Apple TV DVD Rip Problems

rball1979 · Jul 28, 2008

Hi all

I recently bought an apple TV and have been ripping all my DVDs using DVDFab and then encoding with Handbrake with the Apple TV preset. I noticed this weekend that when played back on the Apple TV, the picture is quite jerky and doesn't really flow that smoothly. Any ideas of what I could do to smooth them out?

I've done about 200GB worth so I may have to do a large bit of it again...time consuming but totally worth it!

Volante · Jul 28, 2008

What settings are you using?

rball1979 · Jul 28, 2008

Volante said:
What settings are you using?

I just have used the Apple TV preset in Handbrake so far which I understand should be pretty good. I've tried it with the 2-Pass encoding but I don't notice any difference. Its a 50" Plasma that I'm trying to play them on.

I would do it all directly in Handbrake but I get the "No Title(s) found. Please make sure you have selected a valid, non-copy protected source. Please refer to the FAQ (see Help Menu)." error

DarkHeraldMage · Jul 28, 2008

You may need to run the DVD through MacTheRipper first to make sure the copyright protection isn't holding you back. I personally always rip the DVD content first, then put it through Handbrake. It allows for queuing up the titles, but also makes sure no problems with copyright protection come into play. It's a learning curve to say the least. I recently had to re-rip 150 movies and re-encode and tag them, and I'm just now finishing up the process, 2 months after I originally began.

rball1979 · Jul 28, 2008

newappleboy said:
You may need to run the DVD through MacTheRipper first to make sure the copyright protection isn't holding you back. I personally always rip the DVD content first, then put it through Handbrake. It allows for queuing up the titles, but also makes sure no problems with copyright protection come into play. It's a learning curve to say the least. I recently had to re-rip 150 movies and re-encode and tag them, and I'm just now finishing up the process, 2 months after I originally began.

Yeah I've tried it both ways, ripped a load with DVDFab on the PC and then encode with handbrake and also ripped directly in handbrake and I'm still getting the jerky picture issues on the majority of films. It seems when I rip them with Mac the ripper on my MAC they work a lot better but I don't really want to tie up the MacBook Air as I use it as my daily machine. Would much rather queue up a lod of DVDs on the PC then do them that way.

DoFoT9 · Jul 28, 2008

rball1979 said:
Hi all

I recently bought an apple TV and have been ripping all my DVDs using DVDFab and then encoding with Handbrake with the Apple TV preset. I noticed this weekend that when played back on the Apple TV, the picture is quite jerky and doesn't really flow that smoothly. Any ideas of what I could do to smooth them out?

I've done about 200GB worth so I may have to do a large bit of it again...time consuming but totally worth it!

how are you putting the files on the apple tv? like are they directly on the ATV, or are they being transferred over the network via wireless/cat5 from another computer??

MacBoobsPro · Jul 28, 2008

Its most likely the framerate. Set it to current. Dont change it to 24 for the AppleTVs sake. Most files should play fine no matter what the framerate is and what the ATV specs say. I have a HD file that according to Apples specs wont work but it does.

I found that some default settings in HandBrake and VisualHub set the framerate to 24. If the original is 25 then every second it will drop a frame and jerk. I spent days ripping stuff then when I went to watch them back they were jerking and it took me ages to figure out what it was.

rball1979 · Jul 28, 2008

DoFoT9 said:
how are you putting the files on the apple tv? like are they directly on the ATV, or are they being transferred over the network via wireless/cat5 from another computer??

They are on the ATV after being synched with iTunes so it's unlikely to be a network issue!

Macboospro said:
Its most likely the framerate. Set it to current. Dont change it to 24 for the AppleTVs sake. Most files should play fine no matter what the framerate is and what the ATV specs say. I have a HD file that according to Apples specs wont work but it does.

I found that some default settings in HandBrake and VisualHub set the framerate to 24. If the original is 25 then every second it will drop a frame and jerk. I spent days ripping stuff then when I went to watch them back they were jerking and it took me ages to figure out what it was.

Thank, I'll try that tonight and see what they come out like!

dynaflash · Jul 28, 2008

MacboobsPro said:
I found that some default settings in HandBrake and VisualHub set the framerate to 24.

