How-To: Automating DVD & Blu-Ray (Backup, Encoding & Tagging) for Mac OS X

[gunthermic]

Never heard of it but I'll check it out. How exactly are you using it and do you have your aTV2 jail broken to support unsupported codecs?

Thanks man!

For me it's just a mass storage device. I purchased a Mac-Mini just for this and all of iTunes points to this for my movies. Nothing fancy about it all all.

ATV2 is not jailbroken, but I have purchased the Firecore jailbreak, but just have never gotten around to using it yet.

The reason went with the Synology 411j was becuase it supported 3TB drives already. So after purchasing 4 2TB drives, and finding after creatign a RAID5 and filling it up way to fast, I had to purchase 4 3TB drives. That was just 2 weeks ago. Already full up,and movies are having to be put onto a 3TB (Seagate Firewire External drive)

Now of course I am storing my Rips as well as my movies. Every BD is encoded as ATV2 and Universal for complete compataiblely. Was really doing well until I got to the BD/HD's(yea still had 50 some of those puppies(HD's)).

 

[supersteendk]

Hi Mac Jedi,

first of all, thanks a million for the workflows, wow - they're truely amazing!
I'm using the "batch rip • batch encode"-workflow to turn my mkv's (ripped from my BluRays) into HD M4V files. I've been using the standard "HD (720p)/AppleTV2 setting, and it works flawlesly. However, I would like my files to be 1080p, and tried enabling the custom-setting with the "--maxheight 1080" argument, but that didn't work as expected. If i want to use custom setting do i need to include all the arguments or?

Your help is very much appriciated

Thanks,
Steen

Never mind, figured it out myself.
Still, truely amazing workflow - thanks a million

 

[3282868]

For me it's just a mass storage device. I purchased a Mac-Mini just for this and all of iTunes points to this for my movies. Nothing fancy about it all all.

ATV2 is not jailbroken, but I have purchased the Firecore jailbreak, but just have never gotten around to using it yet.

The reason went with the Synology 411j was becuase it supported 3TB drives already. So after purchasing 4 2TB drives, and finding after creatign a RAID5 and filling it up way to fast, I had to purchase 4 3TB drives. That was just 2 weeks ago. Already full up,and movies are having to be put onto a 3TB (Seagate Firewire External drive)

Now of course I am storing my Rips as well as my movies. Every BD is encoded as ATV2 and Universal for complete compataiblely. Was really doing well until I got to the BD/HD's(yea still had 50 some of those puppies(HD's)).

Wow, that's impressive and makes a lot of sense. The truth is I was going to get a Mac Mini to hookup via HDMI and replac the SuperDrive with a Blu-Ray. Since I'm also doing this for my father, who is 67 and has lost his legs and sight in his left eye now due to diabetic complications, using a keyboard and mouse or even PLEX on a Mini just to watch movies on a 50" plasma seemed a bit overkill and tough for him. As iTunes is needed to stream any media, I really wanted to make it as simple for him as possible by using the HDD of a Time Capsule attached to the aTV2 via ethernet so that his iMac doesn't need to be on and doesn't need to store over 300 movies. Also, XBMC claims to be able to bypass aTV2s downscaling of 1080P m4v's, allowing the full movie and sound to be played.

Yet I've run into an issue. While watching a rip of "City of Angels" through the configured SMB share folder on the Time Capsule, the sound defaults to 2 channel stereo. If I stream that same exact m4v from the Mac via iTunes, the sound is amazing! Somehow it's better than playing the SD DVD (it's not Blu-Ray) through their Sony Blu-Ray! This leads me to suspect the issue lies in XBMC's handling/encoding of the audio layer. I have both AC3 with 6-channel discrete at 640 or so Kbps and AAC layered in my m4vs, perhaps tye kbps is too high and overkill? Although iTunes streams it beautifully over the LAN. They have the same Pioneer Elite VSX-33 AVR that I have that handles everything you can throw at it sound wise (supports AC3/AAC core audio/multiple Dolby Digital and THX modes/7.1+ surround sound etc).

