Ripping DVDs to play from NAS - process & quality
 

I've got a network drive and a couple of WD TV Live devices. I'd like to rip all of my DVDs to put on the NAS.

I've got DVDFab DVD Ripper.

When I rip DVDs if I don't check the "deinterlace" box, I get comb effect. So I deinterlace, but then I get jagged lines, I assume because I'm missing some of the lines that were supposed to be displayed. I've seen some downloaded/ripped movies that looked top notch without the jaggies. What's the secret to ripping your own DVDs and having the copy come out looking good?

I'm game for getting different software if I need to.

What process do you use and how do you get the best quality?

Thanks

Blu-ray? Or standard 480 stuff?

Not using joke software...

Frankly, if you want the very best quality, don't transcode into a different format at all.

Any conversion process (like from MPEG2 - native format for DVD video - to H.264) essentially takes a compressed, lossy, format, expands it and then re-compresses it again using another, lossy format.

Rip it to a bit-for-bit copy of the ISO image the DVD was mastered from and then use media center software that can either deal with playing the .ISO file or the DVD image from the folder it's stored in.

XBMC works perfectly for this.

Or use MakeMKV; this makes a bit-for-bit copy and creates a single video container with all the subtitle/audio tracks etc. contained in it.

If you're concerned about file size (heck, I can't see why with the cost per TB now, but some are), there *are* about a bazillion transcoding programs that actually work. You may need to twiddle with encoding methods/options to get the best results, or use multi-pass encoding. Life's generally too short...

I know that mplayer/mencoder, ffmpeg and handbrake/MacTheRipper are popular Linux/Mac ones, respectively. These can do bit-for-bit (including to raw YUV video and PCM audio if desired) or, perhaps more usefully, transcode into whatever flavour of container (wmv, avi, mp4, flv, mkv etc.) you want.

I use Audials. It does a lot more as well. I also use PQ-DVD which is designed to make small format versions for portable devices.

I use K9Copy and the wizzard for it, tell it to give me a straight up copy of the dvd that fits in 4.3gb. End up with an ISO file.... which VLC and a few other players can play no problem, or burn it back to a blank disk.

Nothing wrong with your software choice. I have been using DVDfab for many years. The creator issues updates every few weeks to keep up with the latest protection measures released by the production companies. Just had a new one last week.

While I don't use the ripping program ( I use DVDfab DVDCopy), I am assuming your settings are not correct. The forums on the DVDfab site should yield you plenty of info.

This was going to be my suggestion as well, at least for the 480 stuff. Take the "video_ts" and package it in MKV or ISO, simply the best way for loss-less format changes.

Blu-Ray I use Dvdfab because it's the quickest way to strip the encryption bit on the discs. And before anyone say's anything, these are discs I own. My son can destroy a Blu-ray in about a week changing them out of the player, I think I bought "cars" twice before I ripped it.

The best way is to grab the ISO file and then use ISO Buster Pro to break it up. If you already have the "pieces" the ones you want are the VOB files and they generally are the large ones. To see what is in each one try using VLC media player 2.2 or later and the video will show up. You can then use a program called "Handbrake" to change to either MP4 or MKV format and increase or decrease the resolution, etc as needed.

There is also Blu-ray to MKV version 1.4.0.8 which works on almost all Blu-rays but there are some new copy write stuff that is hard to break. There is also the audio encoding called Cinavia and if you encounter it the best thing to do is play the video from a laptop to the HD TV via HDMI cable. If your laptop does not have an HDMI output then there are converter boxes that take the video and convert it to HDMI.

Standard DVDs, not Blu-ray.
I don't want VOB or ISO images, mp4 or MKV or hell, even AVI, and I do want the images to be a bit smaller.
Yeah, that's what I'm looking for. I figured some folks here have probably twiddled a bit and I was hoping to learn from them.

I've got the disks, so I don't need another disk. I have a NAS drive and I'm going to stream to Western Digital TV Live plus boxes that are then connected to the TV via HDMI. The WD TV boxes will play a VOB, but they won't allow fast-forward or rewind of them. They do allow you to fast forward or rewind MP4 and MKV. Basically, I want a way to watch all of my DVD movies that are similar to watching shows taped on a DVR. And it works. I'm mostly just looking for the settings to rip them to one of those formats that yield the best results.