Software selection

[Sinnocence]

Hi all,

I have finally gotten around to ripping my DVD box sets to the network for use with XBMC. I have a pretty decent system (SB i7 2600K, nVidia GTX 580, etc) but I'm having some difficulty in choosing/finding the 'right' software to use. I purchased Cyberlink MediaEspresso 6.5 to avail of both QuickSync and CUDA and while it is extremely fast (~3/4 mins to convert 90 min vob -> h264), and the quality is average/better, the lack of options is causing me a bit of a headache. In short you have minimal control of codecs/containers/resolution (which can mean some nasty cropping!) and the output filesize is appalling (that 90 mins, apparently regardless of bitrate, hits 2GB+).

I'm looking for something to handle decrypted vob -> xvid/h264 conversion, preferably utilising cuda/quicksync due to the performance boost.

I have just about enough knowledge to be dangerous so if I shouldn't be using QS/Cuda (some sites suggest random glitches/quality issues), or if I should be avoiding xvid/h264 in favour of something else, feel free to step in and call me an idiot... I'd rather hear it now than after I've converted all the dvds

Thanks in advance for any and all help,

Sinno

[redwudz]

You might try Handbrake. It's free and has quite a few options. Maybe not as fast as using CUDA or hardware assisted encoding, but much better quality, IMO.

I use quality based encoding at 19.5 with Handbrake and it takes about 20 - 25 minutes to encode to H.264 MKV with AC3 audio pass-through and the Decomb video filter set to default. File size varies depending on the DVD, but usually less than 2GB. It can also do batch encodes if you have more than one DVD player/burner. I just put together a PC for converting all my DVDs to MKV using four DVD drives and it encodes 4 DVDs per session to MKV.

But there is other software other members may recommend.

And welcome to our forums.

[aedipuss]

any frontend for x264 - handbrake, mediacoder, xmediarecode, etc.

[The Mariner]

I found Freemake Video Converter works fast & quite well for DVD -> h.264/mp3 MKV's. For minimum size, dual-pass encoding at just 750kbps/720x576 max. resolution/128k MP3 produces a watchable movie around 700Mb.

[Sinnocence]

I'll give Handbrake & Freemake a try and compare speed/quality.

Thanks for the information (and quick replies!)

[Sinnocence]

Just a quick update for anyone reading this in the future.

Freemake Video Converter worked remarkably well and was very easy to use. Some of the fields were misleading/unclear in their purpose (for example with a queue of files to convert, 1->1, the target filesize specifies the sum of all outputs not on an individual basis). Speed and quality are both very good. In a box set of 6 seasons I ended up with 1 decrypted vob per episode. Feeding these to Freemake the first 5 seasons worked perfectly. Freemake would not process Season 6 though - it indicated all episodes were 00/01 seconds long.

Handbrake was able to convert Season 6 without issue BUT it was significantly slower than Freemake.