I read the NAS you recommended and amazingly is handles iTunes. So if j understand this correctly, aTV2 can receive media directly from that NAS without another system as it will act as a computer with iTunes? If that is the case, then I can toss the Time Capsule and replace it with that system and connect it via wifi or Ethernet to the aTV2 and it would play the m4v's perfectly just as it does on their iMac (and as I have the same setup at home it would for me as well).
I just might do that although if this is simply an XMBC (or whatever I forget the exact spelling lol) codec issue I wonder if the codec I need can just be plugged in. Ugh. lol
Thanks again so much. You've been an incredible help!!

 

[act1980]

Hi, not sure if anyone can help me?

I have ripped a DVD using fairmount, the files are TS and have been saved in the batch rip folder.

I then opened handbrake to convert the file but it says source unknown.

Does anyone know where I am going wrong. I am running vlc in the background also.

Many thanks

 

[RaceTripper]

Hi, not sure if anyone can help me?

I have ripped a DVD using fairmount, the files are TS and have been saved in the batch rip folder.

I then opened handbrake to convert the file but it says source unknown.

Does anyone know where I am going wrong. I am running vlc in the background also.

Many thanks

Have you read through the tutorial and tried the workflow outlined on the first page of this thread? That will solve your problems, and makes the whole process a lot easier.

 

[gunthermic]

Wow, that's impressive and makes a lot of sense. The truth is I was going to get a Mac Mini to hookup via HDMI and replac the SuperDrive with a Blu-Ray. Since I'm also doing this for my father, who is 67 and has lost his legs and sight in his left eye now due to diabetic complications, using a keyboard and mouse or even PLEX on a Mini just to watch movies on a 50" plasma seemed a bit overkill and tough for him. As iTunes is needed to stream any media, I really wanted to make it as simple for him as possible by using the HDD of a Time Capsule attached to the aTV2 via ethernet so that his iMac doesn't need to be on and doesn't need to store over 300 movies. Also, XBMC claims to be able to bypass aTV2s downscaling of 1080P m4v's, allowing the full movie and sound to be played.

Yet I've run into an issue. While watching a rip of "City of Angels" through the configured SMB share folder on the Time Capsule, the sound defaults to 2 channel stereo. If I stream that same exact m4v from the Mac via iTunes, the sound is amazing! Somehow it's better than playing the SD DVD (it's not Blu-Ray) through their Sony Blu-Ray! This leads me to suspect the issue lies in XBMC's handling/encoding of the audio layer. I have both AC3 with 6-channel discrete at 640 or so Kbps and AAC layered in my m4vs, perhaps tye kbps is too high and overkill? Although iTunes streams it beautifully over the LAN. They have the same Pioneer Elite VSX-33 AVR that I have that handles everything you can throw at it sound wise (supports AC3/AAC core audio/multiple Dolby Digital and THX modes/7.1+ surround sound etc).

I read the NAS you recommended and amazingly is handles iTunes. So if j understand this correctly, aTV2 can receive media directly from that NAS without another system as it will act as a computer with iTunes? If that is the case, then I can toss the Time Capsule and replace it with that system and connect it via wifi or Ethernet to the aTV2 and it would play the m4v's perfectly just as it does on their iMac (and as I have the same setup at home it would for me as well).
I just might do that although if this is simply an XMBC (or whatever I forget the exact spelling lol) codec issue I wonder if the codec I need can just be plugged in. Ugh. lol
Thanks again so much. You've been an incredible help!!

I have taken this all on since mid Novemebr, so there is people around ere with much more knowledge. I know enough to be dangerous.

I bought a Pioneer VSX 1020, about 6 months ago, which for all intense and purposes replaces their elite line. and they just release the 1120, which can be controled via a iPad(dang it) It has been a beast, just plain works.

About the NAS, unless I have read and understood it work the whole having a iTunes server on it is misleading. i would not want you to purchase and be disapointed. It is for its price an awesome RAID5 NAS. However the iTunes server is not a iTunes replacement. It does not set up as a iTunes server and a ATV1 or ATV2 connect to it. It however acts like a iTunes server if you enable it to be able to see it in you computers iTunes and then share it's library. That is my understanding.

