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Ripping my HD-DVD collection

post #1 of 10
3/17/12 at 11:38am
Thread Starter 
So I bet on the wrong pony a few years back and managed to amass quite a few HD-DVDs. I also picked up and X-Box 360 HD-DVD drive for $25 in order to cash in on the five free movie deal.

Recently, I built a HTPC, and I was thinking that I might rip my HD-DVDs and convert them to a format and a size that would be good to store on my NAS and playback through XBMC, but I am having no luck making MP4 or MKV files.

There are dozens of guides scattered all over the Internet but none of them seem to work for me. I've successfully managed to decrypt and demux the movies, but whenever I try to remux or convert the films to MP4s, etc. -- I invariably lose audio. Since it takes hours to make each attempt, this is increasingly frustrating.

I was hoping people with more experience than I or someone else who had some HD-DVDs could help me figure out where I am going wrong.

Thanks for your help in advance.
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post #2 of 10
3/17/12 at 12:53pm
You are likely encountering a few different issues. My wife and I purchased several HD-DVDs about a year or two ago at around 1-5 dollars a disk. Picked up the entire Harry Potter series (what was available by then) for 10 or so dollars I believe. Matrix as well.

1) Check the firmware of the drive. I have an older LG that had to be updated to even read some of the HD-DVD's that we bought. Be very cautious when you do this and read twice and click once if you follow me. You can brick the drive if install the wrong firmware. There is a great website that you can follow (google).

2) AnyDVDHD + Make MKV is about all I use so I can play the movies in XBMC.

3) Not all disks are going to work. This is what always causes people to be upset but you are working with a dead format. I have HD-DVDs that would not rip and convert so I had to breakdown and purchase the Blu-Ray disk.


If you continue to run into issues, after doing step 1 and 2, it is because of 3. Bite the bullet and pick up either the DVD or Blu-Ray used. I refuse to buy a movie new. If you are willing to wait, you can easily find what are new movies used for easily 50-75% off after a month or two.
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post #3 of 10
3/17/12 at 12:56pm
HD-DVD's often had DD+ or TrueHD soundtracks, and the video encoding was more often than not VC-1 rather than AVC, but for the few I have, AnyDVD HD ripped them fine. I then converted the output to MKV, with the soundtrack remuxed to FLAC using eac3to. All the rips I have work perfectly.
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post #4 of 10
3/17/12 at 4:26pm
DD+ is great. TMT so far plays them well. Clown BD converts them to BD.
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post #5 of 10
3/17/12 at 7:44pm
Do you have the ability to just try the conversion on perhaps the first chapter of a movie, hence not wasting as much time on the rest of the film if it doesn't work. I've had to do that type of trial and error while trying to encode some BDs down that I ripped using MakeMkv. I've used handbreak in the past for encoding fwtw. Good luck
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post #6 of 10
3/17/12 at 8:19pm
Thread Starter 
OK. I'll try AnyDVDHD. I was trying to avoid pay solutions. I felt so close. I had the discs decrypted and demuxed, I just couldn't get the audio to remux.

Ah well.

I have no idea how I would update the drive firmware. I don't have an Xbox 360. I just have the drive, and the firmware updates seem to only work via Xbox Live.

EDIT: I thought I'd posted this, but the windows was still open in Chrome.

Success! MakeMKV worked on "The Italian Job." Now using Handbrake to see if I can get a little smaller file size without completely hosing the quality.
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post #7 of 10
3/18/12 at 7:22am
Iam not sure howmany HDDVD you have
but AnydvdHD is 30day free trial period
if u have time u can dump all those or converting it to bd then to mkv when ur time permits
thats what i did especially the ones with HDDVD movies and not avaiable in Bluray
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post #8 of 10
3/18/12 at 12:32pm
Thread Starter 
OK. I think I've figured out the source of most of my problems. I was generally keeping only the best available audio stream - DTS-HD. I don't think my PC or my HTPC can play back that format. So time after time, I was creating files with an audio format that I was unable to play. I am a genius.

Using Handbrake to downmix to Dolby Pro Logic II seems to solve my problems. And since the current goal is smaller file sizes to stock my HTPC, I think that's a reasonable compromise.

My process is MakeMKV to create a full-size MKV rip of the movie (about 20GB). Then a run through Handbrake to make an MP4 file. (6GB-7GB). I end up with full 1080p and Dolby Pro Logic II for audio.

Does that sound like a reasonable process to the experts in the room?
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post #9 of 10
3/18/12 at 12:40pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by hipnerd View Post

OK. I think I've figured out the source of most of my problems. I was generally keeping only the best available audio stream - DTS-HD. I don't think my PC or my HTPC can play back that format. So time after time, I was creating files with an audio format that I was unable to play. I am a genius.

Using Handbrake to downmix to Dolby Pro Logic II seems to solve my problems. And since the current goal is smaller file sizes to stock my HTPC, I think that's a reasonable compromise.

My process is MakeMKV to create a full-size MKV rip of the movie (about 20GB). Then a run through Handbrake to make an MP4 file. (6GB-7GB). I end up with full 1080p and Dolby Pro Logic II for audio.

Does that sound like a reasonable process to the experts in the room?

If it works and looks/sounds good to you then it doesn't matter what the experts in the room think.
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post #10 of 10
3/18/12 at 12:46pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by assassin View Post

If it works and looks/sounds good to you then it doesn't matter what the experts in the room think.

True to a certain extent, but if I picked a poor codec or something and I could make it a little better with minimal effort, I'd like to know before I go too far. I'm testing the playback on my regular PC before moving them over so it's hard to get a feel for how good the output actually is.

At this point, I'm just thrilled to have a working process. I know that even if I screw up, I can always do it again -- better next time.

I can already see that if HDD capacities climb and the audio capabilities of the next HTPC improve, I might go back to those completely lossless MakeMKV rips. As it is, I don't have the storage.

Thanks for the help and suggestions everyone.
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