[CompTronicsTec]

I have seen many people ask about this, and have myself spent alot of time trying to figure out the best way for me to accomplish storing all my movies/videos in a uniform manner. This guide may or may not speak to your needs, but i hope it helps. This guide assumes your using Windows.

Table of contents (for those of you who may want to skip around):
1) Introduction
2) What you Need
3) ISO Creation
4) Creating a .MKV
   A) DVD
   B.) BD
5) Conclusion
6) FAQ's
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1)  INTRODUCTION

I like alot of people have movies on DVD, BD, and various files. My goal was to get at the very least all my DVD's and BD's onto my computer so i could stream them. However, unlike alot of guides i didnt want to deal with 12 programs and 8 steps to get there. I wanted 2 types of video, one that preserved everything just like on the disc (quality, menu's, chapters, audio, subs) and another that would compress the video with as little loss of quality and other features as possible.

ISO was the obvious choice to preserve everything. As for a compressed file, i have decided to use .mkv (h.264). The reason being that .mkv can contain subs, ac3 passthru audio 5.1, is compressed well, and losses little quality.

The rest of this guide will discuss how to create an ISO, and how to convert to .mkv, generally speaking from the source (DVD/BD). There are a ton of options for converting from one file format to another, so i wont really cover that here.

**WARNING**
Removing encryption may not be legal in all countries! Check your legislature in your area. The only party responsible for your actions is you.
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2) WHAT YOU NEED

To accomplish the above you need 2 programs. One is free, the other is ~63 euro's or ~$85 US.

-HandBrake - This program rips video from a source like DVD or BD to either .mkv or .mp4. It does NOT decrypt encrypted material. This program is free and open source.

-AnyDVD HD - This program decrypts both DVD and BD, and can also rip video as an ISO. This program is pay to use.

Other then the above 2 programs, your needs will vary according to your goals. For HD video you may need a BD drive. Obviously you will need enough hdd space to work with.

3) ISO CREATION

Creating an ISO with AnyDVD HD is as easy as sticking the DVD/BD in, starting AnyDVD HD, right clicking the icon in the taskbar/notification area, and selecting "Rip to Image...". You select the disc, pick the destination, and hit Copy. The length of time it takes will depend on your drive mostly. A DVD will take about 20mins using a 16x drive. BD will take substantially longer, possibly a few hours.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v358/ctbinccp/ISO2.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v358/ctbinccp/ISO1.jpg

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4) CREATING a .MKV

     A) DVD

Handbrake is the program we will use for this. If your source is encrypted, just leave AnyDVD HD open (will only decrypt the physical disc or mounted ISO). Handbrake can open source material in a few different ways; direct from disc, from a DVD folder, or from a file (including ISO). Generally id assume direct from disc is the best method, however if you already have an ISO or DVD folder on your drive and would like to convert it, you can.

Handbrake deals with DVD's by Titles, so you need to know the title of the main feature and/or of each episode. The easiest way i found to do this was to open the movie in PowerDVD, play the movie or episode. Once you do this the botton right hand corner of the controls to the left of time and chapter, shows the title (other players should be able to display this info too). Once you know the title(s) you want you can start the process. Open Handbrake.

You will notice on the right hand side a window for presets. Normal should be fine or you can create your own like i did, named DVD. In the output settings area select .MKV from the container drop down list. All checkboxes should be blank.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v358/ctbinccp/HB1.jpg

Steps:

-First click the source button, and select the appropriate source. If its in your drive it should show up at the bottom of the list, otherwise select DVD/Video_TS folder and navigate to the Video_TS folder of the DVD and hit OK. Handbrake will scan the selection for titles, this might take a minute or two. If it goes on too long you can cancel the scan by going to the file menu and select cancel scan. This typically happens when your source is still encrypted.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v358/ctbinccp/HB2.jpg

-Once you have selected the source and it has been scanned, The source section will show a drop down of Titles. Select the Title you want from the list.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v358/ctbinccp/HB3.jpg

-Confirm that under Output settings the container is set to .MKV. Under this you should see about 7 tabs. Only 3 of these tabs have options you need to modify.

