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[benn600]

Is there any standard format that allows an entire DVD to be stored in one single file?  I am wondering if .iso files would work?  I want to backup my DVDs in their completeness, especially my home videos.  Any ideas?

[Mastiff]

Yes, ISO-files ripped by DVD Shrink works. I prefer to have them in separate directories, though, with all the files from the DVD (also ripped with DVD Shrink) and run the video_ts.ifo, which saves the trouble of mouting the ISO files before playback.

[benn600]

I'm wondering if it is easy for a program like Media Center, Xbox Media Center, Video Lan Player, etc to play directly from an iso?  I spent thousands and thousands of hours of computer time convering my DVDs to divx but find that it is annoying for a few reasons.  First, I don't have all the extra features, subtitles, etc.  Second, I always run into problems with deinterlacing and haven't figured that out.  Some methods look great on my Xbox Media Center (television), some on my PC, and others on neither.  I also used Q=2  which is great but it sometimes outputted a file larger than all the DVD content, lol!  Also, re-encoding the audio to lose quality seems like a waste.  If I'm not mistaken, DVD audio for a standard movie is equivalent or better (multi-channel) than CD audio and is not compressed to MP3..but stored in PCM or whatever...so I would be preserving the best quality audio and video without much additional space.

Basically, do I want to copy the Video_TS folder to my Video directory and rename it "Christmas 2005?"  Or should I rip it to an iso?  Which is easier?  I don't think either solution is perfect...no perfect solution exists.  Then, if I want to start a specific television episode from season 1 of the show, it will be a big challenge to find it!  This is my biggest concern...everything else seems like it would work...is there a way to tag the DVD with a few sentences that could obviously be searched?  This would allow me to search for an episode by name and it would bring up the DVD as a result and I would have to manually start the DVD and select the episode (that's okay)...can this extra comment info be stored in the filetype I should use?  lol...I doubt iso's hold extra info like that.  Is there a way to put a .txt file in that MC would automatically pick up as tags?  It seems like MC is smart about picking up a DVD as one item in the library vs. a bunch of .vob files so perhaps a feature could be added that would look for comments.txt and if it exists AND the folder contained ONE DVD, then the contents would be applied to that item in the database...PERFECT SOLUTION PREVIOUSLY NOTED (lol, I think)

It would be nice to rip my video AS good as possible like I did my music (FLAC is, being lossless, the best you can do -- aside from other lossless formats)...I want to rip my video once and for all, so I want to do it once and do it right--the best I can.  Recompressing seems worthless and bad since the video is already compressed...recompressing compressed video is a bad idea.  Since it's already compressed, the work has already been done.  Why should I recompress it?

Lots to discuss but if anyone has the time, please read through and pick out each and every question I have and answer it (lol, it's a lot to ask, I know!)  Thank you!

[Mastiff]

I believe there are other programs that can play ISO files directly, but as far asa I know not MC. As for DiVX, XViD and even compressed DVD-R's, they look to bad on my pretty high end CRT projector, so I haven't used those for several years. And then I only did a few children's movies to let the kids have them on the network. Besides, with a 500 gig external drive at around $ 300 there's no logic in bending over backwards to compress anything!

[4BYE]

Here's how I manage my (extracted DVD's):

I rip them to my HD's in a folder called as the title: f.e. "Jaws" or "Dirty Harry".
I put the movie poster as a 300x430 JPEG called "folder".

I import them in MC12. Here it gets perhaps confusing:

I use "Fill properties from filename" (Library Tools) and use "[Title]\VIDEO_TS" and then "[Album]\VIDEO_TS".
I added title for naming the DVD/movie title.

Then why do I use "Album" too? With album I sort my movies. To keep track of f.e. Star Wars movies the "Title" is "The Empire Strikes Back" and "The Phantom Menace" where the "Album" is named "Star Wars 5" and "Star Wars 1" I sort with this string:

Album (a-z)
Series (a-z)
Season (a-z)
Episode (a-z)
Title (a-z)

Thumbnail text:

[Series] [Season]
[Title]
[Date (year)]

This way I get everything the way I want it:






As you see I have everything the way I want it:
Star Wars following 1-6 (not alphabatically because that would put them in the wrong order)
(Also helps with series with Roman numbers to keep them in order.)

I can chose to add "Star Wars" in "series" which would put "Star Wars" above the movie title.
As you see with (TV) Series it's the same deal. You get episode number, title, season all as you like.

