[spike99]

FYI,

I have a gaming desktop that I have been testing XBMC...

I'm now planing on building a HTPC for my living room where I have a 5.1 HT for XBMC playback...

Intially, my HTPC build was to build a HTPC and have a separate NAS... I'm now plannig HTPC build to include all in one solution HTPC + NAS + Gaming PC.

For bluray playback... At this time, I don't know if I will rip bluray movie then watch on XBMC or play bluray movie with bluray player and then rip movie for future playback.

Right now I have a OPPO 93 that I use in my HT. In terms of video quality... Will there be any differences between playing XBMC mkv playback vs bluray playback on bluray player in PC vs OPPO ??

Note: Since it would be a gaming PC... I am planning on possibly using NVIDIA GTX 680 video card.

Obviously, would be nice if HTPC can match a OPPO... this would mean extra space in my TV cabinet... but I would like to know if there are any video quality differences between HTPC vs OPPO.

Thanks in advance.

[thethirdnut]

If you rip to an ISO there shouldn't be any difference subjectively speaking since digital in, digital out as far as your Receiver & TV is concerned.

Even when you transcode the video portion of a bluray - with appropriate settings - I am hard pressed to tell difference standing a couple feet away from a large plasma.

HD Audio can be left as is so there shouldn't be any change to it at all.

Once you get the system done I suggest you do your own A/B testing as well.

PS: Only reason I don't use BR ISO's is long-term storage and backup concerns.

[spike99]

Right now, I'm not ripping BR ISO's, I'm ripping movies to MKV. Would there be a video quality difference between ISO & MKV ?

In general, my mkv movies range from 17GB - 32GB's (depending on the movie).

Yes, when I get ready HTPC... I will definitely do a A/B testing to see if I can see any difference.

[thethirdnut]

MKV vs ISO - shouldn't be any difference.

FYI - for my BR rips I end up with an MKV too - using original HD audio streams, subtitles and video stream transcoded using Handbrake with CQ = 19 setting. Typical size for these files too is approx 10 GB, but it of course varies.

[spike99]

Your mkv's are 10 GB ?? Hmm, that's quite low... I think my lowest mkv was like 15GB... most are just over 20GB's. I remember this particular movie did not have DTS audio... I think it was AC3.

When ripping I do include DTS audio... Do your mkv include HD audio ?

On a side note... I tried downloading movies thru VUZE... but most 1080p movies were just under 10GB... when I added these movies to XBMC... video quality was not the same as my mkv rips... also, XBMC did not show audio info... My mkv movies... it shows audio info like "DTS HD Master Audio" (depending on audio format available).

Since I want the best quality i can get... I deleted downloaded movies... and I'm only ripping bluray discs.

[thethirdnut]

Approx 10 GB on average, but varies - includes:

subtitles
HD audio stream - DTS MA/HD or Dolby TrueHD
transcoded video stream

I don't recall seeing a torrent with HD audio...its an easy thing for them to strip off if they want to reduce filesize.

[spike99]

How are you ripping movies ?? From bluray discs ? I don't know how you get on average 10GB for bluray movies...

When ripping movies... I only rip main movie... and on average I get 20GB.

[thethirdnut]

AnyDVD HD.

By 'transcoding' I mean compressing them using Handbrake http://handbrake.fr/ that converts video stream from H264, VC-1 or MPEG2 to X264 codec. Keeps video quality very good and gives you smaller overall filesize.

I then use MKVToolnix to mux all the streams back together - new video *.mkv and HD audio + subtitles into the final mkv file.

Newer builds of Handbrake can do all of this in one step, but I need to update main desktop before doing so.

[spike99]

OK... I see.