ripping dvds to x264

[alidan]

i want to say sorry if anything that i say is answered else ware, please point me in the right direction, if i wasn't under a time constraint i would gladly read for days, but right now i need direction.

i'm trying to rip lotr dvds to x264 to put onto a netbook before i have to leave.

i want to get everything, the movies, the commentaries, and any of the extras too. i chose x264 because i believe it will have the best quality to size ratio from what i have seen, and would love to use an mkv shell to get the multi audio. but if i cant, im willing to settle for movies alone.

the reason i want to rip everything is because i will be at the netbook for 30+ hours, with no internet and nothing else to do but watch what ever i put on it and i thought of nothing better than lotr because of how long it is and the fact i havent seen it yet.

if there is a simpler way than what is in the x264 guide here than tell me.

where it is holding me up is the first step

"Then start up Gordian Knot and click on the options tab. Then configure the x264 codec by clicking on the buttons for First Pass and Second pass."

when i click the buttons, nothing comes up. and im unsure where to go from there.

[The Scientist]

If it's just while you're away with your netbook and you want everything still intact, all the extras and things, how about just ripping the DVDs to an ISO? Minimal time and fuss, no conversion required.

[alidan]

space constraints.

from what i know, a dvd can effectively be cut down to about 200-300mb for 30 minutes and be nearly indistinguishable from the dvd, but a dvd video can only hold about 4 hours if im doing math on what i see on my dvds right.

if im right its the difference between at least 18gb and 63gb if i do iso minimum.

on the other hand if i learn to encode myself, i can store more than the lotr dvds on there later foe when i have some time, and dont need to rebuy them to get a digital coppy of them.

[Carpo]

use dvdfab to decrypt the dvds to your drive, then use megui, using crf18 for x264 setting, if you need more control over the size of the outputted files you can use a 2 pass encode.

http://mewiki.project357.com/wiki/Guides/Basic_Guide

bit old but gives you a general idea of how to use it, then again maybe auto encode might be better for you

[alidan]

lets go an auto encode for now, so things can get done fast, ill look into the others later.

right now i have the dvd ripped and on harddrive, with no real clue what to do next.

[CWR03]

In order to use Gordian Knot in any manner you'll have to use a VfW build of x264. If you just want to get it done fast, use AutoGK. It doesn't support x264, but it's as easy as it gets.

[Ghitulescu]

right now i have the dvd ripped and on harddrive, with no real clue what to do next.

Play them for 30+ hours.

[hello_hello]

Play them for 30+ hours.

Did the references to a netbook in the opening post elude you?

alidan,
You're wanting to learn in no time what the rest of us had to spend time learning. Converting the extras and commentaries as well as the main movie will probably involve learning about the DVD structure and re-authoring your DVDs in order to convert them. Then you need to learn how to convert them properly.

I agree that if time is the issue AutoGK and converting to XviD/AVI is probably the way to go. You should be able to pick the correct ifo file to open with AutoGK (it'll display the movie duration correctly if you pick the right one) and use AutoGK to convert the main movie to AVI. I'm pretty sure AutoGK will allow you to include more than one audio track.
For speedy encoding I'd set the video to a fixed width of 640 (it'll help keep the file size down) and use single pass encoding at a quality of 75%. For speed you can keep the original audio, for a smaller file size you can get AutoGK to convert it to MP3 (Those options are under advances settings). You won't have control over the file size but it should average out to a reasonable size and the quality will remain consistent.

For x264 encoding HDConvertToX is a fairly straightforward program to use. Once again I'd use single pass encoding and my choice would be to pick a CRF of 19 or 20 (lower is better but it'll increase the file size) using the medium speed preset.

[alidan]

ok that helps, i do want to learn a bit about this because it is a skill i would like to have, partialy because of wanting to set up a media server for my tv, but also in cases like this where, space is an issue and i want to have it on something that cant take a dvd.

anyway thanks for the help so far. im looking into everything mentioned so far.

[Ghitulescu]

Did the references to a netbook in the opening post elude you?
No, neither this one ;)
right now i have the dvd ripped and on harddrive, with no real clue what to do next.
My notebook of 2000 had already a 40GB HDD. 11 years later I hope of an improvement.