The only thing you have to keep in mind that you change the "Album" tag into the tag you need with series etc. When not, you leave it as it is.

I also add "Actors", "Director", "Genre" and "Year". This is a bigger job but with IMDB.com I copy them into the fields.

With series I have this structure in folders:

Friends Season 1\01. The One Where...\VIDEO_TS\

The purpose of everything on HD is that everybody in the house has access to the music, images, video's without having to get/search the original disc(s).

And like Mastiff says: with HD's being this large and cheaper almost every month why going through all the trouble of making DivX etc if sound and picture gets worse.
However for some tv series it would not be too bad having them on DivX but it's the time issue that keeps me away from DivX for now.

Maybe this helps.

Regards,

Theo

[jmone]

One of the great features of DVD Decrypter is that you can select what portion of a DVD you want to extract (eg by chapter, all etc) and the audio tracks you want.

For example, you could use DVD Decrupter to break your West Wing DVD's into individual eposides that you then rename the extracted VOB as "West Wing - S06E14: The Wake Up Call.MPG" into a folder on your HDD called "West Wing".  The result is one directory with a file for each eposide sorted alphabetically in exactly the same quality as on the DVD (there is NO transcoding and each extract only takes a few minutes).  This is also a great way to create a bunch of Music Video Clips that you can then treat like your audio only files.

It takes a bit to get used to what to do but once you have it mastered it is very straight forward and will give you your one file for your main Video in perfect quality BUT you will lose the interactive nature of a DVD (eg add on features, navigation, etc.) as you end up with a single MPG file.

[4BYE]

One of the great features of DVD Decrypter is that you can select what portion of a DVD you want to extract (eg by chapter, all etc) and the audio tracks you want.

I do this all the time...
This way you can see episode by episode.

I use CloneDVD.
You have to be careful when selecting the episode because it puts the files in order of time first. So I always click on the title tab to have it listed by number and not by duration.
I don't know if DVD Decrypter does it the same way.

Why rename the VOB files? In my case the names are in the folder and with "Fill Properties From Filename" you're there.


Cheers,

Theo

[4BYE]

BTW if they find a way to solve this Library Server issue with extracted DVD's everything would be even more great.

http://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php?topic=37613.0

[hit_ny]

Besides, with a 500 gig external drive at around $ 300 there's no logic in bending over backwards to compress anything!

Let's play with those figures shall we

your avg DVD is about 4.5GB, so with a 500GB HD, you can store about 100 DVDs (max) or 50(!) if they are dual layer, in full pristine quality, taking into account you won't really get 500GB but 7% less.

50-100 DVDs on a $300 HD. Now since you took so much time & trouble to rip them you will want to back them up, so thats $600 (for another 500GB external, or  two thirds as much if you go with an internal HD in your tower server), so $500.

For that price, i wonder whether just ripping the dvds to have a backup on a dvd-r and getting an old fashion jukebox will be cheaper. You know the ones that allow you to stick many dvds in drawers and have a dainty remote that allows you to pick dvd title #20 say.

Or if you cant be bothered, just stick the original DVDs in, you have a movie jukebox and no homework and still in original quality.

I keep thinking until you can get 1TB of HD for under $100, archiving movies is going to be expensive. Given today's rates, you can just about manage 350GB at that price.

Maybe in another 3 yrs time...

At which point there will be HD-DVD or Blu-ray, Of course you will not want to compress that either so you will be back at square one. But if you stay a step behind, there will be tons of cheap (2nd hand) DVDs and the HD space for it.

[jmone]

Why rename the VOB files? In my case the names are in the folder and with "Fill Properties From Filename" you're there.

I'm a MC newbie, and still using Nero Home waiting for DVB-T support.  Renaming the VOBs to the name of the movie or the episode just makes it easy for any player that does not use a DataBase for the Meta Data.

[NickM]

I do a similar storage method, however, each DVD is in it's own directory named GENRE_NAME_YEAR thus:-



Then rename properties from files thus:-



Then, my Theatre view is divided by Genre too, with a filter for each:-


The storage cost is OK, providing you get redundancy via RAID, then we pay in Singapore USD120 for 300GB.  A ten disc array ( 10 % loss of effective space plus a hot spare ) gives 240GB for USD120.  My average DVD size is below 5GB, so nearly 50 DVD's for USD120.  I suppose we're buying convenience.

