Superbasic: How do I watch my ripped DVDs on Apple TV

[priitv8]

Yes I'm looking forward to it. But it's not an order of magnitude improvement, which the first iPhone made. In television, as with phones, we are now seeing incremental improvements as they are maturing technologies.
...
I like to get inches away from a UHD display and see that incredible resolution, but it is only an incremental improvement at a distance:

To my eyes, HDR is first significant improvement in television since color.
And it is about blacks and whites, ie dynamic range. Plus the color gamut.
It is totally independent of resolution.
You could watch a 640x480 movie in hdr and still see the difference.

 

[Easyflyer]

I'm sure this is a supersimple question, so appreciate your patience.

You're right about that. How many of the "mindless" Hollywood videos would you want to watch more than once? On the other hand, with the current stream of "Marvel" and other junk coming out the past few years, maybe some of the classics would be worth seeing again. I have Movie Pass and haven't seen a movie in my local theater worth the gas to to see.

If this keeps up, I'm canceling the card.

 

[HDFan]

HDR is first significant improvement in television since color.

So your television milestones are when black and white was replaced by color in the 60s, and the introduction of HDR in the 2010s? No other significant changes in the subsequent 50 years, including the 1080p and 4K transitions?

 

[archer75]

So your television milestones are when black and white was replaced by color in the 60s, and the introduction of HDR in the 2010s? No other significant changes in the subsequent 50 years, including the 1080p and 4K transitions?

HDR is a game changer. Way more significant than 4K. But I would say 1080p was as well.

 

[priitv8]

HDR is a game changer. Way more significant than 4K. But I would say 1080p was as well.

1080p was just quantitative evolvement.
I am deliberaty skipping all the digital encoding endeavours.
Before HDR and REC.2020 we were technically still living the standards set by CRT 50 years ago, like 100 nits and 2.2 gamma.

 

[Jethro!]

Or... If you want to watch your DVD's you could just, you know, pop them in your DVD player and watch them.

 

[LCC0256]

I ripped about 1200 DVD's over a period of a couple years. Initially I used my old 2008 MBP since it has an internal DVD drive and isn't used for anything else. But after awhile I realized what a dog Handbrake is with an old Core2Duo machine on MacOSX 10.5.9. So I switched to ripping them on my 2013 i7 MacBook Air. A DVD that took over an hour to rip on the old MBP only took 15 to 20 minutes on the newer computer.

My library is on a 4tb USB 3.0 hard drive connected to a bottom of the line 2014 Mac Mini that runs iTunes 24/7 with homesharing. This works really well with my two Apple TV's, iPad, MacBook Air and iPhone. But I only have one house. You could do something similar with a mac in each city as an iTunes server - can really be any old Mac or even a PC as long as it runs a relatively new version of iTunes.

If you don't want to invest in duplicate equipment, you could use your laptop with an external disk and take it between both cities. If you need to move an iTunes library between machines, see this article, I found it very helpful: http://www.ilounge.com/index.php/articles/comments/moving-your-itunes-library-to-a-new-hard-drive/

Boyd I have about 250 copy protected DVD movies I am ripping and about 100 home movies that I converted from digital tape to DVD I am ripping. I am about 1/2 way done. I too am using a Core 2 Duo 2008 MBP to do this using a program called MacX DVD Ripper Pro. So far so good however the movies are being ripped roughly at 1:1 time wise. (a 2 hour movie will take 2 hours to rip)

As I understand what you experienced if I were to use my newer 2012 MBP i7 (with SSD and 16GB memory) - the ripping process would go faster. I am assuming the software I am using (MacX DVD Ripper Pro) is not hamstringing (or being the impediment for faster rips) the ripping process per se. I hesitate to switch computers because I use the 2008 MBP as a "server" for my home network. I turn it on, select iTunes (it is connected via ethernet as is all my equipment) and all the other Apple TV's on my home network can access the movies that have been ripped and placed into iTunes. (home sharing) If I were to rip on the 2012 I would then have to copy the rips on to the older MBP. That also takes time so most likely the time saving by using the newer MBP would be a wash????