*Video - The only option that needs to be changed is quality. Click the "Constant Quality" radio button. The setting here for DVD should be between 58-62%. I have mine at 61.76%. For more info on why these settings check google/handbrakes site.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v358/ctbinccp/HB4.jpg

*Audio - Remove any options in the list by clicking the track and clicking the remove button. From the source drop down select the track you want (most likely English (AC3) 5.1ch). Select from the codec drop down "ac3 passthru". Now click the add track button.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v358/ctbinccp/HB5.jpg

*Subtitles - Select the subtitle track from the track drop down menu. Usually in the format '<track #><language> (bitmap)', so for English on track 1 it would look like '1 English (bitmap)'.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v358/ctbinccp/HB6.jpg

-If this is the only selection you want to encode, then simply click the start button. If you want to create a queue for multiple movies or multiple episodes, click add to queue. If you are queuing multiple selections simply start back at the first step and skip source if its the same source (dont skip other steps).

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v358/ctbinccp/HB7.jpg

Your done. A Dos like window will open (black window white text) with information on the progress, frames per second, and eta. do not close this window or Handbrake. The window will close when its finished, then its safe to close Handbrake. When its finished, check your new file...first click on the file and check the size, if it seems too small (like kb's instead of mb's or gb's) try playing it. I personally use VLC for playing back .mkv files. If the file is too small it either didnt rip correctly or you picked the wrong title to rip. Double check the title and if its correct trying ripping that title again but not in a queue. This may also occur if the source is not decrypted.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v358/ctbinccp/HB8.jpg

Your output should be way smaller then the source, be fairly good quality, and contain the audio and subtitles (if you elected to put them in). If the quality isnt to your satisfaction, you may need to play with the Constant Quality slider, however it is very sensitive. Id recommend only going in 1-2% intervals until you reach the right quality for you. By about 80% the file will be the same size as the DVD, over 80% will result in a larger file then the source.

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    B.) BD

A BD rip wll work slightly differently and i have not tried it yet. You will need to navigate to your BD's bdmv/stream folder and figure out which file is the main feature/episode you want. Typically it is the largest file, but play that file to make sure.

In Handbrake, hit the source button but this time select file. Navigate to the BD's stream folder and select the video file. Scanning may take a minute or two.

After scanning, the title drop down should only contain one title. The video settings should be the same as for DVD. Constant quality may even be able to be set as low as 55%. This will take some tweaking to find the right level for you.
Steps:


*Audio - This is a bit trickier then with DVD. Automatic may work fine for you (the default), as you may notice it lists the audio tracks but cannot tell the language. Id assume that title 1 for audio should be the default language for your country. You can check by clicking the preview button, select a chapter (start preview at) somewhere in the middle, set duration to something like 60 seconds, then select the player (Quicktime or VLC) to play the preview in. This will encode and play a small segment so you can make sure you got the settings right.

Click encode or add to queue as needed. Unfortunately because of the nature of BD's, subtitles are very hard to extract and Handbrake cannot handle nor extract the native BD format for subtitles. After doing some research i found it would defeat my desire for a simple solution to even try to extract and convert them.

 
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5) CONCLUSION

After following these directions you should have a working .ISO or .MKV file. I will try adding screen shots asap to help with the directions. If you had problems/errors im very sorry, but im not tech support. Check the forums for either program for specific help. If you need something from this guide further explained i will do my best. Hope the guide is helpful.
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6) FAQ's

-Why .ISO?

.ISO is an exact copy of a DVD or BD. This means that it will have all the features, the exact same quality, and behave just like a disc. Its easy and quick to create, and just as easy to burn back to disc.  The only downside is the size. For DVD's its not terrible for movies you like or want to preserve.

-Why .MKV/H.264?

