What format for DVD rips?

[scene]

So as part of my on-going attempts to plan a digitised home AV system, I've got to admit I'm now struggling a bit with the whole DVD ripping stuff. I've always assumed that the best approach would be to rip the DVDs to ISO format and then you could just select them and load them a bit like an online collection of DVDs.

But, no AV streamer really supports this. Yes, I know that with a WD TV Live (for example) if you put myfilm.iso and myfilm.jpg in the same folder, that you get to see cover artwork, but it all involves a rather clunky manual scroll through directories.

What I'm after is the MyMovies / MediaCenter type approach where the DVD artwork is presented, and you can then click on it to get details of the movie - with options to sort / select by genre, actor, etc. But if I do this, what format and will I lose quality or menu options from the movie? Does the latter matter?

I want to preserve quality and contents but make moves easy to find - what approach should I consider?

 

[nads]

what will be playing the movies?

media PC?

Xbox

PS3

media player

or?

 

[scene]

Good question nads.

I suppose I was thinking of a media player or media PC (htpc) - this is a little up for grabs...

 

[kevinJ]

I just rip my dvds like they come on the disc: video_ts and audio_ts folders, and I put those folders in a *title of the movie* folder and just put it on my Mede8er 500X2. And I add jamj tags too.

My Blu-rays, I first rip to my harddisc and then transcode into one single .m2ts file, put it in a *title of the movie* folder and again add tags.

And all that sorting/info/... is available on the mede8er.

 

[scene]

Do you have to do that all manually - or is it automated?

 

[kevinJ]

dvdfabdecrypter for ripping my blu-rays and dvds, then tsmuxer to make my blu-rays one file and then mede8er's jamj version to get the wallpaper and info of the movies. So no, not exactly automated.

But the result is great though.

 

[eggontoast]

dvdfabdecrypter for ripping my blu-rays and dvds, then tsmuxer to make my blu-rays one file and then mede8er's jamj version to get the wallpaper and info of the movies. So no, not exactly automated.

But the result is great though.

Can DVDFabdecrypter be configured to rip just one movie file for DVD's instead of the 1GB files which are on the DVD ?

 

[duaplex]

Personally and this for me is the best and what most enthusiasts use to catalogue and organise thier content.

Download XBMC

Download DVD Shrink or DVD Decryptor for full size rips.

Then you can load all your dvd's and even have the cover art plus full information, I stongly suggest you look at XBMC and what it offers.

All the above are free downloads

 

[scene]

Thanks duaplex. I've looked at xbmc before and I will have another shufty...

As for the ripping, do DVD Shrink / DVD Decryptor automatically convert a DVD once placed in the drive?

Do these generate metadata tags automatically, and retriece cover art, or would I have to do that separately?

Would I have movies + artwork + metadata only, or full DVD (+menus, etc) + artwork and metadata?

Sorry to ask so many questions, just trying to get my head round things :?

 

[eggontoast]

Download DVD Shrink or DVD Decryptor for full size rips.

But DVD Decrypter is an old program which is not updated anymore, it can't decrypt some of the newer DVD's.

 

[scene]

Download DVD Shrink or DVD Decryptor for full size rips.

But DVD Decrypter is an old program which is not updated anymore, it can't decrypt some of the newer DVD's.

I saw that. I've got anyDvdHD - will that work with DVD Shrink?

 

[duaplex]

DVD Decryptor is a simple program to use, this is why i suggested it. I use both at home, but more DVDShrink.

To answer the question, yes DVDShrink will rip DVD's in the drive, it will also read ISO files and Video TS folders.

No need to worry about Metatag data as XBMC will handle the downloading of the cover art and film/TV Show info for you. Provided you have named your files correctly i.e Dexter - Season 1 - Dexter S01E01 etc or for TV shows and for films name the folder correctly that the film is in i.e. Predator (1987) The year is optional, but essential if its a remake.

XBMC will then scrape websites you choose i.e IMDB, TVdb etc and download the content for you.

Check out youtube for XMBC and the best part is that the new build will support DTS MA and True HD pass through to your AV

 

[scene]

Thanks for clarifying that duaplex. (What happened to the thumbs up emoticon?)

One last thing (trying desparately not to sound like Columbo): So when DVD shrink rips a disc, is that all automatic - i.e. insert DVD, ripping proceeds and copy placed in appropriately named folder, or is manual intervention required?

 

[duaplex]

Its automatic as in it creates the folders you need like the Video TS folder and Audio TS Folder. All you do is either insert disc and click back up (you can set compression settings, or have no compression) Or you go to file and open an ISO or folder. Just remember its default setting is to compress a disc, not a basd thing if you are low on drive space.

After this just put the files in a correctly names folder and let XBMC handle the rest.

 

[scene]

Thanks again duaplex!

I suppose, ideally I'd like the ripping to create it in a correctly named folder automatically, as this would avoid any typo issues and I'd like a process that was as intervention-free as possible - so if you have to override the default compression option each time, this could be a pain.

xbmc - definitely going to have another look.

 

[markbbailey]

Hi,

It's worth giving MakeMKV a go. It will rip a DVD into one .mkv file which most modern media players will happily read. It will include menus etc as if you've loaded the DVD. It will also rip the latest stuff and is free whilst you keep updating it.

