Movies on hard drive (looking for better method)

[Brehmstein]

Howdy,

I travel a lot for my work and my laptop is one of those that has an external DVD drive. Because I do not like to carry the extra weight, I have started ripping and shrinking movies on my hard drive to watch while I am away.

Right now I simply use DVD shrink to rip and transcode the movie only. Because I am watching this on a 13 inch laptop screen and using headphones to listen to the audio, the highest quality is not needed (I commonly reduce the main movie with shrink by 50%). I then use VLC to play the iso image. This process takes about 1 hour to encode (with deep analysis).

I was hoping to find a method that either reduced the time required or did not take any longer but resulted in a smaller file size.

Any recommendations, would be appreciated.

PS: I am cheap, so freeware solutions are ideal.

PSS: I also don't want solutions that run over night... desired total time 1-2 hours.

[bugster]

Don't know how long it will take, depends on settings, but try encoding to xvid for MUCH smaller file sizes.

[SLK001]

PS: I am cheap, so freeware solutions are ideal.

PSS: I also don't want solutions that run over night... desired total time 1-2 hours.

You want your cake and want to eat it too.

My solution would be to get a larger harddrive, and just rip the movies to the drive. Surely you aren't limited by harddrive space (unless it is a company computer, in which case you shouldn't be putting any non-business material on it!).

[ozymango]

Well, it ain't exactly cheap but it's not too expensive ... but it fits all your other requirements so I'll give a plug for Nerovision Express which contains Nero Recode, it's an add-on if you already have a recent version of Nero (what's Nero sell for nowadays, $99 list, about $60-70 on sale?).

Nero Recode (which some people have problems with but it's worked great for me), if you select the Nero Digital (file type) option, can shrink an mpeg2 file by an astounding amount -- take a 4.5gb file down to 700mb. And it's still watchable, especially on a laptop! It turns it into a (proprietary?) mp4 file that you can watch with the included Nero Showtime player, dunno if the Nero mp4 codec works with other players (you can sort of use QuickTime to watch a Nero mp4 video but the picture tends to break up at random moments, not recommended).

And as already mentioned, there are several ways to shrink movies using other free apps, but if you have a few $$$ to spare this is a pretty painless way to do it. Good luck!

[sholmes202]

Try using a transcoder like Fair Use. It takes a while to rip your file but it usually yields file sizes of under 700 MB!

Holmes

[reboot]

Get virtualdubmod and DivX or XviD.
Open the video, select compression, select bitrate, save avi.

[jameshgross]

Turn off deep analysis in DVDSHRINK. that will speed things up.

[negon]

I'd just convert to DivX or Xvid using one of the fine tools available in the Convert section here.

[D.A.R.J.R.]

I just converted Shrek 2 to a 300mb Nero Digital file and it looks great for 300mb. I think Nero Digital is one of the best codecs ever. I cant wait to get a player that plays the files.

[shelbyGT]

I think one or so already do, darjr

[Donny661]

Auto Gordian Knot (AGK or AutoGK) would probably be the best solution. It's not faster than using DVD Shrink, but the quality will probably be better and the filesizes much smaller, so you wouldn't have to delete and rerip any movies later on. It uses XviD, which give similar quality to the NeroDigital some people have mentioned. Oh, and by the way, it's free!! There is a good guide at Doom9; it mentions that the newer AGK installs some spyware, but it tells you how to get rid of it.

[reboot]

There's nothing AGK can do that vdubmod and xvid can't do easier. You also get the option of filtering and resizing the saved video if you want.

Nero Recode 2 does work well. I think there might already be just 1 or 2 programs that will play those files

[jimmalenko]

There's nothing AGK can do that vdubmod and xvid can't do easier. You also get the option of filtering and resizing the saved video if you want.

AutoGK is easier IMO. True you don't have total control over everything, but you have control over enough things to get typically decent results without requiring an advanced knowledge of anything.

[Donny661]

I know virtualdubmod gives you more options, but for someone who doesn't want to spend a lot of time learning it, AutoGK is MUCH simpler.

[presto]

I agree with the idea of turning off the deep analysis in DVDShrink. It doesn't make much of a difference in the result but adds a lot to the time.

Do any of the other methods suggested result in a "DVD" with menus that can be played on your hard drive? For instance is there such a thing as a Divx video with with working menus? Is there ANY other format besides DVD that will act like a DVD in the way I am suggesting?

I'm not saying that is necessary for the needs of this poster, I'm just asking if there is such a thing.

[jimmalenko]

Do any of the other methods suggested result in a "DVD" with menus that can be played on your hard drive? For instance is there such a thing as a Divx video with with working menus? Is there ANY other format besides DVD that will act like a DVD in the way I am suggesting?

I'm led to believe there is for DivX, but DivX only, in terms of menus on settop DVD players, that is. I don't really know a lot about it myself, but I have seen it mentioned here over the last few weeks and months. I believe that it is still in experimental / beta phase though.

As for menus that will work on a PC, it's actually quite easy to whip up a HTML page that acts like a menu - all you need is some boot loader software to launch the html (if you want it to auto-open on insert, otherwise just instruct user to double-click the HTML file), and then include the Media Player Classic EXE file on the CD/DVD and you can make yourself a menu. I have a working sample at home (at work ATM) that I could make available if you want to take a look

[Skith]

As for menus that will work on a PC, it's actually quite easy to whip up a HTML page that acts like a menu - all you need is some boot loader software to launch the html (if you want it to auto-open on insert, otherwise just instruct user to double-click the HTML file), and then include the Media Player Classic EXE file on the CD/DVD and you can make yourself a menu. I have a working sample at home (at work ATM) that I could make available if you want to take a look

I would be very interested in seeing such a sample file (not only for the video apsect, but also for HTML).

[jimmalenko]

I'll upload the files when I get home from work in about 5 hours

[jimmalenko]

I'll upload the files when I get home from work in about 5 hours

BUMP ...


Only took me 8 days but the files are now uploaded ...

http://members.dodo.net.au/~jimmalenko/Autorun_Movie_Only.zip
http://members.dodo.net.au/~jimmalenko/Autorun_With_Menu.zip

Please note that the movie files contained within these samples are just black screens muxed with audio - so if it appears that there's no picture in the samples, don't be alarmed - that's intentional

All you need to do is burn all files within the ZIP file to a Data CD to test it.

[Bob W]

Here is a program that will reduce a 100 minute movie down to as low as 400MB for viewing on a pocket PC or laptop.
http://www.pocketgear.com/software_detail.asp?id=14059

[Skith]

I'll upload the files when I get home from work in about 5 hours

BUMP ...

Only took me 8 days but the files are now uploaded ...

(j/k)

Please note that the movie files contained within these samples are just black screens muxed with audio - so if it appears that there's no picture in the samples, don't be alarmed - that's intentional

All you need to do is burn all files within the ZIP file to a Data CD to test it.

A big huge "Thank You"
to you Jim, although I probably won't have time to look/try this untill next weekend...

[jimmalenko]

np