.MKV is popular and is a container format meaning it can contain video, audio, and various other things like subtitles all in one file. H.264 has extremely good compression while maintaining good quality.

-Why AC3 Passthru?

To be honest im not an audiophile, so im not really sure why except i thought this was, based on my limited knowledge, the audio format which was identical to most sources (DVD/BD). If you know better by all means select the audio source/codec that best meats your needs.

-How do i playback these formats on my computer?

VLC will play them all (decrypted). When i watch .ISO's i prefer to mount them with Deamon Tools Lite and watch them using PowerDVD.

-How do i stream these formats to a console or media player attached to a TV (or a DLNA TV)?

There are many options for doing this. Some players will handle both formats, so its just a matter of getting access to where the file is stored and playing it. Some players, like a console, will most likely need it to be transcoded to play. I have had luck using PS3MS to serve up both .ISO's and .MKV's to my PS3. My understanding is PS3MS works with Xbox 360 too. For more in depth information on how to stream, check with your specific/desired setup. I may write a guide on my setup at a later time.

-Why didnt you select X/Y/Z format instead?

Originally i considered .avi instead of .mkv. However the files were larger, features more limited, and quality was lower. ISO + .MKV meet all of my standards...they are easy to create, maintain as many features as possible, and allow me to watch them easily. Something else may work better for you dependent on what you use to play it, or your needs.

-Handbrake pegs my CPU, is this normal?

Yes, unfortunately. HB is programmed to take advantage of multicore/multithread cpu's. This allows it to encode faster. H.264 is CPU intensive to transcode. If you have a very beefy quad core CPU, you may consider setting HB to use less cores. Under Options/CLI there is an option for processor cores, from the drop down list set it to the number of cores you want to use. Just remember that the less HB uses, the longer and encode will take. I personally let it use all my cores and instead queue it and start the encode when i dont need to use the computer...not that you cant for simple stuff like email/browsing, but it does noticeably slow it down.

-Im getting Error X/Y/Z can you help?

Not to be mean, but no. I can recommend you check a few things. Check that your source is decrypted, if you chose to do so, as HB does not work with encrypted video. Check that you got the title right when using HB. Make sure the source plays properly. Lastly if all your troubleshooting doesnt work, goto the respective forum of the software your having issue with or google the problem.

-Can i set this up to run from WHS?

I would guess so, although i did not try it. I would only attempt this if your WHS has higher then average system hardware or if your server spends alot of time idle.

[Ran]

Nicework DV Design.

I should just like to point out that given an average of about 4.5 GB per SD (normal) DVD film uncompressed (main movie with one audio track, and credits clipped out with something like DVDShrink) here in the states the cost for storing it is about $0.32 and will keep decreasing. Indeed my last hard drive purchases were $65/TB or 6.5 cents a GB.

For me (not everyone, but for me) saving $0.16 to reduce films to 2GB, given the costs of a) more than $0.16 of my time plus the cost of a B) lower quality than original film is not worth it for SD DVD.

Yes, Lord of the Rings and Lawrence of Arabia are more like 6 to 7 GB, but I have hundreds of films that are 3 to 4 GB. Of tte last 25 I ripped most were 4 or under: moon 3GB; AnswerMan 3GB, Never on Sunday 3.2GB; TimeTravlersWife* 3.2GB; ColdSouls 3.6; Coco Before Channel* 3.7; Delirious 3.9; Road to Wellville 4; Volver 4; 30 Days of Night 4; NOvo 4; Paris 36 4.1; Beuaty and the BEast 3; Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 3; Antz 3.2 Space Chimps 3.5

If storing the average SD Feature film uncompressed costs $0.32 today, it will cost $0.26 next year and $0.20 the year after.

*I hope you guys are ripping chic flicks along with Gladiator, and understand Wife Acceptance Factor is as important a metric as ram, or drive balancing ratios!

