General Question

[LiquidNex]

First of all I love DVDFab. I've tried dozens of DVD back-up/encoding/ripping/converting/whatevering programs and this one has consistently been the simplest, fastest, and most dependable. To date I've backed up about 250 movies I own and in the future when optical technology catches up with consumer prices for Blu-Ray I'll probably do it all over again with HD movies.

My ultimate goal is to have every movie I own on one hard drive, uncompressed in a single-file format with chapter and subtitle support. I don't care about special features or preserving less than 5.1 AC3 audio. I've had to compromise chapter/subtitle support for now and I'm going with .AVI files, H.264 video and AC3 source audio, which is a great start.

And by the way...I'm thrilled that the new DVDFab is faster than ever, cuts down menu time and allows potential file output that is 10x bigger than before. This version seems to be light years ahead of any other program I've used for this process, not to mention the constant support getting rid of obnoxious warning screens. There's something very satisfying about sitting down to watch a movie and not having to sit through a red French warning screen.

Here's my issue. My portable hard drives limit the maximum single-file size to 3.99 gb, which is reducing quality on DVDs and forcing me to either sacrifice video quality or split the movie. I have several hard drives, some Seagate, most WD. First obvious question, is there a setting or bypass in the file system on portable drives that would enable me to transfer a file of any size? That would solve my biggest problem.

On a more general note, if anyone has advice on the best way to accomplish some or all the things I'm looking for in my movie collection, I would appreciate the input.

1. All my movies in one place.
2. Video quality should minimally be DVD quality.
3. Source audio uncompressed.
4. Networking hub to every room of my home.
5. The most future-ready file format.
6. Chapter and subtitle support in a single-file solution.

One is dependent upon someone making a 10TB hard drive at 10000rpm lol. Two would be solved by this new version of DVDFab and a back-up hard drive that actually lets me transfer very large files over 4gb. Three and four I already have but I didn't want to leave out any criteria. Five is important, there are so many formats now with MKV, AVI, MP4, MPEG2, RV and a million video codecs that I just went with AVI for now and if I have to convert them one day to something else hopefully processors and video cards will be much faster. Six is the least important but it would be nice to have, along with, say, downloadable jacket/album art for the movies so I could browse them with pretty pictures and colors without using crappy Windows Media Center.

Anyway, this is a wonderful product, thank you for continuing to update and support DVDFab and I appreciate any advice on this subject.

[Complication]

The 4G limit is due to the formatting on your portable hard drives (FAT32). Reformat to NTFS (erases everything) and your limit will be gone. However, not all devices will read an NTFS formatted drive. Unfortunately there is no way around the hard drive format file size limitation other than a different format.

[W&B]

I would go with the mkv format, it has chapter support capability and I've heard multiple language tracks (if one desires that) and will copy the source audio. Fengtao also announced chapter support is going to be supported in a future release of Fab, currently Fab can't do this. (mkv is a personal preference and others may have better suggestions)

You should be able to get DVD quality with a file size under 4gb (this is a matter of opinion of course and you should do some conversion test and decide for yourself)
Here is a guide for mobile conversion that should give you some pointers thanks to GregiBoy Best Practice: DVD to Mobile

For cover art check out 'My Movies' it's freeware and a great library system for your collection (it also integrates with WMC). For support they have their own website, no support is given here for it.

[LiquidNex]

Thanks for the quick responses you guys are great. Speaking of "DVD Quality," I've had video files that were 700mb that looked great, and some that were 4gb that were terrible.

1. Is there a magic number at which increased quality becomes negligible to the naked eye? I guess I'd like the smallest possible file size that will still look great on a 50-60 inch TV. In my experience anything below 2.0gb for a 2 hour movie can be slightly choppy but sometimes I feel like I'm outputting files larger than necessary.

2. Is it detrimental to force a higher frame-rate than the source material?

3. Sometimes DVDFab isn't recognizing a side of a 2-sided DVD, such as those 4-film packs on 2 discs, etc. It seems random and happens just as often to older discs as brand new (scratch/blemish-free) ones. What can I do and why would this happen?

