Best way to rip DVD's?
#1
The way I've been doing it for about two years now is to use DVD Shrink to get rid of all the crap on the DVD (special features, audio I don't need, etc) and to compress the actual movie down to a ~4.5 GB .iso -- something that will fit on a single-layer DVD. Doing this will compress most movies to 75-90% quality (some of them being so small on the original disc that they come out with 100% quality).

I used to burn these movies to DVD-RWs whenever I wanted to watch them (or just play them directly on the computer). However, they take up so much space, so I'm thinking of changing my strategy a bit.

I've never ripped a DVD to anything other than a compressed .iso file, so I'm not too familiar with the codecs involved and whatnot. So here's my question:

What is the best way to rip a DVD to a smaller file, yet still retain most the best quality? I'm aware that for HD content, it's advised to use x264 since it has the best compression to quality ratio. Is this true for SD DVDs also? I need some advise.

Also, the DVD's that I've already ripped -- the ones that are 4.5GB .iso files -- I no longer have the original disc to many of them. Keeping in mind that compressing an already compressed video is generally bad idea due to quality loss, should I just keep them in 4.5GB .iso files or rip them again using the new method?

I would like the best quality I can get, but I also want it to be generally under 2GB per movie. Can anyone help?
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#2
Check out handbrake if you are looking to compress to x264, you can get near transparency to the original and run between 1-2GB or so per movie.
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#3
H.264 is pretty much the latest format. You will most likely spend 4+ hours per movie encoding depending on the speed of your computer. Depending on the software you use you will need the movie in .ISO or dvd folder to encode.

You have handbrake and on this page in Doom 9 you will find other programs.

http://forum.doom9.org/forumdisplay.php?f=78



How many movies do you have?
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#4
About 75 original DVD's, and another 50-60 that have already been compressed to the 4.5GB .iso files of which I no longer have the originals for.

I plan to do a few tests. I have a 4.5GB .iso file of Saving private Ryan that ooks decent enough on my 1080p screen. I used Handbrake to convert it to a 700MB file (a size that I see for movies very often on torrent sites) and the results were absolutely horrible, very pixelated. I'm not sure why people would prefer those 700MB torrents (I've never really downloaded one myself, so I wouldn't know the quality).

It may have been because the source -- the 4.5GB .iso file -- is a already compressed version of the original DVD. So compressing it again may have led to the horrible quality.

I'm now in the process of using that same .iso file of Saving Private Ryan and using Handbrake to compress it using a constant quality of 75%, then I'll do it with 100%, and see if it's worth the space it saves.

I've yet to rip and encode from an original DVD source (I wanted to first find out what I was going to do with the existing .iso's) but I'll do the same three tests or so -- encode to 700MB, use 75% quality and 100% quality, maybe encode to 2GB, etc. Hopefully I'll find the settings that'll work for me.

Any other tips and tricks are very welcome. =)

EDIT: In handbrake, when adding the audio track, should I choose AC3 or AAC? I read somewhere that if you wanted to keep 5.1 sound, go for AC3.
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#5
I use MakeMKV. It doesn't compress anything, but it does make an MKV file easily and very fast, with each audio and subtitle track you select. Get it here for free: http://makemkv.com/
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#6
Use AC3.

You know with only that many movies you can fit them on a 1TB hard drive with room to spare. You won't need to encode either.

Right now I have 120 movies ripped from the DVD's and two shows in xvid on a 1TB drive. You will save a ton of time in front of a computer...Just an idea.
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#7
I wrote a program once, based on dvdfab and handbrake that does the work for you and outputs in a pretty decent quality at between 1 and 2 gb filesizes. will see if I find that after coming home.
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#8
AxaliaN Wrote:I use MakeMKV. It doesn't compress anything, but it does make an MKV file easily and very fast, with each audio and subtitle track you select. Get it here for free: http://makemkv.com/

I'll check it out, thanks!

BORIStheBLADE Wrote:Use AC3.

You know with only that many movies you can fit them on a 1TB hard drive with room to spare. You won't need to encode either.