[CompTronicsTec]

I generally only compress movies i dont care about, or series like i did the other day, from 46Gb down to 12GB for 24 episodes of Lost season 1 (imagine if i had all 6 seasons, thats ~$15 worth of space). Im also currently converting I Am Legend, an almost 50GB BD ISO, which will come out being from the looks of it well less then 10GB after compression.

I know we've had this discussion before, and i agree, storage is getting cheaper by the day. However space (hdd) is still finite, money as well. The time was nothing really, im not kidding when i say i spent 5mins before i went to bed setting up a queue for 24 individual rips across 6 ISO's. Ran it over night. Id imagine doing all 6 seasons would take maybe 15mins total time invested directly by me. You figure you queue up a season a night before bed, and each night youd get more efficient at setting it up. Minimum wage is ~$8/hour, 4x that is $32/hour, a quarter of that is $8per 15mins. $15 worth of space > $8 of time generally speaking (this assumes you make $32/hour...in other words 71k a year!).

A movie takes me in total about 1min to setup. At 4x the minimum wage itd cost ~$0.53 of my time, if it saves me 2GB+ (~$0.64 worth of storage) im still making out. Idk about you and some of those titles are older, but almost any movie in the last 10 years is in the 6-8GB range raw. I just checked and only have 4 movies under 6GB as an ISO. Even Monty Python and the Holy Grail from the 70's is 5.4GB, the second disc (extras i know...) is an addition 3.4GB. My results have shown that a 6-8GB movie can be compressed using handbrake to about 1.5GB or lower (Get Smart was 6.5GB, compressed 1.2GB) while maintaining 5.1 audio, subs, and video quality. 

Of course im not suggesting anyone compress every single movie they ever have, i personally like ISO myself, its my first choice. However there is some stuff were i can "cut the fat" so to speak and i looked for the easiest, least involved way to do that. I do however appreciate your viewpoint and am glad you added it so people can make informed decisions, Im well aware my view on the matter is not the only feasible approach, but i hope it will work for many people.

[GaPony]

Thats a good starter guide, DV-Design. It will help get folks pointed in the right direction.

Personally, I like stripping the menus, extras, previews, and the unneeded subtitles from DVDs and then compress them to 4.3gb. I then make the .iso so I can easily come back a create a copy of the DVD onto a SL disc. I've checked video frames up to 800% resolution and see no significant difference between the compressed files and the original files from the original disc. Since I don't touch the audio, other than choosing AC3 or DTS, it is always an exact copy. This system also works well when I decide to create an .mkv instead of a .iso. Total time invested in copying, compressing, and converting the average DVD movie to an .iso is only about 10-15 minutes.

I personally don't like the way PS3MS deals with .iso files, having to go into the #transcode# folder, so I have usually used the .mkv format. As I have moved to digital media players instead of the PS3, I have been using the .iso more and more because of its advantage in portability over the .mkv container. The advantage of .mkv for the PS3 is that you can run it through MKVMerge and force the subtitle of choice. This allows the PS3/PS3MS user to stay out of the #transcode# folders and even keep them hidden.

I essentially do the same thing with my Blu-Ray movies, but use a final size that fits onto a DL DVD. There are a handful of special movies I have retained as their full sized .iso. Average time in copying, compressing, and converting the average Blu-Ray movie is about 5 hours. Making a full sized decrypted .iso of a Blu-Ray movie takes only about 45 minutes.

I have so many movies that I have to try to save as much space as I can, which will still require a minimum of around 20TB (non-duplicated) by the time I get everything converted from disc. I still don't want to use the .avi format as there is always noticeable quality differences, but do for movies that I don't particularly care about. My goal for this year is to re-copy all my movies that I had previously done as .vob or .mpg and save them as .iso.

I don't mind using several programs to get the biggest bang for the buck, so to speak. Its simply a question of scale. Those who only have a couple hundred movies can easily afford to keep their DVD and Blu-Ray movies in all their full sized .iso glory. When you get up to a few thousand movies, even inexpensive hard drives start becoming a major cost consideration.

