[gorman42]

I'm converting TV Series that I have on DVD to H.264, for easier access from the HTPC. Sooner or later I'll rewatch the whole Buffy/Angel stuff and I'll want to do that the HTPC way.


So far I aimed for a 1.2GB per episode, with AC3 untouched (40 minutes episodes). I'm wondering whether I should have gone a different way or if this is overkill.

With Handbrake I'm using the following settings:

Code:

"C:\\Program Files\\HandBrake\\HandBrakeCLI.exe" -i "H:\\Rip Buffy\\BUFFY_SEASON7_DISC1" -t 3 -c 1-15 -o "G:\\TV Series\\Buffy\\Season 7\\Buffy.s07e03.mkv" -f mkv --decomb  -p  -e x264 -S 1200 -2  -T  -a 1 -E ac3 -B 160 -R 0 -6 dpl2 -D 1 --markers="C:\\Temp\\BUFFY_SEASON7_DISC1-3-chapters.csv" -x ref=3:mixed-refs=1:bframes=6:weightb=1:direct=auto:b-pyramid=1:me=umh:subq=9:analyse=all:8x8dct=1:trellis=1:no-fast-pskip=1:psy-rd=1,1 -v

Thanks for all the help.

 

[mjfink]

Why recompress? At that size, you are getting pretty close to the DVD size itself. Just rip and leave it in MPG2 format (losslessly).


Frankly, for DVD, I would NEVER recompress. It is always going to result in a quality loss, and the stinking DVD isn't that big anyway. Each movie (on a HDD) costs about (full quality rip) 40 cents to 1 dollar to store. Simply not worth it to me to get that cost down to 20 cents. My time it worth much more to me, and I want the full quality of the DVD.

Quote:
Originally Posted by gorman42 /forum/post/15403232


I'm converting TV Series that I have on DVD to H.264, for easier access from the HTPC. Sooner or later I'll rewatch the whole Buffy/Angel stuff and I'll want to do that the HTPC way.


So far I aimed for a 1.2GB per episode, with AC3 untouched (40 minutes episodes). I'm wondering whether I should have gone a different way or if this is overkill.

With Handbrake I'm using the following settings:

Code:

"C:\\Program Files\\HandBrake\\HandBrakeCLI.exe" -i "H:\\Rip Buffy\\BUFFY_SEASON7_DISC1" -t 3 -c 1-15 -o "G:\\TV Series\\Buffy\\Season 7\\Buffy.s07e03.mkv" -f mkv --decomb  -p  -e x264 -S 1200 -2  -T  -a 1 -E ac3 -B 160 -R 0 -6 dpl2 -D 1 --markers="C:\\Temp\\BUFFY_SEASON7_DISC1-3-chapters.csv" -x ref=3:mixed-refs=1:bframes=6:weightb=1:direct=auto:b-pyramid=1:me=umh:subq=9:analyse=all:8x8dct=1:trellis=1:no-fast-pskip=1:psy-rd=1,1 -v

Thanks for all the help.

 

[Dodgexander]

I would gather variable bitrate would help, but of course you will loose quality. The space quality ration is really up to you, if your happy with the quality, keep going lower until you see a difference.

 

[Bigbird999]

Like mj says, if this is a commercial dvd, there are probably 3 or 4 episodes on each disk. At a normal DVD bitrate of 4500kbps each 40 min episode will be about 1.2 GB. Just rip them to mpeg files without compression and they will be at the best quality possible. Google for how to rip each episode to a separate file. Then if you still want to save the space you can compress each file.


BB

 

[pender]

Your bit rate is very high 3Mbps. 720p TV rips are that bitrate and still look good.


NewArtRiot rips CAVLC at 1/6 DVD rate

 

[almostinsane]

I encode all my TV shows at 2mbps w/ 2Pass, keeping the AC3 and adding 2 channel AAC audio. They are about 750-800MB's each and look great.

 

[chadamir]

Save yourself the trouble of doing two passes and use CRF and just figure out what value will give you the size you need and the quality you want.

 

[ilovejedd]

If you're using that high a bitrate to encode, you're pretty much losing all space saving benefits and just wasting your time encoding. Just rip the files into individual VOB files and lose the extra stuff (other languages, director's cut, etc).

 

[politby]



Quote:
Originally Posted by ilovejedd /forum/post/15412887


If you're using that high a bitrate to encode, you're pretty much losing all space saving benefits and just wasting your time encoding. Just rip the files into individual VOB files and lose the extra stuff (other languages, director's cut, etc).

in the middle of doing h.264 mkv rips of tv series from dvd I jusr realized the same. What is the best way of ripping to individual mpeg files (one per episode)? I am using DVDfab and it does not seem to have an .mpeg profile.

I am also having probs with VMC crashing when trying to play mpeg's.

 

[mjfink]

Get MagicDVD ripper. It's a great program, and can rip full DVDs (which will keep the menus/etc and get ALL the episodes in one shot) or one episode at a time (this will be a manual process, you will have to name each episode).


For my shows (currently watching Battlestar Galatica), I just rip the whole DVD. The menus are actually useful on show DVDs (to select the episode you want to watch), and it's much easier to rip the whole DVD so that's my preferred way to do it. For movies, I typically just rip the movie (drop all the menus/extras) into a large MPG (MPEG2 encoded with AC3 audio typically, but really it's whatever is on the DVD, I just pull it without any transcoding).

Quote:
Originally Posted by politby /forum/post/15414162


in the middle of doing h.264 mkv rips of tv series from dvd I jusr realized the same. What is the best way of ripping to individual mpeg files (one per episode)? I am using DVDfab and it does not seem to have an .mpeg profile.