Well, HandBrake has never defaulted to a set framerate. The default is always the framerate the source announces itself as (Shows up as "Same as source" in the framerate dropdown). Which can be seen in the activity window. Now, whether or not the source announces its framerate appropriately is another question entirely.

dissdnt · Jul 28, 2008

slightly off topic but can handbreak combine files it's converting? I had 6 vobs of back to the future and i had to do all 6 in the que separate. So i ended up with 6 mp4's

dynaflash · Jul 28, 2008

Nope. instead of trying to read individual .vob's, just have HB read the VIDEO_TS folder. It works much better than trying to read each .vob separately.

ascender · Jul 28, 2008

How jerky is "jerky"? Is it just that you're noticing slight jumps, or is the whole movie jumping around like a poor break-dancer?

Some of my previously-working HB encodes are now unwatchable, but I'm not sure if its the ATV itself, or the software update, or the encodes.

bacaramac · Jul 28, 2008

I use a MAC, but bootcamp to windows for DVD's that Handbrake cannot bypass.

A few suggestions:

1. Make sure you are using the current version of Handbrake.
2. Make sure you built in presets are updated (click the drop down in presets and update).
3. Use AnyDVD as it is the best software for PC's to bypass. You can download a free 30 day trial from slysoft.com.

Basically, AnyDVD bypasses as soon as you insert DVD. There is no need to copy to HD unless you want a back-up of DVD. Just insert DVD and Handbrake away.

EDIT: If this doesn't work, then it is a hardware issue (I would think). What are the specs of your PC?

rball1979 · Jul 28, 2008

bacaramac said:
I use a MAC, but bootcamp to windows for DVD's that Handbrake cannot bypass.

A few suggestions:

1. Make sure you are using the current version of Handbrake.
2. Make sure you built in presets are updated (click the drop down in presets and update).
3. Use AnyDVD as it is the best software for PC's to bypass. You can download a free 30 day trial from slysoft.com.

Basically, AnyDVD bypasses as soon as you insert DVD. There is no need to copy to HD unless you want a back-up of DVD. Just insert DVD and Handbrake away.

EDIT: If this doesn't work, then it is a hardware issue (I would think). What are the specs of your PC?

My Vaio is a 1.67GHz with 2046MB Ram

I've done the ripping/encoding both with Mac (MTR and Handbrake) and on my PC (DVDFab and Handbrake) and both are jerky so it must be a Handbrake setting...I would think. The reason I rip to HD first is so that I can queue up a load and let it run when I'm sleeping or when I'm at work

Everything is up to date..

bacaramac · Jul 28, 2008

rball1979 said:
My Vaio is a 1.67GHz with 2046MB Ram

I've done the ripping/encoding both with Mac (MTR and Handbrake) and on my PC (DVDFab and Handbrake) and both are jerky so it must be a Handbrake setting...I would think. The reason I rip to HD first is so that I can queue up a load and let it run when I'm sleeping or when I'm at work

Everything is up to date..

I would think specs are okay, but if you have an external HD, try using AnyDVD and ripping the DVD to external drive (Right Click rip to HD from icon on tool bar next to clock). Then use HB to encode DVD. If this doesn't work, I would have to think it's the computer. I was using a Mac Mini with 2.0 C2D Ghz 1Gb Ram and it worked perfect prior to getting my iMac. You may also have better luck troubleshooting @ http://www.handbrake.fr forums.

Good luck fixing this issue, I am out of ideas after this.

EDIT: If this doesn't work, take Apple TV back and grab a new one.

rball1979 · Jul 28, 2008

bacaramac said:
I would think specs are okay, but if you have an external HD, try using AnyDVD and ripping the DVD to external drive (Right Click rip to HD from icon on tool bar next to clock). Then use HB to encode DVD. If this doesn't work, I would have to think it's the computer. I was using a Mac Mini with 2.0 C2D Ghz 1Gb Ram and it worked perfect prior to getting my iMac. You may also have better luck troubleshooting @ http://www.handbrake.fr forums.

Good luck fixing this issue, I am out of ideas after this.

