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OK, fair warning, newbie here. I know, I know, it seems like there is a never ending stream of us. Anyway, for the easily frustrated, please move on. I'm trying to get a handle on all of this as fast as I can, OK?
Now, I am TOTALLY new to DV, but, as my wife can attest, when I get into something I totally absorb it. We just got FiOs installed the day before Thanksgiving and got their multi-room DVR (first DVR for us). I know this isn't a DVR forum, but just trying to give you some background. Anyway, after filling the thing up in 3 days and ultimately learning it can't be (easily) expanded, I've already chucked it for a TiVo which is on the way which I will expand to 2TB. This got me interested in DVD ripping and streaming video around the house.
So, I've spent the last 4 days straight downloading and reading everything I can find on this subject. I have played with the following SW:
DVD Decrypter
DVD Shrink
DVD Fab5
Clone DVD2
Virtual Clone Drive
ffdshow
HandBrake
ImgBurn
K-Lite Codec Pack
AnyDVD
Tivo Desktop
(maybe others which I don't remember right now....)
Now... I have a pretty good handle on what all this stuff does. I'm actually ripping a DVD now!
I've reauthored some titles, compressed them, etc. My ultimate goal is to rip the DVD's, get rid of the physical media and stream them around the house either to my TiVo at each TV or using Slingbox or some Media server (still researching that...
) Now here's my question:
I am getting SICK compression using the H.264 codec in Handbrake. I'm talking like 600MB for one of the kids 90 minute animated movies!! I can EASILY stream this over my wireless! BUT.... and here's the question (OK FINALLY!!)... Is there any way to use the H.264 codec and get the ridiculous kind of compression and yet still keep the whole DVD intact? In other words, keep the menus, the extras etc? I could make an ISO and mount it using Virtual Clone Drive for playback but I just can't seem to figure out how to do this and it's making me bonkers!! I have used DVD Shrink and DVD Clone 2 to reauthor, removing foreign audio, subtitles, previews etc. but keeping the main menu and extras but their temporal based compression just is NOWHERE NEAR what you get with H.264. I mean the 600MB movie above I tried to force to 1GB and DVD Clone 2 wouldn't even do it!! When I got to 2GB it worked but looked like S**T! Not that my kids would know, but I would. Plus, with about 500 DVD's, the difference in storage space starts to add up as well. AND streaming is MUCH slower... well we all know smaller is better.
Oh, one more thing. I'm doing all this on my POS laptop right now, Acer Aspire with Intel T2310 CPU and 1 GB RAM. I'm think of getting a dedicated video machine for doing all this conversion. Any suggestions?? I was thinking an Intel Core i7 CPU with 64 bit Vista? Anyone used any of this SW on 64 bit Vista? Any problems with any of them? Any smoking HW recommendations? I can't spend 2 - 3 hours per DVD ripping... I'll never finish!
According to CPU Benchmark (http://www.cpubenchmark.net) my T2310 running at 1.46GHz has a CPU Mark of 782 (http://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu_look...10+%40+1.46GHz) while the Core i7 920 is 6248 (http://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu_look...20+%40+2.67GHz) - about 9 TIMES faster. Of course, not sure how this will directly translate into encoding speed but it can't hurt... "Mime is money!" (Name the actor and movie this quote is from and win a prize!).
Anyway, thanks for helping a newbie out - can't wait to read all your great suggestions! Thanks again!
Now, I am TOTALLY new to DV, but, as my wife can attest, when I get into something I totally absorb it. We just got FiOs installed the day before Thanksgiving and got their multi-room DVR (first DVR for us). I know this isn't a DVR forum, but just trying to give you some background. Anyway, after filling the thing up in 3 days and ultimately learning it can't be (easily) expanded, I've already chucked it for a TiVo which is on the way which I will expand to 2TB. This got me interested in DVD ripping and streaming video around the house.
So, I've spent the last 4 days straight downloading and reading everything I can find on this subject. I have played with the following SW:
DVD Decrypter
DVD Shrink
DVD Fab5
Clone DVD2
Virtual Clone Drive
ffdshow
HandBrake
ImgBurn
K-Lite Codec Pack
AnyDVD
Tivo Desktop
(maybe others which I don't remember right now....)
Now... I have a pretty good handle on what all this stuff does. I'm actually ripping a DVD now!
I've reauthored some titles, compressed them, etc. My ultimate goal is to rip the DVD's, get rid of the physical media and stream them around the house either to my TiVo at each TV or using Slingbox or some Media server (still researching that... ) Now here's my question:I am getting SICK compression using the H.264 codec in Handbrake. I'm talking like 600MB for one of the kids 90 minute animated movies!! I can EASILY stream this over my wireless! BUT.... and here's the question (OK FINALLY!!)... Is there any way to use the H.264 codec and get the ridiculous kind of compression and yet still keep the whole DVD intact? In other words, keep the menus, the extras etc? I could make an ISO and mount it using Virtual Clone Drive for playback but I just can't seem to figure out how to do this and it's making me bonkers!! I have used DVD Shrink and DVD Clone 2 to reauthor, removing foreign audio, subtitles, previews etc. but keeping the main menu and extras but their temporal based compression just is NOWHERE NEAR what you get with H.264. I mean the 600MB movie above I tried to force to 1GB and DVD Clone 2 wouldn't even do it!! When I got to 2GB it worked but looked like S**T! Not that my kids would know, but I would. Plus, with about 500 DVD's, the difference in storage space starts to add up as well. AND streaming is MUCH slower... well we all know smaller is better.
Oh, one more thing. I'm doing all this on my POS laptop right now, Acer Aspire with Intel T2310 CPU and 1 GB RAM. I'm think of getting a dedicated video machine for doing all this conversion. Any suggestions?? I was thinking an Intel Core i7 CPU with 64 bit Vista? Anyone used any of this SW on 64 bit Vista? Any problems with any of them? Any smoking HW recommendations? I can't spend 2 - 3 hours per DVD ripping... I'll never finish!
According to CPU Benchmark (http://www.cpubenchmark.net) my T2310 running at 1.46GHz has a CPU Mark of 782 (http://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu_look...10+%40+1.46GHz) while the Core i7 920 is 6248 (http://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu_look...20+%40+2.67GHz) - about 9 TIMES faster. Of course, not sure how this will directly translate into encoding speed but it can't hurt... "Mime is money!" (Name the actor and movie this quote is from and win a prize!).Anyway, thanks for helping a newbie out - can't wait to read all your great suggestions! Thanks again!
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