Right now I have 120 movies ripped from the DVD's and two shows in xvid on a 1TB drive. You will save a ton of time in front of a computer...Just an idea.

I may go that route, but I'd like to save as much space as possible. =)

Also, I finished converting that 4.5GB .iso file of Saving Private Ryan using Handbrake and setting the quality to 100%. The result: a 30GB file! From a 4.5GB source! I don't understand. @_@ I still need to test out a rip from an original DVD, so maybe that'll give much better results. >_>
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#9
Don't set quality. Set a goal output file size. If you keep the original sound, a goal output would typically be 1.5gb or 2gb, if it's a long movie.

And, of course, compressing an already compressed movie is never going to help.
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#10
natethomas Wrote:Don't set quality. Set a goal output file size. If you keep the original sound, a goal output would typically be 1.5gb or 2gb, if it's a long movie.

And, of course, compressing an already compressed movie is never going to help.

Would you recommend I just keep the already compressed movies as they are?
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#11
Yes, and remember that DVDs are already compressed when you buy them. ;-)
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#12
Edit: Removed Link since it was broken.
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#13
natethomas Wrote:Don't set quality. Set a goal output file size. If you keep the original sound, a goal output would typically be 1.5gb or 2gb, if it's a long movie.

And, of course, compressing an already compressed movie is never going to help.

This goes against the advice of the Handbrake team. Setting a quality level lets the size move as necessary based on movie length, and scene complexity.
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#14
GJones Wrote:This goes against the advice of the Handbrake team. Setting a quality level lets the size move as necessary based on movie length, and scene complexity.

QFT

If you want the best quality possible, just use MakeMKV. It will use the video from the disk and dump it into an mkv container without transcoding. I'm fairly sure that it also works with bluray drives, but I don't have one myself.

If you want to conserve file size and still have great quality, I use these settings in Handbrake (I use the GUI, not the command line tool). You can paste them into a file called 'whatever.plist' and import it with Handbrake.