EDIT: If this doesn't work, take Apple TV back and grab a new one.

Already using an external HD...I haven't tried AnyDVD yet so will give that a blast. I dont think its the apple TV as some movies are OK and some aren't...I guess I'll just have to play with settings and see which work best.

I really appreciate your help though!!

bacaramac · Jul 28, 2008

rball1979 said:
Already using an external HD...I haven't tried AnyDVD yet so will give that a blast. I dont think its the apple TV as some movies are OK and some aren't...I guess I'll just have to play with settings and see which work best.

I really appreciate your help though!!

If you are using an external drive, try the opposite and burn to internal (just trying to elimiate the problem child).

Also, make sure you are not multi-tasking during the encode to eliminate that factor (although it has never impacted the quality by doing this for me).

Yep, I would rule out the ATV if some are fine, but others are not.

fivepoint · Jul 28, 2008

The only time I've ever had this problem was with cartoons such as Family Guy or South Park. It was an interlacing issue. What video are you trying to do? Does it happen on all videos you rip, or just this one?

bacaramac · Jul 28, 2008

fivepoint said:
The only time I've ever had this problem was with cartoons such as Family Guy or South Park. It was an interlacing issue. What video are you trying to do? Does it happen on all videos you rip, or just this one?

Good point, TV shows/Cartoons I use a different preset to deinterlace them as they are at the 29.97 rate, etc.

rball1979 · Jul 29, 2008

bacaramac said:
Good point, TV shows/Cartoons I use a different preset to deinterlace them as they are at the 29.97 rate, etc.

Not they're not cartoons...just normal films. I used AnyDVD last night and then Handbraked it so we''l see if that fixes anything. I left it syching this morning so we'll see this evening!

fivepoint · Jul 29, 2008

If you tell us what video you're trying to copy, we can tell you whether we've had success with it or not. That will tell us whether its a problem with your settings, with Handbrake, with your computer, or whatever.

rball1979 · Jul 29, 2008

fivepoint said:
If you tell us what video you're trying to copy, we can tell you whether we've had success with it or not. That will tell us whether its a problem with your settings, with Handbrake, with your computer, or whatever.

Take your pick! Menace II Society, Godfather Trilogy, Starsky and Hutch, All 3 Matrixes...I'd say 90% of the 50 or so DVDs are jerky...so I'd be shocked if it wasn't a software/settings problem!

fivepoint · Jul 29, 2008

rball1979 said:
Take your pick! Menace II Society, Godfather Trilogy, Starsky and Hutch, All 3 Matrixes...I'd say 90% of the 50 or so DVDs are jerky...so I'd be shocked if it wasn't a software/settings problem!

Very strange... I haven't done any of those personally, but maybe some of the others. Here is the thing... I've never had a single "jerky" problem with any of mine. I know countless others who also haven't had this problem.

The issue could be with any number of things, from your TV, to your inputs, to your ripping technique... and there is no way to know more unless you start to try and eliminate some of the possibilities. Trial and error.

Based on the fact that you've done 50 movies, of which 90% have problems, and you're using the same settings I am and many others are... I'd say the problem is not with Handbrake.

rball1979 · Jul 29, 2008

fivepoint said:
Very strange... I haven't done any of those personally, but maybe some of the others. Here is the thing... I've never had a single "jerky" problem with any of mine. I know countless others who also haven't had this problem.

The issue could be with any number of things, from your TV, to your inputs, to your ripping technique... and there is no way to know more unless you start to try and eliminate some of the possibilities. Trial and error.

Based on the fact that you've done 50 movies, of which 90% have problems, and you're using the same settings I am and many others are... I'd say the problem is not with Handbrake.

That's my thinking. I have been using DVDFab to rip to get around the protection issues and have just done my first rip with AnyDVD. I left it syncing this morning so when I get home I'll test it out and see if that was the cause...hopefully thats it. Like you said, trial and error!

bacaramac · Jul 29, 2008

Matrix worked for me perfectly, I can't remember if I had to use AnyDVD, but since you are using it, that is no longer a factor.

Again, I use the MAC version, but bootcamp to windows for DVD's that have issues and use AnyDVD.

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