There are as many techniques as there are people copying movies. Your guide gives a good common sense approach that can serve as an excellant foundation. As knowledge and experience levels increase, people can use more specialized programs to get the exact results they require. I think AnyDVD-HD is an absolute requirement. No other program does what it does, nearly as well.... at any price. I recommend people go deep into their pockets for the lifetime upgrade deal. AnyDVD is probably one of the most updated programs you'll ever see and as long as there is copy protection there will be a need for it. Handbrake is a good starter program. It does alot, but has some shortcomings, especially speed... The price is right.

[CompTronicsTec]

Thanks both of you.

Yea Handbrake isnt a speed demon, but i am particularly fond of the queue system it uses. Lets me setup hours upon hours of encoding in mere minutes so that i can let it run unmonitored over night or while im busy with something else. Not only that its very easy to use and the output quality is excellent.

AnyDVD HD is a program ive had for about 2 years and your right, its a must have. While i personally dont pay for mine, if i had to i would.

My collection is growing, and im realizing that i should consolidate space whenever i can. Fortunately, ive found with .mkv using handbrake, i give up only very little when compared to .ISO. Really just menu's, extra's, convenience if i re-burn. I get to keep all the important stuff, feature, quality, audio, subs...even chapters (though they may not match the disc..not sure).

Im actually floored at the compression vs quality. For a 6-8GB movie to be compressed to 1.2GB and not look noticeably worse (like avi), for ~2GB episodes to get compressed to ~500mb...just boggles my mind.

As a side note, i think that HB actually auto detects the resolution...which is awesome if your dealing with both SD and HD source. I nearly panic'd when 80% (and hours) into a BD rip i considered that maybe i had it set to SD resolutions and would have to start again. I checked and realized it changed the resolution automatically, however ill have to watch it when its done to make sure the default/auto setting was correct. Ill let you guys know how it goes.

Lastly, ill try to get screenshots up sometime tomorrow.

[GaPony]

Some of these size reductions also freak me out... and its not just from HB. I've run some 1080p 8gb .mkv files through ConvertX to DVD in order to get my Blu-Ray movies onto a standard DVD and they often come out at only 2.5gb on disc. When I get a chance to compare them to the actual commercial DVD version of the movie, they usually look better! I don't know who these people are who are creating the current compression programs, but they are truely brilliant. Getting a 40gb Blu-Ray down to a 2.5gb DVD, with excellant quality (for SD) is an amazing achievement.

[CompTronicsTec]

So the BD rip just finished and im floored. A 40GB BD down to a 2.7GB .mkv...and the quality is dead on. Even considering a more realistic comparison, the single .m2ts file of the main feature at 17GB to the 2.7GB file...just makes my brain melt. Granted theres a slight bit more of a trade-off here as i lose sub's, but the subs are a courtesy for others and 30GB+ isnt worth it.

I just cant say enough about how the quality/compression ratio is just mind numbing. Also, the auto discovery of the resolution was spot on...didnt need to lift a finger for it to know to do it 1080p.

Next on my to-do list, see if i can easily pack 2 of the .m2ts's into one .mkv as seperate titles, as the Bd i ripped just so happens to have a theatre version and an alternate ending version. Now how crazy would that be, 30GB worth of BD packed into less then a 5GB .mkv where i can pick which version i want to watch in VLC.

**Update**

Little bit of a downer, HB cannot merge multiple titles into the same .mkv file. It appears i may need to add a 3rd program to my collection to merge multiple mkv's. I came across a recommendation called mkvtoolnix. Ill give it a try and post the results. Im encoding the other version of the movie now, when its done ill try to merge them so that the .mkv contains 2 titles/2 audio tracks (1 default/auto play, the other selectable by toggling the title).

**Side Note**

As a side note, HB is an awesome program, but the people who make it are grumpy. Alot of google searches have lead me to posts on their forums where from the title it appears to be what your looking for...someone asking the same question as you...just to see the response of a mod/dev being rude telling them to use search or read a faq and never providing a link or explanation. Now i understand they arent getting paid for tech support and are probably sick of answering the same question 100 times a day...

