Some advice for archiving my movies, please...

[NOOK]

Hello there

I've been searching literally the whole internet but I can't seem to find an definite answer. I want to convert my 200+ DVD collection to DivX/XviD/X264 for use in my HTPC. What software would one recommend to suit my needs:

• Full horizontal resolution of 720 pixels (except for those with small black bars left and right, these should be cropped of, so 704 pixels if there are 8 pixels of black on the sides).
• Original aspect ratio should be kept.
• 1400 MByte per movie, 2100 for very long movies.
• 2x AC3 sound (direct stream copy), one for the original sound, one for the german dubbing.
• Best possible quality
• Decent encoding speed on a C2D.
• Stand-alone compatibility.
• Not a bunch of 500 different programs but (at best) all-in-one.

I know this is a lot, but that's what I actually need. So thanks in advance for any recommendations

Cheers!

[gonwk]

Hi NOOK,

Use AutoGK 2.55 to convert your DVDs to XviD.

http://www.autogk.me.uk/

- For Highest Resolution use 1GB per Hour rule.
- For Fairly High Resolution and no-brainer and Space Saver use from 1.0 to about 1.2GB total for the average length Movie (vs what you see for AVIs ... usually 700MB ... too low for my taste). Use 1.5GB for longer than 2+ hours.

DO some tests and see what set up you prefer ... Post back your result and feedback.

G!

[NOOK]

Hi

Thanks for your reply. AutoGK actually is the only program I've already tried. I converted Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz from my DVD-Set with it.

Now, the problem was: Both are stated as 2,35:1 Anamorph on the case. Though I got two different output resolutions: 720x304 (Hot Fuzz) and 720x320 (SotD). While watching the movies from DVD, SotD had some black bars on the left and on the right, these got cropped by AutoGK. I chose "fixed width 720" before encoding these movies, so I asume that AutoGK cropped the input file (resulting in a file that's less then 720 pixels wide) and upscaled/stretched it then from something like 704 to 720 pixels.

I'm looking for a solution that really keeps the original resolution of the movie (not the black bars). Is there any way to do this in AutoGK?

Besides this, I was very pleased with quality/speed of AutoGK, took me about 1,5 hours - 2 hours to convert a movie.

I am now trying StaxRip with x264 which has already been encoding for about 3 hours now ... 1 hour left.

Thanks!

Edit: Is there actually something like too much quality? I wanted to use 1,4 Gigs for pretty much every movie I have and 2,1 gigs for 2,5 + hours.

[NOOK]

Ok, I ran a test with StaxRip now. 2100 MB for Hot Fuzz. Quality looks hella better than the AutoGK 1400 MB XviD. Does AutoGK keep the anamorphic aspect from the source? I guess thats something good, isn't it?

[gonwk]

...Edit: Is there actually something like too much quality? I wanted to use 1,4 Gigs for pretty much every movie I have and 2,1 gigs for 2,5 + hours.

I don't think so ... since you are taking the Master and Re-encoding it to smaller file size.

As far as another application ... if you like StaxRip ... then try MeGUI ... similar concept but it continue to be updated ... where StaxRip, I believe is not being actively updated anymore!

Please post back your result!

G!

[MilesAhead]

@gonwk if you're using MeGUI it must work in Vista64 then right? I've never tried it. Seems like anything I can remember that used Mencoder tried to make the output way too small/too low bitrate. But I haven't tried that many.

[gonwk]

@ Miles,

I haven't messed around with it for awhile ... but since Nook liked Stax ... I thought may be he would enjoy MeGUI ... also/may be!

G!