Music and Movie encoding/decoding/ripping

Eomer · 10-21-2005, 10:33 AM

I summon thee Vorph! So basically it's time my ass got around to actually utilizing my HTPC. That's made somewhat more difficult by the uselessness of my new MX5000, fuck you Logitech. But regardless!

So basically I have 1tb of storage space to use as I see fit. I've got about 50 DVD's and 250+ CD's, and want to rip them all to my computer (the CD's are already ripped using CDex, simple mp3 I think using Lame @ 192kbit). This computer is hooked up to a 720p projector and beefy surround sound system (no complaints yet, perhaps my neighbours are simply afraid of me, I figured playing Pudding Time stupidly loud at 4am with 20 people over would for SURE get some attention, I guess not).

For the DVD's, obviously I want to rip them and then encode them into a file that can be viewed on the computer. It seems there's tons of easy to use programs to copy DVD's and such, but to convert a DVD to a file is a fucking nightmare. I used Gordian Knot and followed a guide, and it seemed to work alright, but it was incredibly difficult and time consuming. From my brief experience, it seems that I can do the ripping relatively quickly, then simply queue up the encoding processes so that they do that when I'm not around (or when I get a dual core, all the time). What's a good program(s) to use for this, what codec should I use for audio/video, so on and so forth. These files will in all likelihood remain on my computer and not be used elsewhere for any particular reason (such as a *gag* video ipod or something).

Also, what's a good program to use for viewing these files, as well as DVD's? I've just been using Windows Media player up to this point, and in all honesty it seems alright. But is there some secret weapon out ther ethat's a lot better?

For the CD's, I'm thinking that I am going to end up re-ripping the entire collection to a better file format. Personally I've never been able to tell the difference between the MP3's and a CD, but I've not spent a lot of time trying. Even on the new sound system MP3's sound pretty damn good. But since I've got all this storage space, I may as well re-rip them all in a better file format. What's a good file format/type to do this in that's not stupidly large? I'd like to keep around 300kbit/sec if possible, just so I don't burn up ALL my storage space on music. I'll most likely maintain my old rips as well, for use on my archaic Archos piece of shit jukebox. What's a good program to use? CDEx has always treated me well, but is there a better one available?

Not even going to get into asking questions about video processing and all that shit. For the time being I've purchased Purevideo from Nvidia, and it certainly drops CPU utilization a ton, haven't done any visual comparisons yet though.

Are there some good forums or sites out there that have lots of guides and advice on this sort of shit? I've done a bit of looking, but none have really stood out so far. Perhaps you can avoid answering all my questions by pointing me in the right direction.

James · 10-21-2005, 10:37 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Eomer

For the CD's, I'm thinking that I am going to end up re-ripping the entire collection to a better file format. Personally I've never been able to tell the difference between the MP3's and a CD, but I've not spent a lot of time trying. Even on the new sound system MP3's sound pretty damn good. But since I've got all this storage space, I may as well re-rip them all in a better file format. What's a good file format/type to do this in that's not stupidly large? I'd like to keep around 300kbit/sec if possible, just so I don't burn up ALL my storage space on music. I'll most likely maintain my old rips as well, for use on my archaic Archos piece of shit jukebox. What's a good program to use? CDEx has always treated me well, but is there a better one available?

Sean is the man to talk to there. I don't have much experience with ripping and the whatnot (and hell, MP3 sounds good enough for me), but .flac is supposed to be the best sound format out right now. Not sure what your definition of 'stupidly large' is, but I think .flacs are usually around 30-40 megs.

Vorph · 10-21-2005, 01:29 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Eomer

So basically I have 1tb of storage space to use as I see fit. I've got about 50 DVD's and 250+ CD's, and want to rip them all to my computer (the CD's are already ripped using CDex, simple mp3 I think using Lame @ 192kbit). This computer is hooked up to a 720p projector and beefy surround sound system (no complaints yet, perhaps my neighbours are simply afraid of me, I figured playing Pudding Time stupidly loud at 4am with 20 people over would for SURE get some attention, I guess not).

For the DVD's, obviously I want to rip them and then encode them into a file that can be viewed on the computer. It seems there's tons of easy to use programs to copy DVD's and such, but to convert a DVD to a file is a fucking nightmare. I used Gordian Knot and followed a guide, and it seemed to work alright, but it was incredibly difficult and time consuming. From my brief experience, it seems that I can do the ripping relatively quickly, then simply queue up the encoding processes so that they do that when I'm not around (or when I get a dual core, all the time). What's a good program(s) to use for this, what codec should I use for audio/video, so on and so forth. These files will in all likelihood remain on my computer and not be used elsewhere for any particular reason (such as a *gag* video ipod or something).