[4BYE]

I agree with hit_ny that you have to keep in mind the prices etc. We use euro here and I pay about € 85,00 for a Samsung SpinPoint HD300LJ, 300GB (7200rpm, SATA II, 8MB). About € 105,00 for a Samsung SpinPoint HD400LJ, 400GB (7200rpm, SATA II, 8MB) and € 150 for a Samsung SpinPoint HD501LJ, 500GB (7200rpm, SATA II, 16MB, NCQ). (At this time a euro is 1.32 dollar but this is difficult to use since this goes up and down, also the dollar is real cheap now).

I use mainly the 400 GB now and have some (older) 300 GB. I DO use backups for my 3x 300GB AUDIO since I find music to be more important for now and in the future. With movies I agree that I take a risk but it's not worthwhile to have backups for them since I probably see them only once or twice again.

I DO make backups of my own personal/private movies becaue they have to last forever in my family.

On a 400 GB HD I put about 80 movies, (I take the original language and dutch subtitle, no extra's) which is € 1,30 a movie. Burning and making an insert, put it in a box will be about the same I guess.

With Blu Ray and HD DVD coming it's diificult (read impossible) to handle those this way.
However by the time these types are accepted there will be enormous HD.

Still I like the idea of having movies at hand on my computer along with the database info etc.

I don't agree ripping a movie does take a lot of effort and time though.

But I see your point and you made me think again. ?


Cheers,


Theo

[gappie]

that is a nice way to do it Mr 4bye.
just two small questions for you. what do you do with the other files like vts_01_1.
am i right that mc12 does not register last played and number plays?

thanks
gab

[glynor]

your avg DVD is about 4.5GB, so with a 500GB HD, you can store about 100 DVDs (max) or 50(!) if they are dual layer, in full pristine quality, taking into account you won't really get 500GB but 7% less.

50-100 DVDs on a $300 HD. Now since you took so much time & trouble to rip them you will want to back them up, so thats $600 (for another 500GB external, or  two thirds as much if you go with an internal HD in your tower server), so $500.

For that price, i wonder whether just ripping the dvds to have a backup on a dvd-r and getting an old fashion jukebox will be cheaper. You know the ones that allow you to stick many dvds in drawers and have a dainty remote that allows you to pick dvd title #20 say.

Which is why god invented x264 and MKV/MP4 file containers.

MKVs can contain as many subtitles and audio tracks (and video tracks like alternate angles and whatnot) as you want, and MP4s are basically just as good.  In fact, if you're really ridiculously dedicated, MKV files can even contain menu systems just like DVDs (though the software to design them is decidedly expert-level).  As far as compression, x264 will exceed MPEG-2's quality at about 1/2 the bitrate (and therefore almost 1/2 the file size).  For the audio, simply include the original AC3 or PCM audio in the MKV/MP4 file rather than using MP3 or AAC.  Even the "for dummies" style conversion tools can easily handle this!  At the very least, you should be able to achieve transparent video quality with x264 (or Nero Digital AVC if you prefer) with about 1/2 the stream size.

I fail to see any reason at all to archive MPEG-2 DVDs to hard disk in original form, unless you are made out of money.  If you want to archive the original discs for backup in original quality, then buy a bunch of DVD9s, burn backups, and store them properly (or just store your original discs properly).

[Jaguu]

I find it a great timewaste to make a backup copy of a DVD, if you rip to disk, is not the original DVD the backup copy?
I have about 100 DVD's and found only one bad copy. If the original DVD is bad, then also the backup will be bad!

I prefer to rip DVD's (the main movie only) with DVD decrypter and convert them to divx. For my taste the quality is good enough. There has been a big improvement with divx since version 3, 4 or 5, now 6.2. The first time I watch the movie directly from the DVD. If it is a WOANA movie (=watch once and never again), I don't even care to have it on my system.

[hit_ny]

I find it a great timewaste to make a backup copy of a DVD, if you rip to disk, is not the original DVD the backup copy?

It is, but if the purpose behind storing to HD was convenience, then conceivably if you were to lose a HD, you would buy another one anyway.

The backup takes this into account and saves you the re-ripping.

You would still buy new drives, but then it would be a matter or syncing to the new drive which becomes the backup.

As far as compression, x264 will exceed MPEG-2's quality at about 1/2 the bitrate (and therefore almost 1/2 the file size).