[CWR03]

For x264 encoding HDConvertToX is a fairly straightforward program to use.
I would second this suggestion, particularly if you want quality over speed. It's not quite as simple to use as AutoGK but it's relatively easy to understand.

If you have hard-drive space issues on your notebook and it has a DVD drive, you could use the 2-pass method and make each movie fill half the disk. Of course it will take at least twice as long to encode, but without being familiar with converting videos and estimating 1-pass file sizes you'll end up wasting that time with encodes that are too big or too low quality anyway.

[hello_hello]

No, neither this one ;)

I saw that too. Maybe I'm wrong, but I assumed the OP has ripped the DVDs to his PC's hard drive for converting and transferring to his netbook.

My notebook of 2000 had already a 40GB HDD. 11 years later I hope of an improvement.

I guess your hopes aren't all that relevant. Wherever his DVDs have been ripped to though, you must have missed his following comments.

space constraints.

....but also in cases like this where, space is an issue and i want to have it on something that cant take a dvd....

[Lighto]

IMO, MakeMKV is the best choice for OP if the output size does not matter.

If not, the next easiest way is to use MakeMKV to get the .mkv output before compressing using HandBrake.

OR

Use AnyDVD to rip the DVD to your hard disk, then encode it using HandBrake.

[alidan]

ok, dvdfab is giving me a file that is about the size i thought it would be but the audio is so far off that its unusable.
makemkv if giving me a file that is unplayable and causes every program to crash.

still havent tried handbreak, but with the make mkv, and with the dvdfab im wondering what i should do?

i fed the dvd to dvdfab 3 different ways to see if anything made a difference, it didn't. i did makemkv 2 different ways so far, no change.

i don't really want to go through encoding process again, if i dont know with some certainty that the result will be usable. not because i dont want to, but because i have nothing else to do but use the computer right now, doing the encode takes 3 hours ish each time.

[Chetwood]

Use DVDfab to rip main movie only and then encode with Handbrake.

[alidan]

handbreak worked great. thanks for that one.

and there is not clear quality loss, honestly worked better than i was hoping for. scratch that, when i pause the video i can tell where the quality loss is, but thats not to big of a deal for me, at least right now, because im a begginer and i made something that is watchable.

[CWR03]

There will always be quality loss when re-encoding to x264 - the loss can be minimized with filters or playing with the bitrate or video resolution, but it's simply not possible to keep full quality even if your end file is bigger than the original.

[Ghitulescu]

In the end you'll be the only one that could draw the line between the time spend on reencodings, the space gained and the visual quality loss.
I drew mine long time ago :)

[alidan]

There will always be quality loss when re-encoding to x264 - the loss can be minimized with filters or playing with the bitrate or video resolution, but it's simply not possible to keep full quality even if your end file is bigger than the original.

i know that, its about the precieved loss of quality though.

[alidan]

what other ripping software would you suggest? for more troublesome dvds? i have somewhat abandoned getting all of lotr ripped and encoded fast, so i moved on to other dvds that i have seen and like rematching.

[hello_hello]

http://www.videohelp.com/tools/RipIt4Me You'll also need to install DVD Decryptor and DVD Shrink.

I generally use RipIt4Me in "movie only" mode. Once the movie is ripped to your hard drive you can convert it with the method of your choice.

If I've got a lot of DVDs to do I generally rip them all before I worry about encoding. As DVD drives are pretty cheap I have three in this PC so with RipIt4Me I can rip three at a time. Once they're all on the hard drive I set up each encode and save it in the job queue. Once they're all ready I let the conversion begin. That way you can walk away, sleep or work etc while the time consuming part of the job is taking place.
If you like Handbrake, use it for the converting, otherwise HDConvertToX is pretty straightforward to use.

PS. RipIt4Me will probably rip all of your DVDs without a problem but it is old so every now and then you'll find one it won't rip, but for me it does the job 99% of the time and I guess no ripping software is perfect.

[CWR03]

Why have you given up on LotR? It's not any more troublesome than most others unless you're trying to combine the two parts into one large file. What sort of trouble are you having?

