Newbie Questions

[TheGregster76]

I have a question and this either falls under DVDFab or Passkey, but I am not sure.

I am looking to purchase all of the Jeremy Clarkson DVDs from the UK. I am one of Jeremy Clarksons biggest fan here in Canada and I am also a HUGE Top Gear fanatic. I know that these DVDs are Region 2/PAL DVDs. Is there a way that I can convert these DVD's to mkv format to play on a digital media player like the Western Digital TV Live Hub? Or do I have to get these DVDs converted to Region1/NTSC and then convert them to mkv format?

[GregiBoy]

You should be able to just convert the DVD's straight to MKV's.

Have a read of my "Best Practice" thread (link below) on how to do this.

[TheGregster76]

Thanks Gregiboy, but will the mkv file work with the Western Digital TV Live Hub (WDTVLH)? From my understanding of your link, DVDFab DVD Ripper is more for making mkv files for mobile devices like iPods and iPhones, not for media players that you hook up to your TV such as what I have (although I do have an iPod and iPhone 4G).

I tried to make a mkv file of a DVD that I have using DVD Ripper and could not get the file to run correctly with the WDTVLH (I had video, but no sound). From my understanding, DVDFab DVD Ripper is more for mobile devices like iPods and iPhones. Unfortunately, I am having problems with posting questions on the DVDFab DVD Ripper / Blu-ray Ripper forum to deal with this issue.

[maineman]

Thanks Gregiboy, but will the mkv file work with the Western Digital TV Live Hub (WDTVLH)? .

You'll have to check the specs of your WD player.
A while back, I know WDMP users were disappointed to learn .mkv was not supported.

From my understanding... DVDFab DVD Ripper is more for making mkv files for mobile devices like iPods and iPhones, not for media players that you hook up to your TV .

Nope, incorrect assumption as .mkv is the preferred container for playback via MP, but obviously, it must be supported.
This doesn't mean you can't have great results and enjoy your WDMP with other formats.
I still have a ton of conversions done with one of GregiBoy's earlier profiles and they still look perfect to me.
This one's where I got my start about a year ago when I picked up my Argosy player

[DarthCopier]

Thanks Gregiboy, but will the mkv file work with the Western Digital TV Live Hub (WDTVLH)? From my understanding of your link, DVDFab DVD Ripper is more for making mkv files for mobile devices like iPods and iPhones, not for media players that you hook up to your TV such as what I have (although I do have an iPod and iPhone 4G).

I tried to make a mkv file of a DVD that I have using DVD Ripper and could not get the file to run correctly with the WDTVLH (I had video, but no sound). From my understanding, DVDFab DVD Ripper is more for mobile devices like iPods and iPhones. Unfortunately, I am having problems with posting questions on the DVDFab DVD Ripper / Blu-ray Ripper forum to deal with this issue.

You also have another problem not yet touched on... all films mastered in the U.K. will be in PAL format, and won't play on our N.A. NTSC systems.

DVDFab can't handle the conversion from NTSC > PAL, so you'll be looking at a multi-step procedure do what you want and have it able to play on NTSC equipment.

For specific answers to questions about your device, you might have to wait until someone with that device responds.

DC

[TheGregster76]

As for mkv on the Western Digital TV Live Hub, a friend on mine had a movie he brought over in an mkv format. I was able to play the movie just fine. Matter of fact the Western Digital TV Live Hub plays the following:

File Formats Supported
Video - AVI (Xvid, AVC, MPEG1/2/4), MPG/MPEG, VOB, MKV (h.264, x.264, AVC, MPEG1/2/4, VC-1), TS/TP/M2T (MPEG1/2/4, AVC, VC-1), MP4/MOV (MPEG4, h.264), M2TS, WMV9
Photo - JPEG, GIF, TIF/TIFF, BMP, PNG
Audio - MP3, WAV/PCM/LPCM, WMA, AAC, FLAC, MKA, AIF/AIFF, OGG, Dolby Digital, DTS
Playlist - PLS, M3U, WPL
Subtitle - SRT, ASS, SSA, SUB, SMI

Note:
MPEG2 MP@HL up to 1920x1080p24, 1920x1080i30 or 1280x720p60 resolution.
MPEG4.2 ASP@L5 up to 1280x720p30 resolution and no support for global motion compensation.
WMV9/VC-1 MP@HL up to 1280x720p60 or 1920x1080p24 resolution. VC-1 AP@L3 up to 1920x1080i30, 1920x1080p24 or 1280x720p60 resolution.
H.264 BP@L3 up to 720x480p30 or 720x576p25 resolution.
H.264 MP@L4.1 and HP@4.1 up to 1920x1080p24, 1920x1080i30, or 1280x720p60 resolution.
An audio receiver is required for multi-channel surround sound digital output.
Compressed RGB JPEG formats only and progressive JPEG up to 2048x2048.
Single layer TIFF files only.
Uncompressed BMP only.
For details, please refer to the user manual.

As for converting from PAL to NTSC, what programs are out there that will do this and get me the best results? Due to being a HUGE Jeremy Clarkson fanatic, I would really like to get all of his DVDs and be able to watch them. I could illegally download them, but I have huge issues with that.

I know the guy who makes the XXX Main videos (these are not pornos, but extreme R/C car videos; see www.xxxmain.com if you do not believe me). I bought every one of his videos. When I was talking to him a couple of weeks ago, he told me that on his last DVD he produced, he claimed that he never sold 1000 units. Unfortunately, through his research over the internet, his last video had been illegally downloaded over 100,000 times. Due to the fact he lost money on the last DVD due to the illegal downloads, he is not going to produce another DVD. He has no problem if someone bought his DVD and converted it to play on their iPod/iPhone or make a back up copy. It is a shame that because of the illegal downloading of movies that we are losing out on great works of art.

[Gummigutta]

As for converting from PAL to NTSC, what programs are out there that will do this and get me the best results? Due to being a HUGE Jeremy Clarkson fanatic, I would really like to get all of his DVDs and be able to watch them. I could illegally download them, but I have huge issues with that.

Can you just get a DVD player that supports both PAL and NTSC?

[TheGregster76]

Sorry Gummigutta, I was hoping to convert these DVDs to play on my Western Digital TV Live Hub. I thought that DVDFab Passkey has the ability to allow you to change the DVD player from region to region numerous times without locking the DVD to a specific region. Without DVDFab Passkey, you can change the region of your dvd player a maximum of four times before it becomes locked to whatever region you change it to last. But then I could be mistaken. Hopefully a Forum Moderator could confirm this.

[AGJ]

If you use passkey tow atch the original DVD on computer then it will allow you to watcha region 2 dvd on a region 1 DVD Drive without having to change the region of the DVD Drive. The region changer for passkey is to change the region of the softplayer you using like powerDVD or TotalMedia Theatre.

As for WDTV Live being able to play MKV it can but you may need to play with the audio to get it to work. Give it some testing and try the different settings for the MKV to see what file you can produce that will play both Video and Audio on the WDTV Live.