Can somebody spend a few minutes to explain . . .

[GregiBoy]

well, I've been waiting for over 12 months so far, so don't hold your breath !!!

No hurry. Thanks.

[auge_28]

That will be added in time but no idea when as it was already mentioned in this thread

No hurry. Thanks.

[AGJ]

I was playing.

I’m a Software Test Engineer at Microsoft (specializing in regression testing of web based applications and GUIs); I study for my career every day. I know that no matter what I learn there is a vast amount I will never know. When people ask me what I do for work they will almost always ask me how to fix a computer problem they have… when I tell them that I have no idea how to fix their particular problem they will say something silly like “Oh, I thought you worked with computers”. As if they expect me to know absolutely everything about these machines and the infinite hardware/software environments they may be in.

I was thinking about this thread last night and realized that I don’t want multiple programs to mess around with DVDs, so I will wait for the feature I want to be available on DVDFab. Truly the only thing DVDFab does not do that I wished it did is let me rip more than one audio stream, something I read MKVs are great at handling. I am a film buff and amateur film historian with special interests in French New Wave and Film Noir . . . It would be nice to be able to rip the commentary stream on some of the films I watch/study and switch back and forth when needed, until then I will keep on keeping on.

That will be added in time but no idea when as it was already mentioned in this thread

[AGJ]

I suppose it is!!!

For Complication: I have nothing but the utmost respect and admiration for you guys that are labouring under difficult circumstances.

Where I do have an issue is with the lack of communication by the management and developers of Fab itself.

As far as knowing better & referring to "Other Software", I have NEVER referred to any other software by name. Any user would have to do their own research to find out what I was referring to as illustrated by Auge above.

Can you please provide a link where it is pointed out that this is against forum rules for the edification of all?

It the General Policies and link in my signature

[auge_28]

Intelligence and education are not the same thing. Although, you often need certain amounts of one to attain some levels of the other.

I was playing.

I’m a Software Test Engineer at Microsoft (specializing in regression testing of web based applications and GUIs); I study for my career every day. I know that no matter what I learn there is a vast amount I will never know. When people ask me what I do for work they will almost always ask me how to fix a computer problem they have… when I tell them that I have no idea how to fix their particular problem they will say something silly like “Oh, I thought you worked with computers”. As if they expect me to know absolutely everything about these machines and the infinite hardware/software environments they may be in.

I was thinking about this thread last night and realized that I don’t want multiple programs to mess around with DVDs, so I will wait for the feature I want to be available on DVDFab. Truly the only thing DVDFab does not do that I wished it did is let me rip more than one audio stream, something I read MKVs are great at handling. I am a film buff and amateur film historian with special interests in French New Wave and Film Noir . . . It would be nice to be able to rip the commentary stream on some of the films I watch/study and switch back and forth when needed, until then I will keep on keeping on.

[Complication]

Hey, that hurts.

Lol, I tried looking for it and couldnt find anything . . . I'm smart, really I am.

Intelligence and education are not the same thing. Although, you often need certain amounts of one to attain some levels of the other.

[auge_28]

. . . reference is too specific as it becomes obvious to the educated reader . . .

Hey, that hurts.

Lol, I tried looking for it and couldnt find anything . . . I'm smart, really I am.

[Complication]

As far as knowing better & referring to "Other Software", I have NEVER referred to any other software by name. Any user would have to do their own research to find out what I was referring to as illustrated by Auge above.

Can you please provide a link where it is pointed out that this is against forum rules for the edification of all?

Lets just say that in my opinion your fruit reference is too specific as it becomes obvious to the educated reader what specific software you are referring to. I realize this is subjective but it is in line with the spirit of the rules rather than just the letter.

I know that you are an ardent supporter of DVDFab given the valuable time you spend here on the forums. There are plenty of places for people to get information on the other options out there. DVDFab has chosen not to play the comparison game. This should be a place focused on DVDFab only.

[GregiBoy]

I suppose it is!!!

