301 DVDs I want to get on a drive

[50]

I'm confused. Are you advocated ripping or no? Are you saying to don't rip anything or only rip Blurays?

Blurays are just too big to store. 1 movie = 50GB of space. That will fill up a 2TB drive in no time. Now of course we can transcode them but, damn, that takes an "assload" of time to do that and you still end up with a file around 15GB if you want excellent quality out of it.

This is the primary reason why I still only purchase DVD's. I'd rather have a massive DVD movie library that we can play over and over again (I've probably watched the Hangover on and off over the last few days 5 times) than to have only a small fraction of Blurays that occupy the same space. I'm not "into it" enough to setup another dedicated machine in order to run UnRAID and archive my movies there. For now, a single 2TB HDD will store approx 1000 DVD movies on it if I transcode them all with an average size of 2GB (I think I did that math right) per movie.

When HD manufacturers start making bigger drives in the 5TB, 10TB, 15TB, etc... I will change my opinion. But I just don't think 2TB is big enough for these damn blurays yet.

Most BD's I've ripped aren't 50GB. If I rip a movie with great visuals, I'll rip to 25GB and do not notice any difference in PQ. Otherwise 9-12GB/disc is sufficient. RAID a few 2TB drives (or the new 3TB drives) and storage won't be so much of an issue.

DVD quality just isn't worth it. The extra time ripping a BD to DVD9 size totally justifies the PQ compared to ripping a 1:1 DVD.

 

[frowertr]

Most BD's I've ripped aren't 50GB. If I rip a movie with great visuals, I'll rip to 25GB and do not notice any difference in PQ. Otherwise 9-12GB/disc is sufficient. RAID a few 2TB drives (or the new 3TB drives) and storage won't be so much of an issue.

DVD quality just isn't worth it. The extra time ripping a BD to DVD9 size totally justifies the PQ compared to ripping a 1:1 DVD.

I started playing around with Handbrake (on high quality profile) and transcoding some of my Blu-rays after reading through this thread. I was suprised! While it took approx 5 hours to transcode (The Expendables was the BD in question), I got a .mkv file of around ~4-5GB. Playing it on my 1080p Panasonic Plasma was wonderful. I couldn't even tell I had done anything to it.

So yeah. Storing DVD's is out for me!

 

[Sephire]

Geeez Xylon from AVS is a beast. That is a lot of work. He probably got a couple of million total views from his threads. Not to mention the terabytes of images used on his screenshots.

Does he even get some monetary compensation for his work? I remember the Dark Knight thread he started and saying it was a defective product. That was epic.

 

[0roo0roo]

i vaguely remember reading a thread where he revealed some of his ridiculous setup, so my guess is that he just has money, and so it isn't much effort on his high end equipment.

 

[abaez]

If you rip just the movie from BR it's no more than 30gbs. I believe Kill Bill or one of the ones I have is slightly more.

And BR is almost always preferable except for those movies that aren't out on BR yet, or where the transfer is pure crap and no better than dvd (28 days/later).

 

[Modelworks]

The ultimate way to do this is with a hardware transcoder. They cost about $4500 for a low end model but they can transcode at 10X into any format you want. You can also rent them from video supply companies for as little at $200 a month.

 

[Fallen Kell]

Why rip? Is it really that hard to walk up to the shelf every 2 hours and grab a bluray to pop in?

Why spend your time ripping your way to an inferior and obsolete experience.

What inferior and obsolete experience? If inferior as in DVD vs BluRay, then that is just because he doesn't own the BluRay. A large part of my collection is still DVD, but I havn't purchased a DVD in over 3 years (been buying BluRay since then). I still rip them. The reason is simple, organization. Why in the world would I deal with the inferior and archaic methods of searching through shelves or binders for movies that I own, which can only be ordered in one method, when I can very easily and quickly go through my movie collection on a HTPC and go by alphabetical (if I know what I want to watch), or say I just feel like seeing an action movie (I order by genera), or I want to have a tribute to Harrison Ford, and order by actors, or I have exactly 1 hour 50 minutes to watch a movie, so I order by play time.... And then I just click on my remote and the movie starts playing. No need to get up and search through hundreds of boxes, or sleeves, and have to open up the DVD/BluRay player and insert a movie. I do it all in my nice comfy couch with my remote control.

