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How do I make a good (digital) setup of my DVD movies?
- Thread starter MultiBat
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But then you lose all the convenience of having ripped DVDs -- sit on your couch with your remote and turn it on. If you're going to have to plug in your laptop and dedicate it to watching a movie for a couple hours, you might as well just put the DVD in the slot.
I see it a bit differently. I wanted to ditch my discs entirely along with the space they took up in my house. Hence the effort to rip them all to an external HD. Connecting my MBA and watching the files is just as easy as putting a disc into a device and hitting play. It also eliminated the need for a dedicated DVD player.
My days of owning discs are officially over and my setup works perfectly for me.
Is the future here already?
I just installed the new version of Plex and tried one of my DVDs that had stuttering playback and sound issues. It played like a charm!
So my setup will be:
When I do the encoding of TV shows I will use:
ripit -> handbrake -> subler (meta data)
If I have any subtitles I will burn those into the files.
Finally my dream setup!
...
Anyway, maybe plex will be able to handle DVD rip playback in the future. Also plex could be a bit more stable. I hade two or three crashes this weekend.
When that is fixed I am all in.
...
I just installed the new version of Plex and tried one of my DVDs that had stuttering playback and sound issues. It played like a charm!
So my setup will be:
- Dedicated Mac Mini with external FW HDD and plex installed.
- Complete DVD rips (no encoding) for all movies.
- Encoding of my TV shows. Babylon 5, X-files etc. One episode per file. Why? To get nice setup with all episode info in Plex.
When I do the encoding of TV shows I will use:
ripit -> handbrake -> subler (meta data)
If I have any subtitles I will burn those into the files.
Finally my dream setup!
Is the future here already?
I just installed the new version of Plex and tried one of my DVDs that had stuttering playback and sound issues. It played like a charm!
So my setup will be:
- Dedicated Mac Mini with external FW HDD and plex installed.
- Complete DVD rips (no encoding) for all movies.
- Encoding of my TV shows. Babylon 5, X-files etc. One episode per file. Why? To get nice setup with all episode info in Plex.
When I do the encoding of TV shows I will use:
ripit -> handbrake -> subler (meta data)
If I have any subtitles I will burn those into the files.
Finally my dream setup!
Nice. So for the movies you'll just play the DVD rips on your Mini?
My only advice on this process would be to check out iDentify2 instead of Subler to tag your TV episodes. iDentify2 allows for batch tagging and works especially well for tagging entire seasons--just load the files to be tagged and let it search for you--will lookup metadata from TVDB and Tagchimp (though accurate results are dependent upon good file naming). Very rarely do I have to make any changes to the results when tagging my TV shows.
I like Subler as well (use it to add subtitle files, modify individual fields) but iDentify2 will get the job done is a fraction of the time.
Yes. Through Plex I get that nice looking setup I want. Have you tried it? It should work just fine on your DVD rip setup. I only tested it with one DVD yet though. I will test more before committing to it.
I'll check it out. Thanks.
Hi
In my case, I have an older iMac (core2 duo) and the encoding takes a lot of resources from my computer, so it is slower to use while encoding
Other than when it encodes, my iMac is great for most tasks, I would never think of an upgrade. But when I have big jobs I would like to have the fastest mac or a 2600k-based pc
François
I have no idea what you are getting at. My original point was that encoding was an unnecessary step unless you were dead set on using something like Plex, Apple TV, or adding a movie to an iDevice. You seem hung up about the issue of time. That was never my point. Encoding my RipIt file is just an unnecessary extra step when connecting my Mac to a TV will work just fine. That's my point. End of story.
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I'm glad you found a good setup. I'm perfectly happy with mine. Like I've said before I can peruse my collection in coverflow with my movie art folder and select my RipIt file from my external. Couldn't be easier.
Keep us updated on your process.
I have an older computer myself (before core2duo, actually), which is why I set up the encoding to happen while I'm asleep or at work.
My point is that it is such an insignificant step that it shouldn't be a consideration. Are you really going to rule out encoding, which removes the need to tie up your computer and run a cable across your room whenever you want to watch TV, just because you need to spend a few minutes setting up a Handbrake cue? Especially when encoding allows you to use an un-hacked aTV2, which is a lot more family-friendly and easier to operate from the couch?
Like I already said on this thread, if you want to encode so you can incorporate your Apple TV, that's fine by me. But spare me about how it's such a better way of going about things. When I'm sitting down to watch a movie I don't need to use my MacBook Air for anything else. Also with respect to where I place it while connected to my TV it's far from "a cable running across my room". With the lights off or dimmed you can't even see the MBA in the room during the movie.