Are you saying that x264 is to DVDs what APE/FLAC is to wav ?

[Mastiff]

I agree, no point in having a backup of the backup. And with Girder I have a fully automated ripping system. Btw DVD Shrink can choose main movie, certain chapters or whatever, and it's all done graphically. On the other hand I do a system like that with MP3's, I have full hard drive backups in the carputer. But ripping several thousand CD's is a bit different from reripping those of my DVD's (I haven't got them all on disk) that I have stored.

As for x264 and any other way of backing up, the bitrate isn't the problem. The problem is that you have to re-compress an already lossy format (DVD's MPEG) into another format. That's like converting MP3's to WMA's, you'll allways loose something, so you can't in any way, shape or form (I like writing that!) compare that to CD's being ripped to APE or whatever since CD's are uncompressed - at least theoretically, I'm sure mad dog audiophiles will kill me for saying that!

I'm not made of money, but believe me, with a home theater like mine (Barco Graphics 808 with new tubes, HD-144 color filtered lenses, upgraded RGB amps and other mods) I can see the difference without even trying hard. And to know that I'm not watching the best image quality possible because I have done something myself takes away all the enjoyment of the movie. Believe me, I have stopped so called high quality DVD-R's (downloaded movies with 8 pass recoding made to fit a 4.5 gig DVDR - downloaded by a naughty friend, and not me, of course (and that's actually the truth, I don't bother to download movies!)) after a few minutes because the compression artifacts were annoying, then drove down to the local gas station and bought the same movie, drove back up and having the pleasure of hearing my wife say: "Wow, what a difference!" And she's no videophile by far.

[hit_ny]

I'm not familiar with projectors, so what effective size would the screen be ?

Agreed screen size is an important factor to consider when deciding to go iso or compressed. There must be a table somewhere saying, if you have a screen so big and this high, then you want to use this encoder or not.

[glynor]

Are you saying that x264 is to DVDs what APE/FLAC is to wav ?

No, because DVD != CDA/WAV.

DVDs use MPEG-2 compression which is already absurdly highly compressed.  What I'm saying is, that for most setups (probably not ultra-high end setups similar to Mastiff's), you won't be able to see the difference between a quality MPEG-2 encode and a quality recode to x264 at high bitrates.  Both compression types are lossy, and there is certainly some inherant loss of quality when going from one lossy compression scheme to another.  However, the situation isn't always as simple as that, because of the types of video artifacts that MPEG-2 and MPEG-4, Part 10 (AVC/H264) introduce (which are similar).

What I'm saying is, essentially:

1. You don't have access to true uncompressed video, and even if you did, you wouldn't have anything approaching the storage space to hold more than a handful of feature-length films.  Uncompressed 8-bit Standard Definition video runs about 24MB/sec, which means a two hour movie would take over 170GB.  And that's only 8-bit.  Most movie studio work is done with 10-bit sources (and now is done with HD sources which runs almost 500GB per hour).  And those figures don't even include audio at all!

2. MPEG-4 Part 10 (which is what x264 is) is a much better compression method than MPEG-2 (DVD).  That's why it's being used for most BluRay and HD-DVD video as opposed to the "old" MPEG-2 system.

3. If you want to store a library of video files on your hard drive(s), probably the best bet right now is x264 (or Nero Digital AVC) in a MKV or MP4 wrapper.  If you want the videos archived in the best possible quality, then keep the original DVDs and store them well.  That way, when MPEG-6 becomes available, you can recode them again to that and save even more space.

4. If you're going to recode the video anyway (by using an application like DVD Shrink or TMPGenc or whatever) to get it to fit on a DVD5 sized disc, you are going to introduce more artifacts into the video that way than you would have by using a better codec to recode.  Unless you need the files to play on a set-top player, you might as well use MPEG-4 Part 10 instead and not lose as much quality (and have the added benefit of much smaller sized files).

A much better analogy than recompressing to/from any type of audio codec would be recompressing JPEG.  The difference is taking a JPEG compressed at quality 8 in photoshop and resaving it as a JPEG with the quality set to 12.  Sure.  Officially, it will change the data in the file slightly and degrade the picture more than it would have if you hadn't saved it at all.  Can the average person with the average monitor and printer see the difference without a degree in colorspaces and image compression?  No.  Not at all, so long as you don't do it over and over.

