Handbrake Not Working (New User, Searched)

[clarkgriswold]

I'm trying to rip my DVD collection using Handbrake on my PCM so I can put them in iTunes and play on Apple TV (3) but am getting an error (no title found, may be copy protected...) with every disc. I'm trying to avoid ripping them to my hard drive and then using handbrake from there. I see people saying to use Handbrake with VLC. I have both (64 bit) on my machine but am not sure what I exactly need to do to make it work?

[waw74]

http://lifehacker.com/5888078/vlc-20...-how-to-fix-it

[KevinC867]

Originally Posted by waw74

http://lifehacker.com/5888078/vlc-20...-how-to-fix-it

That should fix it. But, CG, why not rip them to the hard drive (with MakeMKV) before running HandBrake? As long as you have the 8GB or so of temporary disk space, this approach gets the DVD in and out of your computer much faster, and allows you to queue up multiple titles for HandBrake to work on while you are away from the computer.

[clarkgriswold]

Waw - thanks, will try that tonight!

Kevin - it seemed like the hard drive was working a lot harder when I did it that way. I was using DVD Shrink - any better or worse that MakeMKV?

[KevinC867]

Originally Posted by clarkgriswold

Waw - thanks, will try that tonight!

Kevin - it seemed like the hard drive was working a lot harder when I did it that way. I was using DVD Shrink - any better or worse that MakeMKV?

It sounds like DVD Shrink duplicates the job of HandBrake by transcoding and "shrinking" the size of the DVD image. MakeMKV simply copies the data for each title directly from the DVD to the hard drive and leaves all the heavy lifting to HandBrake. Because there is little processing required of MakeMKV, it should keep the data streaming at full speed from the DVD, and the drive shouldn't need to start and stop, spin up and spin down.

I can rip a two hour movie in about 15 minutes on my PC. However, using an internal drive in a Mac, might be substantially slower, as I think Apple drives use the Riplock "feature" to slow down data transfer speeds.

[dynaflash]

Personally I would use makemkv. Oh, and the lifehacker article is based on mac with HB. HB windows never did link to the vlc libdvdcss.dylib. On windows you have to separately us a ripper first. then HB.

[clarkgriswold]

dynaflash - does MakeMKV have a AppleTV3 preset similar to Handbrake or do the settings need to be played with?

So the comment in the lifehacker story "You should also be able to do the same in Windows. Grab the 32-bit or 64-bit dll from VLC, rename it to "libdvdcss.dll" then copy it into the Handbrake directory." doesn't work?

Thanks.

[dynaflash]

Originally Posted by clarkgriswold

dynaflash - does MakeMKV have a AppleTV3 preset similar to Handbrake or do the settings need to be played with?

So the comment in the lifehacker story "You should also be able to do the same in Windows. Grab the 32-bit or 64-bit dll from VLC, rename it to "libdvdcss.dll" then copy it into the Handbrake directory." doesn't work?

Thanks.

Well, that may work. I am not the HB windows dev. That said I do think your best off just ripping with makemvk and then feed the resulting files into HB in a queue overnight. I dunno if makemkv has an appletv 3 transcoding feature but it might. I cannot speak to that. I do use MakedMkv myself to rip and store a .mkv version of my original content then feed it to HB. As far as HBs AppleTV3 preset ... well ... I think its pretty good, but thats just my opinion.

[mic j]

Originally Posted by dynaflash

Well, that may work. I am not the HB windows dev. That said I do think your best off just ripping with makemvk and then feed the resulting files into HB in a queue overnight. I dunno if makemkv has an appletv 3 transcoding feature but it might. I cannot speak to that. I do use MakedMkv myself to rip and store a .mkv version of my original content then feed it to HB. As far as HBs AppleTV3 preset ... well ... I think its pretty good, but thats just my opinion.

MakeMKV does not have an aTV3 preset, nor does it need one. It does no transcoding of the original file.

[dynaflash]

Originally Posted by mic j

MakeMKV does not have an aTV3 preset, nor does it need one. It does no transcoding of the original file.

Voila! There you go!

[clarkgriswold]

Ok, so if I have this right - just run the disc through MakeMKV and the output file will play ok on my Apple TV via iTunes? Sorry if this is basic stuff, this is my first first into this. How are the file size outputs? Any difference between mkv or mp4?

[mic j]

Originally Posted by clarkgriswold

Ok, so if I have this right - just run the disc through MakeMKV and the output file will play ok on my Apple TV via iTunes? Sorry if this is basic stuff, this is my first first into this. How are the file size outputs? Any difference between mkv or mp4?

No, run it through MakeMKV, which results in a decrypted mkv file. Then run it through HB to covert the mkv to an mp4 (which the aTV will play). The mkv file is main movie only and has no compression applied. If you want, you can save it as an archive, so say, HB starts using h.265 sometime in the future, you can go back to the archived mkv and re-transcode it. A future-proffing thing.

MakeMKV is similar to DVDShrink in that it can decrypt a dvd or BR and strip out all the menus, extra's and unwanted foreign audio/subtitle tracks. However, DVDShrink could compress the file, while MakeMKV does not.

[dynaflash]

Originally Posted by mic j

MakeMKV is similar to DVDShrink in that it can decrypt a dvd or BR and strip out all the menus, extra's and unwanted foreign audio/subtitle tracks. However, DVDShrink could compress the file, while MakeMKV does not.

Agreed. However I would caution against using DVDShrink to compress and make the file atv compatible. I would suggest using makemkv to decrypt it (quite a fast process) then HB to make it the best the atv3 can play, as mic j said. But there again that is my .02.

[mic j]

Originally Posted by dynaflash

Agreed. However I would caution against using DVDShrink to compress and make the file atv compatible. I would suggest using makemkv to decrypt it (quite a fast process) then HB to make it the best the atv3 can play, as mic j said. But there again that is my .02.

I agree with you 100%. I was just drawing an analogy because the OP said he had been using DVDShrink and it was something I used to use a long long time ago. I figured he could better understand what MakeMKV does in the process.

[dynaflash]

Originally Posted by mic j

I agree with you 100%.

Hehe, well it sounds like we all agree then.

[MFL2012]

AnyDVD works great with Handbrake, as it decrypts "on the fly". It is a little pricey, but is something you might look into. It cuts out the extra step of ripping to the hard drive and then converting to m4v. I believe there is a free trial as well. I used it for years before switching to Mac and it worked every time.

[clarkgriswold]

Thanks everyone. I'm going to try all the suggestions and see what works best for me. I appreciate all the input. I tried the lifehacker article suggestion tonight and it worked, though the link to the file was dead, I quickly found it somewhere else.

Not to go in another direction, but what's everyone's suggestion for metadata, keeping in mind I'm on windows?

[mic j]

Originally Posted by MFL2012

AnyDVD works great with Handbrake, as it decrypts "on the fly". It is a little pricey, but is something you might look into. It cuts out the extra step of ripping to the hard drive and then converting to m4v. I believe there is a free trial as well. I used it for years before switching to Mac and it worked every time.

AnyDVD is a top-notch product and worth the cost, if....you are going to stay with Windows. I bought it a long time ago and bought the lifetime update option. Then I switched to Mac and now I have a dinosaur that sits on my bootcamp partition.