However if your getting asked that question so much, maybe you havent put the answer in the right place. Some software companies/devs provide community driven documents and wiki's and a basic in house guide...the implementation of which often determines if the info is conveyed at all. Even writting a guide that answers that question and providing a link to it when asked would be simple.

[Ran]

Certainly BD is a different story. It can cost a few bucks to store one on hdd.
I guess my philosophy on SD comes from a suggestion I got about six years ago on videohelp, not to compress, but rather simply to split the main title onto two dvdr (4.5GB) disks when needed. I have been happy I did as now I have that content completely native.
I do strip out menus usually, and but for people who want menus, people should know that all the rippers can remove PUA (prohibited user actions), which are the forced viewing of menu items -- like FBI warnings or forced previews, which were common on kids films.

As far as your observation DV on the helpfulness of Handbrake forums, some forums have more of a hazing attitude. I recall with the xbox forums when I was learning to mod my first xbox, really no one on xboxscene would help other than point to extensive reading list, and xbox modding could easily bust an xbox. I think it is a culture that develops of hazing n00bs. By contrast I have asked some very elementary quesitons here and always gotten good answers

[GaPony]

Those xbox modders must hang out with the people using Linux on the PS3... They think they're are rocket scientists and giving useful help is beneath them... After I got it figured out I wondered what all the hub-bub was about, as it turned out to be pretty useless.

This forum is good at supplying lots of information and help... which also makes it easy for somebody to get in way over their heads. http://forum.wegotserved.com/public/style_emoticons/default/smile.gif

[casw1000]

DV-Design.

I just wanted to take the time to thank you for your well explained guide. I have a WHS and have been playing with Boxee and many other streaming playback tools. I am trying to find the best ripping 'standard' that meets my requirements and your guide here will help me I am sure.

To date, I have simply used AnyDVD (I bought the lifetime licence) and automkv, but this now appears to be a trial edition and not a cheap tool. So I might spend the time to learn handbreak. Please would you continue to keep this thread updated as others like myself will learn from your experiences similar to the other good members such as GAPony etc.

I have upward of 500 DVD's and a few BD's, so getting the format right is worth the time in researching what I need.

Thanks again for your efforts.
Colin.

[CompTronicsTec]

@ Ran + GaPony

Yea modders/hackers/techies/linux gurus are all a different breed. The main difference is these guys at HB are making a program, ud think theyd want people to use it and ive seen more often then not where they are rude to the point of telling the person to take a hike. Essentially my point is if you use HB dont expect much from the support side. Just one of those hit or miss type of deals with free/open source. Alternately PS3MS forums are moderately helpful, at least when they point you to a faq or prior post they link to it.

I got a fat PS3 specifically for otherOS/linux. Lot of useful things you can do...i wont get into it here.

@ casw1000

Im glad you liked it, i hope it helps you and many others.

@Everyone

Using a program mkvtoolnix/mkvmerge to try and put the theatre and alternate versions of the same movie in 1 file that will play the theatre version and allow you to switch titles to the alternate ending version. Program is peicing together 2x 2.7ish .mkv's in a matter of mins, so its pretty fast and painless. Only problem is im not 100% sure which settings will accomplish what i want if any. Ill post results when i have them.

Im also going to try and work on getting screen shots up today.

**Update**

Turns out for what i want mkvtoolnix/mkvmerge is useless. Apparently to accomplish what i want you need to add 1 file, use the append option for the second file, and then mux...however the catch is the files must be identical in parameters such as bit rate...which using Constant Quality in HB, is near impossible. Id have to re-rip using HB and the avg bit rate option...which would take 10+ hours to do, and even then i wouldnt be guaranteed it would merge them. So im just gonna keep both files (collectively under 6GB) and play from whichever i feel like watching.

Ill keep my eyes open for something to merge, but it doesnt look promising.

**Update 2**

Screenshots added. 