If we are talking about a family situation, then yeah, maybe the encoding/Apple TV route is better. But from the start this conversation was about the OP's situation and watching rips vs. the need to encode. You start bringing other factors into play like a family scenario and it's a totally different discussion entirely.
Watching rips from my Mac connected to my TV works perfectly for me and for many others too. There really isn't anything to further discuss with respect to that.
Also from the OP:
"I simply rip the DVD to a HDD and use it from there. From the Mac Mini instead of an apple TV, that should work just fine. Sure the movie library will be huge, but once I have ripped all my DVDs (years in the future) storage will be super cheap. I'll just buy more storage as the project goes along.
The drawback with this would be that I have no visually nice setup of the movies. Browsing finder to find a movie... Feels... Not so "Apple-nice". "
OP from the start was open to the idea of connecting a Mac to TV. Thanks for playing slothrob.
"I simply rip the DVD to a HDD and use it from there. From the Mac Mini instead of an apple TV, that should work just fine. Sure the movie library will be huge, but once I have ripped all my DVDs (years in the future) storage will be super cheap. I'll just buy more storage as the project goes along.
The drawback with this would be that I have no visually nice setup of the movies. Browsing finder to find a movie... Feels... Not so "Apple-nice". "
OP from the start was open to the idea of connecting a Mac to TV. Thanks for playing slothrob.
Followup on my own post(s).
I have selected to go for Option 1, basically.
I rip and encode my DVDs and add them to my itunes movie library.
I have now learnt how to add srt subtitles with subler, so all my old region 1 DVDs now get swedish subs. Yay! (I have noted that I have to recode all the srts so far using Jubler, to get the proper timing. I suspect that is somehow related to the movie being 29,97fps when I encode them with handbrake.)
I also bought an external DVD drive since I have DVDs of two different regions.
Now here is the other part that I am satisfied with.
If the movie has some interesting special features I rip and encode those too.
I mark these special features as a TV-show with the name "Special Features". That way I can easily find the extras on my apple TV in the TV-show menu.
The only thing I have to figure out now is why the extras ("episodes" of my
"Special Features" show) are sorted in reverse alphabetical order when I view them through the apple TV...
Now, all this takes time. I like doing this. If you don't, I would recommend doing something less time-consuming.
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Sounds like a pretty good system. The only think I might suggest, is that you can OCR the original VOBSUB track using Subler and then take it into Jubler for translation correction. Not sure which is more hassle, correcting the timing or correcting spelling errors but I thought I would point out that option to you.Followup on my own post(s).
I have selected to go for Option 1, basically.
I rip and encode my DVDs and add them to my itunes movie library.
I have now learnt how to add srt subtitles with subler, so all my old region 1 DVDs now get swedish subs. Yay! (I have noted that I have to recode all the srts so far using Jubler, to get the proper timing. I suspect that is somehow related to the movie being 29,97fps when I encode them with handbrake.)
I also bought an external DVD drive since I have DVDs of two different regions.
Now here is the other part that I am satisfied with.
If the movie has some interesting special fetters I rip and encode those too.
I mark these special features as a TV-show with the name "Special Features". That way I can easily find the extras on my apple TV in the TV-show menu.
The only thing I have to figure out now is why the extras ("episodes" of my
"Special Features" show) are sorted in reverse alphabetical order when I view them through the apple TV...
Now, all this takes time. I like doing this. If you don't, I would recommend doing something less time-consuming.
Help - File Limit ???
Hi All, I'm new to the forums but I need help. I read some people are able to play digital files greater than 2 gig. I recently created a Digital File of LOTR to be played on my IPAD2 and it came out to 3.8 Gig on medium settings. But I can not play the file anywhere. When I try it always says unknow file type. If I break the file up to files less than 2 gig - they play.
If it is possible to play a digital file greater than 2Gig please let me know how you are doing it.
Thank you !
Hi All, I'm new to the forums but I need help. I read some people are able to play digital files greater than 2 gig. I recently created a Digital File of LOTR to be played on my IPAD2 and it came out to 3.8 Gig on medium settings. But I can not play the file anywhere. When I try it always says unknow file type. If I break the file up to files less than 2 gig - they play.
If it is possible to play a digital file greater than 2Gig please let me know how you are doing it.
Thank you !