I also have a 2TB (USB 2) external HD that I use exclusively as a back up for the movies I am ripping. Those movies are the only thing on that drive. I do not know how to "point" my iTunes program to an external hard drive so that is why I have not used the 2TB drive for direct access to my network. I could easily buy another 2TB drive for additional back up IF I could understand how to use one of them to be the primary "server" via my old MBP. The iTunes library on my 2008 MBP has ONLY the movies I ripped into it to simplify this.

Will you please comment on my efforts to finish this project and give me your recommendations and advice? Thank you Larry

 

[HDFan]

As I understand what you experienced if I were to use my newer 2012 MBP i7 (with SSD and 16GB memory) - the ripping process would go faster.

Maybe not. If you are ripping from a DVD the bottle neck is normally the DVD drive transfer rate. Check your cpu activity during the RIP. If you have spare CPU cycles then a faster machine will likely not make a difference.

I do not know how to "point" my iTunes program to an external hard drive

Very simple to keep your iTunes library on an external disk. iTunes/Preferences/Advanced/iTunes Media folder location.

 

[Boyd01]

Will you please comment on my efforts to finish this project and give me your recommendations and advice?

Your rip times are comparable to mine, the one hour example I gave was a for a one hour black and white TV show. I wondered if the CD drive was the bottleneck (I was using the internal drive on the 2008 MBP) so I got a fast external DVD drive (a big ugly monster). Didn't make any difference.

Out of 1200 commercial DVD's, I only had a handful that wouldn't rip - less than 20. I tried MacX DVD and another program and they couldn't do the problem DVD's either. Finally, I just purchased the few of these that I actually wanted from iTunes. Anyway, I saw no reason why I should switch from Handbrake - it works really well and it's free. Now this might have to do with the type of DVD's you're ripping, very few of mine were recent "blockbuster" movies.

Try ripping a couple on your 2012 MBP - I think you will find a big speed difference. I connected my machines with ethernet and used filesharing to transfer the ripped movies - easy. I don't use USB 2.0 disks anymore, they are just too slow for me. 😉

See the link to the article in my post that you quoted. It will tell you everything you need to know about putting your library on an external drive or moving it to another machine. If you use an external drive, I strongly suggest that you move the iTunes database to that drive as well as your media - this is covered in that article. Otherwise, the database will be stored on the internal drive on the computer. Problem is, if you happen to start iTunes and the external drive is not available, your database can get corrupted. This is a real mess - happened to me and was a pain to fix.

 

[HDFan]

If you use an external drive, I strongly suggest that you move the iTunes database to that drive as well as your media -

If you are referring to the iTunes Library (Artwork, Media, .xml file, etc.) I keep that on my internal drive and keep my media on an external drive. That way Time Machine catches all all of the frequent changes to the library playlists, ratings, etc. but isn't filled up with the infrequently changed media which is backed up with other methods.

I've never had any issues working this way.

 

[priitv8]

Your rip times are comparable to mine, the one hour example I gave was a for a one hour black and white TV show. I wondered if the CD drive was the bottleneck (I was using the internal drive on the 2008 MBP) so I got a fast external DVD drive (a big ugly monster). Didn't make any difference.

You need to get a drive that allows firmware to be flashed which disables the riplock.

 

[HDFan]

An 1 hour 38 minute movie took me 17 minutes in Handbrake. If your results are slower, then the questions I would ask are:

1. How fast does your drive read? The Buffalo MediaStation that I use reads at 16x single layer, 8x double layer. My rip time was almost exactly the double layer rip time (138/8=17.25), so I was bound by the optical drive read speed.

2. What was your cpu usage during the rip? In my case I was running ~1000% cpu usage (I have a lot of them), so I was not cpu bound.

I just did a handbrake of another disk (ISO already ripped to a fast RAID drive), eliminating the optical drive read rate issues. I got the same result, ~174 fps, ~1000% cpu. 174/8 = 21.5 fps so that looks about right. In the case of encoding from hard disk I hit a Handbrake CPU limitation. It looks as if the maximum speed that Handbrake can reach is 8x due to cpu support. [I just did another encode and did briefly see Handbrake go over 1200% of cpu].