For Complication: I have nothing but the utmost respect and admiration for you guys that are labouring under difficult circumstances.

Where I do have an issue is with the lack of communication by the management and developers of Fab itself.

As far as knowing better & referring to "Other Software", I have NEVER referred to any other software by name. Any user would have to do their own research to find out what I was referring to as illustrated by Auge above.

Can you please provide a link where it is pointed out that this is against forum rules for the edification of all?

[auge_28]

Fruit references removed.

GregiBoy knows better. He just likes to make the Moderator job more difficult.

So, I take it thats a no . . . .

[Complication]

I don’t know if the rules of the forum will allow you to advise me on what to use to make the MKVs.

I love DVDFab and will always use it, but it would be nice to be able to rip multiple audio streams for some of my film history DVDs with commentary . . . I have been tempted to rip the darn movie twice so that I could get the audio options.

Fruit references removed.

GregiBoy knows better. He just likes to make the Moderator job more difficult.

[auge_28]

You cannot do multiple audio tracks with Fab. I actually use other software to produce my MKV's . . .

I don’t know if the rules of the forum will allow you to advise me on what to use to make the MKVs.

I love DVDFab and will always use it, but it would be nice to be able to rip multiple audio streams for some of my film history DVDs with commentary . . . I have been tempted to rip the darn movie twice so that I could get the audio options.

[Complication]

The bitrate between MPEG2 (DVD) and H264 or XVID cannot be directly compared. These are distinctly different technologies. H264/XVID/DIVX are much newer and are designed to fit more detail into less bitrate. There are other settings within these codecs that will affect how much bitrate is used but are not supported by every device.

Your set-it-and-forget-it plan is probably best. Hard drive space is cheap and your time is valuable. That is, unless you are looking for a new hobby.

[auge_28]

GregiBoy
So far this is working great.
I love the cropped videos, for some reason this did not work well for me before . . . probably my fault.
Of course since I bumped up the bitrate it takes nearly twice as long to do the final rip, but as you said in your walk through, I just stack them up and run them as I am sleeping.

I was reading about digital bit rate as I knew nothing about it and have learned some stuff.
It seems that the higher the bit rate the more “key frames” there are which means the less interpolation the player has to do. This interpolation is some kind of magical guesswork that the hardware/software has to do to paint the pixels were it thinks they should be. This guess work leads to the artifacts most people think of as a "low resolution movie", so no matter how big the file size is if you have low bit rate you have problems.

I also read that standard DVDs have a bit rate of around 5mbit/s. I’m assuming that if I ran the bitrate at 5000kbit/s I may as well do a 1to1 transfer and have a file of about 7-8 gigs. I am pretty sure that 2mbit/s will work great for me making a file size of about 2-2.5 gigs, you said you use a sligtly lower bit rate for your large formate TV. The bit rate is a “bit” higher than you recommended, but I figure I could just “set it and forget it” and be happy with the results.

Please let me know if I am misguided in anything I said above, I appreciate your help, your walkthrough and your pushing me to get off my lazy ass and learn something…
I still have a lot more to learn.

[GregiBoy]

Hi there,

I regard frame rate as very important and I always choose "Same as Source". This means that Fab does not have to interpolate any frames.

I do not use file size as a yardstick as this can vary dependent upon the length of the movie.

I always use 2 pass encoding and adjust the bitrate to around 1800 as a start point for H264 MKV's or 1100 for XVid AVI's, sneaking the bitrate up if the movie has a lot of fast moving action.

I then do not worry about what the file size is but it is generally around the 1.5 Gb.

The only real way to see what you are happy with is do a few test encodes yourself of a few chapters of your favourite movie where you know the scenes really well and play it on your equipment from the original and the three different bitrates.

Ask some friends/family for their opinion but don't tell them what is the highest, etc and you may be surprised from the results.

I suggest that you start at 1500, 1800 & 2100 bitrate.

Both of these parameters have been debated ad nauseum on this forum, but these settings work for me on 52" HD Samsung & LG displays played with a variety of media players.

Hope this helps...

GB