Hey there, OP. Just stumbled upon this thread and was about to say the same thing. I personally rip/transcode to digital, throw them into iTunes, and play the movies via ATV over Home Sharing.
I did a write up somewhere else on my process that I use for Bluray RIPs, so it might be useful to anyone here. You can use the exact same process, or you something like RipIt or Handbrake itself to RIP the DVDs. But for bluray, here is my process that may assist some people here.
Also, I don't claim that this is the only way to do it, it just works for me:
1. External Bluray Drive:
My External USB 2.0 Blu-Ray Player was around $50 from amazon. Really nice, small and super quiet. Truly plug n play.
Simple to use. However, it requires two USB ports *if* you don't use an external USB power adapter, which is sold separately. (I'm assuming you can use the external power adapter from an iPad for example, but I read others have purchased this one which works as well.) I don't know as I just used two USB ports. 1 USB cable and 1 USB power cable ARE included.
2. Insert Bluray to Backup:
Popped in my BD of Iron Man to RIP.
Finder recognizes it as a blu-ray as you can see by the small BD icon:
3. Use MakeMKV to RIP:
Using MakeMKV to RIP. Just FYI, MakeMKV is currently free in beta until end of September. They list a free beta key on their site here
RIP speed is 9.0m/s or [2.1x].
This movie takes about 1hr to RIP to the HD. Final MKV file was 33GB, but each depends on the movie, etc.
Only RIP the largest track file (this is the movie) 20-40GB, etc., and RIP the movie with ALL subtitle tracks (even foreign ones!) and only the audio tracks you desire. I keep all commentary tracks, but don't include the French, Spanish, etc.
4. Use Handbrake to Transcode:
After that, Handbrake it.
NOTE: Subtitles are really important to me, obviously. So you need to use the Nighty Build versions that work best with subtitles. I found the release version didn't work well with forced subtitles.
This will covert it into a much smaller file via compression you select, but it will also crop the aspect ratio correctly. You can select the AppleTV 3 settings in Handbrake, or I just made a custom Handbrake super 1080p High profile from specs I found from someone on the Web. In Handbrake:
A. Choose High Profile
B. Turn off Detelecine
C. Set "Constant Quality" to 18
D. Set to Strict Anamorphic in Picture settings
E. Hit the "+" Button in the Presets Drawer
F. Type "Ultra 1080p High Profile" for a Preset Name
G. Set Use Picture Size: Source Maximum
H. Check "Use Picture Filters"
I. Click Add.
Click the audio tab to add all audio tracks, and then click the subtitle tab to select the proper subtitles to use.
5. Subtitles:
Subtitles can be a major pain, but there are options. There are movies like Iron Man that actually have subtitles that you may not even remember. (In this case it's when the bad guy is speaking Arabic to the man in the cave with Tony Stark.) These are called FORCED SUBTITLES. Where they only appear when there is limited foreign dialogue.
So how do you know what movies have forced subtitles?
Check the list here.
If you see it listed, then before transcoding, you can open the MKV file in VLC Player, and select the various subtitles during that scene with foreign dialogue. Then make a note of it as the subtitle track to select in Handbrake.
6. Almost done!
Final file is a perfect .m4v file.
Final file size at this super high quality: 6.2GB. Depends on the movie. Pixar movies are the smallest, and in my personal collection here are some various sizes of the final product:
Fish Called Wanda (DVD source): 876MB
Glengarry Glen Ross (DVD source): 1.7GB
Rudy (DVD source): 2.41GB
Up (bluray source): 3.5GB
The Dark Knight (bluray source): 6.91GB
The Fugitive (bluray source): 10.8GB
Moneyball (bluray source): 14.4GB
Really, you're done, but I as a last step I used a free tool similar to Tagalicious called iDentify that will add the meta data to the video file. Use this before dropping into iTunes.
5. Drop the file in iTunes, turn on home sharing, fire up AppleTV to navigate to your movie collection on your computer, and enjoy the show!
Now here is the other part that I am satisfied with.
If the movie has some interesting special features I rip and encode those too.
I mark these special features as a TV-show with the name "Special Features". That way I can easily find the extras on my apple TV in the TV-show menu.
An alternative solution (not saying yours is a bad one) is to append the special features to the end of the movie.
I do this by ripping the disk titles using MakeMKV, then using mkvtoolnix to append the special feature files to the end of the move, which produces one large MKV containing all the content.
Once I've run this through Handbrake, I use Subler to edit the chapters to allow the special features to be accessed directly, which saves having to exit the movie, and navigate to the TV Shows menu.