I've done so far is similar to what you are describing, but I've used different tools. I used DVDFab to to rip the DVDs into VIDEO_TS folders. There is an option to select just the main movie, everything, or some custom combination. I've been ripping everything because the DVDs have some interesting extras. Also, this step, while it takes a lot of disc, does not take a lot of time. When playing these in MC, they behave just like a DVD, so I can navigate through the menus and the like.

I then converted the VIDEO_TS folders into compressed mp4 files for the iPod. For this task, I also used DVDFab. The platinum version includes this function. As you noted, this is a time consuming task. Lots of CPU, lots of memory, lots of time. The compression is good, however, so I get reasonable size files that fit very nicely on the iPods. The trouble I had was only with a few of the DVDs that had a high-rez audio format. The video converted fine, but the audio was drowned out by a hissing sound. So my goal was to try AutoMKV to see if I could properly convert these files.

When I tried to install AutoMKV, I had trouble before getting into the conversion process itself. I downloaded the software from the URL you provided. I extracted the rar file and dropped in the AutoMKV update. Before doing this, I installed AviSynth, which was listed as a prerequisite. When I launched AutoMKV, it was unresponsive - it just hung. I did notice that when I extracted the rar file, there were errors, so I'm guessing that something was messed up with my install.

Again, thanks for all of the information. Hopefully others will also benefit from your tutorial.

Randy

glynor · « **Reply #31 on:** February 06, 2007, 08:50:06 pm »

Quote from: Magic_Randy on February 06, 2007, 08:25:15 pm

I did notice that when I extracted the rar file, there were errors, so I'm guessing that something was messed up with my install.

Very likely. I actually had issues downloading it myself for a while there, until I got Free Download Manager. Never figured out why, as it happened on some computers specifically, and not others (even with identical -- cloned -- software loads). Either way FDM is awesome and solves all those problems (and makes the downloads of MC about 4x faster).

Magic_Randy · « **Reply #32 on:** February 06, 2007, 08:52:35 pm »

Quote from: glynor on February 06, 2007, 08:50:06 pm

Very likely. I actually had issues downloading it myself for a while there, until I got Free Download Manager. Never figured out why, as it happened on some computers specifically, and not others (even with identical -- cloned -- software loads). Either way FDM is awesome and solves all those problems (and makes the downloads of MC about 4x faster).

glynor,

thanks... I'll try Free Download Manager.

rjm · « **Reply #33 on:** February 06, 2007, 10:41:10 pm »

glynor,

Thanks for the tip on Free Download Manager. Works great. I learn something new from you almost every day.

Thanks for your amazing contribution to this community!

Magic_Randy · « **Reply #34 on:** February 07, 2007, 03:33:39 am »

Quote from: glynor on February 06, 2007, 08:50:06 pm

Very likely. I actually had issues downloading it myself for a while there, until I got Free Download Manager. Never figured out why, as it happened on some computers specifically, and not others (even with identical -- cloned -- software loads). Either way FDM is awesome and solves all those problems (and makes the downloads of MC about 4x faster).

I did download Free Download Manager. While I was at it I decided to test it out.

It did work for the AutoMKV. When I extracted the rar file there were no errors.

When I tried to download AviSynth it did not work using FF2. I had to go to IE7. In IE7 I had to click on download file in the status bar.

The conversion of one of my troublesome DVDs is now in process. I'll let you know if it works.

Randy

Magic_Randy · « **Reply #35 on:** February 07, 2007, 03:51:22 am »

Quote from: Magic_Randy on February 07, 2007, 03:33:39 am

The conversion of one of my troublesome DVDs is now in process. I'll let you know if it works.

It's running - but I find the UI to be weak.

1) There is no status bar or anything to tell you it is doing something
2) The start button is not disabled after you start the conversion - so you could hit it multiple times

I do know it's working. The HDD lights are flashing, task managaer shows CPU usage, and files are showing up in my target folder.

glynor · « **Reply #36 on:** February 07, 2007, 08:09:48 am »

Quote from: Magic_Randy on February 07, 2007, 03:51:22 am

It's running - but I find the UI to be weak.

I agree with these criticisms. It's still beta, and has improved greatly during it's short development time.

Getting all the separate little open source conversion utilities to work together in a unified manner isn't a simple task. But feel free to post any suggestions for improvement to the AutoMKV thread. The developer is very responsive and open to suggestions, if they're possible!

glynor · « **Reply #37 on:** February 07, 2007, 08:11:25 am »

Quote from: Magic_Randy on February 07, 2007, 03:33:39 am

When I tried to download AviSynth it did not work using FF2. I had to go to IE7. In IE7 I had to click on download file in the status bar.

Like any download manager, it does sometimes have issues with PHP driven downloads. I'm not sure if that's what happened with AVISynth. However, if you have any issues with it, you can always hit Cancel in the FDM download dialog that pops up and it should then bring up the standard browser download dialog (so it can be used).

dcwebman · « **Reply #38 on:** February 07, 2007, 12:38:13 pm »

Agree, Free Download Manager is the way to go.