As others have said, .ISO files can't be read by many media players though XBMC is the obvious exception and is an excellent piece of software.

Good luck.

Cheers, Mark

 

[Chewy]

Hi Scene,

With the greatest respect to all of the suggestions above - if you have AnyDVD HD you're already half way there.

As you suggested in your opening post, just simply rip to .iso image files, one for each disc.

Save the file or your media server or NAS, and then just stream to a suitable media player. Most media players worth their salt will play .iso files for both DVD's and Blu-rays. I personally use the Netgear NeoTv550 and it plays the files perfectly, bitstreaming the HD audio tracks to my processor without a glitch and supports full blu-ray menus (and it's less than £150 to boot!).

Plus it gives you the nice movie wall of cover art images that we all love. All you need is a free copy of Media Centre Master to scrape all the cover art and movie blurbs for you, and you're set! No messing or faffing about making MKV's etc, just rip and play!

If you're feeling up to a bit of DIY work look up UnRaid servers - you can build a media server with an old PC and up to 20TB capacity for very little expense (other than the cost of the drives), plus full redundancy in the event of a drive failure.

Mine currently has 16TB and is half full with 350 blu-ray rips, 200 DVD rips, all my music, camcorder footage, and photo's and can serve them all up to any device that can find the server on the network.

I hope this helps!

Cheers,

Gareth

 

[bigboss]

Mine currently has 16TB and is half full with 350 blu-ray rips, 200 DVD rips, all my music, camcorder footage, and photo's and can serve them all up to any device that can find the server on the network.

 

[Chewy]

No Big Boss, just a movie fan . . . be careful what accusations you make!

 

[robjcooper]

No Big Boss, just a movie fan . . . be careful what accusations you make!

...but you have still broken the copyright laws - unless that is you've managed to obtain written permission from all the copyright owners of every single item you've copied which is under copyright confirming that you may do so.

Under current UK law, it is not legal to make copies of anything under copyright without the copyright owner's permission. This includes DVDs, Blu-rays, CDs, photos, books and any other copyrighted material.

It is illegal to make any form of backup of something under copyright without permission. This includes:
Ripping to your computer. Creating a backup disc or spare copy Copying onto an MP3 player. [/list]
As the law stands, this applies even if you bought the original DVD, CD, etc, and are just making a copy for your own private use.

http://www.copyrightservice.co.uk/copyright/p01_uk_copyright_law

 

[Chewy]

:roll: :roll:

...but you have still broken the copyright laws - unless that is you've managed to obtain written permission from all the copyright owners of every single item you've copied which is under copyright confirming that you may do so.

Under current UK law, it is not legal to make copies of anything under copyright without the copyright owner's permission. This includes DVDs, Blu-rays, CDs, photos, books and any other copyrighted material.

It is illegal to make any form of backup of something under copyright without permission. This includes:
Ripping to your computer. Creating a backup disc or spare copy Copying onto an MP3 player. [/list]
As the law stands, this applies even if you bought the original DVD, CD, etc, and are just making a copy for your own private use.

http://www.copyrightservice.co.uk/copyright/p01_uk_copyright_law

Sigh! . . . . OK! :roll:

No doubt the What Hifi forum moderators will close this thread then for Scene's overtly criminal request for advice on how to copy his DVD's to a media player. The old bill will be knocking on all the doors of all the forum members that have contributed to this thread and offered advice based on how they copy their DVD's to their media players, and WhatHifi can no doubt expect some imminent law suits from the movie studios for reviewing media players and commenting in their ability to play various ripped file formats.

Thanks for the lecture anyway, I'd like to say it was very interesting, but . . .

 

[mykspence]

Thanks for the lecture anyway, I'd like to say it was very interesting, but . . .

http://www.whathifi.com/news/update-government-to-accept-changes-to-copyright-law-to-make-ripping-of-cds-and-dvds-legal

 

[bigboss]

All I would advise is to be careful about revealing any numbers which might attract attention.

 

[robjcooper]

dear gdavies09031977

Owning the software to crack the encryption codes put in place to stop illegal copying, or discussing ways to use it, are in themselves not illegal, but using that software to actually perform the act of copyright theft is. Also if you read the What Hi-Fi reviews of media players, you'll find that they never include information as to how to 'rip' your DVDs or Blurays to these devices - they simply give information about what files the media players are capable of playing. And I'm sure all the files they use to test the quality of the media players output are all legally acquired and fully copyright cleared with their original owners - there is no way any professional media organisation would contemplate the use of any illegal files on their systems as the consequences of doing so are extremely severe.

And it wasn't intended to be a lecture, it was merely pointing out to you what the present state of the law is concerning copyright theft in regards to your 'accusation' response to bigboss's picture. As bigboss has also said, it's not a particularily good idea to go on a public forum and openly 'brag' about the quantity of material you have 'cracked' and then to further express a casual arrogant disrespect for both the law regarding that and by extension, the rights of the copyright owners, is also neither big nor clever. The law as it stands may be regarded by some as ridiculous, and there are indeed moves afoot to possibly change it sometime in the future, but however much you scoff at it and post pathetic and unnecessarily sarcastic replies, it is still the law and although you won't be spending the next 2 years in Wormwood Scrubs, what you have done is illegal.

 

[scene]

Oh dear, my innocent request for information seems to have stirred up a hornet's nest :doh: