New to DVD Ripping, please Help~!!

[jsky]

I am new to the whole DVD ripping, but i want to start building a movie library.
I would like to store all the movies in itunes library. Most of the time I will just playback on my computer (15" MBP or 24" Samsung), but i would like to transfer the movies to my iphone if needed, and also sometimes will play back the movies on a HD TV (42"). I am not looking for the best of best quality, I just want something that is good enough. However, I do want to make sure the quality are good enough to playback on computer, iphone, and HD TV (doesn't have to really good on HD TV, cuz i hardly get to use it. it is my friends)

I have booth Handbreak and Visualhub (lastest Version), I am wondering which one is best for my purpose. and what setting should I use? please give me detail instruction on settings, I am so new to the whole DVD encoding stuff, i don't even understand what H.264 is. Any help or suggestion will be helpful.

My compute: 15" MBP, 2.5 GHZ, 2GB. I am running my itunes library on an external hard driver.

 

[Sean Dempsey]

Use handbreak

Choose the preset from the preset list that fits your needs. iphone, apple tv, whatever.

thats all you gotta do.

 

[toddngina]

There's lots of threads here about this already. Try this one:

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/468763/

 

[JasonK]

h.264 is a video encoding that uses less memory and retains a high standard of quality. Youtube began encoding using h.264 last year because it uses less band width and maintains a descent quality. It also made it possible to watch YouTube vid's on the iphone.

 

[gwsat]

There's lots of threads here about this already. Try this one:

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/468763/

Thanks for the link. I just downloaded Handbrake and set it up as the instructions recommended. I am now ripping one of my movie DVDs so that I can watch it on my Apple TV.

I ripped and burned a lot of DVDs when I first got my old PowerBook G4 5 years ago. I stopped doing it, though, because the DVD burner in that box was so slow it wasn’t worth the candle. Now, though, I have a new PowerBook Pro and the ability rip DVD movies and convert them to Mpeg4 in a reasonable time would be great. I want to watch my many movie DVDs on my Apple TV. It appears that Handbrake will be able to rip a 2 hour movie and convert it to MP4 in about 2 hours, which is acceptable.

EDIT: I spoke too soon. The 2 hours I mentioned above were for the first pass. Thus, it's going to take more than 4 hours to rip a 2 hour movie and convert it to Mpeg4. That's a loooong time, so whether i do it again will depend on what I can get my Apple TV to do with the Mpeg4 version. The saving grace is that my MacBook Pro seems not to be stressed when I keep Handbrake in the background and do other stuff in the active window -- as I am doing now.

 

[mallbritton]

The 2 hours I mentioned above were for the first pass. Thus, it's going to take more than 4 hours to rip a 2 hour movie and convert it to Mpeg4.

If you are using Handbrake to encode directly from the DVD, don't. You're times will be ridiculously slow. Use MacTheRipper to first rip the DVD to your HDD then use Handbrake to encode.

Also, what settings are you using in Handbrake? If you're using the TV pre-set it should not take that long even to rip directly from the DVD on a MacBook Pro.

Regards,
Michael

 

[gwsat]

If you are using Handbrake to encode directly from the DVD, don't. You're times will be ridiculously slow. Use MacTheRipper to first rip the DVD to your HDD then use Handbrake to encode.

Also, what settings are you using in Handbrake? If you're using the TV pre-set it should not take that long even to rip directly from the DVD on a MacBook Pro.

Regards,
Michael

Thanks for the advice, I'll try MacTheRipper. I setup Handbrake to create Mpeg4 files that would be compatible with Apple TV, iTunes, and iPhone. There are specific instructions as to how to do this in the link included in Post #3, above.

 

[mallbritton]

Encoding directly from the internal HDD should speed up your encode times some. Also, for encodes above about 2300 Kbps I've found that 2-pass isn't really necessary. I'm not able to see any difference between a video encoded with an average of 2500 using 2-pass and not using it. So if you're using 2-pass you might want to consider not using it.

Regards,
Michael

 

[gwsat]

Encoding directly from the internal HDD should speed up your encode times some. Also, for encodes above about 2300 Kbps I've found that 2-pass isn't really necessary. I'm not able to see any difference between a video encoded with an average of 2500 using 2-pass and not using it. So if you're using 2-pass you might want to consider not using it.

Thanks again for your advice. In addition to Handbrake’s option to avoid a second pass altogether, there is also an option for a “Turbo first pass.” What do you think of that?

Handbrake just finished making an Mpeg4 copy of the movie I had it process. After I imported it to iTunes on my computer, I was able to play it on my Apple TV but I’m still not happy. So far, the Apple TV can find the movie only if my computer is awake and iTunes is open. That’s not good. Is there a way to copy the entire Mpeg4 file to the Apple TV, so that I can watch it independent of my computer and iTunes?

 

[DJAKO]

Sync your ATV with iTunes

 

[gwsat]

Sync your ATV with iTunes

That seems to be doing the trick. When I chose the “Custom Sync” option, iTunes immediately found the Mpeg4 movie I had copied earlier and said that it is now copying it to my Apple TV. Thanks again!

I have another question. The movie I copied, Tim Burton’s Sweeney Todd, has an OAR of 1.85:1 but the Mpeg4 file that Handbrake made is being displayed at 4x3 on my Apple TV and I can see the horizontal squeezing. What’s that all about?

The good news is that the 5.1 sound is spectacular. I couldn’t have asked for more.

 

[mallbritton]

The movie I copied, Tim Burton’s Sweeney Todd, has an OAR of 1.85:1 but the Mpeg4 file that Handbrake made is being displayed at 4x3 on my Apple TV and I can see the horizontal squeezing.

It sounds like you need to change the aspect ratio on your TV to 16:9.

Regards,
Michael

 

[mallbritton]

In addition to Handbrake’s option to avoid a second pass altogether, there is also an option for a “Turbo first pass.” What do you think of that?

In general I don't use the 2-pass option. But that's just my personal preference. If you find your video files look better using 2-pass then go for it. It's all about what looks good to you.

Regards,
Michael

 

[gwsat]

Thanks for your responses to my queries. I think that I have solved my problems, which, for the moment at least, leaves me feeling very happy with my Apple TV, Handbrake, iTunes, and MacBook Pro DVD ripper. I have now ripped several movies from DVDs and converted them to .mp4 files with Handbrake. They are displayed on my Apple TV in their OAR, have glorious 5.1 sound, and closed captions. The only downside is that one of the Dirty Little Secrets of Handbrake is that the only choices for English captions are either always-on or always-off, and the choice must be made before the AUDIO_TS files are converted to .mp4. That’s a small price to pay, though, as the quality of both the video and the 5.1 audio is just as good as the original DVD. I’m happy camper.