Is there a "how to rip DVD's for Sage guide?"

[chadman]

I have Sage 6.19 and would like to rip about 300 dvd's. I have DVD Fab an it works great on making backup's and I think it does rip dvd's, but I have not used it for that. I would like to have nice quality rip that will look nice on a 70" TV and would work well with SageMC. Guess I need some advice on what the best ripping codec is these days and how I can see all of my rips with Sage. Any advice would be great. Thanks, Chad

[stanger89]

What Sage requires for hard drive based DVD playback, is a "complete" DVD, structure and all. Basically you need this:

Folder named with the movie title:
<movietitle>
Proper DVD structure inside that ie:
<movietitle>\VIDEO_TS\*.IFO
<movietitle>\VIDEO_TS\*.VOB
etc

I advise against converting to any other codecs as it introduces a quality loss (how big is subject to settings and debate) and takes significant time. If you were to convert them, I'd recommend H.264 (MPEG-4 AVC) or VC-1 (WM9), as these are the best codecs out there, and are the ones that are quickly replacing MPEG-2.

Unfortunately how to get from a DVD to a structure on the HDD is a sticky issue (DMCA and all) and Sage doesn't allow that type of discussion on the forums.

[chadman]

Thanks! I guess I thought there would be no harm done since I was ripping all of these from DVD’s I own, but never really thought about it. I will check out the web for some more info. What I really wanted was a cool interface to see my dvds with cover art, movie info, ect. Like DVD Profiler gives me. I will look around. Thank, Chad

[stanger89]

Originally Posted by chadman

Thanks! I guess I thought there would be no harm done since I was ripping all of these from DVD’s I own, but never really thought about it. I will check out the web for some more info.

They (Sage) just don't want discussion of "how" to do it, (stupid DMCA). I understand them not wanting to test things though.

And just to be clear, it's not the playback of ripped DVDs that's touchy, it's the how to get them on the HDD (which is technically illegal, probably).

For "unencrypted" DVDs that are already on your HDD we can help you out getting Sage to play/display them.

What I really wanted was a cool interface to see my dvds with cover art, movie info, ect. Like DVD Profiler gives me. I will look around. Thank, Chad

SageMC is probably the first place I'd look, it can load/import metadata and copy images from DVD Profiler.

[chadman]

Great! I guess I could use some help getting SageMC to see my entire DVD collection. Is there an easy and fast way to import all of my data from DVD profiler into SageMC? I messed with it last night, but could not get it to work. I would like to at least be able to see all of my dvd’s and maybe create a folder structure for each dvd. That way later I can rip all of my “un-encrypted” dvd’s into the correct folder.
Thanks, Chad

[stanger89]

Originally Posted by chadman

Great! I guess I could use some help getting SageMC to see my entire DVD collection. Is there an easy and fast way to import all of my data from DVD profiler into SageMC?

Are you talking for DVDs that aren't on the HDD? If so, take a look at the Offline DVDs stuff (I can't remember exactly what it's called).

Otherwise, just make sure the folder names match the DVD Profiler titles exactly (less illegal filename characters) and you should be able to just use the import metadata option, which will extract data from DVD Pro for everything on the HDD.

[chadman]

WOW, the offline thing worked great!

The only problem I see is that it put all my dvd's into the "unassigned" group. I created a group called "DVD's Offline", but how can I put them all in that group? I see how to do one at a time, but is there a way to move them all at one time?

Thanks, Chad