 

[0roo0roo]

What inferior and obsolete experience? If inferior as in DVD vs BluRay, then that is just because he doesn't own the BluRay. A large part of my collection is still DVD, but I havn't purchased a DVD in over 3 years (been buying BluRay since then). I still rip them. The reason is simple, organization. Why in the world would I deal with the inferior and archaic methods of searching through shelves or binders for movies that I own, which can only be ordered in one method, when I can very easily and quickly go through my movie collection on a HTPC and go by alphabetical (if I know what I want to watch), or say I just feel like seeing an action movie (I order by genera), or I want to have a tribute to Harrison Ford, and order by actors, or I have exactly 1 hour 50 minutes to watch a movie, so I order by play time.... And then I just click on my remote and the movie starts playing. No need to get up and search through hundreds of boxes, or sleeves, and have to open up the DVD/BluRay player and insert a movie. I do it all in my nice comfy couch with my remote control.

it is inferior by default.

it is one thing to watch your dvd collection just as someone might watch their vhs collection, but this is closer to investing hundreds of hours ripping your vhs collection.

 

[Fardringle]

What is inferior about it? Not having to get up to change discs? Not having to search through shelves to find the movie that you want? Not worrying about scratching the disc so it is no longer playable?

When done properly, encoded MP4/MKV files are indistinguishable from the original DVD. The only difference is that you no longer have the menus and extras, and you can keep those if you really want to by simply storing the raw VOB files (just takes more space) instead of encoding to MP4/MPV.

 

[0roo0roo]

And as I've said you could have spent hundreds of hours building a vhs jukebox as well.

You are spending hundreds of hours solving a false problem.

 

[smitbret]

And as I've said you could have spent hundreds of hours building a vhs jukebox as well.

You are spending hundreds of hours solving a false problem.

You're probably correct. 301 DVDs is probably more than anyone will watch in a long, long time. It's 22 days worth of movies running end to end with no breaks. The odds of OP ever really needing to rip 301 DVDs for the sake of "convenience" is probably just silly. I could see it if it were for his kids or his 20 or 30 favorite DVDs, but spending the time to rip and encode 301 DVDs in the off chance that he might wanna watch one of them doesn't make sense. He'd probably make better use of his time constructing an awesome media rack that is camouflaged in his living room/tv room or just spend the 1000 hours working and earning the money to pay someone to do it. The only real plausible reason would be if OP needed to play the DVDs on a moments notice at one of many different locatins throughout the building.

BUT..... Why do you have to shit on his Cheerios?! The guy wants to put 301 DVDs on media server. I think it would be awesome just to scroll through the lists even if I never watched a freaking movie. Who the hell are you to tell him he's stupid for wanting to do that? He doesn't have to explain why he wants to do it anymore than you should be explaining why you've spent so much time playing WOW in your Mom's basement when you could have been out playing the same Live Action Role Playing games with real people. WOW is "inferior" by default. Maybe OP could loan you his DVD copy of Role Models and give you some costume hints. He won't need it after he's ripped it to his media center.

If you've got nothing consrtuctive to add to the conversation, then take your infinite knowledge and sensibilities to P&N and solve world hunger instead of raining on OP's parade. Sometimes people do things just cuz they want to, deal with it.

 

[frowertr]

You're probably correct. 301 DVDs is probably more than anyone will watch in a long, long time. It's 22 days worth of movies running end to end with no breaks. The odds of OP ever really needing to rip 301 DVDs for the sake of "convenience" is probably just silly. I could see it if it were for his kids or his 20 or 30 favorite DVDs, but spending the time to rip and encode 301 DVDs in the off chance that he might wanna watch one of them doesn't make sense. He'd probably make better use of his time constructing an awesome media rack that is camouflaged in his living room/tv room or just spend the 1000 hours working and earning the money to pay someone to do it. The only real plausible reason would be if OP needed to play the DVDs on a moments notice at one of many different locatins throughout the building.