Would I then take that Quality 12 JPEG and resave it as a Quality 6 JPEG for web use?  No!  It would, of course, always be best to go back to the original to make new versions.

[glynor]

I should add... None of what I said above applies equally to MPEG-4 Part 2 (ASP) codecs such as XviD, 3viX, and DivX 3-5 (and DivX 6 which isn't even really ASP has a whole other suite of issues).  Those codecs most certainly DO introduce additional IQ degradation at any bitrate because of the way they work.

Not that it doesn't have it's place.  For my purposes, XviD with a high quality encode is often "good enough" for my eyes and my TV.  Not so for everyone (or every video) though!

[4BYE]

that is a nice way to do it Mr 4bye.
just two small questions for you. what do you do with the other files like vts_01_1.
am i right that mc12 does not register last played and number plays?

I don't know what you mean by the file. I have a folder with only the DVD parts I want.
The movie + dutch subs. CloneDVD does all the work.



The other thing I wouldn't know, never used them.

Regards,


Theo

[4BYE]

I do a similar storage method, however, each DVD is in it's own directory named GENRE_NAME_YEAR

Why didn't you tell me that before?! ?

I like your way better then mine. In case of a crash or reinstalling MC it's a better way to have some tags from the filename. Unlike ape and mp3 the tags are not in the files. I changed my main computer with the other one and did some changes on where I put the movie files etc. I had to make all new tags. (looking up the year again etc.)

Your way has the advantage of having the year,genre and title at hand. You could even think of adding the director.

Regards,


Theo

[Osho]

As previous posters have indicated, you can use .iso file to extract DVD. You may also want to look at the following thread about how to import them and play in MC.

http://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php?topic=37617.0

There are some advantages of using .iso files over directory - you can read that in that thread. That said, I haven't been able to replicate the success of gappie. I am currently using Alcohol 52% so that may be the issue. This weekend, I will install Virtual Clone Drive and see if that works better. The way to get this to working (as I understand) is the following:

• Extract your DVDs as .iso files using your favorite software.
• Install a virtual drive software. There are at least three choices (free) that I know of: Daemon Tools, Alcohol 52% and Virtual Clone Drive. There are probably other similar softwares also out there.
• Make sure if you mount a .iso file as a virtual drive then you can play that virtual drive as DVD in MC. This should work without any issues.
• Now, make sure that when you double click ("Open") the .iso file in the Windows Explorer, it is automatically mounted on the virtual drive.
• Now, import the .iso files in  your MC Library as documents. See the thread above for how to do that.
• Configure MC so it automatically plays DVD full screen upon disc insertion. There was a recent thread about how to do that in this forum.
• Now, navigate to the .iso file in MC Library (under Documents). Double clicking that should play the DVD now in fullscreen.

I will share how my experience goes with Virtual Clone Drive after this weekend.

Also, I would like to know how these .iso documents can be seen in Theater View? Any suggestions?


Osho

[gappie]

what is the isue you have osho?

about seeing it in theater view.
make a new view scheme under videos.
choose in step four: more fields>media type>data
and disable in step three honour parent scheme search string

that will give you all the files in documents in theater view under the video tab (when show in theater view is enabled)

[gappie]

I don't know what you mean by the file. I have a folder with only the DVD parts I want.
The movie + dutch subs. CloneDVD does all the work.



The other thing I wouldn't know, never used them.

Regards,


Theo

well, the file i ment is in your picture. i also use clone dvd.

when you import the folder with the movie it imports all the files i see in your picture. do you delete those from the library without the video ts ifo? or do you leave them in the library?

[Osho]

what is the isue you have osho?

When I double-click on the .iso file in MC, nothing happens. I think this is because when I double-click on the .iso file in Windows Explorer, the .iso file is not being mounted to the virtual drive (I am guessing that MC just evokes the default Windows program to handle that datatype document). This could be because I am using Alcohol 52% and not Virtual Clone Drive. I could not figure out how to configure Alcohol 52% to mount the .iso file on the virtual drive when I double-click it in Windows Explorer. I enabled Shell Integration feature of Alcohol 52% but that just added a right click button action "Mount Image" in windows explorer. So, I think I will uninsall Alcohol 52% and install Virtual Clone Drive and see if it works any better.

about seeing it in theater view.
make a new view scheme under videos.
choose in step four: more fields>media type>data
and disable in step three honour parent scheme search string

that will give you all the files in documents in theater view under the video tab (when show in theater view is enabled)

Thanks. I will try that.