 

[Boyd01]

An 1 hour 38 minute movie took me 17 minutes in Handbrake.

What computer were you using? The earlier discussion was about a 2008 MacBook Pro Core2Duo 2.4ghz. Regardless, I finished my rips a couple years ago and don't plan to buy any more DVD's. 😉

 

[johannnn]

Very interesting thread, lots of helpful tips. At the moment I use Infuse which connects to my iMac, but I’m thinking about going iOS-only so this thread is helpful at which options are out there.

For OP and his Seagate drive, absolutely buy 2 of them. Use SuperDuper (free app) to do intelligent mirroring. Drives can be both lost or damaged.

 

[HDFan]

What computer were you using?

iMacPro, 18 cpu. The point what I was trying to make was that there are limits. You have to figure out what they are, and decide if it is possible and desirable to eliminate them. Handbrake seems to use no more than 12 cpus. The optical drive transfer rate can be a limiting factor, or your cpu capacity if it is less than the Handbrake limits, etc.

 

[Boyd01]

LOL, you suggested that something must be wrong because your rips are so much faster, but didn't mention you were using an 18 core Mac Pro while we were discussing a ten year old core 2 duo laptop. 😀

 

[HDFan]

you suggested that something must be wrong because your rips are so much faster,

No, I didn't.

If your results are slower, then the questions I would ask are:

In my point 2 I said I wasn't cpu bound. I didn't say that you were. That is something that you have to determine.

I gave you examples using the system I had available of how to figure out what the bottle necks were. I also gave you some theoretical limits. What could I have said to make it clearer?

 

[LCC0256]

Maybe not. If you are ripping from a DVD the bottle neck is normally the DVD drive transfer rate. Check your cpu activity during the RIP. If you have spare CPU cycles then a faster machine will likely not make a difference.



Very simple to keep your iTunes library on an external disk. iTunes/Preferences/Advanced/iTunes Media folder location.

Thank you for your help
[doublepost=1532194131][/doublepost]

Your rip times are comparable to mine, the one hour example I gave was a for a one hour black and white TV show. I wondered if the CD drive was the bottleneck (I was using the internal drive on the 2008 MBP) so I got a fast external DVD drive (a big ugly monster). Didn't make any difference.

Out of 1200 commercial DVD's, I only had a handful that wouldn't rip - less than 20. I tried MacX DVD and another program and they couldn't do the problem DVD's either. Finally, I just purchased the few of these that I actually wanted from iTunes. Anyway, I saw no reason why I should switch from Handbrake - it works really well and it's free. Now this might have to do with the type of DVD's you're ripping, very few of mine were recent "blockbuster" movies.

Try ripping a couple on your 2012 MBP - I think you will find a big speed difference. I connected my machines with ethernet and used filesharing to transfer the ripped movies - easy. I don't use USB 2.0 disks anymore, they are just too slow for me. 😉

See the link to the article in my post that you quoted. It will tell you everything you need to know about putting your library on an external drive or moving it to another machine. If you use an external drive, I strongly suggest that you move the iTunes database to that drive as well as your media - this is covered in that article. Otherwise, the database will be stored on the internal drive on the computer. Problem is, if you happen to start iTunes and the external drive is not available, your database can get corrupted. This is a real mess - happened to me and was a pain to fix.

Thank you for your help. I find hand brake cumbersome and just another piece of software to figure out (I am getting a little long in the tooth so I have to pick and choose the now limited amount my brain can take in!!) so I will stay with the Mac X DVD since it has worked so far. All my equipment is capable of being connected to each other via ethernet cable. My 08 machine only has USB 2.0 so that is why I got that 2.0 back up drive for it. I have never used file sharing and am not sure how to do it. I assume it is quicker than moving my movies from iTunes on the 2012 MBP to thumb drive then placing the thumb drive in the 2008 MBP and copying back on that iTunes library?? maybe simpler once I understand how to do it?
By the way it was a little faster to rip the movies on the 2012 MBP. The movies I am ripping are not blockbuster recents - they are primarily Disney classics and other what I consider classic movies. (Lawrence of Arabia Dr Zhivago Shane Bad Day at Black Rock Casablanca Ben Hur Elmer Gantry etc) but still copy protected.
I too have made the choice not to buy any more DVDs or blue rays etc. Once I get this project done I will have all my home movies and all the ones I like to watch over again on my computer on a back up and hopefully in the cloud. Although that begs the last question - does iCloud also store these ripped movies (both the copy protected and the home movies I have ripped?) Thank you again for taking time to help me. Larry

