What's best for you ? DVD ripping to Front Row!

[liketom]

Ok the only reason i'm asking this questions is i'm fed up with trying to convert many dvd's to front row

i currently use - handbrake to do the donkey work but i'm finding it a very slow at chucking out a Mp4 and even slower at H.264, a 2 hour movie will or can take 2.5-3.5+ hours at Mp4 with a bit rate of around 1500.

there must be a quicker way to do this

DVD2Pod is also used for my box sets like Lost and 24 , quicker it is it still sucks on the quality side.

i use G5 dual 1.8 3gb ram 128mb 9600 And a Mac Mini core solo which is also my Front Row machine

what do you all use and whats best ?

 

[Anonymous Freak]

Ok the only reason i'm asking this questions is i'm fed up with trying to convert many dvd's to front row

i currently use - handbrake to do the donkey work but i'm finding it a very slow at chucking out a Mp4 and even slower at H.264, a 2 hour movie will or can take 2.5-3.5+ hours at Mp4 with a bit rate of around 1500.

there must be a quicker way to do this

DVD2Pod is also used for my box sets like Lost and 24 , quicker it is it still sucks on the quality side.

i use G5 dual 1.8 3gb ram 128mb 9600 And a Mac Mini core solo which is also my Front Row machine

what do you all use and whats best ?

I use Handbrake. And yes, if you want high quality and small files sizes, that's how long it takes.

The G5 Dual will be the faster machine at encoding, so run on it.

The important thing is, how high quality do you really want? What is the screen and distance you're going to be watching it? Are you using the Mini to show on an old NTSC 27" TV that you'll be watching from 8 feet away? If so, then rip at 480 wide MPEG-4 at 640kbps. That'll be good enough. It has the secondary benefit of being able to be played on an iPod Video if you have/get one.

If you are going to be watching it on the computer screen itself, or on an 45" HDTV, I'd rip at 896kbps double-pass H.264 at full resolution. Yes, it will take for stinkin' ever, but it will be essentially original quality.

If you want BEST, it's to rip it straight across as a TS_VIDEO folder off the DVD, in original MPEG-2 format. But then you have an up-to-9 GB folder, and Front Row won't play them natively. The best program for this is Mac the Ripper, but it's not universal yet. (The beta is, but you have to donate to get it.) And Mac the Ripper is fast, since all it's doing is copying the data off the disc, and tweaking a bit here and there, rather than transcoding.

 

[liketom]

yeah i agree with mac the ripper , if only Front Row would accept TS _ files and play them like a DVD like MediaCentral does

pros and cons really - love the UI of FR , love the DVD playback of Mediacentral - just not keen on the UI of it.

i wonder how long it will take to rip a HD-DVD or BR disc next year?
DVD -2.5-3.5
HD-DVD & BR 10-15 hour?

 

[Anonymous Freak]

yeah i agree with mac the ripper , if only Front Row would accept TS _ files and play them like a DVD like MediaCentral does

pros and cons really - love the UI of FR , love the DVD playback of Mediacentral - just not keen on the UI of it.

i wonder how long it will take to rip a HD-DVD or BR disc next year?
DVD -2.5-3.5
HD-DVD & BR 10-15 hour?

If it's pure 'ripping' like Mac the Ripper, it shouldn't be longer than the movie. After all, you're just copying data off the disc, and the disc has to be fast enough to transfer it at at least 1x movie speed.

ENCODING, on the other hand... Will take forever. Yeah, just try encoding a movie in H.264 at HD resolutions, and you'll find out.

 

[Kingsly]

May I ask... why don't you just put the DVD into your drive and select 'DVD' form the Front Row menu? It works for me.

 

[liketom]

May I ask... why don't you just put the DVD into your drive and select 'DVD' form the Front Row menu? It works for me.

call me lazy but i'd rather rip the dvd to my hard drive - saves leg work in the end - well on a 7 disc boxset like 24

anyhow - problem solved - handbrake on a Macbook 2.0Ghz runs much quicker

 

[Felldownthewell]

call me lazy but i'd rather rip the dvd to my hard drive - saves leg work in the end - well on a 7 disc boxset like 24

anyhow - problem solved - handbrake on a Macbook 2.0Ghz runs much quicker

On my 2.0 MBP it runs okay, but I like high quality, and I don't mind file size, since I watch and then delete, so I encode 2-pass at 3000 kbps and original resolution, it it still takes maybe 2-3 hours depending on the movie length.

I tried mactheripper, which I guess isn't universal yet, and it would get stuck right at the very begining of ripping- now I am not sure if this is because the DVD was copy-protected (handbrake choked on it too), but it was really annoying.

Except for that one DVD and a few overly-scratched ones, handbrake has never failed me, and I think its one of your better non TS_VIDEO options. Glad to hear that it works now!

 

[miTunes75]

ok, so the answer is to use handbrake???

When I get my mini, I'll be interested in using the mini for movies also with FR.

I am never interested in DVD extras, commentaries, blah blah blah. So, I CAN rip the movie part in handbrake (assuming there is an option for that) and it will play in front row just fine?

Am I understanding this correctly?

 

[Felldownthewell]

ok, so the answer is to use handbrake???

When I get my mini, I'll be interested in using the mini for movies also with FR.

I am never interested in DVD extras, commentaries, blah blah blah. So, I CAN rip the movie part in handbrake (assuming there is an option for that) and it will play in front row just fine?

Am I understanding this correctly?

Yup! You can just select what chapters/sections of the DVD you want ripped, then all the compression settings, video/audio format and quality, resolution- etc etc...it is quite easy.