Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[steveklein]

Love the dvd playback for the most part... but have a question.

All my DVDs are ripped to my hard drive with menus and extras.

When I click a movie, I'd prefer it to bypass all the trailers and load the dvd menu. Then, when I hit play movie I'd like the movie to play from the beginning, not from a resume point. so i have 2 questions (one of which i asked in a different thread, sorry for the repetition)

a) skip these 2-4 minutes of trailers that most movies have
b) start from the beginning rather than remembering where i was and resuming

thanks so much

[benn600]

VLC does this.  I think it is partly the codec (if not completely).  What codec do you have installed?  WinDVD?  PowerDVD?  They are setup like DVD players so you cannot skip the trailers (if the DVD has that set) and typically not to jump to the menu.  Only VLC will make a good attempt to skip right to the menu because it is free and open-source so the creators aren't worrying about satisfying the owners of the DVD Mpeg 2 codec in licensing.

[steveklein]

VLC, huh? I don't think I have that codec. Is it free? Could you point me towards it...

[benn600]

Well, it's Video Lan Client.  It is just another video player.  They get millions of downloads every day or something like that.  It's basically the best media player out there that can play about anything.  I have not been able to get it to work as the MC DVD codec, though.  I always end up installing a commercial codec.  So it's not really a solution at this point.

[steveklein]

okay... well as a workaround (with benefits) instead of trying to play these .vob files which i don't know a whole lot about i am doing research on how to put my entire library of dvds on to my hard drive as something like .avi files that are encoded in xvid (heard this was good and still pretty viable). i'll be able to conserve a ton of diskspace this way (as movies drop from 5-9gb down to around 2 i think). but i am curious as to how Media Center 12 will handle the playing of the .avi files. i think i can get the movies without the opening trailers. would hitting play again be a resume thing or would it play from the beginning with these files?

[glynor]

I'd look at either:

1) AutoGK for DVD --> XviD conversion.  XviD is an older codec (based on MPEG-4 Part 2 aka Advanced Simple Profile).  This is very easy to use and results in moderate to good quality rips.  It does NOT include a built in DVD ripper, so I'd recommend DVD Fab Decrypter HD, which works very well and is easy to use.  Simply rip the movie in "Main Movie" mode (which removes all the extraneous stuff) and then point AutoGK at the IFO where you ripped the DVD to.

2) AutoMKV for DVD --> x264 (or XviD or WMV) conversion.  This is a similar app to AutoGK but is newer and has a LOT more power.  There is a version with DVD Fab Decrypter built in, so it is really an all-in-one ripping system.  It can encode to x264 (in addition to XviD and WMV among others) and use newer media container formats (such as MKV and MP4, in addition to AVI).  x264 is a newer codec which can provide much better quality with lower bitrates (smaller files).  It is based on the MPEG-4 Part 10 (aka Advanced Video Coding) standard similar to Nero AVC or Apple's "H.264" Quicktime codec.  AutoMKV has more power and is a slight bit more difficult to use (but not much).  You do have to manually install it though (the download is just a ZIP file) and make sure to install the associated codecs and utilities that you'll need -- mainly AVISynth and the Nero AAC Encoder.  Just read the first post on the above page completely and check the WIKI for more info.

3) A good commercial product is DVD Fab Platinum.  It is a great (but not free) all-in-one solution that is easy to use and can convert with preset profiles for iPod, PSP, and "Generic" handheld players.  If you use the Generic setting, you can convert to a H264 MP4 which would give similar results to using AutoMKV with x264 and MP4 containers.  It costs $80 normally, but happens to be on sale for $50 currently.

[steveklein]

wow, lots of great stuff there. i'm going to try solution #2. it sounds the more futureproof of the free products. i'm going to work on it now and i'll try to post later with how it's going.

[rjm]

x264 is a significantly better than XviD/DivX.

I recently watched a 700MB x264 rip of a high action movie and the quality was amazing.

My guess is that no one will use DivX/Xvid as soon as DVD Players support x264. I read about a new x264 chipset so we should start seeing x264 players soon.

If anyone is aware of a x264 DVD Player already on the market please speak up. I would love to get one.

[steveklein]

would you say there isnt really any noticeable quality difference in a 700mb rip (or even say, 1gb) encoded in this fashion and the original dvd?

[benn600]

You typically lose all the 5.1 audio.  Also, you're likely losing subtitles, obviously the menu, any special features, etc.

I use my DVDs directly in my theater room so it was key to me to keep the complete audio so I get 5.1 surround.  And since I need it for my theater, the other areas I view the content benefit as well even if they don't have 5.1.  Plus, there is some degradation with re-encoding lossy formats anyway.  I was never able to get a satisfactory result with sufficient saved space.  Remember you're losing lots of content as well.  So if you go from 7GB to 2GB, yes, you are saving space but you do not have what the original had.  It's nice knowing that I'm not losing a single thing with my DVDs stored on my server.

But I built a 7TB server, too, so I have quite a bit of space.  I'm at 65% used now.

[steveklein]

For input file, do I always select VTS_01_0.IFO off of the dvd disk? I'm really new to this and don't know which ifo (or vob???) file i'm supposed to select for input.

I have a screenshot of my settings and whatnot, but don't see a way to attach it to this post... don't have webspace to post it to

[JimH]

From the FAQ -- How do I post a screenshot?

[steveklein]

From the FAQ -- How do I post a screenshot?

that was odd. definitely different and tough to do for 1 picture... but now i see just another feature of media center. the program never ceases to amaze me.

anyways:





but yeah.... bottom line this automkv program runs but i dont get much output (like a 50mb temp folder) and that's it. no movie to be found. i don't get it.

[steveklein]

okay.... update.

i am using AutoMKV and I got a 8GB .vob file inside of a temp directory and a few other miscellaneous files and folders. What do I do at this point to make this thing smaller and a more recognizable format.

when i run AutoMKV on it, it does something (DGIndex slowly goes to 100%) but it's not putting any files on any of my hard disks as best as I can tell.

[ThoBar]

Two other conversion utils...
http://handbrake.m0k.org/
and
http://www.erightsoft.com/SUPER.html

[benn600]

I like Handbrake.

Anyone here know of someone who has created an auto converter for Handbrake?  I'd like it to cycle through my 550 DVDs and convert them all in a queue.  Every component over 5 minutes should be converted to files inside folders named the folder of the DVD.  I have plenty of space to do this and it would mean I could instantly transfer any movie I want to my iPhone, flash drive, or whatever--and even STREAM any of these DVDs over the internet!  I'd use no more than 750 Kbps and my connection upload can cover that!