DVD, Movie only, What do you do.

[AtomicPenguin]

Originally Posted by traker1001

I actually came to the dumb realization of, Why am I even bothering copying the menus and extras, I own the DVD's, If I really want to watch that crap I can always pop in the Dvd. So I just went ahead and started divx encoding them without compressing them. The Divx maintains the qaulity and the surround sound, So im happy.

Have you tried using XviD to compress your movies yet? That's what I've been using and I find the output fantastic - 5.1 audio stream is retained as well.

[Polypro]

Anyone try RatDVD? Not playable in Sage ATM, but in the future?

P

[stanger89]

Originally Posted by traker1001

So I just went ahead and started divx encoding them without compressing them.

Just to be 100% clear, DivX, or anything other than just copying the files (ala DVD Shrink) is recompressing the DVD.

Originally Posted by bbroerman

Well, while it seems to like the DVD folder layout option, it would be much nicer to be able to store the entire DVD in an ISO and have Sage recognize and read that... that way everything's in one neat file...

Sorry, can't resist this morning....

How is one file better than one folder? The only difference between and ISO and a folder is you have to mount an ISO to access it's contents.

[insomniac]

Im with stranger on this one. If you have a folder structure in the background, and sage see's it as a "DVD". Whats the difference?

my suggestion to the original question is DVDshrink. If you dont care about saving a few megs here and there, I would suggest saving the entire dvd (as your doing already..) with dvddecrypter or similar apps.

To me, dvd's are volitile. Expecially if you have kids. Its always nice to have the entire dvd on some form backed up to disk just in case!

YMMV...

I.

[Polypro]

Stanger aint no stranger to me anymore

O.k...back on topic, nothing to see here

p

[bcjenkins]

Originally Posted by Polypro

Anyone try RatDVD? Not playable in Sage ATM, but in the future?

P

I turned a buddy of mine on to it who runs MCE. He gave it high marks. Excuse my ignorance on this, but I thought I read ratdvd was now a directshow filter. Doesn't that mean you can add the extention to sage's properties and it can play it?

B

[Polypro]

Maybe, I haven't looked into it since Sage v2...time to read. Thx.

P

[wags119]

I have just started to use AutoGK after may attempts with other programs to compress DVD's to DIvx after cutting them down with DVD Shrink but they just didn't look good (a little pixelly during fast movement). Can some here recommend some good settings to use to get the file sizes down but not lose a great deal of quality.

Thanks

[traker1001]

Heres the problem with the "just copy the DVD method"

1 not playable on placeshifter.
2 not playable on client without having the drve the files are stored on shared.
2 not playable on on MVP.

However, Vob2MPG fixes that, But If you are going to MPG them why not find a way to compress the ones your not to fond of but want to keep just a little bit, I mean space even if you do have gobs of gigs still costs money.

I have been playing with DrDivx and it seems to do a pretty good job on most of them, I just have to find away to turn off the IVTC it wants to do, makes the frames jerky, If I could fix that, I would have some pretty good quality movies at about half the size.

[stanger89]

Originally Posted by traker1001

Heres the problem with the "just copy the DVD method"

1 not playable on placeshifter.

True

2 not playable on client without having the drve the files are stored on shared.

What's wrong with that? I'd rather have chapters, and full DVD functionality that to not share a drive.

2 not playable on on MVP.

The MVP can play DVDs (V6).

However, Vob2MPG fixes that, But If you are going to MPG them why not find a way to compress the ones your not to fond of but want to keep just a little bit, I mean space even if you do have gobs of gigs still costs money.

Time is money too, as they say. Personally, I'd require something like an order of magnitude reduction in size for compression to be worthwhile, given the effort/time involved. However, I'm not satisfied with the results even at only 50% reduction (macroblocking, loss of chapters, loss of menus for those I leave with menus).

Why is 50% not acceptable reduction? Because even with that, I'd still need an array. Not to mention it would take the better part of a year to compress all my DVDs. For me it's well worth it to spend $139+s/h for another 0.5TB (100 movies or so).

But, a lot of people are perfectly happy with recompressed DVDs.

Oh, and one down side to recompressed DVDs. The MVP can't play them natively, they have to be converted back to MPEG on the fly.

[traker1001]

I agree with you for the most part, VoB2Mpg doesnt recompress them, The only movies I spend time recompressing are the ones that I am not picky about quality on, AKA: Stuff like Dr. Doolittle 3 and scary movie 4, My kids like the stuff and could care less about the ultimate quality as most part it is watched on one of there 27" tv's.

Why waste excess space on stuff like this?

For the rest of the stuff, I pretty much store it in just folder format.

As far as sharing the drive goes, beleive it or not, I only recently realized that I had to do this, Its not really a big deal, But I only have the overall network setup about a quarter of the way, Infact I still have to reload my main sage server, Because my current OS Loaded has degraded so much that I cant reliably share my drive. (Which is going to be another thread I will be starting soon.).

Thank you for letting me know about the MVP's, That was the only thing keeping me from buying one for my room, When did this change, Anyways?

That saved me like $400 for the pc was going to purchase for are room.

So are there anythings that the MVP's cant do now, Other than HD, Which I dont care all that much about and how well are they working with V6?

[stanger89]

Originally Posted by traker1001

Why waste excess space on stuff like this?

Me personally, I find my time is more valuable than the "wasted" space.

Thank you for letting me know about the MVP's, That was the only thing keeping me from buying one for my room, When did this change, Anyways?

New in V6.

So are there anythings that the MVP's cant do now, Other than HD, Which I dont care all that much about and how well are they working with V6?

With V6 and transcoding, not much. I can't think of anything that I can't do, but I don't do much on my MVP. And with V6 and Java 6, it's pretty snappy too, not quite as responsive as a PC, but not bad at all.

OT, I think it's about time they started including Java 6 with the Sage installer, it really is a big improvement.

[[JiF]Mike]

I've been banging my head against the wall the last couple of days trying to compress my dvd's to an acceptable format. I can compress them but I am finding the aspect ratio gets changed from 16:9 to 4:3 so I end up with the video in an ugly black frame on my wide screen tv. I'm sure I am doing something wrong I just can't figure it out... I would like to find a way to keep the original aspect using either divx or xvid. Anyone know of a good tutorial? I've found so much info on this subject I could use some general guidance and a push in the right direction. Right now I am just using DVD shrink or DVDFab Platinum 4 to make a copy of the dvd to my HDD.