End to End DVD Archiving for PS3

[redlenses]

Here's what I want to do: Backup DVD content *including* menu navigation and subtitles. I want to take advantage of smaller file sizes of H.264 while preserving 5.1 AC3 audio. I want to be able to playback the content on my PS3. I'm using a Windows OS.

I currently use DVDDecrpter/DVD43 or DVDFab to rip the DVD contents to my Windows system.

The next step in my main question, how to I convert the DVD with menus and subtitles into a compressed (H.264) format while preserving menus and subtitles. Or how can I create my own menus for navigation between different files.

Use Case: Backing up a TV Series where each DVD has 3 episodes and extra content that is all organized with menus and navigation.

I've used Handbrake to convert the individual chapters of DVDs to MP4 with H.264 and AAC audio (which plays on PS3). Unfortunately, MP4 with H.264 and AC3 audio created through Handbrake do not work on the PS3.

I've read that MKV can support H.264 and AC3. I've also read that you can convert these MKVs (no transcoding, just container change) to MT2S or VOBs which works on the PS3?

Given all of the above, basically I'm looking for advice on how to do this process from start to finish. Are there any tools available that can take a DVD (and it's menus and subtitles) and convert it to a BluRay image with BD-J menus, H.264, AC3, subtitles, etc?

Larger scope the problem I'm trying to solve is how to digitize all of my video media (DVDs, HDTivo recordings, video clips from the net, home movies, etc) and store them in a way that I can play all of them on my PS3 (without having to insert physical media). I'm under the impression that H.264 with AC3 are the codecs I want to use. I'm interested in what the best navigation format is (VOB, BD-J, etc). Also interested in any tools I could use to make custom menus.

I've done a bunch of searches, etc, and haven't found the answer to the scenario I've described, I'm hoping this community can help me.

[Video Dude]

There are no tools to convert DVD menus and navigation structure to another format like Blu-ray.

If you want to preserve menus, I would suggest just backing up the dvd as an iso.

If space is an issue, you could do a movie only with a h.264 conversion of the video and use the demuxed ac3 audio and subtitles from the DVD.

Blu-ray authoring is still in its infancy in regards to consumer level authoring with advanced menus especially with free tools. Many of the consumer authoring programs such as TMPGEnc can author Blu-ray discs, but with MPEG-2 only.

[redlenses]

OK assuming I value smaller file sizes over maintaining DVD navigation (since your answer seems to indicate I can't have both?)

What's the best way to get from a ripped DVD content to AVCHD with subtitles that can play on a PS3? What container does the AVCHD need to live in?

Is Handbrake to MKV and then MKV2VOB the best bet? Is there a single tool that would do this in one step?

[Video Dude]

Did you look at RipBot264?
Here is a guide (http://www.digital-digest.com/articles/RipBot264_PS3_Xbox_360_Guide_print.html) for PS3 encoding.


I don't have a PS3, so others may be more helpful.

[dat720]

There are no tools to convert DVD menus and navigation structure to another format like Blu-ray.

Actually there is.... there is a package called ratDVD (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RatDVD) that does that, very little support for it but it exists nonetheless.... won't playback on PS3.

You can't have a navigatedable structure playback on the PS3... well i guess you could but that would involve installing a linux os and using something like dvd shrink to compress the dvd and mounting the iso then playing it back with mplayer or vlc.... thats way out of the scope of this forum tho!

The *for lack of a better word* best way to store video for PS3 is in MP4 containers with h264 video and aac multi channel audio, this will give you the best chance at getting near DVD video/audio.

[redlenses]

It sounds like the way to go is to convert all my content to AVCHD (H.264 w/5.1 AC-3 & Subtitles)

by converting subtitles to .srt (SubRip or something like that)
encoding to .bluray with ripbot264*

Then using multiAVCHD to package them into a single AVCHD folder with a menu and throw it all on a USB Hardrive.

If I want a bunch of separate video collections, AVCHD Manager would allow me to switch which AVCHD folder the PS3 sees.

[dat720]

Is you PS3 on your network?
If it is you could setup media tomb to stream to it rather than use usb hdd's

Out of all of the streaming solutions i have tried for PS3 mediatomb is the standout best!
Twonky Media was very flakey required restarting all the time and constant DB rebuilds
ushare is not updated anymore and is only very basic
PS3 Media Server could not get working
Tversity, pain in the but windows package
Combine linux and Media Tomb and your set for a rock solid experience, i've installed MT on my MythTV box and i never have to issue any commands to it or restart it, it just works and very well!

[Bigmango]

Out of all of the streaming solutions i have tried for PS3 mediatomb is the standout best!
!

PS3 Media Server is the best of all.

- plays dvd ISO files (you can select the title to play on the iso)
- plays dvd VIDEO_TS folders (you can select the title to play)
- plays videos inside ZIP/RAR archives
- plays mkvs (on the fly remuxing without the need to reencode)
- multi audio languages support (selectable in the PS3)
- multi subtitles languages support (selectable in the PS3)
- Thumbnail generation, including thumbnails for videos
- DTS/DTS-HD direct streaming
- etc...

If you had some problems earlier, try out the latest version, it's rock solid, and there is nothing easier to install than this -> plug&play.

[dat720]

It was only last week i tried.... I was just curious about it, i am extremly happy with media tomb and would not consider changing, i installed media tomb about 7 months ago and after initial setup i have never had to interfere with it, recreate databases, manually start or restart it, it just always works, which is pretty damned important!

I consider stability to be of extremly high importance, more so than features, if its feature rich but not very stable then that is pretty pointless, you know how frustrating it is to have a server die half way through a movie?

Plus i don't like transcoding on the fly, this requires way more grunt than just serving up files, my little HD Media Tomb (1tb HD reserved just for my HD/BD collection) box is a Intel ITX motherboard with a Celeron 1.3ghz CPU and 512mb ram running Ubuntu with all the gui stuff stripped, pure console box only, it can stream 15gb m2ts files to the PS3 flawlessly!