 

[Boyd01]

I have never used file sharing and am not sure how to do it. I assume it is quicker than moving my movies from iTunes on the 2012 MBP to thumb drive then placing the thumb drive in the 2008 MBP and copying back on that iTunes library??

Yes, much easier than that! Should also be considerably faster than a USB 2.0 thumb drive. Very simple to set up file sharing, see this:

https://support.apple.com/guide/mac-help/use-file-sharing-mh17131/mac

If you look in the media folder (at the root of your iTunes library) there should be a folder named "automatically add to iTunes". Just drag the ripped movies to that folder using file sharing and they'll be added to your library.

The other handy MacOS feature is screen sharing, I use that quite a bit:

https://support.apple.com/kb/ph25554?locale=en_US

 

[RecentlyConverted]

My problem with ripping DVDs was getting subtitles for films where the characters start speaking a foreign language. I tried different ways, but IT got frustrating, so I gave up (websites often had subtitles that didn’t match up to the characters).

Shame there isa’t a ripping software That rips DVDs and can collect forced subtitles. I select it on MacX DVD ripper Pro, but I never get any subtitles to appear on my ATV!

 

[Jethro!]

My problem with ripping DVDs was getting subtitles for films where the characters start speaking a foreign language. I tried different ways, but IT got frustrating, so I gave up (websites often had subtitles that didn’t match up to the characters).

Shame there isa’t a ripping software That rips DVDs and can collect forced subtitles. I select it on MacX DVD ripper Pro, but I never get any subtitles to appear on my ATV!

There are these amazing devices that allow you to turn on and off subtitles whenever you want. They're called DVD players. Check them out!

 

[RecentlyConverted]

There are these amazing devices that allow you to turn on and off subtitles whenever you want. They're called DVD players. Check them out!

Wow, so funny!

 

[priitv8]

Shame there isa’t a ripping software That rips DVDs and can collect forced subtitles. I select it on MacX DVD ripper Pro, but I never get any subtitles to appear on my ATV!

You can do this, pretty easily, in fact.
Use MakeMKV to rip DVD into MKV with bitmap subs embedded.
Then use Subler to convert these subtitles into text format (yes, it will OCR them!) and embed into MP4 file.
Alternatively use another player on aTV (like VLC, Plex or Infuse) that can render also bitmapped subs.

 

[CPTmom2wp]

This thread has been immensely helpful, as am just in the procrastinating process of ripping/storing/Plexing around 1000 discs.😉 I really appreciate the real world experience that will help save time and avoid mistakes, and for someone having the courage to ask a "simple" question that ends up with multiple very good suggestions from obvious experts.

As I have discs of quality ranging up to 4K; a 4K AppleTV; and 4K 75" Samsung; I would like to maximize the video quality. What do you all recommend for ripping? I have looked at the MakeMKV, MacXPro, and Brorsoft Video Converter Ultimate. (I'm ripping to a 2013, 2.6GHz, Intel Core i7, 16GB, MBP ---then transferring to a dedicated Pegasus Promise R4) Or does it matter? Thanks!

 

[RecentlyConverted]

You can do this, pretty easily, in fact.
Use MakeMKV to rip DVD into MKV with bitmap subs embedded.
Then use Subler to convert these subtitles into text format (yes, it will OCR them!) and embed into MP4 file.
Alternatively use another player on aTV (like VLC, Plex or Infuse) that can render also bitmapped subs.

Would doing the first option mean I have subtitles showing through out the film, or just the forced subtitles?