If you really don't care about portability, playing on standalones, etc., I suggest going with x.264 as your codec. It's compatible with GordianKnot, and the guide for it isn't any more complicated than using xvid. The video quality is a massive improvement over xvid though, a 2cd x.264 is nearly indistinguishable from the original source (with AC3 5.1 audio of course). I personally can't watch xvids anymore, except for movies I don't give a shit about in the first place, or TV shows which I download at HR.HDTV resolution rather than the normal 350MB/hr stuff.

I would shoot for about 700MB/hr regardless of codec. Since you're not burning to cd, make sure you tell it not to break the avi up into chunks.

I don't think it's really that complicated once you get past the initial setup. If you find yourself using mainly just defaults, and you stick with xvid, you could try AutoGK instead I guess. It's a bit more streamlined.

Also there's Nero Recode, which is supposed to be extremely high quality (the codec is made by Ateme, and reviews say that it is by far the best H.264 codec). It's kind of proprietary, but it doesn't sound like that's a problem for you. I would recommend doing a test run with it anyway, just grab Nero 7 from somewhere and give it a shot. I'm thinking about experimenting with it myself this weekend--if I get the time, I'll post more on what I think of it.

Quote:

Also, what's a good program to use for viewing these files, as well as DVD's? I've just been using Windows Media player up to this point, and in all honesty it seems alright. But is there some secret weapon out ther ethat's a lot better?

VLC is good, and very generic. It uses a built-in version of the ffdshow codec, which can play just about anything. It is not, however, the best quality codec by any means... but ffdshow can do some neat stuff with upconversion when you're outputting to 720p or 1080i (like this). I also cannot make the fucking program work with any SPDIF out I've ever owned (nforce1, audigy2, nforce2). Maybe you'll get lucky and it will actually work with the Bluegears card. If not, go with Media Player Classic (MPC) instead. That's all I ever use. If you want to play with the upconversion stuff, you can still use MPC... just have to install ffdshow also.

Quote:

For the CD's, I'm thinking that I am going to end up re-ripping the entire collection to a better file format. Personally I've never been able to tell the difference between the MP3's and a CD, but I've not spent a lot of time trying. Even on the new sound system MP3's sound pretty damn good. But since I've got all this storage space, I may as well re-rip them all in a better file format. What's a good file format/type to do this in that's not stupidly large? I'd like to keep around 300kbit/sec if possible, just so I don't burn up ALL my storage space on music. I'll most likely maintain my old rips as well, for use on my archaic Archos piece of shit jukebox. What's a good program to use? CDEx has always treated me well, but is there a better one available?

Rip with EAC (which is similar to CDex, but EAC is better imo... and always use Secure Mode), then encode to FLAC for archival purposes. Read this for how to set up EAC to rip and then immediately encode with FLAC (and tag your files too). Or use MAREO if you want to encode to both FLAC and MP3 at the same time.

After that, you have some options:

Obvious one, encode to MP3 using LAME 3.97 beta1 (the current and only version recommended by Hydrogen Audio forums). I use -V 1 for use with my stereo (target VBR of 224, putting it right in the middle of the old standard and extreme presets), and -V 4 for my Archos (target VBR of 165, making it equivalent to the preset medium from custom 3.90.3 compiles).

I assume you're going to already have a toslink/rca digital connection from the computer to a receiver or preamp, so you really don't need to encode to anything other than FLAC/ape if you don't want to. You can tag them as normal and just use foobar2k or whatever to play.

If you want something you can control better with a remote, or a device for playing music in another room, I'd buy a Squeezebox2. I use an Audiotron, and it's the best and most useful piece of electronic equipment I've ever bought.... and the Squeezebox2 make mine look archaic by comparison.

Quote:

Are there some good forums or sites out there that have lots of guides and advice on this sort of shit? I've done a bit of looking, but none have really stood out so far. Perhaps you can avoid answering all my questions by pointing me in the right direction.

http://www.hydrogenaudio.org
http://www.avsforum.com

Those are your two best bets.

Eomer · 10-21-2005, 01:35 PM

/kiss

Yeah, Gordian wasn't too bad (did Xvid) really, after the setup. It's just a lot of steps and creates a shitload of files. It probably also did not help that I was stoned off my ass while doing it.

