Encoding VOB Files or DVD's To Mpeg 4

[PerpetualOmega]

Hello,

Im hoping someone has some advice for me please.

I have somewhat 1500 original (and legal) DVD movies that are taking up at lot of space, im looking into setting up a video server to stream any choosen movie to the TV, and also as Warner Bros and Universal are planning "Download to keep" films this is something i want to do.
am i right in saying the the Mpeg4/10 (H.264) is the best (its what quicktime use) encoding at the moment?......and back to the point....what is the best way/software to encode DVD's from disc or vob files into mpeg4 (H.264)

Freeware software is ok but id rather pay for quality software. does software these days up convert to HD1 or HD2 or is it hardware that is needed?

so i hope to put all DVD's on HDD and place DVD's into storage should a RAID 5 fail. i looked into just having VOB files on the HDD but this would mean 5-9GB of space per film....not a chance!

i have read the guide but that only encodes to x264 which is a lower standard then i was after.

I hope to using Power DVD 6 as the player.

Hope someone can offer advice, thanks

Perp

[futurex]

yes AVC compresses better than anything else. the guide posted here isnt the best way, use the x264 codec, and MeGUI to automate the process. YAMB to mux streams.

but that only encodes to x264 which is a lower standard then i was after.

at time of writing nothing beats the output quality/compression ratio of x264 (maybe other than ateme, but its unreleased, and they're quite close anyway)

[PerpetualOmega]

so whats the difference between x264 and H.264 please?

[futurex]

H264 is a standard, x264 is a codec based on that standard (well technically just an encoder, it doesnt contain the decoder)

there are other H264 codecs like nero, elecard, etc

[PerpetualOmega]

im thanking you for your time.

lets just say im lazy and a n00b when it comes to codecs and encoding, my wallet is full and id like a GUI program to simplfy things.....are there any payware softwares available,

(I have Nero7 is this only playable through the Nero video player?)

thx

perp

[futurex]

i urge you not to spend cash on this. freeware doesn't mean effort, try 'staxrip' for example. in this case freeware is vastly superior to payware in quality and definitely tech support, trust me

save the cash and buy your significant other a nice gift instead

[PerpetualOmega]

ok thx, i try and make my way trought the guide...i just found it a bit confusing...and that was the first sentence.