Best tool for ripped DVD to WMV for Media Center?

[opelap]

I am trying to convert DVDs to WMV to play on my Xbox 360 through Media Center. I want to browse by cover art in My Movies so using the video library is not ideal. I could leave them as MPG, but would really like to reduce their size if I could.

I am running Vista 64 and have tried a number of tools but not one has successfully encoded the entire movie so it will play. They either do not work at all, do not encode the entire file, or the resulting file will not play.

Has anyone found a foolproof method to convert to WMV? If so, what are the settings you used?

[Baldrick]

It would help if you told us what tools you have tried.

The only all-in-one dvd to wmv tool that worked decent for me was automkv. But I have no idea if it works under vista 64bit.

But do you really need wmv? Because doesn't the xbox 360 support avi divx/xvid or mp4 h264 since the upgrade some months ago?

[opelap]

Not through Media Center, the codecs supported are different. Stupid I know but it is what it is.

I have tried SUPER, Quick Media Converter, VLC with a batch file, TMPG (trial version), Nero Vision.

Missed AutoMKV, so I will try that next.

Thanks

[mh2360]

Windows 7 might be worth a try, you can now stream Xvid/Divx/x264 files to the 360 using Media Center, if only M$ would now do the same for Vista and XP...

I spent a long time converting all my files to .WMV to use with Xbox 360/Media Center, I used a .BAT file which calls the WMCmd.vbs Windows Media Encoder script (found in Windows Media Encoder folder).

A example .BAT file would be...

cscript.exe "C:\Program Files\Windows Media Components\Encoder\WMCmd.vbs" -input "INPUT_FILE.AVS" -output "OUTPUT_FILE.WMV" -a_codec WMASTD -a_mode 2 -a_setting Q98_48_2 -v_codec WVC1 -v_mode 2 -v_keydist 5 -v_quality 93 -v_performance 60 -v_profile AP -pixelformat YV12 -v_complexity 3 -v_bframedist 1 -v_lookahead 16

This encodes an AVISynth script using (video) 1 pass VBR, quality 93, using the VC1 codec and (audio) 48khz 2 channel audio at quality 98 using the standard WMA codec.

I have converted literally dozens of files this way, and have never found one yet that didn't play on the 360 (which turned out to be a complete waste of time now that Windows 7 MC supports Xvid etc ).

I can elaborate more if you want to do it this way...

[opelap]

Shoot, I just bought this computer, the wife will go nuts if I say I need to upgrade the OS.

So for WME script to work, I would save the above script in a .bat file, have avisynth installed, WME installed, and drop the file I want to encode onto the .bat right?

[mh2360]

Have you tried installing the patches needed for Vista and Windows Media Encoder? This might be why some of the other software you have tried might not have worked.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/929182

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/945170

Also give Encode360 a try, that has never let me down in the past...

[jakewill]

@MH2360 -

I am curious about your batch script to convert to WMV... Could you post a quick tutorial on how/what you use the script? Here's what I'm wanting to accomplish:

Create a script that will:
1) Rip a DVD main movie as one VOB to a folder (DONE)
2) Convert the VOB file to WMV using specific settings (Bitrate, Resize, etc.)
3) Upload the WMV file to an FTP location (just dreaming, here.)

If you could help me with that second step that would be awesome.

Thanks,
jakewill

[mh2360]

Encode360 might be your best bet. Even though it's now quite old and developement has been discontinued, it's still one of the best WMV converters out there. Two pass encoding can be buggy (a fault of Microsoft's I believe), but using VC-1 and setting Quality Based VBR to 90 or 91 will give good results, without creating a massive output file. I'm pretty sure it accepts .VOB files.

As with all Windows Media Encoder based conversions be prepared for a long wait...

[cyclometric]

I actually have not tried the program I am about to suggest for DVDs, but it is fantastic for background encoding of AVI (and divx, and MPG files, with a little bit of tweaking, just have to rename the files .avi -- it even converts older formats of WMV to WMV3, which is the de facto supported version of Windows Media Format for the Vista Media Center).

The program is VME, and there is a completely functional freeware version, for both 32 & 64 bit Vista the author's web site, just search on VME & Media Center, or look it up on thegreenbutton.com.

Another great option for WMV encoding, if you have a recent ATI add-on Video Card, is the Avivo Video Converter. It can encode a 90 AVI file, at 2 Mbps into WMV3 in about 7 or 8 minutes, doesn't burn up the CPU either. Though there are a few little oddities with it (such as it locks the original file so you have to delete the handles to the file if you want to delete it without either rebooting or killing the "CCC.exe" process manually). I am still hoping ATI will fix this, but otherwise it is a remarkable program.

But today, what I ended up doing, since I did not have the DVD, just downloaded VOBs, IFO's, etc. was to use VOBMerge to join the VOBs that I wanted to keep, and then converted that mega sized VOB file to WMV with Avivo, which took total all of 19 minutes, including the merge & the conversion. On a Phenom II 940 BE OCd to 3.675 w/4 GB RAM. 8)

[Bwizzy]

Here's a way to convert DVD to WMV. Check my "Computer Details to find out the specs for the system I did this with. Here's goes:
Tools you'll need:
DVD Decrypter (for ripping movie to one big file)
AnyDVD (remove encryption on DVD)
Windows Movie Maker

I used my Copy of Shogun Assassin for this. I'll keep this guide short and sweet, if anyone needs me to post and actual guide with pictures and what not, let me know.
1st with DVD Decrypter installed and open go to browse to the drive you're going to be using.
Next, click Mode then IFO.
Next click Tools then setting.
Under the IFO Mode tab make sure under Options that File Splitting is set to None.
Click OK.
You'll be back to the DVD Decrypter home screen were you'll see the Input and Stream Processing Tabs.
Under Input tab DVD Decrypter should already have the movie file labeled VTS_01 or whatever the case may be for your DVD you are going to be using selected. Sometimes there's more than one movie, like a second camera view or whatever, make sure you highlight the 1st PGC (usually PGC 1)
Click the Stream Processing tab, then check the Enable Stream Processing box and select the video stream, language you want for the movie and uncheck the subtitles (Dont know how to get Windows Movie Maker to use this yet or any other program for that matter). The video should tell you the resolution and aspect ratio the video is, and the audio should be what the audio is (duuuuuuh).
After all the checks and setting are done, the rest is all downhill from here. Press the green button to make DVD Decrypter do its thing. After its done you should have a large file where you told DVD Decrypter to save the file. Open WMM (Windows Movie Maker) and drag the file to the empty space where it asks you to drop it or you can browse to where its saved at.
At the top of the screen you'll have tabs like Home, Animations and so on. Click the down button to the left of the Home tab and you'll have a few options to chose from. The option you wanna chose is Save Movie as. And it'll give you a few more options on quality. Choose whatever you like and tell it where to save it to and that's it. You'll have a WMV.