Code:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
<array>
    <dict>
        <key>AudioList</key>
        <array>
            <dict>
                <key>AudioBitrate</key>
                <string>160</string>
                <key>AudioEncoder</key>
                <string>AAC (faac)</string>
                <key>AudioMixdown</key>
                <string>Dolby Pro Logic II</string>
                <key>AudioSamplerate</key>
                <string>48</string>
                <key>AudioTrack</key>
                <integer>1</integer>
                <key>AudioTrackDRCSlider</key>
                <real>0</real>
                <key>AudioTrackDescription</key>
                <string>English (AC3) (5.1 ch)</string>
            </dict>
            <dict>
                <key>AudioBitrate</key>
                <string>448</string>
                <key>AudioEncoder</key>
                <string>AC3 Passthru</string>
                <key>AudioMixdown</key>
                <string>AC3 Passthru</string>
                <key>AudioSamplerate</key>
                <string>Auto</string>
                <key>AudioTrack</key>
                <integer>1</integer>
                <key>AudioTrackDRCSlider</key>
                <real>0</real>
                <key>AudioTrackDescription</key>
                <string>English (AC3) (5.1 ch)</string>
            </dict>
        </array>
        <key>ChapterMarkers</key>
        <true />
        <key>Default</key>
        <false />
        <key>FileFormat</key>
        <string>MKV file</string>
        <key>Folder</key>
        <false />
        <key>Mp4HttpOptimize</key>
        <false />
        <key>Mp4LargeFile</key>
        <false />
        <key>Mp4iPodCompatible</key>
        <false />
        <key>PictureAutoCrop</key>
        <true />
        <key>PictureBottomCrop</key>
        <integer>60</integer>
        <key>PictureDeblock</key>
        <integer>4</integer>
        <key>PictureDecomb</key>
        <integer>2</integer>
        <key>PictureDecombCustom</key>
        <string></string>
        <key>PictureDecombDeinterlace</key>
        <true />
        <key>PictureDeinterlace</key>
        <integer>0</integer>
        <key>PictureDeinterlaceCustom</key>
        <string></string>
        <key>PictureDenoise</key>
        <integer>0</integer>
        <key>PictureDenoiseCustom</key>
        <string></string>
        <key>PictureDetelecine</key>
        <integer>2</integer>
        <key>PictureDetelecineCustom</key>
        <string></string>
        <key>PictureHeight</key>
        <integer>0</integer>
        <key>PictureKeepRatio</key>
        <true />
        <key>PictureLeftCrop</key>
        <integer>2</integer>
        <key>PictureLooseCrop</key>
        <false />
        <key>PictureModulus</key>
        <string>16</string>
        <key>PicturePAR</key>
        <string>2</string>
        <key>PicturePARHeight</key>
        <integer>720</integer>
        <key>PicturePARWidth</key>
        <integer>857</integer>
        <key>PictureRightCrop</key>
        <integer>2</integer>
        <key>PictureTopCrop</key>
        <integer>56</integer>
        <key>PictureWidth</key>
        <integer>0</integer>
        <key>PresetBuildNumber</key>
        <integer>2009112300</integer>
        <key>PresetDescription</key>
        <string>The shiz settings.</string>
        <key>PresetName</key>
        <string>Awesome/Slow</string>
        <key>SubtitleList</key>
        <array>
        </array>
        <key>Type</key>
        <integer>1</integer>
        <key>UsesPictureFilters</key>
        <integer>1</integer>
        <key>UsesPictureSettings</key>
        <integer>2</integer>
        <key>VideoAvgBitrate</key>
        <integer>1800</integer>
        <key>VideoEncoder</key>
        <string>H.264 (x264)</string>
        <key>VideoFramerate</key>
        <string>Same as source</string>
        <key>VideoGrayScale</key>
        <false />
        <key>VideoQualitySlider</key>
        <real>20</real>
        <key>VideoQualityType</key>
        <integer>2</integer>
        <key>VideoTargetSize</key>
        <integer>700</integer>
        <key>VideoTurboTwoPass</key>
        <false />
        <key>VideoTwoPass</key>
        <false />
        <key>anamorphic</key>
        <true />
        <key>par_height</key>
        <integer>0</integer>
        <key>par_width</key>
        <integer>0</integer>
        <key>x264Option</key>
        <string>b-adapt=2:rc-lookahead=50:me=umh:subme=6:analyse=all:trellis=2:no-fast-pskip=1:bframes=6:ref=5:direct=auto</string>
    </dict>
</array>
</plist>
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#15
Since this is relatively fresh, I thought you might still be in the market for info...

I looked into this in a big way some time ago while trying to rip my X-Files collection to my hard drive.

I tried x264 then and found like you did that the quality was terrible. I couldn't understand why everyone was jumping up and down about it.

I think for HD content it might be better, but certainly for standard definition I found that using mencoder (part of the open source mplayer) and 2-pass encoding to an avi \ xvid worked amazingly well. So much so I was astonished just how close to the original content it was.

It also copies the audio (-oac copy) meaning that it keeps the original format.

If you're interested, this is what I used (replace any bit within <> braces)

[At the command line]
C:\Mplayer\mencoder -vf softskip,harddup -aid 128 "<DVD Path>\VIDEO_TS\*.VOB" -oac copy -ovc xvid -xvidencopts min_iquant=1:max_iquant=31:min_pquant=1:max_pquant=31:min_bquant=1:max_bquant=31:vhq=1:bvhq=1:me_quality=6:hq_ac:chroma_me:chroma_opt:max_bframes=2:trellis:bitrate=1200:pass=<PASS NUMBER>:keyframe_boost=30:kfthreshold=1:kfreduction=40:overflow_control_strength=15:max_overflow_improvement=15:quant_type=mpeg -o <output filename>.avi

This command needs to be run twice, first substituting <PASS NUMBER> for pass=1 and then pass=2.

This gave me file sizes of roughly 500Mb per episode, so ~1Gb per 90minutes.

You can always play around with the bitrate figure to see how much it affects the quality\size.

To only encode a snippet of a movie, use -ss <seconds to skip> -endpos <seconds to encode>

The 2 pass encoding takes AGES but to me it's worth it. YMMV but by encoding a 10 minute snippet you can get a feel for both the quality and time it'll take.

HTH

JD
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