best file format to preserve AV

backtothefuture

backtothefuture

backtothefuture

Associate
Joined
14 Nov 2003
Posts
544
looking to archive my DVDs/BDs to playback on those media players (AC Ryan, WD etc) ...

whats the best file format to preserve both SD and HD picture and audio quality (including codecs eg DD5.1, DTS...etc)

thanks

:)
 
MakeMKV. It'll do both and allow you to select video/audio/subtitles.

However if you want the entire disc then anything that will rip to ISO would be best. Not sure what to suggest as I just use MakeMKV.
 
Yes I would remux and MakeMKV makes the job very easy. Doing a proper encode takes a lot of skill and you just lose quality anyway unless you use silly settings which hardly save any space.

If you want the entire discs then don't 'rip to ISO.' Use the AnyDVD HD ripper but not the image ripper as this will leave protection (same with most programs) plus who wants to mount ISO's when you can play it back from a folder?
 
I find with DVD's the best bet is to leave the sound alone entirely (it's not that big a file size to worry about) and encode the DVD. I usually encode to .avi and save to around 70% (which gives a file size of around 2.5GB) however I can't remember what program I used... :(
 
AbsenceJam said:
Yes I would remux and MakeMKV makes the job very easy. Doing a proper encode takes a lot of skill and you just lose quality anyway unless you use silly settings which hardly save any space.

If you want the entire discs then don't 'rip to ISO.' Use the AnyDVD HD ripper but not the image ripper as this will leave protection (same with most programs) plus who wants to mount ISO's when you can play it back from a folder?
Click to expand...

just tried MakeMKV on my Dumb and Dumber Blu ray... copied the disc...about 20 GB :eek: .. I thought it would compress is to h264 or something like that... is there a way I can get compressed MKV files (h264) and retain original audio? so that a movie is about 4GB or so...
 
Give HandBrake a go. It's easy to configure and there are plenty of guides knocking about on how to get the best quality. You can also set filesizes etc.. You're looking at ~8gb for a reasonable quality HD rip.
 
As others have said try handbrake if you want to reencode the video. If you're looking for hi-def at 4gb you're going to have to downscale to 720p. The bitrate would be so low at 1080p it'd look ****e.
 
backtothefuture said:
just tried MakeMKV on my Dumb and Dumber Blu ray... copied the disc...about 20 GB :eek: .. I thought it would compress is to h264 or something like that... is there a way I can get compressed MKV files (h264) and retain original audio? so that a movie is about 4GB or so...
Click to expand...

You said you wanted to preserve the quality... If you don't care about the quality then handbrake as mentioned is simple.
 
does handbrake keep audio encoding as it is.. i.e. so i can get dd501 or dts?

EDIT: been trying to use this to bascially convert my HD mkv but it keeps crashing while trying to encode :(
 
Last edited:
probedb said:
MakeMKV. It'll do both and allow you to select video/audio/subtitles.

However if you want the entire disc then anything that will rip to ISO would be best. Not sure what to suggest as I just use MakeMKV.
Click to expand...

btw, Makemkv seems to rip the entire blu ray disc, though has a separate file for each title (e.g. intro,trailers, main feature, extras etc) ... hence is there a way to get the disc menu functionality from this or will I have to select each file for playback individually?

especially for DVDs as I might as well rip the entire contents into one folder since my media player can play IFO files (hence can use menu features)

thanks
 
backtothefuture said:
just tried MakeMKV on my Dumb and Dumber Blu ray... copied the disc...about 20 GB :eek: .. I thought it would compress is to h264 or something like that... is there a way I can get compressed MKV files (h264) and retain original audio? so that a movie is about 4GB or so...
Click to expand...

The easy approach is to use something like MakeMKV to select audio/subtitles etc (personally i prefer the control of using ClownBD/eac3to/mkvmerge) and then run it through Ripbot264 to compress the video.