[maineman]

Just a couple additional thoughts to my colleagues...
I whole-heartedly recommend that you try GregiBoy's samsung profile
I just recently picked up an Argosy media player and began experimenting with this technology and quickly became hooked on this profile.
It's nothing short of outstanding.

Here you go:
Samsung LA52A850 Television

Movies run roughly 1 GB or so and look fantastic on a 42" LCD TV.
As B&W said, it's well worth the time to look over the
Best Practice: DVD to Mobile thread.

GregiBoy does maintain that "most" media players do better with FAT32 format. In my own limited experience and maybe the Argosy is fairly unique in this regard, I found that NTFS format works wonderfully with this player.
I have tried 3 different hdds so far...2 x 1 TB and 1 500 GB...
all NTFS and all run without any glitches or bumps.


Your problem with the flipper discs is bizarre...particularly since it occurs randomly. Bummer...makes it all the more difficult to track down.
Does this happen to any extent with single-sided discs?

[LiquidNex]

Thanks for responding. It doesn't happen at all with single-sided discs or even dual-layers. I've had the most trouble with discs that are bundled one movie per side, specifically Conan 1/2 and The Matrix 4-film set.

As for the other profile, I'm hesitant to try 1.1mbps when a standard DVD is usually around 4.5. What looks beautiful on a 32, 36 or 42 TV doesn't necessarily translate to a 55" or 58". I have a WD HD Media Player that I got the month it came out because, well, it was the first device like it I'd seen. It's not perfect but a lot of what I'm doing right now is experimenting. I'd like to find the best process for what I'm looking for before I commit hours/weeks converting all of these backed up movies. Ultimately I'm going to run a home theater PC and network it through my home which I already do with Netflix and DirecTV.

That profile might come in handy down the line though. I can't have a giant TV in every room and formatting specifically for a given screen would allow 2 or 3 times as many movies to be kept on a single hard drive. I'll definitely give it a try.

I honestly don't know enough about what's on these discs to describe why these 2-sided ones aren't working. It's just very frustrating to have a brand new disc that isn't being recognized by the program, especially since DVD's are so cheap now with Blu-Rays out, it's a great time to stock up.

[GregiBoy]

Te samsung profile will work with a WDTV hooked up to any size TV.

[LiquidNex]

Would you recommend multiple media players (one per TV) or is a networked solution viable? I've noticed the quality on "Instant Queue" files from Netflix are horrendous, and as I go forward I'm concerned this generation of routers/internet speeds won't be able to keep up with what I'm asking them to do.

[GregiBoy]

I run between 5 and 10 different players in my house because my business is actually importing them.

I run a low end NAS (Linksys NAS200) that serves the content to all the players and I can have up to 3 running at any one time and it all works fine.

The only thing that I do not recommend is that you use wireless as the throughput speeds for quality video are just not there.

If you do not want to cable, the HomePlug style devices (Ethernet over Power) seem to work fine.

[maineman]

What size pipe does your ISP provide?
My flicks look great coming off Time Warner's fiber optic cable.
Even fast forward and rewind work well.
We watch them via a Roku in the family room and a PS3 in my son's room

[LiquidNex]

I'm not sure, but I move fairly often at the moment. I just want to do things right the first time so I'm not starting over in the future. I appreciate you guys responding to all of these questions, you definitely have good advice and know what you're doing.

What video quality would you recommend if someone were using an HD projector that covered the entire wall of a standard living room?

If 3D televisions come out later this year is your programming infrastructure in place to support high-end Blu-Ray multi-threaded video? Personally I have little interest in 3D movies but if you guys get things in place before it all hits you'll be way ahead of the curve I suspect.

One repeat question I haven't found the answer to...is it detrimental to force a higher frame-rate than the original source?

[GregiBoy]

I'll give you my "Rule-Of-Thumb"...

You should never encode a file with a higher resolution or a frame rate different from the original source.