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Scott R Scott R is offline
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Join Date: Feb 2001
Location: Aspen CO US
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Quote:
Originally Posted by spuggy View Post
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.
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.
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Old 12-24-2012, 08:22 AM
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