questions regarding getting the best quality from converting VOB to WMV

[grannyklump]

I have several DVDs (scrubs TV show) in which i want to convert to WMV and put on my Vista Media Center to replay over the 360.

Anyhow, what are the recommended settings when converting video and keeping the best quality possible? I want the quality to match that of the DVD. Not really worried about HD space. I tried ripping them already with several programs listed here. however, i must have choose the wrong settings becuase the files were overly huge (i thought they are). the VOB for a 22min episode was 1gb...my WMV was over 2gb. Is that normal? If it is, i will roll with that.

thanks for the info
GK

[Baldrick]

You should be able to make it smaller than the vob with very good quality. What software are you using? I would use automkv or maybe make mp4 using xvid4psp.

[yoda313]

I use the pay software corel dvd copy 6. However my wmv destination is for my zune. I get good quality files at about 400-500mb for a 2 hour movie. This is at 320x240 resolution.

My suspicion is that the filesize will skyrocket for higher resolution and quality settings.

An alternative for your xbox 360 is to convert them to divx. Instead of using media center use tversity and stream your divx files that way. Unfortunately you have to use the media blade on the 360 rather than the slick interface of the media center. But you should have much more control over the quality settings on divx than wmv. And you can do the freeware more easily for divx - like virtualdub.

Just remember media center doesn't do divx natively. But the 360 does with the fall update from last year - just not inside the media center platform.

[grannyklump]

@Baldrick, i have used autoMKV in the past and honeslty its been so long i dont remember what tool i used to convert the few episodes i did do.

@yoda313, i want to stick with WMV for this purpose so i can use the media center interface via the 360 along with the embeded meta data.

If i went back with AutoMKV what settings would you suggest to get the best quality DVD experience? i want it to be just as good...no loss...if possible. at this point i am just converting over episodes of scrubs, so they are 4:3 ratio, no 5.1 audio.

thanks for your input!

GK