[Sarlic]

Hi everyone:

I have a bit of a dilemma and hope some of you gurus here can help.

I currently have an AppleTV2 with XBMC (latest nightly build) installed. I'm in the process of ripping all of my Blu Ray discs with DVDFab to MKV -- the quality is stunning, and I'm incredibly happy with this software.

Where I'm running into issues, however, is on DVDs.

Currently, DVDFab does now allow extraction of chapter markers in to MKVs for DVDs. (It works for Blu Ray.) To compound matters, IFO and ISO files won't play on XBMC (from what I gather from everything I've been reading.) I can't make heads or tails out of Handbrake, which purportedly does extract chapter markers into DVD MKVs. However, everytime I extract, it either compresses the hell out of the file, or doesn't convert any audio. MakeMKV supposedly does this as well, but they don't have functionality for forced subtitles, which is a dealbreaker for me.

I've settled on extracting VOB files for the time being, which I've done for 2 DVDs now, and have decided to focus exclusively on Blu Ray in the hopes that either XBMC or DVDFab will address the issues I mentioned above in the interim.

If they don't -- do any of you have any suggestions for the best option for me? My ultimate goal is to extract as close to lossless as I can, without having 10 different files in one folder (i.e. in a decent container a la MKV), with chapter markers so that I can skip around the movie quite easily if I want to. MKV seems to be the best option, but I'm stuck!

Thanks to all for your help!

SM

[gabbott]

edit: yeah, just saw you mentioned the issue with makemkv (though most titles shouldnt have forced subtitles i wouldnt think)

[Sarlic]

MakeMKV gets me most of the way there, but they lose me without the "Forced Subtitle" option (think Star Wars when the Aliens speak.)

[chris_b]

I'm in the process of ripping all of my Blu Ray discs with DVDFab to MKV -- the quality is stunning, and I'm incredibly happy with this software.

Slightly off-topic, but I'm curious what kind of quality settings you're using for your BR rips; many of my BD-25 MKV's @1080p have problems on the ATV2. I hate to reduce file size too much because I have a need for highest-quality 1080p on other devices.

[Sarlic]

I was having the same issues with 1080p. Constant buffering, choppy, etc. Once I changed my extraction settings to 720p and eliminated HD audio (just using general 5.1 AC3 now) those issues went away. I'm not sure what the exact issues are, but I think the on-the-fly conversion from 1080p to 720 (since ATV won't display at 1080 anyway) plus the much larger files sizes were a big contributer.

If XBMC fixes the buffering issues in another build, I may try a few ripped to 1080 and see if it's improved.

[chris_b]

Yes, I've tried 720p and no HD audio with good results (on the 720p bedroom TV) but was hoping to avoid re-ripping everything. Hopefully full 1080p support comes before my drives fill up with two copies of everything! Thanks for the info.

[Sarlic]

Yeah I agree -- right now the only thing that makes the 720 even slightly bearable is that ATV won't play it anyway, so no matter what, we'll be viewing 720p.

Gotta love Apple and the things they decide we can't have...