please help. its been months and i have not gotten a straight answer!!!!!!

[donburkard@temple]

i built a new computer about two months ago (plenty of speed, space, and power). the new computer is hooked directly into my reciever and out to my projector for my home theater. I have hundreds and hundreds of legal purchased movies and tv shows. i have 820 gigs of hard drive space so i am good on space for a while. now here is where i have been running into a problem, can someone please tell me how to put my dvds on the computer so i can view them from there? i need it to work just like a regular dvd player and have the quality that comes with one too. i also have a large cd collection and i have been using itunes for that and i couldnt be happier. is there something out there similar to i tunes or even itunes ( to view them)? everyone has a different answer so now i have about ten different programs on my computer, some for veiwing, some for ripping, etc. i dont mind spending the money but im kinda sick of spending it on stuff that doesnt work properly. please tell me you have some answers! some one, anyone! i have been using magic dvd ripper(freeware). it works, but the files are massive, several gigs(3-7gigs) and im ok with that if i have to be but id prefer if there was a program like itunes that "sucked the dvd out" put it in a neat little program, shrunk it(but kept the quality) and let me play it easily. And buy the way i have looked all thru the forums and havent found one that answers my questions in laymins terms. thank you so much in advance

[jagabo]

Rip with DVD Decryptor or some other ripper. Convert (compress) with AutoGK, Nero Recode.

[redwudz]

You will probably get a lot of different answers because there are a lot of ways to do it. jagabo's method is one of the easiest that will still give you good quality with a smaller filesize and good control over the settings. Another easy to use program is FairUse Wizard.

I use the Xvid codec and make them about 900MB and they look fine on my projector. If you want more quality, raise the bitrate (And the size) to up about 1500MBs.

For players, I use Zoom or VLC, but there are others that work well. I store them on a video server in the back room with 2TB of storage space and send them over a LAN connection to my HTPC computer and projector in the front room.

Other questions, just ask.

And welcome to our forums.

[Soopafresh]

And remember, Don - like building something from IKEA, the first one will take a long time to do because you're learning how to do it, then the second one less time, and so on.

[dlflannery]

Don, Consider AutoMKV (free, see tools). Quoting from a recent guide (linked from tool listing) "You can convert directly from a commercial DVD because AutoMKV will automatically rip the DVD". AutoMKV will produce most of the popular mpeg4 compressed formats/containers. One of the quides (for Zune WMV conversions) gives detailed instructions for installing it. The other one tells how to pull from DVD.

[donburkard@temple]

thanks everyone but now i have even more questions. i looked into the divx thing, downloaded the divx converter, player and codec pack. i got all that installed and tried it and was not that impressed. then i looked into the divx websit and saw pro. first question is does pro make a real difference or is the free version ok? second is how can i convert my movies into divxHD files and is it even worth it? i saw a trailer for the movie 300 in divxHD and first of all, DAMN that movies looks awsome, second the file was about 300mb but the quality was supurb. thoughts on that....?

[SCDVD]

One advantage of Divx over Xvid is that you can have menus with the newest Divx versions.

[donburkard@temple]

i read that somewhere else as well but i cant seem to get them. just the main movie is coming out in the end. also with that converter (from divx's website) the hd quality is really not all that hd. so let me get this straight.... there is this website and more than likely at least 5000 others just like it and no one has come up with a simple program that coes it all like itunes does for cd's?

[donburkard@temple]

Sorry. also what does any one know about video vault and icopydvds2? i have video vault and to be quite honest i dont really virtue in it at all.

[Cornucopia]

AUDIO DOES NOT EQUAL VIDEO

So...
Audio bandwidth and storage requirements are much less than Video bandwidth and storage requirements.
Audio sampling and storage understanding is much simpler than Video sampling and storage understanding.
Audio encoding options/complexity is much less than Video encoding options/complexity.
Audio AUTHORING options (aka itunes, CDBurning, etc) is much less work than Video AUTHORING options.

You'll have to do some of the brainwork and mouseclicking yourself...


But with help from this site, and using good freeware tool suites (like AutoGK) you can encode quite good quality DivX/Xvid, and then you can author using DivXAuthor (that new Pegasys/TMPGEnc one).


Scott

[Cornucopia]

Here's part of the problem

From the OP...

shrunk it(but kept the quality)

This is impossible. It's aready shrunk by probably 50 or 100:1. You want it shrunk a FURTHER 5 or 10:1 and expect it to look as good?

BTW, when iTunes shrinks your CD tracks to mp3/m4a/aac it doesn't keep the quality either.

Scott

[j1d10t]

AUDIO DOES NOT EQUAL VIDEO

So...
Audio bandwidth and storage requirements are much less than Video bandwidth and storage requirements.
Audio sampling and storage understanding is much simpler than Video sampling and storage understanding.
Audio encoding options/complexity is much less than Video encoding options/complexity.
Audio AUTHORING options (aka itunes, CDBurning, etc) is much less work than Video AUTHORING options.

Couldn't have said it better myself. I was going to post something along those lines, but you beat me to it

Don needs to understand that there is no simple/easy answer. There are many, many answers out there, but not all of them wil work for every situation. I think Divx/Xvid are probably your best options, but what I find suitable/reasonable might not work for you. You have to take the time to explore all your option, then decide which one works for you, and not expect the first thing you try to be perfect.

[Soopafresh]

Don, try out AutoGK . That was one of the first DVD to Xvid Converters I started with and I'm still impressed by the quality.

[jagabo]

If you want more compression than you can get with Divx or Xvid, try h.264. You can shrink to about half the size as Divx or Xvid with about the same quality. Nero Recode 2, x264, etc. It takes much more horsepower to encode and decode though.

[Electrox3d]

If you want more compression than you can get with Divx or Xvid, try h.264. You can shrink to about half the size as Divx or Xvid with about the same quality. Nero Recode 2, x264, etc. It takes much more horsepower to encode and decode though.

And if you go this way, you should be able to use iTunes to sort through your movies as well... iTunes accepts H.264 video's in its library.

[donburkard@temple]

ok i think i got half of it so far, my bad buy the way, im a moron. i was looking in the wrong spot for the divx files that i had converted. i found them and the quality and size are good... no great. so that is takin care of. Magic dvd ripper or dvd shrink for the ripping, both work fine. divx converter for the conversion. now the only thing left is a player. im not a real fan of divx player, winamp, videovault(P.O.S.), and does anyone have any knowledge about quiktime? are there any plugins that will allow me to play divx files thru it? and yes i get audio is less intense and keep in mind i dont mind paying a few bucks for stuff and im new to this stuff so take it easy . if it works and people like it than why not get some doe in someones pocket?
ps. i know how much of a pain in the a s s ive been but believe me i appreciate all your help. all of you. you have no clue how much ive learned over the last month. the hardware is easy its the software that throws me way out of wack.

[redwudz]

If you really need to play Qucktime, I would look into Quicktime Alternative. It uses Media Player Classic and avoids a lot of the Qucktime 'stuff'. RealAlternative uses MPC also and works similarly.

For a general, all around, plays most anything, VLC Media Player does most all of it. I like Zoom Player Pro for it's options. All except for Zoom Player Pro are freeware and Zoom does have a freeware version.

[Cornucopia]

IIRC, to be able to play DivX in (real)QTplayer (not alternative), you actually would install 3ivX, as it might be the only option that includes a MP4 (ASP) codec in a QT component that's available for Windows.

Of course, if you've already installed DivX on a PC (which would include DivXPlayer, codec, etc), you should be able to play 'em in WMP, MPC, VLAN, etc.

Scott