Vorph · 10-21-2005, 01:47 PM

K, think I'm done editing. Have fun.

I'll post more after I play with Nero Recode's MPEG-4 AVC encoder some. I'm normally suspicious of proprietary stuff, but it may be so good now that it's worth looking past that. When the people posting to the x.264 dev boards are saying that Ateme's codec is by far the best, it's something I definitely have to try for myself.

Darus Grey · 10-21-2005, 02:52 PM

Unless its the space thats the real issue, theres tons of players that will play a ripped DVD without any file changes.

I personally use DVD decypter to make ISO/RAR/MDS

and then you can use Video Lan http://www.videolan.org/ to play them directly from the ISO, works perfectly.

You can also use Zoomplayer and Theatretek (I think TT requires some setting/tweak though?), but only reason to use them is if you wanna use FFDshow to start upscaling image quality.

Eomer · 10-21-2005, 03:50 PM

Space isn't a HUGE issue, but I would like to build a DVD library from my own DVD's, then start borrowing friend/family's collections and doing the same (as well as ripping rented movies etc). While I do have 750gb on the array (forgot I lost a drive with raid 5), if each DVD rip is 5 or 10gb that will burn through my space very quickly when you also pile in music, PVR, pr0n, and file downloads.

Also, this HTPC is somehwat of a compromise for the time being. Next summer the large tower will be replaced by a real HTPC SFF or at least a much smaller mini-tower, and the large tower will be moved elsewhere and act strictly as a file server. I just couldn't afford to build the two computers at once.

Wysha · 11-01-2005, 02:26 AM

Eomer are you the guy who stole all the loonies from the subway and then put a heated driveway in? Just wondering.

Eomer · 11-01-2005, 08:28 AM

lol no, but they lived not too fair from my parent's place. I played hockey with the next-door neighbour's kid. I didn't know you were from Edmonton?

Wysha · 11-01-2005, 11:35 PM

Born and raised, said it in another post. Moved about a decade ago though.

Slagar · 11-01-2005, 11:40 PM

Shit, I was about to go in here and make a post asking about the same topic...

I have to pull a couple of scenes from some student films that are on DVD onto my Powerbook so that I can edit it into a Demo Reel in Final Cut.

Do any of these programs work on mac as well as pc?

Vorph · 11-02-2005, 09:18 AM

http://www.afterdawn.com/software/al.../mac_software/

ffmpegX might do what you want since the main thing you'll be needing is an equivalent to VirtualDub.

10-21-2005, 10:33 AM	#1 (permalink)
Eomer You mean I can change this? Neat! Join Date: Feb 2002 Posts: 10,202 +39 Internets	Music and Movie encoding/decoding/ripping I summon thee Vorph! So basically it's time my ass got around to actually utilizing my HTPC. That's made somewhat more difficult by the uselessness of my new MX5000, fuck you Logitech. But regardless! So basically I have 1tb of storage space to use as I see fit. I've got about 50 DVD's and 250+ CD's, and want to rip them all to my computer (the CD's are already ripped using CDex, simple mp3 I think using Lame @ 192kbit). This computer is hooked up to a 720p projector and beefy surround sound system (no complaints yet, perhaps my neighbours are simply afraid of me, I figured playing Pudding Time stupidly loud at 4am with 20 people over would for SURE get some attention, I guess not). For the DVD's, obviously I want to rip them and then encode them into a file that can be viewed on the computer. It seems there's tons of easy to use programs to copy DVD's and such, but to convert a DVD to a file is a fucking nightmare. I used Gordian Knot and followed a guide, and it seemed to work alright, but it was incredibly difficult and time consuming. From my brief experience, it seems that I can do the ripping relatively quickly, then simply queue up the encoding processes so that they do that when I'm not around (or when I get a dual core, all the time). What's a good program(s) to use for this, what codec should I use for audio/video, so on and so forth. These files will in all likelihood remain on my computer and not be used elsewhere for any particular reason (such as a gag video ipod or something). Also, what's a good program to use for viewing these files, as well as DVD's? I've just been using Windows Media player up to this point, and in all honesty it seems alright. But is there some secret weapon out ther ethat's a lot better? For the CD's, I'm thinking that I am going to end up re-ripping the entire collection to a better file format. Personally I've never been able to tell the difference between the MP3's and a CD, but I've not spent a lot of time trying. Even on the new sound system MP3's sound pretty damn good. But since I've got all this storage space, I may as well re-rip them all in a better file format. What's a good file format/type to do this in that's not stupidly large? I'd like to keep around 300kbit/sec if possible, just so I don't burn up ALL my storage space on music. I'll most likely maintain my old rips as well, for use on my archaic Archos piece of shit jukebox. What's a good program to use? CDEx has always treated me well, but is there a better one available? Not even going to get into asking questions about video processing and all that shit. For the time being I've purchased Purevideo from Nvidia, and it certainly drops CPU utilization a ton, haven't done any visual comparisons yet though. Are there some good forums or sites out there that have lots of guides and advice on this sort of shit? I've done a bit of looking, but none have really stood out so far. Perhaps you can avoid answering all my questions by pointing me in the right direction. Last edited by Eomer : 10-21-2005 at 10:36 AM.