Streamign it from a Time capsule vs a Mac should make no differance. You are only using the TC as a storage device.

XMBC/Audio
truly sounds like a codecc problem with it. If you can connect a ATV2 and it plays the audio correctly even though its onthe second track, then I would say that XMBC is not doing the same. Did you try and switch the audio track once you start the movie?

Another suggestions would be to get a refurb ATV1, and look online and you can buy the jailbreak for it from Firecore. this would allow you to connect a extrernal HD to if with all his movies. No need for iTunes at all. The ATV1 can still play 720p, which to be honest your father with only eyesight in one eye would not be able to tell the differance.

you could still encode with work flow at ATV2 and ATV1 and be golden for anysetup.

 

[gunthermic]

Hi, not sure if anyone can help me?

I have ripped a DVD using fairmount, the files are TS and have been saved in the batch rip folder.

I then opened handbrake to convert the file but it says source unknown.

Does anyone know where I am going wrong. I am running vlc in the background also.

Many thanks

Please use the workflow outlined at the begining of thread. It will allow you to Rip/Encode with very little effort once setup.

However, if you have ripped then the folder should have Video_TS and if DVD had a AUDIO_TS(however not all movies have the audio broken out this way). When you open HB tell it to use the folder option and slect the correct folder the movie is. Also you don't need to have VLC running in background. It just needs to be installed.

Also with HB make sure you are at least running 0.9.5

 

[tonyparrish]

A little confused..

Hi everyone,

I managed to install all the workflows and have run them through with success. However, when I opened the workflow files from ~/library/services, make my edits to them, the edits made to the workflows aren't saved when I open them up through the automator menu. I save over the original file, but it still reverts back to default settings for minimum and maximum movie lengths, tv show lengths, etc. Am I to open the workflow from the services folder overtime instead of the automator menus? Thanks in advance,

tparrish

 

[figjam]

Tv tag

Hi Guys,

First let me say to the author....great work, it has truly made my life so much easier given the volume of Movies and Shows I am in the process of converting.

On to my question, I have been converting my .avi files to .m4v files using the Batch Encode automator, and it has been working a treat! I have then been using the "Add TV Tags" automator workflow to add the metadata for the TV shows i have encoded. Up until recently (2 days ago) this has been working fine as well. But now it just keeps returning the error message "Error: Could not find a match. Check TV Show name, Season Number and Episode Number". I am using the exact format that I was using before (TVShowName - S##E##.m4v) but now it will not work. I have even tried re-tagging shows that were previously tagged without a problem, but now they are not working either.

Has something changed, or am I doing something wrong?

Any help or suggestions would be greatly appreciated

 

[AdmiralTriggerH]

Hi Guys,

First let me say to the author....great work, it has truly made my life so much easier given the volume of Movies and Shows I am in the process of converting.

On to my question, I have been converting my .avi files to .m4v files using the Batch Encode automator, and it has been working a treat! I have then been using the "Add TV Tags" automator workflow to add the metadata for the TV shows i have encoded. Up until recently (2 days ago) this has been working fine as well. But now it just keeps returning the error message "Error: Could not find a match. Check TV Show name, Season Number and Episode Number". I am using the exact format that I was using before (TVShowName - S##E##.m4v) but now it will not work. I have even tried re-tagging shows that were previously tagged without a problem, but now they are not working either.

Has something changed, or am I doing something wrong?

Any help or suggestions would be greatly appreciated

Well I just encoded the whole of 24 Season 8 and when I tried to tag it (after i fixed my stupid mistake in the names) it gave me the same message.
I haven't got anything else that needs tagging till my current encode job finishes later this evening while I'm asleep.
I'll try and tag a show that has worked fine before.

 

[gunthermic]

I have had same issues last few days. I do believe something has changed in the api he is using to call data.

I tried to tag Nanny McPhee 2 the other day. Under MetaX or iDentify.

Neither could find the movie, but if I wnet to the website itself, it was found, no problem.

Tried to do this under workflow Tag and Rename Movie as well. Same results.. not found. So somethign has changed...

