What's the state of the rippers?

[jblagden]

Depends on your settings and cpu to say for sure. 3-4 hours of encoding alone for me on a 3.4ghz haswell i5. But I set the encode to veryslow, high profile, scan for foreign subtitles, etc...

I generally just start it and walk away.

Is that a mobile i5 or a desktop i5?

I ask because the mobile i5 only has two cores, while the desktop i5 has four.
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I often buy DVDs and rip/encode them to watch on my ATV 3 (not to share/spread on the internet). I typically use Handbrake to encode, but when that doesn't work I use RipIt and then encode with Handbrake.

In recent months, I've discovered that Handbrake and RipIt often fail with current DVDs. For instance, I bought Still Alice and Paddington the other day but was unable to copy them. Handbrake didn't work at all (it "completed" after 2 seconds) and RipIt took forever to finish; when I then ran Handbrake on the rip, it warned that there was no valid source.

So it seems at least these two pieces of software are unable to deal with many current(ish) DVDs. But how are the other offerings out there? I would very much like to hear your experiences.

Thank you very much in advance
Philip

The decryption libraries needed to unlock dvd's within the 2 apps you mentioned are not really supported anymore and haven't been for a while, so they are falling behind this results in a hit or miss decryption with dvds. As Basic75 suggests, MakeMKV (free) is the way to go as it is routinely updated with the the most current decryption codes. Yes it's an extra step but it's it fast and really only requires you to hit a button to generate an output file than Handbrake can then transcode to mp4.

Agree with that. Just thought I remembered reading somewhere about HB not incorporating newer decryption libraries.
Never encountered a DVD that MakeMKV didn't do fine with though. But I haven't ripped anything in a couple years now, just stream everything.

Actually, Handbrake works fine. You just have to install LibDVDCSS. I haven't bought a lot of DVDs lately, but I was able to rip Star Trek: Into Darkness with Handbrake. The only catch is that the only way I could get LibDVDCSS to install properly was to compile it myself. I tried installing it with brew, but it didn't work. But after compiling it myself, it works fine. There's only been one DVD I haven't been able to rip with Handbrake (Paul Blart).

 

[rayward]

I'm thinking of getting a blue ray player in my Mac Pro but I'm not really sure that would increase quality to such an extent that the extra time needed to rip and encode would be worth it - how long does it take to rip and encode a blue ray?

Ripping times vary based on how "busy" the movie is. I.e. action films with lots of movement take longer than a drama or romcom (also, B&W movies are so heavily pixillated that they generate a huge file). On my iMac (see sig for specs) it takes about an hour to rip a two-hour action flick using MakeMKV, and then about 2.5 - 3 hours to transcode in 1080p with Handbrake and about half that to produce an SD version (for portables).

FYI, it helps to have a lot of RAM, because Handbrake is a full-on assault on your processor and memory. Faster processors will shorten the time, albeit an expensive proposition, but bunging in some extra RAM will make a real difference too.

 

[cynics]

Is that a mobile i5 or a desktop i5?

I ask because the mobile i5 only has two cores, while the desktop i5 has four.
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Desktop quad core. I5-4670 I believe.

 

[jblagden]

Desktop quad core. I5-4670 I believe.

Quad-core 3.8 Ghz - Very nice!

 

[cynics]

Quad-core 3.8 Ghz - Very nice!

It's alright. What I really like about it though is it's TDP. Even while encoding for hours it never gets hot enough to increase the fan speed on Apples fan profile. So it's virtually silent even under strenuous task. The nVidia 775m, not so much but still not too bad.

 

[ignatius345]

He may also be talking of iTunes movie codes. These can be obtained from "free" (if someone donates) upwards. Generally around $2-4 which is cheaper than an official rental

This is a great tip! I had no idea this existed. Have you used any site in particular?

 

[priitv8]

Ripping times vary based on how "busy" the movie is.

It will also depend on if the Riplock is present and if it is, whether it has been dealt with,