[CompTronicsTec]

 I want to play a little game. Below are 2 screenshots of the same movie. One is from the BD (no compression), the other is from an .mkv compressed file (or maybe they are both from the same source). I want to see if anyone can accurately guess which is from which (or if they are both bd or both .mkv). Keep in mind the BD movie file is ~15Gb and the .mkv is less then 3GB.

They are labeled A & B.

Attached thumbnail(s)

• 
• 

[Drashna Jaelre (WGS)]

The first one looks *slightly* higher quality. But I agree with your point. Personally, unless you have a 40-50inch screen, if you're 10-15" (3-5meters) away from the screen, you can't really tell the difference between SD and HD....

[wardog (WGS)]

Well, I'm going for the one on the left.

And Drashna's point of video screen size bears repeating as it has much to do with what one will consider as a "passable' DVD or BD conversion while viewing.

[casw1000]

DV-Design,

Thanks for the updated screenshots etc, keep them coming. Please would you consider adding a small piece about how you queue up the encoding etc. For instance, I have a Oct core MacPro and I like the idea of queuing a bunch of films to encode overnight or during the day etc. However do I need to first rip the DVD/BD's to ISO store the images on another hard disk, then add these to the queue for encoding. Is this how you do it?

Thanks much,
Colin.

[Ran]

On comparison frames please keep in mind that motion effects on different movies can be greatly and negatively affected by trans-coding, re encoding and compression, so usually still shots don't do justice to the differences.

Also upscaling playback, which most of us with SD content are doing, involves a lot of variables, with different systems using a variety, and variety of combinations, of upscaling technology and software. For example playback of SD content on my progressive scan portable dvd player in the car is vastly different from upscaling on my (unbelievably excellent at upscaling) old Oppo. What were you using to upscale when you took the shots?

I rencode for our family smartphones (HTC Touch Pro2) and even change frame rates, so I can pul 100 minute movies down to a 1 gb. But I use a 42" screen for our main TV (recommended distance for 1080 at 42" is 6 to 10') and I can see the difference in any re-encoding or compression and I think most people could.

Again I am not against your decision to compress. If it makes sense for you, and anyone else, that is a combination of variables of drive cost, your visual sensibilities and interest in acuity vs time spent, and I am not in your or anyone else's shoes. But most people can tell the difference on a 42" at normal recommended viewing distance with moderately capable or better uspcaling player.

As far as the size matters, and who has a 42" and who doesn' t: Six years ago or so when I started backing up to dvdr I had a 32" analog tube TV and a progressive non upscaling player. I am glad I made the decision not to compress at all, ever as my files could all be transferred as is to my hdd now that I have an always on home net and the cost of HDD storage there has dropped.

[GaPony]

I agree that's its very difficult to judge from screenshots, unless its a closeup of a face or fabric... The differences in skin texture and fabric stiching are pretty noticeable between HD and SD, or even between uncompressed and compressed versions of a movie. These are the things I look at when converting my movies. I also agree with Ran that motion is also an important consideration. You don't want artifacts following movement.

I find that almost every program that uses x264.exe and avisynth does a good job on both counts.

The decision to compress, or not, is a personal choice. In checking my existing offline drives which contain all my movie backups, I find the following averages hold up well. Based on over 40 drives of data:

Storage capability for a 1.5TB HDD.

DVD ISO (uncompressed AnyDVD rips) 168 movies.

DVD ISO (Movie-Only compressed to aprox. 4.3gb) 347 movies. No significant loss of video quality. Audio is intact.

DVD VOB/MPG (Movie-Only compressed and joined to a single file) 363 movies. same as above.


Blu-Ray ISO (uncompressed AnyDVD rips) 38 movies

Blu-Ray ISO (BD-Rebuilder Movie-Only compressed to 8.4gb) 158 movies. No noticeable loss of video quality. Audio is always AC3.