 

[3282868]

I've converted the article to PDF for people to download and read offline, it can be found here.

Automated DVD Ripping

WOW Amazing job. I did something similar using Pages but no where near the quality of your work. It was great to print out and make notations. Thanks, that must have been a time consuming job.

I have taken this all on since mid Novemebr, so there is people around ere with much more knowledge. I know enough to be dangerous.

I bought a Pioneer VSX 1020, about 6 months ago, which for all intense and purposes replaces their elite line. and they just release the 1120, which can be controled via a iPad(dang it) It has been a beast, just plain works.

About the NAS, unless I have read and understood it work the whole having a iTunes server on it is misleading. i would not want you to purchase and be disapointed. It is for its price an awesome RAID5 NAS. However the iTunes server is not a iTunes replacement. It does not set up as a iTunes server and a ATV1 or ATV2 connect to it. It however acts like a iTunes server if you enable it to be able to see it in you computers iTunes and then share it's library. That is my understanding.

Streamign it from a Time capsule vs a Mac should make no differance. You are only using the TC as a storage device.

XMBC/Audio truly sounds like a codecc problem with it. If you can connect a ATV2 and it plays the audio correctly even though its onthe second track, then I would say that XMBC is not doing the same. Did you try and switch the audio track once you start the movie?

Another suggestions would be to get a refurb ATV1, and look online and you can buy the jailbreak for it from Firecore. this would allow you to connect a extrernal HD to if with all his movies. No need for iTunes at all. The ATV1 can still play 720p, which to be honest your father with only eyesight in one eye would not be able to tell the differance.

you could still encode with work flow at ATV2 and ATV1 and be golden for anysetup.

Hey, been meaning to reply to your post, and thanks again for helping me on the thread I posted about this issue.

Forgive me if I already told you this, it's been a long few weeks. I do have a 1st gen Apple TV that I ripped open and installed a larger HDD to and even considered the Crystal HD video card upgrade for 1080P, although the processor still poses an issue. I installed FireCore's aTV Flash, I even installed OS X 10.4.9 and it seemed to run well. However, the cleaner iOS on aTV 2 as well as size is an improvement. It is just a shame that the 2nd gen doesn't support USB attached drives (why oh why did they implement micro-USB? lol).

As for XBMC, recently I've been in touch with one of the engineers. I've dpkg the latest nightly build to no avail. Seems this issue is sporadic as sound works for some and not for others, and it isn't hardware dependent and there aren't any variables to isolate the issue. I've checked the file structure of the media player app's XBMC utilizes and the proper audio codecs are present. I even tried running the audio through optical instead of through HDMI, even tweaked the plist settings to ensure the proper core audio is sent, yet no solution.

I'm planning on re-setting the entire system, possibly with the newly released untethered 4.3.1 JB. A fresh start is sometimes better than doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results*.

*Gotta love Einstein

 

[figjam]

Add TV TAGS

I have had same issues last few days. I do believe something has changed in the api he is using to call data.

I tried to tag Nanny McPhee 2 the other day. Under MetaX or iDentify.

Neither could find the movie, but if I wnet to the website itself, it was found, no problem.

Tried to do this under workflow Tag and Rename Movie as well. Same results.. not found. So somethign has changed...

Hi Gunthermic,

Thanks for the reply. I have tried everything I can think of to get it working but to no avail. Does anyone know if mac.jedi still visits this site? I am assuming he wold be the one to know what has happened here??

 

[gunthermic]

Hi Gunthermic,

Thanks for the reply. I have tried everything I can think of to get it working but to no avail. Does anyone know if mac.jedi still visits this site? I am assuming he wold be the one to know what has happened here??

Haven't heard from him a while. Sent him a message. Awaiting to see if he answers. I will be digging into this this weekend, to see if i can figure it myself..

 

[figjam]

Haven't heard from him a while. Sent him a message. Awaiting to see if he answers. I will be digging into this this weekend, to see if i can figure it myself..

Hi Guntermic,

Thanks very much for your help, I look forward to hearing if you come up with a solution.

