Encoding Video

[manicjonah]

I hope to start backing my Blu Ray collection to my HTPC. I would rather pay for hard drive space than completely compromise the quality of my video files but I'm not so crazy that I want to copy the full Blu Ray disk to my computer.

I thought I would rip the disks to an MKV file but am finding that there are a number of things I need to consider that I wasn't aware of. The only things I can think to ask right now are:

What frame rate should I be targeting?
Should I be concerned with Chroma? What's a good setting?
What's the best color space?

Super newb questions, I know. Just trying to get started figuring this stuff out. In the audio world 192kbps has been generally accepted as like/near CD quality sound. Not in my world. I rip CDs using Lame VBR presets for high quality or download 320kbps CBR files - and this is only for use in my MP3 player. I play FLAC on my home system. I'd like to maintain the same kind of standard with video files.

Thanks for your help and insights.

MJ

[lowellriggsiam]

Try using makemkv. It does a straight transfer of the video/audio/subtitles with no conversion.

[zoobie]

Considering a 1tb HDD for $50, you could simply copy each 25gb disc complete with it's extras and audio and have 40 Blu-ray discs per HDD without any quality loss
Maybe you should be crazy...

[budwzr]

I hope to start backing my Blu Ray collection to my HTPC. I would rather pay for hard drive space than completely compromise the quality of my video files

So your HTPC can play BD disc images?

[manicjonah]

Not sure if the HTPC plays Blu Ray images but it plays MKV's just fine. I don't have a Blu Ray disk image yet to know. Copying the Blu Ray disk doesn't sound like a bad idea. If I rip it to MKV what settings should I shoot for to get a near perfect copy?

[bananae]

I take it that you're using x264 for the video encoding. Correct me if I'm wrong about that.

With x264, bitrates between 5000 and 7000kbps for 720p and between 9000 and ~11000kbps for 1080p usually provide decent results. Unless you're aiming for a specific filesize, I wouldn't use bitrate-"oriented" encoding but crf (constant rate factor). This will result in files with a less predictable size, but more constant image quality. (Better explanation: https://trac.handbrake.fr/wiki/CRFGuide ) Settings between 18 and 22 seem reasonable, but you might want to compare different settings yourself. Also, not every tool allows you to make all those settings.

Unless you know what you're doing, you usually better leave the chroma settings alone.

Why are you asking about color space? Usually you don't really need to worry about that, or the tool converts everything to YV12 automatically.

Edit: Oh, you said frame rate. I somehow understood bitrate. Therefore, ignore my post, unless it's still of use to you.

[jagabo]

What frame rate should I be targeting?

The same as your source.

Should I be concerned with Chroma? What's a good setting?

The same as your source.

What's the best color space?

The same as your source. But pretty much all high compression codecs use YV12.

Forget bitrate when encoding. Use a constant quality mode like x264's CRF mode. Run a few test encodes to see what quality is acceptable to you. Encode all your videos at that setting. You'll always get the same picture quality (relative to the source -- ie, no quality setting will make the picture better than the source) and the file size will come out to whatever is necessary to achieve that quality. Try CRF 18. Lower if you want higher quality, higher if you can live with lower quality.

[lily31]

Hi

I use Blu-ray to MKV I like it very much, it has nice quality settings, though the conversion can last a while.
program by VSO Software

[fritzi93]

One way to do it:

1) Rip to hard drive with AnyDVDHD, DVDFabPassKey, DVDFab (or the free portion thereof, DVDFabHDDecrypter).

2) Re-encode with BDRB, alternate movie-only output, MKV Container, 1920x1080 with either intact audio or 640 kps 5.1 AC3. Try the default CRF of 20, then 18 as jagabo suggests, or lower.

3) The result will play nicely with the free MPCHC with original chapter marks and selectable subtitles if desired (make sure any subs you want they aren't de-selected before re-encoding). If you go for BD/AVCHD output, you'll need a player that will do menus, chapters, etc, and none are free. PowerDVD is rather poor, IMO, TMT is the only really good player for BD/AVCHD.

Good luck.

[EDIT] With your CPU, you're looking at overnight encodes. If you'd rather not do that, then maybe MakeMKV is what you want, decrypter and MKV repackager in one. You'll need substantial hard drive space, of course.