Ripping DVD's to NAS

[Millsy]

I recently purchased a NAS to store all my music/photos etc on. I can stream stuff to my iphone/ipad using the NAS software.

What I want to do is rip all my dvds (over 400) to my NAS, but i'm not sure which format to do it in, to play nice with my Apple TV2, Xbox 360, iPhone, iPad etc.

I want to be able to drag and drop films to my iPad to take away on holiday, at the same time I need them to be able to play to my 360 and my Apple TV.

Anyone got any advice as to what format to rip in and what software to use?

I was thinking h.264?

Cheers

 

[Andy.]

400 will take a long time to rip! It might be more efficient to just download them already done, depending on your internet connection of course.

For ripping, DVDFab does a good job, but it struggles with some of the new copy protected DVD's.

 

[Millsy]

Yeah I know it will take a loooonng time but i'm prepared for that, I used to use a neat bit of software a few years back which ripped them as an iso iirc, so it took very little time to pull the film off. would I be able to play iso's through my other equipment?

I've got VLC on my iPad but not sure if it plays iso's.

Just need some direction really as i'm I dont want to start ripping them then realise I should've used a different format etc.

 

[C.J]

If you're wanting to use ATV, I'd stick to .mp4 or .m4v format. Means It'll easily go onto your iPad too.

My intention was to rip my DVDs (450 DVDs / 60 Blurays) to my NAS, but instead I've started downloading the same movies online (currently up to 65).

Once I've caught up, I'll probably start ripping as soon as I buy them. I doubt I'll rip them all anyway, I've skipped loads in the pile already.

What about 'Handbrake'? Should do the job, I did begin using it, but was taking too long between swapping DVDs etc.

Sounds like you have almost the same setup/needs as me.

 

[cava83]

CJ,

Where are you downloading them from and additionally, are you getting them all as .mp4?

Thanks,

G.

 

[C.J]

CJ,

Where are you downloading them from and additionally, are you getting them all as .mp4?

Thanks,

G.

50/50 with the .mp4 files.

I use PB for most, and any I can't find I just rip the DVD.

 

[cava83]

CJ, sexual. How do you find the quality of the downloads, I always check the reviews but sometimes they are not what they say. I presume you look for .mp4 files? Thanks very much. Oh and, I pressure you have XMBC on your ATV2 [nas usage] ?

 

[Millsy]

If you're wanting to use ATV, I'd stick to .mp4 or .m4v format. Means It'll easily go onto your iPad too.

My intention was to rip my DVDs (450 DVDs / 60 Blurays) to my NAS, but instead I've started downloading the same movies online (currently up to 65).

Once I've caught up, I'll probably start ripping as soon as I buy them. I doubt I'll rip them all anyway, I've skipped loads in the pile already.

What about 'Handbrake'? Should do the job, I did begin using it, but was taking too long between swapping DVDs etc.

Sounds like you have almost the same setup/needs as me.

Yeah it sounds like I do. I'd like to keep the special features etc for some films too which makes it harder to decide how to rip them. I've got 427 DVDs and about 30-40 blurays, the blurays I'm not gonna bother with at the mo, it's the DVDs that are taking up space.

How does handbrake handle the DVD rips?

On top of this I've got about the same amount of CDs to rip too lol, but tbh only 50% of them will get ripped.

 

[Millsy]

I pressure you have XMBC on your ATV2 [nas usage] ?

Checked a week or so ago and couldn't get an untethered jailbreak yet on 4.2.1 or whatever the newest iOS is for ATV, but when I can I will be using xmbc, would like to be able to play the rips on xbox too.

 

[C.J]

CJ, sexual. How do you find the quality of the downloads, I always check the reviews but sometimes they are not what they say. I presume you look for .mp4 files? Thanks very much. Oh and, I pressure you have XMBC on your ATV2 [nas usage] ?

I did have XBMC for about 2 days, but I didn't like it, it's very slow (Should have listened to Tom). I wiped the JB within days.

Instead of having a standalone NAS, I've got a small PC (2TB, 5.6Ghz, 2GB ram) only running iTunes. It's Silent.

All my movies are stored on there, it's not used for anything else. It's always asleep, and as soon as I turn ATV on, it wakes on LAN within 5 seconds.

I use the iPad remote app to control ATV.

Yeah it sounds like I do. I'd like to keep the special features etc for some films too which makes it harder to decide how to rip them. I've got 427 DVDs and about 30-40 blurays, the blurays I'm not gonna bother with at the mo, it's the DVDs that are taking up space.

How does handbrake handle the DVD rips?