Osho

[benn600]

What interesting conversation I have initiated?!  I just spent the last little while reading it all.  Let's try to be shorter and more concise (lol--I'm opposite that).

After reading everything, I understand a lot of it.  I'm still not quite sure what I will finally do but I think ripping to a folder named the movie is the best idea.

Now I'm wondering how I should go about this.  I have 4 computers with DVD drives.  I could rip to the internal drives but that encounters space limitations quickly as 3 of those computers have very small drives (40GB).  Otherwise, I could rip directly to my Raid-0 server but four rips at the same time could put tremendous stress on the drives and would probably meet the speed limitation quickly.  Luckily, I have about 1TB of free space even with keeping my (thousands of hours of computer re-encoding time) previous xvid rips.  That way, if I change my mind, I will still have my xvid files.  I don't want to delete them until I'm absolutely sure (!!).

Like another poster above, I have lots of family movies (100 hours on 90 DVDs) that cannot be lost.  I have them duplicated (two sets) and plan on creating a third set in a few years to help protect against time--since they say DVDs may die after a few years.

I just think it's so neat that I can now just rip them instead of having to rip AND encode them.  It will be interesting to see how much space this takes.  I'm a little worried it might get costly for my drives.  About 500GB of my 2.5TB array (fully backed up -- so 11 500GB drives) is used by photos, flac, documents, etc (maybe a lil' more) but that leaves 2TB...I hope I don't approach full or I'll be buying two more drives.  I'm hoping next time I need to buy more drives, the price goes way down.  6 of the 11 drives I got for $180 at Best Buy (200- 12%/10%)  The others were from Buy.com ranging from $220 - $255.

I think I'll go start, yay!
Last note: assuming program doesn't matter since it is doing no processing, I'll be using DVD Decryptor, which seems like a good program.

[glynor]

I'm hoping next time I need to buy more drives, the price goes way down.  6 of the 11 drives I got for $180 at Best Buy (200- 12%/10%)  The others were from Buy.com ranging from $220 - $255.

Cough... Newegg.com ... Cough.

Last note: assuming program doesn't matter since it is doing no processing, I'll be using DVD Decryptor, which seems like a good program.

DVD Decryptor is really probably your best (and simplest) bet.  There are a few things it can't rip though.  I'd grab a copy of RipIt4Me (Google it) and install it and use that instead.  RipIt4Me is an addon to DVD Decrypter that detects and works around the handful of newer DVD discs that DVD Decrypter can't decode on it's own.  Since it's just an add-on to DVD Decrypter (and actually uses it for all the "heavy lifting") it works identically to DVD Decrypter on it's own.

You need to have both installed for it to work right.

[4BYE]

well, the file i ment is in your picture. i also use clone dvd.

when you import the folder with the movie it imports all the files i see in your picture. do you delete those from the library without the video ts ifo? or do you leave them in the library?

I don't get any others in the library... Just the VIDEO_TS.ifo
I DO have a DVD Audio disc I extracted and maybe that's what you mean: with that one I had to delete 4 files that were imported too. Maybe that it is because there are also files in the AUDIO_TS folder.
I can't tell anymore what I deleted. But with movies I never had more files imported.

Cheers,

Theo

[JohnT]

well, the file i ment is in your picture. i also use clone dvd.

when you import the folder with the movie it imports all the files i see in your picture. do you delete those from the library without the video ts ifo? or do you leave them in the library?

What MC version are you using? There was an import enhancement quite a while ago so that only the .ifo is imported within a VIDEO_TS folder.

[gappie]

What MC version are you using? There was an import enhancement quite a while ago so that only the .ifo is imported within a VIDEO_TS folder.

i use the last one. 130.
to import i right click on the folder in explorer>mediacenter>import (I have shellintegration enabled).
guess ill have to import it an other way. or just remove the other files from my library (i already did that).

thanks

[Osho]

So, I was able to launch .iso files from within MC12 by removing Alcohol 52% and installing Virtual Clone Drive. However, .iso files are also not working from remote server. So, extracted DVDs - either as directories or as .iso files - both are not working as a Client.

Can I connect to a remote server and also import the movie files from a directory (mounted via samba)?

