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  1. Member
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    The last few years I've been filling a custom tower with .iso's from my DVD and Blu Ray collection. I've been ripping with AnyDVD/HD and rebuilding the BDs with BD Rebuilder down to either BD9s or BD 25s, depending on the movie, desired image quality, etc. But now I'm starting to wonder if I'm not being smart about this. I'm wondering if .iso's are too clunky and take up too much space and should I start ripping my DVDs/BDs to avi/mkv/etc?

    I'm toying around with the Xilisoft software but I don't know anything about ripping really.

    What's the best format to rip DVDs?(Movie only)
    What's the best format to rip BDs? (Movie only)
    What's the best software to use to rip?
    What's the best software to use to play? (Started toying with XBMC today).
    Do .iso's use too much space?

    Where do I begin?

    Thanks.
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  2. <<<<< Tools and guides are on the left. Pick a converter and experiment. Help...search box at the top of the page.
    Read a lot.
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  3. What do you mean by best? Best picture quality? Best compromise of file size and picture quality? Smallest file size?
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  4. It's probably a lost cause, but strictly speaking "ripping" means no more than copying to hard drive, and usually decrypting in the process.

    Anyway, the answer to your question depends on the capabilities of your hardware and what quality is acceptable to you.

    Personally, I make MKVs for the convenience of playing them direct from external hard drive on my HDTV. The TV will also play MP4, but that (and MKV) is just a container. The important thing is that the video be H264, whatever the container, at a maximum bitrate of 20 mbps. And that the TV recognizes the container. That's an example of what I mean by hardware constraints. So I use BDRebuilder, Alternate Output Mode, MKV at crf 20 (constant quality) and 640 kbps AC3 audio, which is good enough for my purposes. Or RipBot, same settings, if I want to hardcode any forced subtitles.

    BDRB may be a good place for you to start. There are other options you may explore under Alternate Output Mode. If you want to keep the quality of the original with no loss, you could use MakeMKV, which does not re-encode, it merely extracts main movie and puts it in the MKV container. Again, depends on your hardware and what quality you're willing to accept.

    Good luck.
    Pull! Bang! Darn!
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  5. Banned
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    To begin with, "Ripping" is merely transferring the contents of the DVD or BluRay to your Hard Drive minus the copy protection.
    Basically an EXACT copy, no more, no less.

    Originally Posted by Cyronaseez View Post
    Been Doing .iso but what's better?
    Nothing!!
    Nothing is better than the original full sized format.

    Originally Posted by Cyronaseez View Post
    What's the best format to rip DVDs?(Movie only)
    What's the best format to rip BDs? (Movie only)
    The only format you can rip to, the same format that is on the disc.

    Originally Posted by Cyronaseez View Post
    Do .iso's use too much space?
    ISO is just a container, again, if you are just "ripping" to an ISO/Image it will be the same size as the original disc.
    Unless you use something to compress the material, like DVDShrink or DVDFab to transcode a DL DVD to a SL DVD.
    Or reconvert as with BDRB or DVDRB.

    Originally Posted by Cyronaseez View Post
    What's the best software to use to rip?
    Anydvd or DVDFab, although i prefer DVDFab and it is cheaper & anydvd does not do anything more than DVDFab does.
    Now i assume you are again confusing "ripping" with "converting".

    Now to get into the whole thing about what is the best format to "Convert" to & how to go about it.....
    Well that could go into a 5000 word essay real fast!!!
    LOL!!

    Assuming you are going to be watching them on an HDTV, I have converted several 30+ gb Bluray's, movie only, to 8-11gb @ 1080p MKV's and they looked great on my 1080p 46" LED.

    I have used Handbrake most of the time and like it, and some like Ripbot.
    Although for a high quality conversion it takes some time on my system which is not meek by any means.

    Originally Posted by Cyronaseez View Post
    What's the best software to use to play?
    Well, if your doing movie only, anything that can play the MKV's, or whatever format you choose, would probably be fine.
    I have used VLC & MPCHC, but i do prefer TMT5, TotalMedia Theatre 5, but it is not free.
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  6. Mod Neophyte Super Moderator redwudz's Avatar
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    I would basically echo what transporterfan said. Try some different formats and see what works best for you. I like Handbrake for DVD conversion. I can convert from a DVD in one of my optical drives to around a 2GB MKV with 5.1 audio in about 24 minutes using the PC in my computer details. I use a constant quality setting of 19.5 and turn on the 'Decomb' filter. The resulting movie only file looks almost as good as the original DVD, but quite a bit smaller.

    For Blu-ray to MKV conversions, I use RipBot.
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  7. I use the x264 CLI encoder to make MKV files at CRF=18 (the lower the CRF, the higher the quality) and keep the original AC3 audio track from the DVD. I usually crop away any black borders but keep the pixel aspect ratio (ie, I don't resize to square pixel, I flag the AR in the h.264 stream and the container).
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  8. I'm a Super Moderator johns0's Avatar
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    You can rip and encode at the same time using dvdfab but you gotta pay for that,ripping to the hdd and then encodong is the best way,if you need to save on space then just get another hdd to store the finished video files.
    I think,therefore i am a hamster.
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  9. Member lacywest's Avatar
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    My thoughts ... a hard drive will fail ... it is a moving part and the flimsy USB connection is going to get wonky after awhile [I think that is happening to one of my external 500 GB hard drives or it is the power connection within the enclosure causing problems]

    If you got the money ... get yourself some plastic jewel cases and burn them movies to a format that will and can be played on a DVD Player or Blue Ray Player.

    The copy protection scheme Cinavia ... will probably screw up your ability to make copies to be played on a newer Blueray Player.

    Could use AutoGK and make some really nice AVI videos or mkv videos and also have 5.1 DD sound included and burn these to Blank DVDs and play them through your PC. This I can do right now ... here in the garage or on the PC in the bedroom but I've got the PC in the bedroom networked to the PC I'm currently on in the garage.

    Or get your self some extra external USB 2.0 or 3.0 ... tera bytes Hard Drives and put your movies on them and then power them down and stick them off to the side and keep them safe ... or hope the auto shut off features actually work and shut the internal hard drive down ... so they will last longer.

    Bottom line is ... Hard Drives will fail ... how you keep your video library a going ... is up to you. Squish them down to MKV videos and burn them to DVDs or keep them on hard drives.
    Last edited by lacywest; 8th Apr 2012 at 03:33.
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