Looking for Help and Hints.

[butch881]

Good morning to all.
I do not know if I can call myself a (newbie) but I sur feel like one.
Here's my story.

I have a collection of over 3000 DVD that I wanted to transfers into avi or Divx. As I want TOP quality I do not mind paying for the program like I did for those DVD.

Once convert, I donload them onto a 2T external Hard Drive and connected to a (OPlay R3) that can read and transfers directly to the TV.
As I am French and that DVD comes out 95% of the time bilingual I like to keep them as is (French & English).

Over 600 were converted so far using those purchased program:

1- CloneDVD (For ripping)
2- DIVX Converter Pro
3- AVS Video Converter 6

DIVX Converter Pro allow me to keep both language in the transformed Divx excepted when a DVD was build using (angles). I then use AVS Video Converter and make a French & English copies.

As I am using real DVD and not internet copies I do not understand those problem that affect about 5 to 10% of those converted:

1 - Some of the movies are acting weird near the end of the movie. Like in slow motion.

2 - Some of the movies are out of sync near the end of the movies. Remaning 20-30 minutes.

Is there a French proof software that could do a better job?
Like I said earlier I do not mind paying.
Looking for peace of mind when converting those.

My Computer info:
i7 920
Window 7
12 gig ram
2 x 2 T hard drives

Hoping my English make sense.

Thanking you all for your help.

Butch

[dr_ml422]

Welcome! I don't know about the subtitles, though I use this:

http://www.digital-digest.com/articles/MeGUI_H.264_Conversion_Guide_page1.html

It's free and excellent once you get a feel for it. It will convert into any format mostly and in H.264. There's Guides that accompany it for playback w/the PS3/Xbox 360 etc...

Just follow the Guides verbatim and you should be fine. However I have no idea what the French are doing regarding DVDs etc... There's a new article in the Latest News section on that. Check it out.

[MilesAhead]

AutoGK will let you convert a DVD Title to an .avi file keeping more than one audio track. Where it can get difficult is dealing with subtitles. But it has some advantages. It will Autocrop so that many of those "letterboxed" DVD movies will come out as true 16x9 .avi. Also it produces very good results in one pass. Just set the quality to about 92%.

But dr_ml422 is right that .mkv is the new wave. Better looking video at lower bit rates. If you want to zip through your collection, can play .mkv, and don't mind shelling out for lots of HDs, take a look at MakeMKV. It doesn't reencode, just remuxes. Doesn't save a lot of space but it's very fast. It can save a DVD title to a single .mkv file with as many audio and subtitle tracks as the title has.

[dr_ml422]

@ Miles Are you using AutoGK in compatibility mode in 7 and Vista? Last I saw it wasn't updated in a while.

@ butch MeGUI also autocrops and also does the multiple audio. The subtitle does get tricky though I think Admin has a guide for adding subtitles to .AVI files.

If you want near DVD quality for .mp4 you can either use the bitrate calculator in Megui and put in 1100. It will automatically tell you the output file size and you put that in at the end. 1100kbs. is about what it does so the final file will look very good if not great. Only thing is .MP4 has a 4GB limit on file size. Use same as above for .MKV. Just change container at end before encoding.

I saw that MakeMKV some where. Maybe here. Most players now are hardwired for .mkv so better to start now. For PS3 just use mkv2vob and that will create a VOB file that plays on the PS3.

I had to rip 300 in Main Movie Mode Full Disc after 3 trys trying to figure out what audio and what video went where. It came out crisp. I just loaded all the audio files. Let the standalone or w/e pick which one it needs.

File size is better as it will adjust the bitrate as needed, though a lot of my 1st encodings I just used Bitrate and still got very good results. Had plenty of guinea pig flics to play with.

[butch881]

Thank you all for your info.
I will read and trial some program.

As for MKV file.
The first time I tough about converting my DVD into AVI or DIVX was at the hospital.
Having to spend 4 hr per day, 3 times per week for dialysis (kidney problem) carrying my laptop and DVD was an additional pain in the butt.

So I bought a portable DVD players (Sony DVP-FX955) which as a USB drive and is DIVX Certified. It can play using any hard drive format in (FAT 32) and take any converted DVD I which.

So if my mood change for a comic (Lucky Luke, Astérix etc.) or an oldies (Dirty Harry, star Treck etc.) it is easy to do with more than 350 file in my Verbatime 500 gig.

That's why I want to keep a format that will work with everything.

I never keep subtitle but try to keep both language (English and French) in case there is a lot of talking. My English is ok for movie like (Rambo,Terminator etc.) but have a hard time with movie like (The good Shepherd, Patriot Games etc.).

Thanks for your info and keep it coming, I am still learning !

Butch

[MilesAhead]

@dr_ml422 AutoGK works fine on W7 out of the box. It was updated Feb. 2009. The xvid is multi-threaded and can create a good one pass .avi very quickly. On Butch's PC probably in half the run time of the movie.

Version 2.55:

http://www.videohelp.com/tools/AutoGK

@butch881 if it must be standard def .avi and you don't need subs then I would definitely try AutoGK. Try one pass mode(just set quality to 90 or 92%) and see how the output looks. If you need better quality then any other setting other than quality percentage will use 2 pass. Load the main movie into it and check off the tracks you want to keep and hit go. It's nearly fool proof and gives a percentage progress as it runs. I have a couple of Philips dvp 5990(UltraDivx certified) with the USB port and I have no problem playing AutoGK created .avi files.

[butch881]

Thanks for the info

I will give it a try.

Thanks again for your time.