 

[AdmiralTriggerH]

Well its working again for me now so I have no idea what happened but all seems fine

 

[3282868]

Ok I feel like a complete fool. Figured out the issue. Apparently XBMC defaults to the stereo track and there is a relatively unknown option in holding the middle button to list options while watching the movie. The options are video quality, size and audio. Wouldn't you know it, the second layer AC3 audio layer was an option. I selected it and bam, perfect 5.1 surround sound.

So now I can drag and drop encoded m4v's via Finder into the "Time Capsule" HDD for media storage connected direcly to my aTV 2.

One last question:

I modified the Batch Encode workflows for my rips. I've noticed that some m4v's are different depending on the DVD (audio, widescreen, etc.). Also, the workflow is processing two m4v's for each DVD.

The Encode workflow uses Handbrake CLI, MakeMKV and Mkvtoolnix and BDSub2Sub.jar. I have the correct paths and the following Encode types:

DVD 1: High Profile
HD (720P): High Profile

I had DVD 2 checked for "Apple TV 2" which I assume may be the reason for two files or HD (720P), and only some of these rips are BD, most are SD DVD's I am encoding.

My question is how the encoding process is handled. In "Handbrake", I always use these settings:

Format: MP4 w/ Large file size
Video Codec: H.264 (x264)
FPS: Same as source

Average Bitrate (kbps): 2000 w/ 2 pass encoding
Audio:
Layer 1: AC3 Passthru or AC3 with 5 or 6-channel discrete and 640 kbps
Layer 2: AAC Core-audio (I understand that this is for 2-channel stereo devices)

Does the Batch Encode workflow use these settings and if not how can the workflow be modified to ensure full quality? If not, how can I use the individual workflows to produce a higher quality m4v with all the chapters, titles, etc the Batch Encode tags?

Thanks again guys!

 

[kevbaker]

Well I just encoded the whole of 24 Season 8 and when I tried to tag it (after i fixed my stupid mistake in the names) it gave me the same message.
I haven't got anything else that needs tagging till my current encode job finishes later this evening while I'm asleep.
I'll try and tag a show that has worked fine before.

I'm having the same issue. I've been using the processes for years with no issues. However recently it stopped working, I tried retagging 24 season 1 and it failed. My movie tagging still works which is great but tv shows are needed more. I have all 8 seasons of 24 to retag as my nitotv process required me to remove all tags. Now that i have an TV2, XBMC works better and so i can restore everything back to it original format.

Lets hope we can find a solution quickly

 

[gunthermic]

One last question:

I modified the Batch Encode workflows for my rips. I've noticed that some m4v's are different depending on the DVD (audio, widescreen, etc.). Also, the workflow is processing two m4v's for each DVD.

The Encode workflow uses Handbrake CLI, MakeMKV and Mkvtoolnix and BDSub2Sub.jar. I have the correct paths and the following Encode types:

DVD 1: High Profile
HD (720P): High Profile

I had DVD 2 checked for "Apple TV 2" which I assume may be the reason for two files or HD (720P), and only some of these rips are BD, most are SD DVD's I am encoding.

My question is how the encoding process is handled. In "Handbrake", I always use these settings:

Format: MP4 w/ Large file size
Video Codec: H.264 (x264)
FPS: Same as source

Average Bitrate (kbps): 2000 w/ 2 pass encoding
Audio:
Layer 1: AC3 Passthru or AC3 with 5 or 6-channel discrete and 640 kbps
Layer 2: AAC Core-audio (I understand that this is for 2-channel stereo devices)

Does the Batch Encode workflow use these settings and if not how can the workflow be modified to ensure full quality? If not, how can I use the individual workflows to produce a higher quality m4v with all the chapters, titles, etc the Batch Encode tags?

Thanks again guys!

You certainly always ask a mouthful. LOL

Glad you have XMBC working. Middle button on ATV? yea it does bring up a menu, thought we ad meantioned that before.

I will try to answer all you Batch Encoding questions now:
The workflow works like this:

You have four options:
DVD 1, DVD 2, HD(720), HD(SD)

For every movie you do, depending on the source file. It will do the movie once or twice depending on your selection of those. For example you do a BD and have both HD's selected it will encode twice.