I am also having probs with VMC crashing when trying to play mpeg's.

 

[ilovejedd]



Quote:
Originally Posted by politby /forum/post/15414162


in the middle of doing h.264 mkv rips of tv series from dvd I jusr realized the same. What is the best way of ripping to individual mpeg files (one per episode)? I am using DVDfab and it does not seem to have an .mpeg profile.

I am also having probs with VMC crashing when trying to play mpeg's.

I do my TV-on-DVD ripping in 2 stages.


1st Stage:

1. rip full DVD to hard drive/ISO (AnyDVD + ImgBurn)


2nd Stage:

1. mount multiple DVD ISOs using DaemonTools Pro Standard (usually 12 discs or 2 seasons worth, the free Lite version can mount up to 4 virtual drives)

2. manually analyze DVD structure (DVD Decrypter)

3. create DVDDecrypter batchfile to extract and rename individual episodes

4. run batchfile

5. convert to MP4 (872kbps h264/128kbps aac) w/MeGUI


Yeah, not simple at all and requires massive hard drive space. Surprisingly, the convoluted process detailed above is less time-wasting than ripping directly from DVD to individual VOB file. For the 2nd stage, DVD Shrink + MultiShrink is undoubtedly less expensive, I just find setting up multiple DVD Shrink windows to be a bit of a hassle. Btw, I usually stop at step 1 and archive the original ISOs complete with the menus, extras, etc to a 12TB file server. The only reason I will proceed with step 2 is if I want to watch a particular show on the iPhone or PSP.

 

[tetsuo55]

gorman42,


your question has 2 possible answers, mostly given above already:


1. At 1,2 GB you're better of remuxing the dvd's instead of re-encoding

2. The rule of the thumb for h264 is that at the highest settings its 4x as compressed as mpeg2


A single layer DVD is 4,3GB, this means that if the entire disc was mpeg2-video only(no audio or menu's) the target size for the h264 file would be 1GB

If we take an average of 2 hours per movie, we get filesize of about 8,5MB per minute or a bitrate of 1.133kb/s


A 40 minute tv show episode will be 340MB without audio/subtitles/muxing

AC3 audio. vobsub and muxing should make it around 450-500MB per episode.


Qualitywise i am assuming a 2pass VBR with target at 1.133 with DXVA-restricted INSANE settings

You should run some tests, but i think anything over 1500vbr is overkill for SD


NOTE: this example only counts for a maximum source resolution of 720x576 or Standard Definition(but the rule of the thumb counts for all resolutions)


PS, you can find the required x264 settings here: http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?t=139765

I would only leave b-pyramids disabled if you plan on using the files on portable devices, else i would enable them(adds a nice lossless compression bonus)

I would go for DXVA-SD-Insane and if thats to slow for you then DXVA-SD-Extra Quality

 

[politby]



Quote:
Originally Posted by mjfink /forum/post/15414904


Get MagicDVD ripper. It's a great program, and can rip full DVDs (which will keep the menus/etc and get ALL the episodes in one shot) or one episode at a time (this will be a manual process, you will have to name each episode).


For my shows (currently watching Battlestar Galatica), I just rip the whole DVD. The menus are actually useful on show DVDs (to select the episode you want to watch), and it's much easier to rip the whole DVD so that's my preferred way to do it. For movies, I typically just rip the movie (drop all the menus/extras) into a large MPG (MPEG2 encoded with AC3 audio typically, but really it's whatever is on the DVD, I just pull it without any transcoding).

Thanks, I've downloaded the trial version of Magic DVD Ripper and it seems to work well. Just one thing - the resulting mpeg-2 files are very large when I use the "original MPEG2" profile. A ~40 minute episode with an AC-3 soundtrack plus one subtitle becomes 1.7-1.8GB.


Not that I'm particularly short of disk space, but I was wondering why the files become so large.


/politby

 

[mjfink]

That seems a bit large, but not excessive. The MPEG2 profile is just a straight rip of the data that's on the disk; what you are seeing is actual size of the data with no added compression.


If you look at the DVD (from Explorer) you will see the VOB files. In your case, I would venture a guess that you will see several 1GB VOBs, and several .7 to .8 GB VOBs. That would be the makeup of one "episode" of your show.


One thing, for shows, I typically just rip the whole DVD (in DVD format, use the backup tab). That way I don't have to individually select the episode, name it, and then back it up. Doesn't save space, but does make the ripping easier.

Quote:
Originally Posted by politby /forum/post/15421054


Thanks, I've downloaded the trial version of Magic DVD Ripper and it seems to work well. Just one thing - the resulting mpeg-2 files are very large when I use the "original MPEG2" profile. A ~40 minute episode with an AC-3 soundtrack plus one subtitle becomes 1.7-1.8GB.


Not that I'm particularly short of disk space, but I was wondering why the files become so large.


/politby

 

[politby]



Quote:
Originally Posted by mjfink /forum/post/15421076



One thing, for shows, I typically just rip the whole DVD (in DVD format, use the backup tab). That way I don't have to individually select the episode, name it, and then back it up. Doesn't save space, but does make the ripping easier.

That's what I used to do, but since I started using the MediaBrowser plugin for VMC it works much better to have each episode in its own file.

 

[mjfink]

Have you tried the DVD Library in Media Center? I've been pretty happy with that, and frankly, there's on interface on earth that would make me spend the extra time to rip 3-5 times (one for each episode) over just ripping the whole DVD. As much as I hate DVD menus, I still wouldn't go through that process.

Quote:
Originally Posted by politby /forum/post/15421117


That's what I used to do, but since I started using the MediaBrowser plugin for VMC it works much better to have each episode in its own file.