DVD->WMV to 360

[Helltrain]

Ok, I have seen this topic on other sites with no really good solutions. When I came across the Media Center PC forum on video help, I figured this would be the best place to get some good answers.

I want to convert my DVDs to WMV so I can stream them from my MCE machine to my XBOX 360. WMV seems to be the format that the 360 will natively support. I want a solution that is fairly simple, i.e. tweak some setting initially and have a few mouse clicks for each DVD after that. I want to retain as much of the picture quality as possible. I want to retain the 5.1 channel surround.

What are the best solutions that people have come across (software and settings)?

[whaT2k]

i do the same thing; my solution:

AnyDVD - to disable protection
DVDCopy - to convert DVD to WMV

or use any DVDripper(DVDFab Decrypter) to rip the DVD to HD
and then use Windows Media Encoder to convert the .VOB to WMV

i use the following settings for WMV profile:
it's about 900mb for each movie; but it's seems to be the best for a 61in TV

Audio encoding mode:	CBR
Video encoding mode:	CBR

 Audio codec:          Windows Media Audio 9.2
Audio format:         96 kbps, 44 kHz, stereo CBR
 Video codec:          Windows Media Video 9
Video bit rate:       1389 Kbps
Video size:           480 x 200
Frame rate:           29.97 fps
Key frame:            4 s
Image quality:        80
Buffer size:          5 s

Two-pass encoding enabled.

[stryker412]

What are the advantages of using WMV over MPG? I use my 360 to watch my rips but I keep them in mpg format. Just curious.

[Helltrain]

AFAIK, it is a more efficient method of compression. That is you get more video quality per megabyte. I have also read that if you are going to stream to the 360 you are going to run into fewer problems with stuttering/freezing/locking up with WMV than MPEG2. I think of it as being similar to DivX. Toms Hardware Guide did a comparison between the two formats and the best quality settings with whatever he was using, WMV had better picture quality than DivX, but with a larger file size. I do think that he was comparing the HD formats of each though. I'll try to dig this up and post it later.

[stryker412]

Interesting, I've never encountered any issues using MPG. I guess I should try doing a wmv to see the file size difference.

[Helltrain]

Here's the articel I was talking about:

http://www.denguru.com/2006/07/05/hd_encoding_face_off/

Also, on the MyMovies website, the developer says that WMV is the best way to go:

http://www.mymovies.name/documentation/xbox360extender.aspx

[stryker412]

The first article you posted talks about WMV-HD, which I agree is the best for the 360.

The second article states:

"Transcoding the main movie to WMV including 5.1 channel audio. This is currently the only stable working solution, and it does take up a long time. You will loose extra material, multiple audio tracks, subtitles, ect., and a transcoding process always degrades the quality some."

This was posted before the 360 even came out. It seems according to this that there really aren't any differences between MPG and WMV.

[Helltrain]

It seems according to this that there really aren't any differences between MPG and WMV.

I am not trying to start an argument as to which format is better, I am merely asking for ways to encode to WMV and programs and settings that work well for people. Granted, DVDs are basically in MPEG2 format. You can rip the .vob files and merge them into one single MPEG2 file. At this point you can either keep the resulting file the way it is, you can compress the MPEG2 file by decreasing the quality, or you can compress it by converting it to a WMV file. I for one would rather keep the video quality and compress by converting to a more efficient format. I guess you could also convert to DIVX and use Transcode 360 to transcode on the fly. Since I have not converted any of my DVDs yet it seems pointless to go to DIVX when it will just waste energy in the long run (transcoding on-the-fly) and if the comparison between WMV-HD and DIVX-HD is any indication, you would think WMV would be just as good as DIVX anyway. Maybe some of my assumptions are incorrect, I admit that I am not an expert on any of this. If this is the case I can start another thread where we can debate it. I'd like to try to keep this thread to just being about programs and settings that people use to stream files to the 360 from MCE 2005. If you would like to share the method that you do use, I would definitely be interested.

[Helltrain]

I started another thread, check it out here.

[stryker412]

It seems according to this that there really aren't any differences between MPG and WMV.

I am not trying to start an argument as to which format is better

I wasn't trying to have an argument either. Sorry if it seemed that way.

The current method I use is DVD-->VOB using DVDshrink. I like to take out everything but the movie and soundtrack. Then I take the vob->mpg using VideoRedo Plus.

I might have to try that the WMV method just to save space.

[Helltrain]

Ok, I bought a copy of TMPGenc Xpress 4 and I am currently testing settings to get them the way I want them. Does anyone have any recommendations or settings? I found a guide here, but it was made for pal and is based off of the old version 3. I have used it as a starting point but it seems to not be ideal so far. If someone has experience with this program I'll post some settings and see if you can give me some recommendations.

[djbri2]

I used a dvd9 disk shrunk it with dvd-shrink (specified 1 large vob on the hard drive). Then used Winavi 7.7. It took like 5..6 hours to make the final WMV. I copied it to my media center shared folder I share with xbox 360 vids. The file played on the 360 flawlessly. Quality could of been better but it worked. If anyone has an all in one solution this would be great. This method was time consuming. I may use it make a few more movies worth watching but a faster solution is needed...be nice to see movies uploaded in torrents just for this purpose..

maybe some nice free HD clips to play on 360 too..nvidia has a few..microsoft has a few nice ones too. I am looking for more...