As far your settings vs what is happening. In each othe the selections above (DVD1,DVD2,HD(720p), HD(SD) you select a profile. Those profiles are the ones that are in Handbrake. ATV1, ATV2, Universial etc. So however those are programed is what the encode will do.

If you have a differnet way you want them encode you must select the option that fits the DVD (i.e DVD1, DVD2) under those selections you will see custom. You would have to put your "cli" command line to have it encode the way you want it to encode.

it will not parse options into the profile. So if you select ATV2 for HD(720p), you can't add the option for say chapters in the custom part and just add -m path/path/text.txt. It will not put those together. It will just try to encode with the -m command.. Make Sense?

I am not an expert at handbrake, however I will tellyou if you want FPS(which ATV2/ATV1 use) there is no sense in selecting bit rate of 2000, kinda going againist the FPS of same as source(my understanding).

I see no reason for the audio tracks beign put as AC-3 first vs AAC. If you have to hit the button to change it, it's not doing any good.

So with all that said. If you need some of the items you are talking about and you feel it gives you abetter quality movie encode, you will have to use custom to get things you want. The profiles that Handbrake has included are pretty much the best. I have done over 1000 and have no problem with using the default. (IMO)

I hope I have helped you. Please ask if something isn't clear. It's so hard yping in these small windows sometimes.

 

[SilentPanda]

RE: TV Show Tagging

I noticed XBMC updated my TheTVDB.com plugin. I'm guessing their lookup API changed so that is why TV lookups are failing at the moment. It will require a code change most likely. I might be able to look into it shortly and write up a fix for you guys. This would affect anything doing TV show lookups, not just tagging.

 

[gunthermic]

RE: TV Show Tagging

I noticed XBMC updated my TheTVDB.com plugin. I'm guessing their lookup API changed so that is why TV lookups are failing at the moment. It will require a code change most likely. I might be able to look into it shortly and write up a fix for you guys. This would affect anything doing TV show lookups, not just tagging.

Thats what i was guessing as well.

 

[fred_garvin]

I'm having the same issue. I've been using the processes for years with no issues. However recently it stopped working, I tried retagging 24 season 1 and it failed. My movie tagging still works which is great but tv shows are needed more. I have all 8 seasons of 24 to retag as my nitotv process required me to remove all tags. Now that i have an TV2, XBMC works better and so i can restore everything back to it original format.

Lets hope we can find a solution quickly

I've been having some various issues, and definitely this one. I was annoyed enough last night to debug the script, though I'm not much of a shell scripter.

There is a problem with the API, and not much of any debug code in these scripts. To fix, you must edit the script at:

~/Library/Automator/Add\ TV\ Tags.action/Contents/Resources/main.command

First, in finder use Go->Go to folder (Enter /tmp). That's where the script writes temp files.

In the source code, at the bottom, comment out the delete tmp files block with the # sign, like so:

# delete script temp files
#if [ -e "$sourceTmpFolder" ]; then
#rm -rf $sourceTmpFolder
#fi

Now, the directory it creates in /tmp will remain and you can look at the files. Currently, they're all empty due to this problem we're having.

The problem is that the tvdbMirror variable is getting set to null or empty string. The line:

tvdbMirror=`curl -s "http://www.thetvdb.com/api/9F21AC232F30F34D/mirrors.xml"

is key. Paste into safari and the response (view source to see xml) looks fine. Go to terminal and run this via curl and the response is an error xml file. (Moved permanently) I don't know why. Perhaps the site is checking the browser vendor in the request headers?

So, that's the problem. The fix:

#tvdbMirror=`curl -s "http://www.thetvdb.com/api/9F21AC232F30F34D/mirrors.xml" | "$xpathPath" //mirrorpath 2>/dev/null | awk -F\> '{print $2}' | awk -F\< '{print $1}'`
		
# Mirror is broken, hardcode it
tvdbMirror="http://cache.thetvdb.com"

I've just commented out the curl line with #. Then I set the variable to a hardcoded value that works.