Well, actually 301 is small potatoes to some other people I know. If you spend any time on HTPC and their related forums (real ones like SageTV, XMBC, MythTV, Handrake, etc... not the Anandech one) you will find that people have hundreds upon hundreds of movies. Some even have thousands. Hell, UnRaid is specific to media server nuts like me that need terabytes upon terabytes of storage so we can steam content all over the house. The ability to do that is the coolest thing since "sliced bread" to me!

 

[0roo0roo]

You're probably correct. 301 DVDs is probably more than anyone will watch in a long, long time. It's 22 days worth of movies running end to end with no breaks. The odds of OP ever really needing to rip 301 DVDs for the sake of "convenience" is probably just silly. I could see it if it were for his kids or his 20 or 30 favorite DVDs, but spending the time to rip and encode 301 DVDs in the off chance that he might wanna watch one of them doesn't make sense. He'd probably make better use of his time constructing an awesome media rack that is camouflaged in his living room/tv room or just spend the 1000 hours working and earning the money to pay someone to do it. The only real plausible reason would be if OP needed to play the DVDs on a moments notice at one of many different locatins throughout the building.

BUT..... Why do you have to shit on his Cheerios?! The guy wants to put 301 DVDs on media server. I think it would be awesome just to scroll through the lists even if I never watched a freaking movie. Who the hell are you to tell him he's stupid for wanting to do that? He doesn't have to explain why he wants to do it anymore than you should be explaining why you've spent so much time playing WOW in your Mom's basement when you could have been out playing the same Live Action Role Playing games with real people. WOW is "inferior" by default. Maybe OP could loan you his DVD copy of Role Models and give you some costume hints. He won't need it after he's ripped it to his media center.

If you've got nothing consrtuctive to add to the conversation, then take your infinite knowledge and sensibilities to P&N and solve world hunger instead of raining on OP's parade. Sometimes people do things just cuz they want to, deal with it.

Because this isn't wow, sometimes you can object, because as I said, this is like making a vhs jukebox. If someone wants to buy 300 dollar monster ac cable for their audiophile system who are you to piss on their cheerios you might ask.

 

[smitbret]

Well, actually 301 is small potatoes to some other people I know. If you spend any time on HTPC and their related forums (real ones like SageTV, XMBC, MythTV, Handrake, etc... not the Anandech one) you will find that people have hundreds upon hundreds of movies. Some even have thousands. Hell, UnRaid is specific to media server nuts like me that need terabytes upon terabytes of storage so we can steam content all over the house. The ability to do that is the coolest thing since "sliced bread" to me!

I think you missed the point of my post. LOL.

I agree, it is awesome to have tons of movies at the touch of a button. It's like having your own personal NetFlix On-Demand. Almost none of these media server systems are truly practical, but they are cool, fun and convenient. I was just sarcastically arguing some points for a previous poster.

 

[smitbret]

Because this isn't wow, sometimes you can object, because as I said, this is like making a vhs jukebox. If someone wants to buy 300 dollar monster ac cable for their audiophile system who are you to piss on their cheerios you might ask.

You've made 3 cynical and redundant posts in this topic, only the second of which had any real value (however remote). Please move on.

 

[Cienja]

Sometimes people do things just cuz they want to

I get bored really fast, so I have been doing this because I want to and have the time to do it.

Ultimately, I've ripped 50 or so DVDs so far and the quality is good. I'm not too picky with my video, so "good" to me is probably crappy to others. I have run into several DVDs that I can't rip due to security, which I know has a finite line on legalities, but I figure I own it, so I should be able to back it up/watch from my HD if I want. I don't know what to do about the DVDs with the security stuff I can't get past. I'd appreciate a PM if you have suggestions on software to use. I'm currently using DVD Decrypter to rip, and Handbrake to convert, but DVD Decrypter can't get past some of the security.

