DVD Ripper format preference - mp4 vs. avi vs. mkv

[Guest]

good evening, Your thoughts on the best profile to use for conversion settings.

I've been selecting MP4 (generic.mp4.h264.aac).

I've been ripping my son's DVDs (Cars, Toy Story etc), copying the .MP4 up to a WD TV Live Hub and the my son watches his stuff on either a laptop (on the home LAN or WiFi) or else a LG 60PZ950 connected via HDMI to WD TV Live Hub.

I had thought that the h.264 profile was the most preferred of late for best video quality (audio, too?).

But are any of the other conversion profile options such as avi or mkv equal or better for the type of intended targets I'm using.

Thank you very much in advance.
All thoughts and philosophies welcome!

[GregiBoy]

mkv.h264.audiocopy!!!!

[Floyd]

mkv.h264.audiocopy!!!!

I have a WDTV Live and use avi .h264 audiocopy. I think mkv is a better container, but the WDTV Live doesn't seem to like it much. I tried for a while to get it to work and decided to get on with my life and use .avi. The .avi also works with my Nook Color using Mobo player, so I am pretty happy. I have an old laptop setup as a media server for my squeezeboxes, nook and computers. I can stream music or internet feed to the squeezeboxes and a movie to my nook at the same time with no problems. When I have time I'll push it a little harder to see how much I can pump through it across my WiFi network.

I believe mkv supports chapters, but I don't think DVDFab does, adding another step to get that feature, and that didn't work with my WDTV either, at least not what I tried. The manual says mkv is supported, but they don't give details and you may find a setting that works for your player, it is newer as well. Run a few test files, I generally use 10 to 20 minute special features to save time, if they have similar specs as a movie. Some are very low quality.

[signals]

I have a media player called a "Zinwell", which is made in China. Since it plays and upscales the MP4/M4V files that I make for my iThings well, those are the only conversions I have to make. They are h264+AAC audio. For DVDs I play the native VIDEO_TS folder on it via wifi from a hard drive plugged into a USB port on the router.

[davecuk]

For me it depends on the bit rate, I have a few devices that will play H.264, but at the lower bit rates (800-1000) Kbs, I find the H.264 DVD Fab encoding has problems, whereas using Xvid actually gives a better result. Lower bit rates on the H.264 give the regular fuzz, fuzz, fuzz background effect, but uses a smoother effect to manage high movement segments, whereas Xvid has less regular background noise fuzz, but slight blockiness during high movement sections, although it's slightly clearer.

it's a pity because H.264 encoding runs about about 250 - 300 fps on my system and Xvid is about 100-130fps.

[GregiBoy]

I have a media player called a "Zinwell", which is made in China. Since it plays and upscales the MP4/M4V files that I make for my iThings well, those are the only conversions I have to make. They are h264+AAC audio. For DVDs I play the native VIDEO_TS folder on it via wifi from a hard drive plugged into a USB port on the router.

Unfortunately, I dislike the AAC audio because most of my media players are connected to a big 7.1 surround system via optical/coax which does not support AAC (It's a few years old but it cost me a fortune then!!)

Hence my tendency to stick with audiocopy because the DTS & Dolby Digital tracks work fine. The other point is that this way, they are untouched and not re-encoded.

Just my .02c worth.