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[gworrel]

I had been ripping blu-rays and DVDs using Anydvd. I used ISO for Blu-ray and rip to hard drive for DVDs. I am currently ripping to an external 4Tb drive. It has been reported in this forum that there is a problem with DVD playback from large external USB drives. Which I discovered only after thinking for some time that I was getting bad discs. So all the DVDs I ripped need to be copied to an internal drive, or converted to MKV. I have no room on internal drives, so I started using MakeMKV. Makemkv does not allow setting the file name, only the folder name. I discovered that JRiver would fail to get movie data and cover art for these mkv files because the filename is generic. I have also seen mkv files imported as a different movie for each stream, resulting in what look to be duplicates in JRiver. (Not fun to clean up.) Lately my auto import seems to be failing to get ISOs even though the drive and directory are set up in the auto import list.

Is there a reason for not using iso for DVDs?

Is there a best practice for using Makemkv with JRiver? If I want to include some of the bonus material in makemkv is there a way to not have it look like another movie in JRiver?

What might cause auto import to not function?

Is there any known fix for the problem playing dvd movies from large usb drives?

[6233638]

I had been ripping blu-rays and DVDs using Anydvd. I used ISO for Blu-ray and rip to hard drive for DVDs. I am currently ripping to an external 4Tb drive. It has been reported in this forum that there is a problem with DVD playback from large external USB drives. Which I discovered only after thinking for some time that I was getting bad discs.

For what it's worth, this is a problem with the Microsoft DVD Navigator, not a Media Center issue.
 

Makemkv does not allow setting the file name, only the folder name.

See the attached image.

Lately my auto import seems to be failing to get ISOs even though the drive and directory are set up in the auto import list.

I have had this happen a couple of times. The easiest solution is to either close Media Center (and Server, if you use it) or disable auto-import temporarily.
 
Rename the folder containing your media files. (e.g. from "Video" to "temporary")
Create a new folder with the name of the old one. ("Video" in this example)
Move your files from the old folder to the new one.
 
It's apparently a permissions issue, even though I was never able to see anything wrong with them, but it's worked both times this has happened.

Is there a best practice for using Makemkv with JRiver? If I want to include some of the bonus material in makemkv is there a way to not have it look like another movie in JRiver?

There are a number of different ways you can handle this.
Here is one option: http://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php?topic=88834.msg609511#msg609511 (also check the last post for an example of it in use)

[gworrel]

Thanks 6233638.

Ok. setting the file name in Makemkv requires changing the File destination in options to Custom. At first I didn't know why the name option showed up in your version but not mine.

I have had some trouble following your instructions in the other thread regarding using series and season as tags for bonus material. I tagged the files as you suggested. I have no idea how to change the view in TheaterView so it hides the seasons under one movie name. If you could explain in a bit more detail I would appreciate it. While I would like to understand your suggestions,, frankly I find this to be way too much work. Does everyone just skip all the bonus material?

Is there any reason not to use iso for DVDs and skip makemkv? 

[6233638]

I have had some trouble following your instructions in the other thread regarding using series and season as tags for bonus material. I tagged the files as you suggested. I have no idea how to change the view in TheaterView so it hides the seasons under one movie name. If you could explain in a bit more detail I would appreciate it. While I would like to understand your suggestions,, frankly I find this to be way too much work.

Once the initial views are set up, it should be easy to tag the files.
Views are configured in Tools → Options → Theater View
 
Add a new library item, and in the right pane add new expression views.
 

• TVInfo(SeriesDisplay)
• FirstNotEmpty([Season], [Name])

 
Tag all files you want grouped together with a [Series] name.
Tag all files you want a sub-groups with a [Season] name. (e.g. Bonus Features, Trailers etc.)
 

Does everyone just skip all the bonus material?

Probably.
 
I find that most behind the scenes content ruins my enjoyment of a film if I try to watch it again, and most other extras are simply not interesting to me.
 
There are more films than I have time to watch, so I don't have the time to spend with extras.
 

Is there any reason not to use iso for DVDs and skip makemkv?

Creating an MKV file gives you a single file that plays the film (or bonus content) directly.
ISO means the file has to be mounted to a virtual drive and you have to deal with menus/adverts.

[Vocalpoint]

Is there any reason not to use iso for DVDs and skip makemkv?

Only if you care about all the extra junk on any given disc. Personally - I want to get right to the movie 100% of the time so having the feature in a single file with no distractions is my defacto standard. Plus I want all available space going to the actual movies.

If I really need to slog thru some "extra" feature - I will put the actual disc in and watch it. But that's like 0.00001% of the time.

We want to hit play and that's it. I could not imagine the pain of making the family wait for an iso to be mounted or having to deal with any previews, ads and the like.

VP

[syndromeofadown]

frankly I find this to be way too much work

That's how i feel about makemkv.

Is there any reason not to use iso for DVDs and skip makemkv?

ISO means the file has to be mounted to a virtual drive and you have to deal with menus/adverts.

Menus and adverts shouldn't be a problem, but there is no reason to mount an iso when you can just rip to hard disc and play that.

