DVD Archiving and HandBrake settings question -

[xBeeza]

Hello All -

I have a newbie question about HandBrake. I've just installed HandBrake on my MacPro and would like to start to archive my DVD collection. My thought is to use HandBrake to transfer them to my Ethernet NAS so that I can have access to them from my MAC in Quicktime and my PC in Windows Media Player 11. Handbrake defaults to MP4 which works fine for Quicktime but the file won't play on my PC. I've tried a variety of settings in Handbrake but can't seem to get the file to play on both. My hope is to have a format/settings that will work in both players, that I can burn to a DVD to use in DVD Player, and is a relatively widely used format. With the price of HD space dropping I don't think that the size of the file will be a big issue. Quality is more important to me. Does anyone know what is the best HandBrake format and settings to use for both Quicktime and Windows Media Player ? If you know of the format/setting that would work in my MS Mobile Treo or a future iPhone that would be helpful as well.

Thanks for your help and any insight you could give me would be greatly appreciated.

 

[-DH]

A couple of things: First, "archive" is probably not the correct term for what you want to do. To archive is to save in the most pristine format available. Since DVD-Video is already highly compressed, any further compression will only further reduce quality. What you want to do isn't even backing up your discs; it IS merely making compressed copies.

Second, I wouldn't use Handbrake for this task. I'd recommend using MPEG Streamclip which can convert the DVD's VOB files into many different codecs for both Windows and Mac platforms.

And last, but not least, if you're "archiving" your DVDs, why would you need to burn new DVDs from your "archive" files? The DVD-video specification requires specially formatted, multiplexed MPEG-2 files with MPEG-1, Layer II audio - these are the VOB files on the disc. Since you already own the DVDs, if you want a copy, just make a copy from the original disc. If you convert and compress the original DVDs to an "archive" format, you won't be able to go back to fully MPEG-2 quality without taking a substantial quality hit and some of the original DVD's functionality may be lost as well.

-DH

 

[xBeeza]

DH -

Thank you for the reply. You right, archive is the wrong term and I guess re-burning them to a DVD would be kind of pointless. I'm a redundancy freak when it comes to data only because I've lost quite a bit to several HD problems in the past. I have almost 100 DVDs and basically want to have easy access to them over my network to play on my MAC Monitor or my PC Laptop. I can use HandBrake and convert them into mp4 format, copy them to my NAS and launch them from my MAC in Quicktime but couldn't launch them, either wirelessly or wired on my Laptop in WMP no matter what format or settings I tried in HandBrake. I'll tryout MPEG Streamclip. I guess my real question is is there a Codec that works for both QT and WMP so that I don't have to have two different files on my NAS ?

Thanks again.

 

[-DH]

I guess my real question is is there a Codec that works for both QT and WMP so that I don't have to have two different files on my NAS?

Your best bet would be to download and install the latest version of QuickTime for your Windows system and forget about WMP ... it ain't all that great anyway.

-DH

 

[xBeeza]

Thanks DH. If I had to choose between the two I would actually pick WMP because of the way it handles my music library and my treo uses windows mobile WMP. I've even thought about down loading the older MAC version of WMP but it looks like MS won't updating it anytime soon if ever. I was really just trying to find one format or codec that worked cross both software packages.

If anyone out there knows of one please let me know.

Thanks

 

[GFLPraxis]

I don't know about the Treo, but MPEG-4 is a very compatible format.
Even the Zune plays it, as does the iPod, iPhone, XBox 360, Playstation 3, and AppleTV as far as I can recall.

If your Treo doesn't support it, then I guess the best thing I can suggest is to store it in both formats. I suppose you could install Flip4Mac- a plugin to let QuickTime play WMV- and make everything WMV, but I wouldn't call that the most optimal setup. WMV support is actually dwindling. iPods hate it. Heck even the Zune IIRC doesn't support WMV or has very limited support. Most modern devices are gravitating towards MPEG-4, even Blu-ray movies use it.

 

[xBeeza]

Thanks for the reply GFLPraxis. I'll probably stick with MPEG-4 then and load Quicktime on my PCs. The windows mobile Treo has a version of WMP so I assume it uses WMV format for video like the PC version does. I've only used it for MP3 music so far. I guess all the more reason to move to an iPhone when the new ones come out. I'm too used to EVO data speed of the Treo for now. Thanks again for the advice.

 

[yeroen]

Handbrake/MPEG Streamclip are all very good, but they're converters not rippers.

If you want an exact, archival, copy of your DVD's you need Mac the Ripper.