Randy, did you try the Generic option in DVDFab to create DivX files? Those will take up less space but you probably lose the menuing. There are options in there to customize that I haven't even looked at but there may be a way to do what you want to get a version to run non-iPod and take up less space but have all the extras too.

glynor · « **Reply #39 on:** February 07, 2007, 12:46:22 pm »

iPods don't support DivX (MPEG-4 Part 2, ASP), only a subset of MPEG-4 Part 10, AVC encoding (and only when wrapped in a MP4 container file). This is supported by x264 and most other H.264 compliant encoders, with specific iPod-compatible profiles. MPEG-4 Part 10 gives much better compression results than DivX/XviD/3ivx anyway though, so that's not a huge deal...

dcwebman · « **Reply #40 on:** February 07, 2007, 12:50:06 pm »

Glynor, not sure if you were responding to my post but Randy is creating 2 versions, one for the iPod and one for viewing on the PC. What I was suggesting to try was to create a DivX version for the PC instead of the VIDEO_TS files.

glynor · « **Reply #41 on:** February 07, 2007, 01:13:01 pm »

Right. I probably wasn't entirely clear either...

My point was that if he wanted a recompressed version of his original DVDs on the computer to use through MC, then he might as well just compress to H.264 and keep that version for MC, instead of using both DivX and H.264. In other words, just eliminate the second version all together. At the same file sizes, H.264 provides better compression results than DivX/XviD, so if your portable device only supports H.264, then there's really no reason to make the extra DivX version. The only times I compress to XviD anymore is if I happen to need to support a set-top DVD player that handles DivX.

Of course, he might not be willing to accept a recompressed version at all, or he might really like having the DVD menus. I, personally, don't get this (since if you compress to x264 at a high enough bitrate it will be effectively identical in quality to the MPEG-2 version and you'll still save space), but some people really like the menus and don't like to bother with extra compression steps.

Magic_Randy · « **Reply #42 on:** February 07, 2007, 09:23:24 pm »

Quote from: glynor on February 07, 2007, 08:11:25 am

Like any download manager, it does sometimes have issues with PHP driven downloads. I'm not sure if that's what happened with AVISynth. However, if you have any issues with it, you can always hit Cancel in the FDM download dialog that pops up and it should then bring up the standard browser download dialog (so it can be used).

glynor,

You are correct again. The problem with AVISynth was with a PHP driven download.

I really do like the Free Download Manager, so I'm not complaining at all. It is a very nice product.

Magic_Randy · « **Reply #43 on:** February 07, 2007, 09:34:04 pm »

dcwebman & glynor,

I'm actually just learning about ripping DVDs and uploading them to the iPod, so all of the comments in this thread are very helpful to me.

Right now I have 2 versions, one for MC and one for the iPod. One reason I have the uncompressed version is I really do like the menus, but this is not practical for any volume of DVDs. The only ones I've done so far are for the ones where the menus are meaningful. As I play around with this more I will take a different approach. For normal DVDs I will have one version that I can use on the iPod and in MC.

Thanks again for all of the help...

Randy

Magic_Randy · « **Reply #44 on:** February 07, 2007, 09:41:41 pm »

glynor,

I finished the test using AutoMKV to convert a VIDEO_TS with a 24 bit 48kHz uncompressed PCM soundtrack to a format for the iPod. It started OK, but after awhile it crashed.

This is not a criticism of the product. I don't think this is a common format. So far I've tried it with DVDFab, Nero 7, and AutoMKV. None of them will do a proper conversion. The people at DVDFab are working on it, so I think they will support it soon.

Magic_Randy · « **Reply #45 on:** February 11, 2007, 04:28:41 pm »

So I upgraded my storage so I can backup the larger volume that is coming with ripping DVDs.

And when I went to do the backup - the only remaining piece of Norton software (Save & Restore/Ghost) on my PC crashed with the blue screen of death. I tried it a second time and it crashed with the blue screen of death again.

So now I just ran my favorite Norton software. It really works well. It's called Norton Removal Tool. It deletes all Norton software from your PC.

BTW: I replaced Norton Save & Restore with Acronis True Image. For image based backups it does a very good job.

dcwebman · « **Reply #46 on:** February 12, 2007, 07:08:17 am »

If we were going to make one version as glynor suggests, then this is the iPod spec:
Video formats supported: H.264 video, up to 1.5 Mbps, 640 by 480 pixels, 30 frames per sec

I have some AVI's already done that have different dimensions, I'm guessing because of a different widescreen aspect ratio. I guess if we stick to 640x480 then we can do the one version though.

glynor · « **Reply #47 on:** February 12, 2007, 07:16:51 am »

Quote from: dcwebman on February 12, 2007, 07:08:17 am

If we were going to make one version as glynor suggests, then this is the iPod spec:
Video formats supported: H.264 video, up to 1.5 Mbps, 640 by 480 pixels, 30 frames per sec

I have some AVI's already done that have different dimensions, I'm guessing because of a different widescreen aspect ratio. I guess if we stick to 640x480 then we can do the one version though.

Just to be clear. The iPod does NOT support the AVI container. If you're ripping to H264 for iPod you'll want to plunk it into a MP4 container (and use AAC-LC audio).

MadJewDisaster · « **Reply #48 on:** February 12, 2007, 11:42:57 am »

Well , browsing this topic i cannot not ask

You rip DVD to play them on an Ipod - With a screen as big than a box of fags ?
And you need hours to do it ?
Sorry , but it sounds so weird to me =)

Mastiff · « **Reply #49 on:** February 12, 2007, 12:13:43 pm »

He-he! I agree! Man, I can't watch movies on the 34" TV in our living room! If I want to watch a movie, I have to go down to the Cinema Inferno, where the screen is measured in meters, not inches!

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