Thanks,
Osho

[benn600]

I still have a problem.  When I import the folder will all the DVD files, MC looks at all the files separately.  What is the step I'm missing that combines them to one item in the MC database?  Now, I see all the files individually so I don't know which one to double click, etc?  Also, they are named Video_TS and the standard names so every DVD would pretty much look the same.  I want all the DVD files to simplify to one entry under video and I'll use the internet to obtain cover art instead of scanning my DVDs by hand.

[4BYE]

Hello,

Do you use a subfolder VIDEO_TS and AUDIO_TS?
You can put a folder.jpg of the movie in the VIDEO_TS folder.

When importing an extrated dvd you should get one file.

I name the folder "Jaws" or Ïndiana Jones and the Temple of Doom" then with Libray Tools "Fill propereties from filename" I get an "title" or "name" tag.

There's another thread to do this.
You can even rename a folder to this:

"Jaws_1976_thriller" so you can tag year and genre too. (Not my idea but someone came up with this and I think it works for me too.)

Cheers,


Theo

[benn600]

Can I request that MC look for a special text file like about.txt which would be a simple xml file with attributes?  That would be so handy and MC could pick up the attributes automatically.

I was not using VIDEO_TS at all.  Do I have to use /DVDs/Crash/VIDEO_TS/files... ?  I was skipping VIDEO_TS...spending a few extra seconds per movie deleting that folder!  Do I need to recreate them all?

On my Xbox Media Center (Xbox modded to MC) I cannot figure out how to play movies in their entirety.  Will using VIDEO_TS help?  I was trying the play button on the folder "Crash" for example and it kind of worked but seems to skip the menu.  I need this to work because this is a common area for these movies to be accessed.

[4BYE]

I'm almost sure you should use VIDEO_TS. I think that way it takes one file and not all...
You must try with one folder and then import.

Good luck,


Theo

[vine-au]

Adding to Glynor's posts about x264 + AAC for encoding: If you want an all-in-one app to do it, try StaxRip. It's free, VERY easy to use, and has a bunch of profiles for different encoding types.
I use it for all my encoding and couldnt do without it.

StaxRip Introduction

With StaxRip you can easily convert your DVD's, DVB captures and many more formats into MPEG-4 like DivX, XviD and x264. As a open source application StaxRip is completely free.
Supported Formats

Video Output Formats: DivX, XviD, x264
Audio Output Formats: MP3, AC3, AAC, Ogg Vorbis
Container Output Formats: AVI, MKV, MP4, DIVX

[benn600]

So once I get all my folders filled with all my DVDs, including a VIDEO_TS folder, then it should all work?  It doesn't seem to work for me for some reason.  I'll keep trying things but in the meantime, any other suggestions or things I may be forgetting?

[gappie]

So once I get all my folders filled with all my DVDs, including a VIDEO_TS folder, then it should all work?  It doesn't seem to work for me for some reason.  I'll keep trying things but in the meantime, any other suggestions or things I may be forgetting?

you dont need the video_ts folder, but you need the video_ts file. that is the only one that has to be imported in mc.

[benn600]

What do you mean by the video_ts file?  How do I only import the needed file?  When it imports automatically, it always takes all the files.

[4BYE]

Did you try with AND without VIDEO_TS folder?

[benn600]

Neither seems to work very well.

Also, DVD Decryptor by default converts PCM audio to WAV.  Is this bad?  I just ripped 200 DVDs with this enabled and think any conversion is unnecessary and bad...does that do much of anything?  Also, when I do get folder DVDs to play in MC, I hear no audio but I see the video fine.  Could this be part of the WAV conversion?  WAV is so standard, though.  I do not have a commercial DVD player installed but stick with Video Lan's which seems to decode DVDs fine when using VLC.

I have about 100 more to rip.  Please don't tell me that the default conversion is bad or I might have to re-rip all those 200.

[4BYE]

I use CloneDVD and that works fine for me. (With AnyDVD to avoid problems with region etc.)
When I import them into MC there's only 1 file that is imported. So I guess you have different files then I've got.

Why don't you try DVD shrink and see if this helps you. You might try DVD Shrink with an older DVD because it might have problems with copy protected stuff on newer ones.

You must first see what's working for you before ripping they others.

[benn600]

I just get the standard files from the DVD disc structure.  Just over half of those 200 are home movies with no copy protection so I can just copy the VIDEO_TS folder directly from the disc.  Do you end up with a bunch of VOB files, etc.?  How do you import them?