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+---- Thread: Best file format? (/showthread.php?tid=68288)
Best file format? - moviebuff - 2010-01-24
What is the best file format to rip dvd for playback on XBMC? Iso, MP4 or MPV? For smallest file size but not losing quality. I currently do ISO but wondering if there is a format that would take less space on the hard drive but same playback quality and a good program to do the convert. Thank you for any suggestions you may have )
- BORIStheBLADE - 2010-01-24
With any conversion you are going to lose some quality. With the amount of time spent on converting movie I think its better to buy more HD space instead of wasting tons of time converting.
If you still have your heart set on converting to save space I would look into H.264 which is the latest stuff people are converting to and maybe Xvid.
- moviebuff - 2010-01-24
The only reason is I have so many movies in the 1500 range. havent heard of that one im kinda new to all this a Noob you could say
- BORIStheBLADE - 2010-01-24
Haha, man 1500 movies to convert is a lot of time in front of a computer.
Even if you were to cut the movies in half you would still need 3-5 tb I figure.
I know they're are some guys on here with large amounts of storage. Hopefully they can chime in on this.
- moviebuff - 2010-01-24
h.264 sounds interesting format wonder if there is a good convertor out there thats free?
- BORIStheBLADE - 2010-01-24
The one that gets used the most is handbrake. Its free too.
http://handbrake.fr/
I think you need to have the dvd ripped into file/folder format.
If your on a win PC try this. If you need DVD ripping software download DVDFab HD Decrypter.
http://www.dvdfab.com/free.htm
- moviebuff - 2010-01-24
sweet thanx so much for youre help ill give handbrake and try and see how mp4 is )
- moviebuff - 2010-01-24
Gonna try MKV format dunno but MP4 in handbrake actually makes the file larger when going from iso? but gonna give MKV a try it dramatically reduces the file size
- xexe - 2010-01-24
Why bother shrinking?
Even if shrinking takes 30 mins per movie your still over 31 days of CPU time.
I would definitely just use makemkv and grab native.... the best you can achieve with all the comression is saving one 1.5TB HDD. Its simply not worth it
- steelman1991 - 2010-01-24
As Boris (and xexe - beat me to it) has suggested - buy more storage (if possible) - encoding that number of films could take anything up to 12 months (on the basis of 3 hour encode, 12 hour 7 day constant process) - are you really willing to do that. I know it sounds good at the time, but you will soon get fed up - believe me I started to do it and gave up, fairly quickly.
If you decide to expand your storage and rip 1:1, consider MakeMKV - http://www.makemkv.com/ - dependant on the speed of your drives, a rip (with chapters and subtitles if required) can be achieved in around 15-20 mins. Main movies only as well can be ripped using this method, therefore reducing file size (by removing menus, extra features etc).
Good luck.
- xexe - 2010-01-24
Thats a good point... for the cost consider buying a DVD drive that excels at this job as well.
- moviebuff - 2010-01-24
ya one thing ive noticed is handbrake is very slow maybe ill try makempv like you said on my new rips not existing. Appreciate all the help on this thanx everyone
- BORIStheBLADE - 2010-01-24
Ya makemkv is a great program. I have 90% of my movies ripped with makemkv.
I think that the best and easiest files to use with XBMC is .ISO and .MKV. You can hold multiple audio and subtitle streams in the files.