On top of this I've got about the same amount of CDs to rip too lol, but tbh only 50% of them will get ripped.

Music wise, I've got around 15GB, no idea how many albums there are (I ripped tons before selling to CD Magpie a few months ago), that's far easier to do, straight into iTunes.

Handbrake seemed ok for me, last one I ripped was American Pie, and rips straight to MP4. Quality was fine, but don't think you can do the extra features?!

 

[Millsy]

Cheers for the info, yeah the music should be a breeze fingers crossed lol.

Hmmm Handbrake seems a good bet, but has anyone else looked at this and found any other software that can get the features off etc?

 

[Millsy]

anyone? want to start ripping them tomorrow, any info would be appreciated

 

[C.J]

How did you get on?

What software did you end up using to rip? Did you rip straight to mp4?

 

[Millsy]

How did you get on?

What software did you end up using to rip? Did you rip straight to mp4?

Not bad ripped about 50 so far. Used DVD shrink to rip just the main movie and shrink it if needed, then handbrake to rip to .mp4 with aac audio.

Allows me to playback via iTunes, apple tv 2, xbox 360 and iPad/iPhone.

Good thing is my NAS drive has an app to view all the files etc and has a built in media player to playback music and video either streaming or downloading. Planning to download a couple to it for my hols in a couple of months.

 

[C.J]

How come you didn't just rip through Handbrake?

 

[Millsy]

How come you didn't just rip through Handbrake?

Trying to keep the size down, instead of 4GB I can compress it down and make a smaller file size using DVD shrink.

 

[C.J]

Ah right, makes sense.

Are you ripping blurays? My normal DVDs rip (using handbrake) to about 1.5GB (e.g. American Pie 2).

 

[Millsy]

No just dvd's.

Thats interesting, it doesn't seem much more than when I rip and compress with dvd shrink.

I'll test it tonight with just handbrake and then with dvd shrink and handbrake.

I know when dvd shrink rips you can tell it exactly how much compression to use and also you can keep the vob files down so they will fit on a dvd for example.

 

[C.J]

Well, as an example I used handbrake (and DVD43 to decrypt) to rip all the American Pie DVDs yesterday (5 of the 7).

It took about 2 hours for each one, and I chose the 'Apple TV 2' preset. Each one is around 1.2 - 1.5gb.

I then drag straight into iTunes, change the name, add artwork, and the year/genre etc.

I had American pie playing through ATV2 from the new file, and my ps3 playing the actual DVD, and there was no difference in quality / sound, and that's on a 50". I'm more than happy with it, and will use handbrake for the ones I can't download. (I guess around 100).

 

[Millsy]

Well, as an example I used handbrake (and DVD43 to decrypt) to rip all the American Pie DVDs yesterday (5 of the 7).

It took about 2 hours for each one, and I chose the 'Apple TV 2' preset. Each one is around 1.2 - 1.5gb.

I then drag straight into iTunes, change the name, add artwork, and the year/genre etc.

I had American pie playing through ATV2 from the new file, and my ps3 playing the actual DVD, and there was no difference in quality / sound, and that's on a 50". I'm more than happy with it, and will use handbrake for the ones I can't download. (I guess around 100).

Yeah I mainly use DVD shrink to decrypt it also, cant use the apple tv 2 preset as it doesn't play on my xbox. I generally only reduce the DVD using DVD shrink to about 85% plays well on all my devices plus it's not too crazy to transfer to my iPhone/iPad either. I'll try DVD43 and see how I get on with handbrake that way.

Edit. Perhaps not lol doesn't seem DVD43 is compatible with 64bit

 

[Millsy]

Meant to say CJ, don't if you're doing it but I rip the films to separate folders for each one then batch encode them in handbrake which means I can just leave the computer and it'll shut itself down once complete, saves waiting.

On another note I'm trying out DVD fab hd decrypter which is a lot quicker at decrypting than DVD shrink tbh.

 

[C.J]

Yeah, I can see handbrake does batch jobs, but as I need to rip each one anyway (and use Handbrake), I just rip/decrypt/encode in one go.

How long does it take you to rip a movie using DVD shrink / DVD fab? Is that what you use to rip?

As I say, handbrake will do it all, in 2hours per DVD. But if another software ripped in say ~30mins, I'd use handbrake to batch encode overnight.

 

[Millsy]

DVD FAB HD Decrypter seems to take on average 20-30mins on a relatively slow windows 7 dual core laptop. my quad core work pc encodes in handbrake in 30-40mins compared to the laptop taking 2 hours!