Making .MKV conversions are about the same size and quality levels, but are extremely easy to manipulate as far as chapter marks, and removing unwanted subtitles or forcing the desired subtitles, and removing or forcing the desired audio (DTS, AC3, etc).

I'm still working on average storage capacity for .AVI based upon both mpeg compression and h.264 compression methods. There is always significant loss of video quality, but h.264 definitely provides superior video quality for a given size of file. Audio quality varies greatly depending on method used.

Everything kind of comes down to how much storage space we're prepared to use. It was somewhere around 900 movies (long before WHS came into my life) that I had to start making some conscious decisions whether to go with storing a movie in its uncompressed state or to compress it in order to conserve some space, so long as video quality wasn't acutely effected. WHS makes these decisions easier, if one is willing to buy alot of drives along with the controllers and enclosures to support them. Whether or not to use duplication for your movies is another decision. One which could double the space required.

I can see where people with pre-built systems have to think alot about storing their movies, given the lesser potential for storage expansion. They will gain alot from the guide above.

[CompTronicsTec]

Unfortunately i dont have an HDTV to really test things out on at this time. So i cant speak to how well the video carries over to them, however im fairly confident that even there one would be hard pressed to tell the difference.

@ Ran

I agree, however i figured the snapshots would give a fairly accurate baseline of quality. Both the BD raw video and the .mkv are 1080p HD, so neither is upscaled. The images are only 1280x800 because my laptop only goes upto that resolution (720p).

@casw1000

I will work on adding an extended section for queuing. However you need to consider that this guide assumes you have Windows. The reason for this is that AnyDVD HD is Windows only software. HB will run on Windows, Linux, OSX...however it cannot decrypt content. So you will have to figure out what the best way for you is to decrypt the content, and unfortunately i will not be providing help on how to do that.

[casw1000]

DV-Design, on 04 March 2010 - 10:38 PM, said:

@casw1000

I will work on adding an extended section for queuing. However you need to consider that this guide assumes you have Windows. The reason for this is that AnyDVD HD is Windows only software. HB will run on Windows, Linux, OSX...however it cannot decrypt content. So you will have to figure out what the best way for you is to decrypt the content, and unfortunately i will not be providing help on how to do that.

Thanks, I should have stated, my Mac is running bootcamp Windows 7 x64 pro. I have 16gb ram and I run folding@home on that machine. So I will be encoding under windows using HB & Anydvd. Apologies for the confusion.

Colin.

[CompTronicsTec]

@ Queuing

When it comes to setting a queue the deciding factor in how you go about it is your source and your needs. For instance if you need to queue up encodes from more sources then you have optical drives, then it is probably best to do this from .ISO. If you need to encode from 1 or 2 sources but many encodes, using your physical optical drives may be quicker.

When i ripped a season of lost from 6 DVD's, i had ripped them all as .ISO prior and wanted to save space. It is possible that you may need to mount the .ISO's and have AnyDVD open for this method to work, however i had success just clicking the source button, file, and selecting the .ISO file unmounted.

Id open each .ISO, select the title of the episode i wanted, choose the settings i outlined above for video/audio/subs, and then hit the add to queue button. Rinse and repeat for each episode/title i wanted from that source.

When you need to start the next source, its as simple as clicking the source button and navigating to the next source. Then you rinse and repeat the above.

If your accessing mounted .ISO's you either need to select the source button, select DVD/Video_TS Folder and navigate to the DVD's Video_TS folder or if your using a BD, Select source, file, and navigate to the BD's bdmv/stream folder and select the needed file.

Once your done queuing all of the encodes you want, you can click on the show queue button and review everything you have queued. If its all in order then simply hit the encode button. When all encoding is finished you will want to check to make sure they where successful. To do this simply check the file sizes of each file. Extremely low file sizes probably did not encode properly. Id also recommend playing each file and skipping thru to ensure the video is encoded properly and to make sure it was what you wanted to encode.

Ultimately, i would strongly recommend that you encode individual files until you are comfortable with the settings and the output. Once you are happy and comfortable using handbrake queue away.