DVD Ripping / HTPC ; So Confused.

main questions in ORANGE

after reading all around, i can't seem to find one simple answer... maybe like everything else computer related... there is not ONE simple answer.

end goal >>> having all DVD movies on a centrally located networked computer(?) (nas?) >>> play these movies from some other computer in the house (via the network).

^^With this idea, i have some questions too; is a NAS the solution i want? could i use an older PC for this?

SO last night I was ripping some DVDs (avi.h264.audiocopy) via dvdfab, went to play them in VLC and noticed a millisecond skip. Open the file in WMP and it is fine. spent hours reading up on the issue, changing settings in VLC, and still the original avi.h264.audiocopy file skips. Re-ripped the file, same issue; ripped other DVDs with these settings and same issue.

so i tried some other rips mp4, mkv, more avi. the issue only exist if i use AVI.h264. I'm not too worried about file size but rather want to retain a majority of the video quality; even sound quality isn't that big of a deal.

what file format do I want my movies to be in for the above HTPC/NAS setup (mp4, avi, mkv??) ideal bitrate? is reducing the audio quality an issue? 24fps or 23.9fps, does it matter?(all rips were done at 23.9; handbrake was left at source and defaulted to 23.9; source appears to be 29fps.) since h264 is the better encoding technology, i should aim for h264 regardless of file type; right?

Here are some examples of file output, time, fps encoding. (1/2/4/5 are DVDFab rips)

1: avi.h264.audiocopy (this is the file that skips in VLC); rip time was about 7mins; fps ~400 - 420
2: mp4.h264.mp3; rip time 6min; fps ~400 - 450
3: original DVD file
4: avi.divx.audiocopy; rip time 13mins; fps ~200 - 210
5: MKV.h264.audiocopy; rip time 6mins; fps ~400 - 440
6: HandBrake rip, mp4 RF20 audiocopy; rip time 30mins; fps ~100 - 150



How the audio copy went from source of 192kbps to 448kbps i dont know, anyone? How'd handbrake rip at 600+kbps? for that matter, how'd i end up with 6 channel audio when the source is 2? video quality from all of the rips appears to be about the same; hard to say as i've watched the same scene about 100 times now...

I have no idea why there is a microstutter in VLC playback of the avi.h264 file; yet it works fine in Windows Media Player. Either way, I assume most of you will suggest mp4 or mkv as the file type choice; right?

I did notice that with the handbrake mp4 rip, when i skip ahead in the movie there is MAJOR pixelization for a few seconds.

thanks, dtrunk

hiya dtrunk

First off....forget a NAS as they only support a limited number of drives and can't be used for a lot of other stuff. I'd recommend putting together a cheap server (or just using more or less any old pc)....take a look at the specs of mine in my sig...the e7400 has more than enough oomph. I'd use WindowsHomeServer2011 (Vail) as the o/s and then Stablebit's DrivePool (http://stablebit.com/) which allows you to use any size hardrives (they don't have to all be the same) and creates a storage pool (size equals the sum of your installed drives) and manages replication, automatic backing up of all networked pc's every night and a boatload of other (optional) things that a NAS will never do. In our house....anyone can access the full library (movies, tv series, music, photos, etc) and multiple (network) tv tuners. They can record up to 5 HD shows at a time and a script sweeps the recordings from the pc to the server when completed. The server can also support streaming at least 7 movies simultaneously (that's the most I tested...could likely handle more). A NAS will never be able to do that (at least not any that I've ever seen or heard of). There's really just so much that a server can do when compared to a NAS that no one should waste money on a NAS (imho, of course).

Personally, when ripping DVD's....I use Xvid (.avi container). Good balance between quality and filesize. MKV's are enormous and yes, amazing quality but with almost 2000 movies (plus full tv series', music, etc, etc) in the library I prefer the smaller size of the xvid's. Is your network hardwired or are you doing this over wireless (if so, wireless N I hope)? The smaller xvids are easier to stream across a network than larger alternatives...especially if multiple people are using the server.

To rip from disc to the hardrive I use DVD Decrypter. To convert to avi (or mkv) I use Gordian Knot. I do 29.97fps and 224Kb audio. I set it so that a 90 minute movie comes out around 1.8GB.

Think your skipping issue is due to the conversion of 29.97 fps source to 24. Try doing a new rip and make sure to set the output/destination fps to 29.97. Another potential cause of the skippage is interlacing (and/or incorrect de-interlacing)...a bit longer topic than I can cover atm but check out one of the guides at videohelp.com or doom9.org.

Haven't used handbrake but it's an excellent and free app.

Hope that helps. Good luck!

i have been having alot of similar issues with vlc player with the skipping, i stopped using it and now just use xbmc

Oh...great point wagex! I only use vlc when nothing else will play a file. My player of choice is media player classic (maybe called homecinema now). For most movies played in the house everyone's using windows media center (mymovies takes care of cataloguing, descriptions, poster art, etc...mymovies.dk).

thanks for the info guys, good reads. i tried all those suggestions funsoul but it still lags out in VLC, even downloaded the new VLC. Tried it in xbmc and it works fine.

i did some more reading and now am think i get xvid vs h264; same(ish) quality ; xvid rip @2000 2k bitrate @2gb vs h264 @1500 bitrate @1.6gb. so for h264, better compression = less bitrate needed and lower file size for the same(ish) quality. ((though i'm pretty sure anything above 1100 is overkill anyways.))

so should i just disregard vlc and rip in h264? it's way fast. @funsoul at what video bitrate do you rip the xvid avi.

i also noticed that i can't avi.h264.acc and reduce the audio settings. The only way to reduce the audio settings is to use mp3, but then it reduces to 2.1. should i care about this? or just roll with mp3 and a nice audio bitrate? i feel like 400kpbs for audio is overkill but like the notion of being able to play these on a 5.1 system at some point.

Anything over about 1200 is generally fine. I tend to just enter a target size of 1.5-2.5GB depending on runtime and what I think of the movie (Harry Potter gets a higher bitrate/size than Yogi Bear's Christmas or some such thing).

Yeah...just go mp3 at 224Kb otherwise something like AC3 at 448

i think vlc has just went down in quality personally, it used to work great and seems like the last year or two it has gotten like that random movies for no reason have like microstutter, wmp plays them fine xbmc plays them fine, windows media center plays them fine. but thats why me i dont know for sure.

I use handbrake to rip all of my dvd movies to my harddrive for MAC and PC and have not had any of the problems you've had. Rip then play with VLC on my big screen.

Google how to rip movies with Handbrake. I have a few other programs that i can use but Handbrake gets the job done. On my Mac that is a 2.53Ghz core 2 duo it takes 25min to rip a dvd.
But on my Newly built 3770k overclocked to 4.4Ghz it takes 5 minutes know more then 7.

With handbrake you have the option to save as mp4 or mkv

5 months late lol.

maybe so but handbrake is still the best I've found.

I think Handbrake is only a converter and it only can convert DVD to some formats like MKV, MP4. It can not rip protected DVDs. So I suggest you to give DVD Decrypter or DVD Shrink a try to rip commercial DVD. Then use Handbrake to convert the ripped vob files to other format. However, these freewares are not so satisfactory because of their slow or no upgrade and cannot deal with the new released DVD. In this case, you should find other professional and easy-to-use DVD decrypting tool to solve your problem instead.

Handbrake can do protected dvd.I did a Google search you have to download a file and replace it with the one you download.I have ripped over 800 movies on pc and mac since posting this