10-21-2005, 01:35 PM	#4 (permalink)
Eomer You mean I can change this? Neat! Join Date: Feb 2002 Posts: 10,202 +39 Internets	/kiss Yeah, Gordian wasn't too bad (did Xvid) really, after the setup. It's just a lot of steps and creates a shitload of files. It probably also did not help that I was stoned off my ass while doing it. Last edited by Eomer : 10-21-2005 at 01:39 PM.

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10-21-2005, 01:47 PM	#5 (permalink)
Vorph Never Go Full Retard Join Date: May 2002 Location: Hell Posts: 5,880	K, think I'm done editing. Have fun. I'll post more after I play with Nero Recode's MPEG-4 AVC encoder some. I'm normally suspicious of proprietary stuff, but it may be so good now that it's worth looking past that. When the people posting to the x.264 dev boards are saying that Ateme's codec is by far the best, it's something I definitely have to try for myself.

10-21-2005, 02:52 PM	#6 (permalink)
Darus Grey I can dance if I want to Join Date: Aug 2002 Posts: 1,364	Unless its the space thats the real issue, theres tons of players that will play a ripped DVD without any file changes. I personally use DVD decypter to make ISO/RAR/MDS and then you can use Video Lan http://www.videolan.org/ to play them directly from the ISO, works perfectly. You can also use Zoomplayer and Theatretek (I think TT requires some setting/tweak though?), but only reason to use them is if you wanna use FFDshow to start upscaling image quality.

10-21-2005, 03:50 PM	#7 (permalink)
Eomer You mean I can change this? Neat! Join Date: Feb 2002 Posts: 10,202 +39 Internets	Space isn't a HUGE issue, but I would like to build a DVD library from my own DVD's, then start borrowing friend/family's collections and doing the same (as well as ripping rented movies etc). While I do have 750gb on the array (forgot I lost a drive with raid 5), if each DVD rip is 5 or 10gb that will burn through my space very quickly when you also pile in music, PVR, pr0n, and file downloads. Also, this HTPC is somehwat of a compromise for the time being. Next summer the large tower will be replaced by a real HTPC SFF or at least a much smaller mini-tower, and the large tower will be moved elsewhere and act strictly as a file server. I just couldn't afford to build the two computers at once.

11-01-2005, 02:26 AM	#8 (permalink)
Wysha Registered User Join Date: Mar 2003 Location: four too zero Posts: 534 +0 Internets	Eomer are you the guy who stole all the loonies from the subway and then put a heated driveway in? Just wondering.

11-01-2005, 08:28 AM	#9 (permalink)
Eomer You mean I can change this? Neat! Join Date: Feb 2002 Posts: 10,202 +39 Internets	lol no, but they lived not too fair from my parent's place. I played hockey with the next-door neighbour's kid. I didn't know you were from Edmonton?

11-01-2005, 11:35 PM	#10 (permalink)
Wysha Registered User Join Date: Mar 2003 Location: four too zero Posts: 534 +0 Internets	Born and raised, said it in another post. Moved about a decade ago though.

11-01-2005, 11:40 PM	#11 (permalink)
Slagar Registered User Join Date: Jun 2003 Location: Florida Posts: 154 +0 Internets	Shit, I was about to go in here and make a post asking about the same topic... I have to pull a couple of scenes from some student films that are on DVD onto my Powerbook so that I can edit it into a Demo Reel in Final Cut. Do any of these programs work on mac as well as pc?

11-02-2005, 09:18 AM	#12 (permalink)
Vorph Never Go Full Retard Join Date: May 2002 Location: Hell Posts: 5,880	http://www.afterdawn.com/software/al.../mac_software/ ffmpegX might do what you want since the main thing you'll be needing is an equivalent to VirtualDub.