[alidan]

i haven't given up on the movies, just the extras that i was planning because that will take time to learn to do it right. what i have gone to is a more straight forward just caring about the main movie part. it will save me time trying to get everything.

i wish i could put 3 dvd drives in my computer, sadly i have all my sata ports taken up by harddrives, and i don't like using more than one drive on an ide ribbon, had problems in the past with that.

[Chetwood]

http://www.videohelp.com/tools/RipIt4Me You'll also need to install DVD Decryptor and DVD Shrink.
Need them for what? I have yet to see a disc DVDfab couldn't handle.

[hello_hello]

Need them for what? I have yet to see a disc DVDfab couldn't handle.

alidan asked for suggestions for alternative ripping software. RipIt4Me, which requires DVD Decrypter and DVD Shrink, was my suggestion.
My answer didn't have anything to do with DVDFab's capabilities.

[hello_hello]

i wish i could put 3 dvd drives in my computer, sadly i have all my sata ports taken up by harddrives, and i don't like using more than one drive on an ide ribbon, had problems in the past with that.

There's no reason why you shouldn't be able to put two drives on a cable (there are instances which can cause problems but generally it's okay) or you could add a cheap SATA PCI card to your PC. They're not expensive and anything with a Silicon Image chipset should work fine with optical drives (mine's the 3114 chipset which gives you 4 SATA ports on a PCI card). Other chipsets will of course work too, but I've never had a problem with optical drives when using a Silicon Image chipset.

[alidan]

dvdfab is throwing errors at me with a dvd, but the dvd will play just fine. im hoping that alternative software can deal with the errors better.

and my mother board just doesnt have room for more cards. its a small one, because price was a concern at the time when my old mb fried. the video card i have is a hd5770 and i believe that that is taking up one of the pci slots, and i dont think i have another useable one. the errors i would get with the ribbon weren't fun to deal with, and the 6 on board sata ports are taken by hdds, next build ill be planning for a bluray and a dvd, but thats at least a year or 2 down the line.

[Lighto]

dvdfab is throwing errors at me with a dvd, but the dvd will play just fine. im hoping that alternative software can deal with the errors better.

and my mother board just doesnt have room for more cards. its a small one, because price was a concern at the time when my old mb fried. the video card i have is a hd5770 and i believe that that is taking up one of the pci slots, and i dont think i have another useable one. the errors i would get with the ribbon weren't fun to deal with, and the 6 on board sata ports are taken by hdds, next build ill be planning for a bluray and a dvd, but thats at least a year or 2 down the line.

Have you tried using MakeMKV?

[alidan]

makemkv threw unreadable files at me. i tried loading them into 4 different players, including vlc, and each one came back with crashing.

either i did something basic wrong, or that program isnt working for me.

[whipdancer]

For simplicity - I second the comments on ripping to your hard drive (DVDFab, RipItForMe, AnyDVD are all options) and using Handbrake to encode to m4v, mp4 or mkv.

I've done most of my DVD collection that way with very few issues.

~Whip

[alidan]

ok, managed to rip the one that was giving me problems, it just took time.

now im looking more into handbreak, i figured out some more about it, like the queue, and i'm wondering what can i do to it to make sure i get the best quality encodes out of it? i'm talking presets for general purpose, animated, and live action (animated as in drawings, not cg) because i want to get my whole collection now, it would be nice having them all in one place so i don't have to constantly look for the dvds, or worse, find out my little brother shitted them up to the point i need to get them resurfaced.

[Ghitulescu]

.... or worse, find out my little brother shitted them up to the point i need to get them resurfaced.

No need to resurface them if you copy them 1:1, that is you can always reconstruct them as they initially were. If you compress them to a different codec, or even recompress them into smaller DVDs, you can't reconstruct them back, need to buy others.

[alidan]

ok, i just ripped a new movie, heavy metal and heavy metal 2000, love those movies for some reason.

heavy metal rips to 3.2gb
heavy metal 2000 rips to 4.2gb

however heavy metal encodes to 1.7gb
and no mater what i do, heavy metal 2000 encodes to about 700mb

and no matter what options i chose, i cant get it to be more. i mean it doesn't look bad, but still... does encoding them take into account basically still frames with little action? because heavy metal has grain to it, something i didn't notice at first, but 2000 doesn't have any i can see, is that what caused it to be so much smaller? im still a bit new to this and dont know if this is something i should expect to see or not.

