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moviebuff · 2010-01-24, 02:38

What is the best file format to rip dvd for playback on XBMC? Iso, MP4 or MPV? For smallest file size but not losing quality. I currently do ISO but wondering if there is a format that would take less space on the hard drive but same playback quality and a good program to do the convert. Thank you for any suggestions you may have )

BORIStheBLADE · 2010-01-24, 02:41

With any conversion you are going to lose some quality. With the amount of time spent on converting movie I think its better to buy more HD space instead of wasting tons of time converting.

If you still have your heart set on converting to save space I would look into H.264 which is the latest stuff people are converting to and maybe Xvid.

moviebuff · 2010-01-24, 03:09

The only reason is I have so many movies in the 1500 range. havent heard of that one im kinda new to all this a Noob you could say

BORIStheBLADE · 2010-01-24, 03:25

Haha, man 1500 movies to convert is a lot of time in front of a computer.

Even if you were to cut the movies in half you would still need 3-5 tb I figure.

I know they're are some guys on here with large amounts of storage. Hopefully they can chime in on this.

moviebuff · 2010-01-24, 03:26

h.264 sounds interesting format wonder if there is a good convertor out there thats free?

BORIStheBLADE · 2010-01-24, 03:42

The one that gets used the most is handbrake. Its free too.

http://handbrake.fr/

I think you need to have the dvd ripped into file/folder format.

If your on a win PC try this. If you need DVD ripping software download DVDFab HD Decrypter.

http://www.dvdfab.com/free.htm

moviebuff · 2010-01-24, 03:56

sweet thanx so much for youre help ill give handbrake and try and see how mp4 is )

moviebuff · 2010-01-24, 08:23

Gonna try MKV format dunno but MP4 in handbrake actually makes the file larger when going from iso? but gonna give MKV a try it dramatically reduces the file size

xexe · 2010-01-24, 11:47

Why bother shrinking?

Even if shrinking takes 30 mins per movie your still over 31 days of CPU time.

I would definitely just use makemkv and grab native.... the best you can achieve with all the comression is saving one 1.5TB HDD. Its simply not worth it

**steelman1991** · 2010-01-24, 11:53

As Boris (and xexe - beat me to it) has suggested - buy more storage (if possible) - encoding that number of films could take anything up to 12 months (on the basis of 3 hour encode, 12 hour 7 day constant process) - are you really willing to do that. I know it sounds good at the time, but you will soon get fed up - believe me I started to do it and gave up, fairly quickly.

If you decide to expand your storage and rip 1:1, consider MakeMKV - http://www.makemkv.com/ - dependant on the speed of your drives, a rip (with chapters and subtitles if required) can be achieved in around 15-20 mins. Main movies only as well can be ripped using this method, therefore reducing file size (by removing menus, extra features etc).

Good luck.

xexe · 2010-01-24, 12:03

Thats a good point... for the cost consider buying a DVD drive that excels at this job as well.

moviebuff · 2010-01-24, 16:42

ya one thing ive noticed is handbrake is very slow maybe ill try makempv like you said on my new rips not existing. Appreciate all the help on this thanx everyone

BORIStheBLADE · (This post was last modified: 2010-01-24, 19:15 by BORIStheBLADE.)

Ya makemkv is a great program. I have 90% of my movies ripped with makemkv.

I think that the best and easiest files to use with XBMC is .ISO and .MKV. You can hold multiple audio and subtitle streams in the files.