If you want other debugging do something like this:

Just before ( # get series data)

# My log
myLog="$sourceTmpFolder/debug.log"
touch "$myLog"

Just after (# get series id AND series_id=$(curl ...)

### Some debugging now		
echo "Debug for get series data:" >> "$myLog"

#curl -s "http://www.thetvdb.com/api/9F21AC232F30F34D/mirrors.xml"  >> "$myLog"

echo "tvdbMirror = $tvdbMirror" >> "$myLog"
echo "searchTerm = $searchTerm" >> "$myLog"
echo "series_id = $series_id" >> "$myLog"
echo "curlUrl = $tvdbMirror/api/GetSeries.php?seriesname=$searchTerm" >> "$myLog"
		
echo "$tvdbMirror/api/9F21AC232F30F34D/series/$series_id/en.xml" >> "$myLog"

curl -s "$tvdbMirror/api/9F21AC232F30F34D/series/$series_id/en.xml" >> "$myLog"

#####

UPDATE - Looks like they changed their url again, cache isn't working. Just follow the later posts and add the curl -L option as described and comment out the hardcoded: tvdbMirror="http://cache.thetvdb.com"

 

[3282868]

You certainly always ask a mouthful. LOL

LOL I know, I'm sorry, it's one of my con's. I don't have much time these days so when I do post question I tend to get it all out at once. Unfortunately, this tends to result in "tl;dr"

Glad you have XMBC working. Middle button on ATV? yea it does bring up a menu, thought we ad meantioned that before.

Oooops, my bad!

You have four options:
DVD 1, DVD 2, HD(720), HD(SD)

For every movie you do, depending on the source file. It will do the movie once or twice depending on your selection of those. For example you do a BD and have both HD's selected it will encode twice.

This makes sense. I had DVD(1), DVD(2) and HD(720P) selected. I wrongly (and dumbly) assumed these options were similar to the audio layers in that selecting more than one layer (embedding multiple audio tracks in one m4v) would allow the video to be played on various devices.

As far your settings vs what is happening. In each othe the selections above (DVD1,DVD2,HD(720p), HD(SD) you select a profile. Those profiles are the ones that are in Handbrake. ATV1, ATV2, Universial etc. So however those are programed is what the encode will do.

In each profile what is the best video option? Example, DVD(1): "High Profile", "Apple TV 2" or "Universal". What is the quality for each profile and what is the best option to maintain video quality for playback on various m4v capable devices? I assumed "High Profile" was better than "Apple TV 2", but then "Universal" is thrown into the equation.

If you have a different way you want them encode you must select the option that fits the DVD (i.e DVD1, DVD2) under those selections you will see custom. You would have to put your "cli" command line to have it encode the way you want it to encode.

it will not parse options into the profile. So if you select ATV2 for HD(720p), you can't add the option for say chapters in the custom part and just add -m path/path/text.txt. It will not put those together. It will just try to encode with the -m command.. Make Sense?

Perfect sense now, thank you. If I want a different encoding process I must use the "Custom" selection and the related command line for my particular needs as each profile is already customized for that particular device (ex Apple TV, iPad, etc.)

I am not an expert at handbrake, however I will tellyou if you want FPS(which ATV2/ATV1 use) there is no sense in selecting bit rate of 2000, kinda going againist the FPS of same as source(my understanding).

On this I researched a lot. I realize a higher quality Bitrate of around 2000 with 2-pass encoding is more than necessary for the Apple TV 2. However at the recommendations of many I decided on this as to maintain the closest in video quality to the source DVD as possible and to (hopefully) future proof the movie rip. As well, playing the movie through XBMC allows the Apple TV 2 to use about every codec available and can force an output of 1080P, thereby bypassing the aTV's iOS downscaling of high def to 720P

I see no reason for the audio tracks beign put as AC-3 first vs AAC. If you have to hit the button to change it, it's not doing any good.