[ckmox]

i suggest Handbrake -> https://trac.handbrake.fr/wiki/WindowsGuiGuide

more links:
https://trac.handbrake.fr/wiki/HandBrakeGuide
http://handbrake.fr/
https://forum.handbrake.fr/

[alidan]

thanks

[yetanotherid]

and no matter what options i chose, i cant get it to be more. i mean it doesn't look bad, but still... does encoding them take into account basically still frames with little action? because heavy metal has grain to it, something i didn't notice at first, but 2000 doesn't have any i can see, is that what caused it to be so much smaller? im still a bit new to this and dont know if this is something i should expect to see or not.

Using x264 I encode everything using single pass encoding and a CRF of 19 (between about 18 and 24 is normal, lower numbers give you higher quality and larger files, higher definition encodes can get away with higher CRF values).
All else being equal (not using different filtering or resizing etc), if you use the same CRF value for every encode then you're achieving the same quality for every encode... relative to the original video... regardless of the resulting file size (a CRF value of 18 is supposed to be "transparent").

Different videos will compress more easily than others. Videos with more action will generally be harder to compress. Noisy videos will be harder to compress than "clean" videos.
Most encoder GUIs will have various filters which generally include "remove grain" filters which can help reduce the file size when encoding grainy video, and depending on your perspective it may look better too. I run a very light "remove grain" filter on every encode.

I can't give Hardbrake instructions as I don't use it but for maximum quality when encoding DVDs, anamorphic encoding is best. It uses the same non-square pixels as the original DVD, which retains more detail than resizing down to square pixel dimensions (the traditional method when encoding DVDs to AVI).

[CWR03]

Different videos will compress more easily than others. Videos with more action will generally be harder to compress.
Doesn't that only hold true when encoding to a specific file size? When I've encoded two similar length movies, one with lots of action and one with mostly still shots, the latter will come out with a much smaller file size and they will have the same apparent video quality.

Or by "harder to compress," do you mean harder to get to a smaller file size without losing quality?

[yetanotherid]

Doesn't that only hold true when encoding to a specific file size? When I've encoded two similar length movies, one with lots of action and one with mostly still shots, the latter will come out with a much smaller file size and they will have the same apparent video quality.

That's what I mean, I think we're just looking at it from different angles.
I guess I mean that if you compare two videos of the same file size (and same duration), the "harder to compress" one would therefore be of a lower quality.

Or by "harder to compress," do you mean harder to get to a smaller file size without losing quality?

Yes, that's what I was getting at. Maybe I put it badly. When I referred to a video being "harder to compress" I was referring to the encoder needing to use a higher bitrate (larger file size) to achieve the same quality than a video which is easier to compress.

Like you the file size of my encodes (assuming the video lengths are similar) varies dramatically according to how hard/easily the video is to compress as I use the same quality setting (CRF value) for all my encodes.

[alidan]

i have to say, at lest with animation, the grain is a plus for older movies.
i know anime at the very least, older classics are coming out on bluray, and allot are untouched, just re somethinged to make them hd (im assuming that the film, actual film, everything was shot on can be scaled up to a 4k size at least) but some of them have processing that cleans out the grain and such, to make them look more recent. but in doing so, they kill almost all of the quality that the films have, to the point that an upscale dvd looks better than some of the remasterd bluray 1080p. for an example i think its a galexy express 999 movie that i learned of most recently got killed due to this process.

id rather do as little as possible to alter what they decided to put on disc, as in degraining and such.
however a live action movie, that i may degrain, because thats not there adding anything, its there because of the film and will probably loose far less than an animated film would.

[yetanotherid]

I mainly only use a light grain removal filter as it helps reduce the file size by removing the grain you can't really see anyway (unless you're right in front of the monitor), but heavier grain (which is what you're wanting to keep) remains.
Mind you I can't speak for animated video because I don't encode much of it.

[alidan]

you notice light grain in animation, however with normal video i think i will try it out.