Is there any known fix for the problem playing dvd movies from large usb drives?

Maybe you can split the 4tb drive into 2 partitions so you are only dealing with 2 TB drives. Just an idea.
I used 3TB external drives with dvd rips for a couples years without ever having a problem.

My thoughts on DVD and Blu-ray rips:
Don't use iso's.
Don't use makemkv.
Simply rip to hard disc folder. MC is perfect for it.
I don't think any other media player handles rips as nicely.
They import as a single file that can be tagged and played back just like the disc was being played.
Playing adds is a non-issue because blu-ray goes straight to the main title and with DVD's you just right click and choose "DVD Menu" to skip adds.
I personally like seeing adds because it's the only time I see trailers.
I have MC setup to tag on import so ripping and importing is very fast.
It takes 5 minutes or so to rip a dvd and less than a minute to rename and move the folder.
Auto Import and Tag on Import take care of the rest.
I buy a lot of box sets with 30 - 60 discs and couldn't imagine converting each disc.

While movies are simple to deal with, TV show rips can be a little more complicated.
I tag my discs with multiple episodes like so: Season 1 Episode 1-3, Season 1 Episode 4-6.
It works well except for discs that have no order and span multiple seasons. With those I use "random" as the episode.
Particles can be used to split up, tag, and scrape individual episodes on rips but I haven't had the time to do too much of my own.
There is lots of info around on how to use particles.

I suggest spending a couple hours trying out MC's features before spending countless hours converting.

[Vocalpoint]

Simply rip to hard disc folder. MC is perfect for it. I don't think any other media player handles rips as nicely.They import as a single file that can be tagged and played back just like the disc was being played.

I do not understand - what exactly do you get if you "Rip to hard disc folder"? A bunch of files with weird file extensions or what?

Is there no "format" offered to rip to?

VP

[mwillems]

I do not understand - what exactly do you get if you "Rip to hard disc folder"? A bunch of files with weird file extensions or what?

Is there no "format" offered to rip to?

VP

You just get a copy of all the files on the disc in a directory structure.  MC presents it in the library as a single file, and behaves more or less as though you were interacting with the disc (i.e. playing the library item starts the menu, etc.).  It has some pluses and some definite minuses.

The biggest cons of "just ripping the disk" from my end is that the menu often has a different frame rate or deinterlacing situation than the content, which will often "fool" MadVR into using the wrong frame rate or deinterlacing settings for the entire picture.  This tends to make it very hard to watch certain kinds of interlaced content (cartoons in particular, but I've seen other content with issues as well). The frame rate issue can be worked around with manual tagging. The deinterlacing issue has no workaround that I'm aware of besides changing it manually while watching.

By contrast MKVs can be configured to pass the correct settings to MadVR every time, which, combined with substantial disk space savings from snipping out the extras, was a compelling argument for me.

I suggest spending a couple hours trying out MC's features before spending countless hours converting.

The actual ripping of a disk with MakeMKV doesn't seem (at least to me) to take any longer than ripping with any other method, because MakeMKV doesn't really convert anything, it just dumps the info into a mkv container (unlike, say, handbrake which actually transcodes things); the only thing that takes any extra time is entering a filename for each ripped title that MC can parse.  As long as your filenames are in the correct format, MC can auto-tag on import and do all the tagging for you, same as with a direct rip.  

[Vocalpoint]

You just get a copy of all the files on the disc in a directory structure.  MC presents it in the library as a single file, and behaves more or less as though you were interacting with the disc (i.e. playing the library item starts the menu, etc.).  It has some pluses and some definite minuses.

I see. But if something should happen to even one file in the structure - failure?

The actual ripping of a disk with MakeMKV doesn't seem (at least to me) to take any longer than ripping with any other method, because MakeMKV doesn't really convert anything, it just dumps the info into a mkv container (unlike, say, handbrake which actually transcodes things); the only thing that takes any extra time is entering a filename for each ripped title that MC can parse.  As long as your filenames are in the correct format, MC can auto-tag on import and do all the tagging for you, same as with a direct rip.  

Exactly. Takes me about 8 minutes end to end in MKV. I can't see how it can be any easier. Not to mention getting rid of all the chaf. No one in our family wants to watch any previews, warnings, ads etc. Of particular annoyance is a company like Disney - who seem to purposely divert you from trying to watch the actual movie - by making you sit thru 15 minutes of crap. Whenever a Disney movie is a "buy"  - it goes right to the bench so I can strip it of all the junk immediately.

VP

[MaseMan]

That's how i feel about makemkv.

I'm currently trying to figure out how to handle ripping going forward. I was trying to use MakeMKV, but my rips were going MUCH slower than they were in JRiver (like about 3-4x as long). Also, once the files were done being ripped in MakeMKV, I couldn't really figure out how to use them or get JRiver to recognize them. I'm sure there's a guide somewhere.

I like the simplicity of just using JRiver much better. The only downside is that I've ripped about 35 movies, and already used about a quarter of my 4 TB external harddrive, since JRiver keeps all the extra "stuff" intact. I'm trying to figure out how I want to proceed going forward.