Lord I'm such a blond sometimes. For some reason I bought AAC outputted in 2-channel (think I read that in another forums). There are so many I thought it was necessary to choose more than one for universal device capability. I'm guessing only one track is needed and the device itself (such as an iPad) will handle the audio by decoding it. If this is the case, what is the best audio (AC3 being constant):

• AAC (Core Audio)
• AC3 Passthru
• AC3

Then with those choices what is the best:
• Dolby Surround
• Dolby Pro Logic II
• 6-channel discrete
• Bitrate

I assumed AC3 with 6-channel discrete at 640 kbps was the best quality audio layer. Now I'm realizing that AC3 (5.1) w/ AAC (CoreAudio) and 6-channel discrete may be the best (and only necessary) audio layer.

I hope I have helped you. Please ask if something isn't clear. It's so hard yping in these small windows sometimes.

You are the best! Thank you so much, I know I have been a complete PITA, and I can't imagine having to deal with my endless questions lol. I just want to do this once and do it right. Oddly I'm not a noob but I've become very humble in this learning process. THANK YOU!

 

[gunthermic]

LOL I know, I'm sorry, it's one of my con's. I don't have much time these days so when I do post question I tend to get it all out at once. Unfortunately, this tends to result in "tl;dr"



Oooops, my bad!



This makes sense. I had DVD(1), DVD(2) and HD(720P) selected. I wrongly (and dumbly) assumed these options were similar to the audio layers in that selecting more than one layer (embedding multiple audio tracks in one m4v) would allow the video to be played on various devices.



In each profile what is the best video option? Example, DVD(1): "High Profile", "Apple TV 2" or "Universal". What is the quality for each profile and what is the best option to maintain video quality for playback on various m4v capable devices? I assumed "High Profile" was better than "Apple TV 2", but then "Universal" is thrown into the equation.



Perfect sense now, thank you. If I want a different encoding process I must use the "Custom" selection and the related command line for my particular needs as each profile is already customized for that particular device (ex Apple TV, iPad, etc.)



On this I researched a lot. I realize a higher quality Bitrate of around 2000 with 2-pass encoding is more than necessary for the Apple TV 2. However at the recommendations of many I decided on this as to maintain the closest in video quality to the source DVD as possible and to (hopefully) future proof the movie rip. As well, playing the movie through XBMC allows the Apple TV 2 to use about every codec available and can force an output of 1080P, thereby bypassing the aTV's iOS downscaling of high def to 720P



Lord I'm such a blond sometimes. For some reason I bought AAC outputted in 2-channel (think I read that in another forums). There are so many I thought it was necessary to choose more than one for universal device capability. I'm guessing only one track is needed and the device itself (such as an iPad) will handle the audio by decoding it. If this is the case, what is the best audio (AC3 being constant):

• AAC (Core Audio)
• AC3 Passthru
• AC3

Then with those choices what is the best:
• Dolby Surround
• Dolby Pro Logic II
• 6-channel discrete
• Bitrate

I assumed AC3 with 6-channel discrete at 640 kbps was the best quality audio layer. Now I'm realizing that AC3 (5.1) w/ AAC (CoreAudio) and 6-channel discrete may be the best (and only necessary) audio layer.



You are the best! Thank you so much, I know I have been a complete PITA, and I can't imagine having to deal with my endless questions lol. I just want to do this once and do it right. Oddly I'm not a noob but I've become very humble in this learning process. THANK YOU!

Not a PITA at all. I asked alot of questions just 4 months ago when I started mine. I will answer these this evening.

I will say you mis-understood the audio portion. I meant you wanted AC-3 track number 1 and then AAc track number two. For ATV 1/2 it doesn't make any differance at all which order. So I would worry to much about that.

 

[3282868]

Not a PITA at all. I asked alot of questions just 4 months ago when I started mine. I will answer these this evening.

I will say you mis-understood the audio portion. I meant you wanted AC-3 track number 1 and then AAc track number two. For ATV 1/2 it doesn't make any differance at all which order. So I would worry to much about that.

Ah. Ok. I thought that's what you may have meant at first. I did make certain to select the best audio track in layer one, I don't know why XBMC defaulted to the 2-channel stereo track.

So I do need to have more than one layer. The first being the best possible quality and the second for stereo devices.

I sent you a PM, and thanks again. Respond whenever you can as I wrote out a lot and don't want to be a burden.