Thanks!

 

[0roo0roo]

You've made 3 cynical and redundant posts in this topic, only the second of which had any real value (however remote). Please move on.

and you've popped in to do nothing more than piss on my cheerios as you would say.
the advice stands.

hell it is even worse, if you consider the time required to rip those videos you'd better spend double to back up your effort.

 

[Slug]

AnyDVD HD is what I use to make those DVDs rippable. DVD Decrypter will get most things. I've found that CloneDVD and AnyDVD HD combo has let me rip everything I've thrown at them. However, this software has to be purchased. I've ripped nearly 200 DVDs with them.

 

[smitbret]

AnyDVD is the simplest and surest way to get troublesome DVDs done. It ain't cheap like it used to be, but it could be worth it for a project this size. It sits in your system tray and runs in the background. Then, you can use anything you want to rip the DVD or just pull it straight from the DVD to run through Handbrake.

If you want to do this as quickly as possible and can deal with files that are 3.5-6gb, you can select the option in DVD Decrypter to just rip the main movie as a single .vob file. Basically, what you end up with is a single mpeg-2 file that should be playable through any media streamer to just about any tv or media box. Since there is no transcoding involved, the file is the same quality as the original DVD. If .vob is troublesome, you can just change ".vob" to ".mpg" without changing the contents. Using AnyDVD and DVD Decrypter in this fashion, you should be able to rip about 4 or 5 movies an hour, per DVD drive.

It'll take a 2TB drive to hold everything, but for $80.......... As far as playback WDTV Live is the way I would go.

 

[BofRA]

I have been converting my collection of DVDs using handbrake. erally simple and good quality.

I rip a bunch of discs to HDD and setup a batch encode over night.

TO rip to HDD is use a script called ConsoleDecrypter that automates the rip process. It uses the free version of DVDFab for decryption. Stick a disc in, it rips and ejects. Put next disc in, rinse repeat

 

[Cienja]

Thanks all of you. I'll Try AnyDVD.

I have been converting my collection of DVDs using handbrake.

I wasn't aware that handbrake can be used to rip the DVD. I use it to convert the DVD to mp4 or mkv files. I'll look closer.

Thanks!

 

[BofRA]

I wasn't aware that handbrake can be used to rip the DVD. I use it to convert the DVD to mp4 or mkv files. I'll look closer.

With Anydvd running in the background to decrypt, you can point Handbrake to the DVD drive and rip/convert on the fly.

 

[frowertr]

With Anydvd running in the background to decrypt, you can point Handbrake to the DVD drive and rip/convert on the fly.

He is right, but I am concerened about long term use of the DVD/BD drive using that method It takes me about 5 hours to transcode a BD with Handbrake. Just don't like the thought of my $100 BD drive spinning for that amount of time. I find it easier to rip to the harddrive. Takes about 20 minutes and then you have a 1:1 source you can rip from.

Now if we are just talking DVD's than it might be worthwhile to rip from the drive as those times much shorter..

 

[sdifox]

He is right, but I am concerened about long term use of the DVD/BD drive using that method It takes me about 5 hours to transcode a BD with Handbrake. Just don't like the thought of my $100 BD drive spinning for that amount of time. I find it easier to rip to the harddrive. Takes about 20 minutes and then you have a 1:1 source you can rip from.

Now if we are just talking DVD's than it might be worthwhile to rip from the drive as those times much shorter..

I can't speak to your particular situation, but I have yet to run into a dead optical drive.

And I have been on computers since the 80s

 

[smitbret]

I can't speak to your particular situation, but I have yet to run into a dead optical drive.

And I have been on computers since the 80s

I've killed a few, although never from using Handbrake to rip and transcode.

I would still think it would be more efficient to rip several DVDs to "file" with DVD Decrypter, then you can queue 6 or 7 for transcoding with Handbrake up before you go to bed at night.