Home Theater PC (HTPC)

Re: DVD Storage

smashngrab77 — Sat, 18 Aug 2007 02:03:33 GMT

Which program do you use on the list shown? Have you used handbrake?

Re: DVD Storage

toni — Tue, 14 Aug 2007 08:10:44 GMT

IronMan77:

I would say encode them to XVID AVI's.

The easiest way to do this would probably be to use AutoGK.

That's a good solution. I second it.

Re: DVD Storage

bluebomb — Wed, 08 Aug 2007 00:46:30 GMT

HAHA, I remember those days too. I only had a 550Mhz PIII with 256MB of ram and it took forever.

Re: DVD Storage

Vamp9190 — Tue, 07 Aug 2007 12:47:29 GMT

LOL, funny to hear you say 'a couple hours' as a long time for encoding.

Up until now people who could do it in less than 8 hours (overnight) were the select few. Technology has really opened the process up to the mainstream (and mid-budget).

Re: DVD Storage

bluebomb — Thu, 02 Aug 2007 20:42:37 GMT

x264 is excellent! Encoded a full DVD down to around 1GB and the quality is still really good. It takes a long time. A couple hours to rip, prepare, and encode, but that's my only complaint. I'm using MeGUI with DVDDecrypter along with the guide linked below. It's very to follow.

http://www.digital-digest.com/articles/MeGUI_H.264_Conversion_Guide_page1.html

Re: DVD Storage

Sidicas — Mon, 30 Jul 2007 02:44:11 GMT

bluebomb:
The Doom9 comparison was excellent. x264 looked way better than XVID.

Especially at higher bitrates.. Did you see what XVID did to the white tiles in the background at the subway scene? Got rid of them altogether.. http://www.doom9.org/codecs-main-105-2-hq.htm

As far as which encoding software works best for x264, I really wouldn't know.

I haven't really played around with them a lot.. But you do have quite a few options..

I'd suggest figuring out which one works best for you.. GordianKnot should be very good except that it tends to be a bit too complex for most people.

Below is a list of x264 players and encoders. You can also get the x264 codec and use it with Windows Media Player or others.

Software using x264

Avidemux
ELDER
ffdshow
ffmpeg
GordianKnot
Handbrake: a multi-platform, multithreaded DVD to MPEG-4 ripper/converter.
LiVES
MeGUI
MEncoder
pspVideo9
RealAnime
StaxRip
TCVP
VLC media player: a cross-platform video player and streaming solution.

Source: http://www.videolan.org/developers/x264.html

Re: DVD Storage

bluebomb — Mon, 30 Jul 2007 00:34:27 GMT

I'm probably going to try out x264. The Doom9 comparison was excellent. x264 looked way better than XVID. So, what kinds of encoding software do you recommend? I've been trying AutoMKV, but the DVDFab keeps crashing on me.

By the way, thanks for all the response!

Re: DVD Storage

Sidicas — Sat, 28 Jul 2007 11:47:55 GMT

Although XVid is the best ASP codec around, ASP codecs are quickly becoming obsolete.. x264 can make files at a higher quality and smaller filesize and are far more suited for high definition and high resolution encoding..(If you read the link above that I posted) I'll post the conclusions again here

And a far more technical article here with conclusions here

Re: DVD Storage

peacelover — Sat, 28 Jul 2007 08:57:43 GMT

I agree to Ironman 77. encode them to XVID AVI's! You use a 300GB hd to collect them, i guess you must have collected a lot of good DVDs. I also like to collect DVDs.

Re: DVD Storage

IronMan77 — Sat, 28 Jul 2007 04:18:50 GMT

I would say encode them to XVID AVI's.

The easiest way to do this would probably be to use AutoGK.

Re: DVD Storage

volfann — Fri, 27 Jul 2007 20:31:55 GMT

I just have mine stacked up like cord wood.

Re: DVD Storage

Sidicas — Tue, 24 Jul 2007 21:27:39 GMT

If you got the horsepower, take a look into x264.. The only problem with it is it requires quite a bit of CPU power to both compress and decompress... But if you got the horseys for it, then it's a great codec to use..

Awesome codec comparsion between x264, DivX, XVid..

DVD Storage

bluebomb — Tue, 24 Jul 2007 21:20:41 GMT

Well, I recently updated a machine to use in my home theater and had a quick question about storing DVDs digitally. I was wondering what's the best way to archive my DVD collection while conserving space and quality. I guess I'm looking more for a good compression method that still looks good and preserves the 5.1/DTS sound, but doesn't take up a heap of space. I've got a RAID0 configured right now with ~300GB of space and a lot of DVDs I would like to throw on there. I've always thought it would be really cool to just select a movie to watch instead of having to search through all my massive cases for the disc I'm looking for.

PS: I'm projecting onto a 110" screen, so if the compression sucks it'll be really noticeable.