You don't want 4gb rips of 1080p, if you want to keep a DTS MA stream you're looking at 4-6gb alone. I unpacked Saving Private Ryan yesterday and the RAW DTS MA stream came to over 8gb :)
 
I've had some problems with Handbrake and Audio/Subtitles. For instance Airplane came out with subtitles, while Grease ended up in German (I think it might be better that way though :) ).

I've switched to using MakeMKV for ripping, since it does the decrypting as well. MKV is really just a container format so MakeMKV just puts it in there without re-encoding. This is good IMO because it's less likely to cause problems than encoding, it defintiely seems package up additonal subtitle and audio tracks more dependably than Handbrake. I can re-encode at some future point if I have to.

Personally I can really see the difference between a native DVD and a 2.5gig re-encode though, so I may not bother. I'd like to find a way to get Blu-Ray rips smaller though, 20-25gig is a bit excessive. I'll try taking out the high-end audio, since I'll never have a high-end audio setup anyway.
 
Last edited:
backtothefuture said:
btw, Makemkv seems to rip the entire blu ray disc, though has a separate file for each title (e.g. intro,trailers, main feature, extras etc) ... hence is there a way to get the disc menu functionality from this or will I have to select each file for playback individually?

especially for DVDs as I might as well rip the entire contents into one folder since my media player can play IFO files (hence can use menu features)

thanks
Click to expand...

You can just select the title you want. At least for DVDs that's what it does. No need to rip the whole thing.

Also I discovered a problem in Handbrake, in that the video can lose sync with the audio depending what is playing it back. Now I've not tried muxing the video from handbrake back into the original MakeMKV mkv and dropping the MPEG2 video so it could just be that. I get this problem with ps3mediaserver on a PS3.
 
probedb said:
You can just select the title you want. At least for DVDs that's what it does. No need to rip the whole thing.

Also I discovered a problem in Handbrake, in that the video can lose sync with the audio depending what is playing it back. Now I've not tried muxing the video from handbrake back into the original MakeMKV mkv and dropping the MPEG2 video so it could just be that. I get this problem with ps3mediaserver on a PS3.
Click to expand...
I had that exact problem. It was really weird, some rips were fine but others lost audio sync gradually through the film until it was completely out at the end.

But only playing through MediaPlayer Classic HC, which is normally prefect with everything. MediaPortal played them fine, and I was even using the MPC codecs. Strange.
 
ok got handbrake to work.. apparently it doesn't like me tweaking around with the default settings re: quality/file size... just has it at 60% default (according to handbrake, any more than 63% may result in output file being 3 times as large as input file!)...

anyway, encoding the HD mkv file I made earlier (Dumb and Dumber)... gave me 15 hours ETA.... got 12 more to go !!!.... at this rate it'll take me rest of the year to archive my Blu Rays.. (either that or my Opty 170 will pop first!)
 
I personally don't compress my DVDs & Blu-Rays when ripping. DVD films are only 4-6Gbs (.mpg files) and Blu-Rays weigh in at 20-30Gb (MKV.) With 1Tb hard drives being so cheap I don't see the need to re-encode :).
 
Meatball said:
I personally don't compress my DVDs & Blu-Rays when ripping. DVD films are only 4-6Gbs (.mpg files) and Blu-Rays weigh in at 20-30Gb (MKV.) With 1Tb hard drives being so cheap I don't see the need to re-encode :).
Click to expand...

unless u buy torchwood series one on blu-ray and when u use MakeMkv not even VLC player will play it :\
 
Meatball said:
I personally don't compress my DVDs & Blu-Rays when ripping. DVD films are only 4-6Gbs (.mpg files) and Blu-Rays weigh in at 20-30Gb (MKV.) With 1Tb hard drives being so cheap I don't see the need to re-encode :).
Click to expand...

yes I see what you mean... got a 1.5TB HDD... even if I stick in 20 Blu Rays, thats using about only a third.... can then used the rest for DVDs and the odd divx file etc...

:)

(not worth the hassle of encoding, given the availability of storage)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom