2011-03-13, 23:31
okay. i'm going to be slowly going through and ripping all my DVDs into files for playback on XBMC, but i'm curious as to what settings i should use for the conversion. so, in short, what is the optimum for playback in XBMC?
2011-03-14, 01:48
I'm no expert (a long way from it tbh) but, as you're not getting a reply from anybody else I thought I'd give my 2 cents!
You'd probably be best off encoding with h264 into a mkv, or mp4 container. This is because h264 is hardware decoded on ATV2 and iDevices, and those containers are the most "modern" conatiners which support h264 content, and other features not supported by older formats such as avi. To be honest though standard definition content should playback fine in pretty much any format.
As for exact settings, I can't really help you I'm afraid because I don't really know. This article from Lifehacker might help if you're using Handbreak:
http://lifehacker.com/#!5610568/calculat...our-device
Failing that, there are quite a few websites and forums which specifically deal with video encoding, so it might be worth getting on Google and seeing what you can find
You'd probably be best off encoding with h264 into a mkv, or mp4 container. This is because h264 is hardware decoded on ATV2 and iDevices, and those containers are the most "modern" conatiners which support h264 content, and other features not supported by older formats such as avi. To be honest though standard definition content should playback fine in pretty much any format.
As for exact settings, I can't really help you I'm afraid because I don't really know. This article from Lifehacker might help if you're using Handbreak:
http://lifehacker.com/#!5610568/calculat...our-device
Failing that, there are quite a few websites and forums which specifically deal with video encoding, so it might be worth getting on Google and seeing what you can find
2011-03-14, 03:39
thanks for the reply, procrastinator. i've been leaning towards x264, as well, but wasn't sure if it'd go well into an avi container (my preference). so far, i've figured i'd go with:
either x264 or xvid video codecs (bitrate is still fuzzy on those)
a52/AC3 audio (i use optical out to a DD 5.1 surround system)
i'm also going to be using VLC.. it seems to be the most direct and user-friendly approach, as well.
either x264 or xvid video codecs (bitrate is still fuzzy on those)
a52/AC3 audio (i use optical out to a DD 5.1 surround system)
i'm also going to be using VLC.. it seems to be the most direct and user-friendly approach, as well.
2011-03-14, 04:21
Personally, I'm a bit wary of avi. As I said in my last post, I'm no expert, but the encoding program that I normally use (Handbrake) recently dropped support for avi output, and when well-regarded programs stop supporting stuff like that you can see where its headed. Here's what they said on the Handbrake wiki re: dropping avi output:
If you don't need it in an avi container for playback on any of your devices, then it might be a good idea to use mkv or mp4. Just a suggestion
Quote:Why did you drop AVI output?¶
AVI is a rough beast. It is obsolete. It does not support modern container features like chapters, muxed-in subtitles, variable framerate video, or out of order frame display. Furthermore, HandBrake's AVI muxer is vanilla AVI 1.0 that doesn't even support large files. The code has not been actively maintained since 2005. Keeping it in the library while implementing new features means a very convoluted data pipeline, full of conditionals that make the code more difficult to read and maintain, and make output harder to predict. As such, it is now gone. It is not coming back, and good riddance.
If you don't need it in an avi container for playback on any of your devices, then it might be a good idea to use mkv or mp4. Just a suggestion
2011-03-14, 07:03
In my view xvid is an extremely old codec and has no place in a modern hardware environment, so many devices these days include hardware h264 acceleration...
The perfect combo for me is:
Container: MKV
Video: h264
Audio: AC3 or DTS
I don't like MP4, the format itself is fine, however MP4's primary audio format is AAC, AAC channel mapping can be an issue depending what application (and OS) created it.
At least AC3 and DTS can be passed directly onto a receiver to decode.
The perfect combo for me is:
Container: MKV
Video: h264
Audio: AC3 or DTS
I don't like MP4, the format itself is fine, however MP4's primary audio format is AAC, AAC channel mapping can be an issue depending what application (and OS) created it.
At least AC3 and DTS can be passed directly onto a receiver to decode.
2011-03-14, 09:58
I would suggest using handbrake for this, VLC is not the best free way to do this. You'll get much better output from handbrake.
I would personally use mkv, I do have an older original xbox that might not like it - but it's now getting pushed aside for the atv2/xbmc anyway.
How you encode is very important and far to in depth to go into that. Start at videohelp.com and peruse for a while at the conversion guides. I would suggest that you consider encoding with dual audio, AC3/DTS and mp3. It will come in handy someday and is very easy to do with handbrake.
Do a few test rips on a couple different types of movies with different settings.
Best of luck, let us know what you come up with.
I would personally use mkv, I do have an older original xbox that might not like it - but it's now getting pushed aside for the atv2/xbmc anyway.
How you encode is very important and far to in depth to go into that. Start at videohelp.com and peruse for a while at the conversion guides. I would suggest that you consider encoding with dual audio, AC3/DTS and mp3. It will come in handy someday and is very easy to do with handbrake.
Do a few test rips on a couple different types of movies with different settings.
Best of luck, let us know what you come up with.
2011-03-14, 10:07
toitle Wrote:I would suggest using handbrake for this, VLC is not the best free way to do this. You'll get much better output from handbrake.
Agreed, Handbrake hands down spanks VLC... VLC's primary purpose is playing back media, it's encoding options are vague at best.
2011-03-14, 11:38
If you have the space you dont need to convert into x264. Just use MakeMKV on the DVD's which will dump the MPEG-2 video and AC3/DTS audio to an mkv file.
If you do want to convert as the others have said Handbrake is the easiest way plus you can feed Handbrake the files ripped by MakeMKV.
If you do want to convert as the others have said Handbrake is the easiest way plus you can feed Handbrake the files ripped by MakeMKV.
