How to easily convert DVD to high quality MP4/MKV H264 using free tools

[creamyhorror]

The MPEG-4 codec is not H.264, by the way. I think it's MPEG-4 Part 2 (i.e. like DivX/XviD). But if it works for you, fine. You didn't fix the problem, you just avoided it by using an older and less efficient codec.

[Bonie81]

nice, illustrative and highly informative guide.
thanks!

[alec-wilson]

If you do all that, and type in the following in the advanced box, you will get great quality but it takes a LOOOONG time to convert, it took me 14 hours to convert "Bad Boys"(2 hours)(800mb), but it only took 3 hours for "Men who stare at gotes"(1.5 hours)(700mb), but it is so worth it!

[ABEZ]

I tried Handbrake but it doesn't support more than 2 audio tracks and it doesn't even allow me to pick which those two will be. I did a little search and apparently it is possible to use more than two tracks...but only through the command line interface, which is kind of retarded.

[yodasan]

Hi,
Handbrake(after a few trial experiments) works really good.
I tried the 0.9.4 version back last year, but never could get it
to work. I tried to find a newer version, but it seems that the
version I have is the most current.

I tried ripping a commercial DVD to H.264 mkv, but the only
presets were 'Apple', 'Regular', and 'Legacy', there was no
'High Profile' or 'Constant Quality Rate' options listed.
So, as an experiment, I clicked the 'Add' button under the
presets box, and typed in 'Constant Quality Rate', and it took it!

Handbrake took my de-crypted DVD and encoded it into 1.35GB file
just fine. The video and audio quality are fantastic...the same,
if not slightly better than the original.

I have just three questions:
1)why doesn't my handbrake show all the presets as listed in the
screen shots in this post? Does one have to 'add' them, as I did
with the 'Constant Quality Rate'?

2) Are there settings(video filters?, Video tab settings?, Advanced
tab settings?), that would give an even better quality picture?
I don't mind larger file sizes, even 3-4GB. I realize that you can't
really upscale a 720X480 picture(you only have that many pixels to work
with), but there might be settings to make the converted video LOOK
better.

3) Does handbrake work with de-crypted blue-ray files?

Thanks!

[prithvi]

useing Handbrake 0.9.5... really its awesomeeee .. and tfs for this tut

[devilduck]

Anybody know the settings used in Constant Quality mode? I don't have the version used in this guide. And how can I backup my dvds using Handbrake but in widescreen mode?

[jj_dk]

Nice and simple guide. I am very new to converting DVDs, so my apologies if my question is off target or answered elsewhere.

My objective is to convert a set of DVDs movie to MP4 files that I can put on my Windows Home Server. If there is another better route to, I am open to suggestions.

Anyway, I succesfully copied several DVDs to my HDD using DVDfab. But I am not able to produce full MP4 versions of the DVD movies using Handbrake 0.9.5 (from 2011). I can view the MP4 files that I get but they only contain parts of the movie. It seems like only parts of the titles and chapters are included, nor are menus included (one DVD has multiple movies on it).

Another question: Is there a way to get an icon/cover art associated with the MP4 file?

Thanks in advance