I rip at home, then batch encode while at work in the background. for example I've encoded 4 films since 9am this morning lol.

DVD shrink takes a similar time to DVD FAB but DVD FAB seems a better program after using it last night.

 

[Tom]

Get an elgato turbo usb stick.

 

[Millsy]

Get an elgato turbo usb stick.

Would be interesting to see if those encodes playback on 360's etc too. seems a lot of money when you can do it using free tools though, albeit it might take a bit longer?

 

[Tom]

If you have all the time in the world then thats fine.

 

[C.J]

Interesting. I may have to try DVD FAB.

Any downsides comparing to the handbrake setup I'm using?

So rip with DVD FAB, then run a handbrake batch with the files. I'd save myself about 1 hour per DVD.

What file does DVD FAB rip to? I assume handbrake will then create a new file after encoding, so I'll need to delete the original?

 

[Millsy]

If you have all the time in the world then thats fine.

I have a fair amount lol!

 

[Millsy]

Interesting. I may have to try DVD FAB.

Any downsides comparing to the handbrake setup I'm using?

So rip with DVD FAB, then run a handbrake batch with the files. I'd save myself about 1 hour per DVD.

What file does DVD FAB rip to? I assume handbrake will then create a new file after encoding, so I'll need to delete the original?

Yeah you got it, DVD Fab rips to TS_Video etc then handbrake converts to .mp4 etc then just delete the originals.

Not sure about downsides tbh, try doing just a special feature rip e.g a few mins and try it both ways, thats what I did initially to get the encoded format correct for all my devices.



Edit. you might find this link I found last night useful

http://forum.videohelp.com/threads/...to-high-quality-MP4-MKV-H264-using-free-tools

 

[C.J]

Brilliant, thanks for that mate. Will give that a go tonight.

If I can cut the ripping time, I don't mind leaving handbrake to work overnight/while at work to encode.

 

[Millsy]

No probs, I found it quite a ballache to find the info on the net, so many different tools, some work, some don't.

Good luck

 

[C.J]

Millsy, are you using the DVD COPY option in DVDFAB? (DVD copy, then hit start)

I've started using it, works faster, but noticed it's a 30 day trial, is that right?

 

[Millsy]

Millsy, are you using the DVD COPY option in DVDFAB? (DVD copy, then hit start)

I've started using it, works faster, but noticed it's a 30 day trial, is that right?

No I'm using the hd decrypter option which is totally free and doesn't expire, then I pick main movie so it only pulls the main title. Hope that helps

 

[C.J]

Hmmm, can you link me to the file you downloaded?

I downloaded the DVDFAB decrypter and these are my options down the left (no mention to the decrypter);

 

[Millsy]

Hmmm, can you link me to the file you downloaded?

I downloaded the DVDFAB decrypter and these are my options down the left (no mention to the decrypter);

Hmm that's strange, that's the same version I'm using but I have main movie option. Maybe try uninstalling all the DVD fab software and reinstall it, when you open the software just click on the very bottom option for hd decrypter and then run the software. Should give you the option there in the DVD copy heading to copy the main title then.

This the link which I'm sure is the same http://www.dvdfab.com/hd-decrypter.htm

 

[C.J]

Great cheers.

If you press the 'info' button (top right) and goto 'about', does it not show as a trial? Mine says May 12th for DVD copy.

Anyway, I'll continue using, should be done within the month either way.

 

[Millsy]

No mine has this

you just need to click only on the decrypter option at the bottom, it probably say's you have 30 days as you've already clicked on the dvd copy option.

You should also have the main movie option.

what OS are you running it on?

 

[C.J]

Strange. Mine is now showing (after a reinstall) the Main Movie option, but it still shows DVD Copy as May 12.

Maybe that's due to another download I did before :S

I'm using Vista on this machine (home pc for movies), but got W7 on another 7 I could test on.

Screen shot of it at home, over LogMeIn;

 

[Millsy]

Strange. Mine is now showing (after a reinstall) the Main Movie option, but it still shows DVD Copy as May 12.

Maybe that's due to another download I did before :S

I'm using Vista on this machine (home pc for movies), but got W7 on another 7 I could test on.

Screen shot of it at home, over LogMeIn;

Yeah you've got it right, just click on the HD Decrypter option where it says "never expire" then click start dvd fab etc the dvd copy function is the decrypter part so dont worry too much.

My DVD Copy says "never be used" despite using what looks like the dvd copy section on the software, its just badly designed/laid out software lol.

 

[C.J]

Well, I've ripped almost all of the DVDs I wanted to (200+)

I'm now selling my collection (400+) on another topic on here.