DVD Ripper Newbie questions

[trashmon]

Hi, Just bought DVD Ripper and I have a few questions. First off, I've been using Blu-ray Copy and Blu-ray Ripper to produce backups and populate a few hard drives with movies for my Micca media player. The Blu-ray rips usually come out to a file size of 20+ GB (m2ts), just a little smaller than the original disk. When ripping a standard DVD this morning, I was surprised to see the output file size at just under a Gigabyte (when the original disk was 6.9 GB). Is this a result of further compression using h264 or what? I'd prefer to not have any further compression, as hard drive space is not an issue.
Second, looking at the manual for ripper (Ver 9.0.4 is used in the illustrations, I think, it shows an upper tab labelled "Format" which I can't seem to find. Under "Format", I gathered that there were other settings than the 3 or 4 h264 modes.
Any ideas? Thanks for any help!

[90312]

Use one of the passthrough profiles, m2ts or VOB for no compression and one file result.

[GregiBoy]

Firstly, the size reduction is caused by the fact that you are using H264 which is an far more efficient codec than MPEG2 with which DVD's are authored and this is normal. The ultimate judge of quality are your eyes and if you wish to raise the quality, increase the bits/pixel. The actual profile & settings that you use will depend on your target playback device and display size.

As a guide though, I have transcode literally thousands of DVD's using the mkv.h264.passthrough profile and have carried out subjective testing many times. Those being tested are generally unable to pick the difference on a 50" display.

Once you have selected "DVD Ripper" on the top tab and opened your DVD Rip, a profile should appear in the "Profile" pull-down at the bottom of the page. You can then click on the double up arrow at the right of the pull-down and it will show you the profiles available in the main pane.

Hope this helps.

[GregiBoy]

Sorry mate, didn't see you there. I'm finally out of jail!!! Got home last night!!!

[90312]

No worries you gave a different take on H264 and I went the no compression route. Glad you're home, stay on the meds!

[GregiBoy]

Yeah, the meds are good with "iced Tea"!!

[CBR929]

Yeah, the meds are good with "iced Tea"!!

Are you sure that is Iced Tea in that glass???

[GregiBoy]

Are you sure that is Iced Tea in that glass???

[trashmon]

Thanks for the quick reply. I'm much closer to what I needed now. GBoy, couldn't agree more with the "buy what you can see or hear and no more" philosophy. Same thing happens with audio equipment, where you spent $20K for stuff and KHS(kan't hear s**t). Guilty as charged, by the way. The perceived video quality is a function of screen size, fer shure... There's the problem. A 50 inch screen hides a bunch of probs. A 144 inch screen shows stuff you'd ordinarily miss.

Tried a rip of One Hour Optical as a test case, used the three available options there with more or less the same results. A 7.63 GB DVD rips to 1.08 GB regardless of '.fast', 'HiQual', or 'normal' format, each taking about 5 to 6 minutes at about 400 fps.
Next rip was made with VOB, rips to 3.76 GB in about 5 minutes at a rate of 11 to 14 MB/s. (I'm sure I have a question about one reporting in frames/sec and the other reporting in MB/sec, but that's another day.)
I haven't viewed any of them on the big screen yet, so I can't even give qualitative results.

I'm afraid to ask about the ensuing conversation regarding release from jail, questionable drug use and possible alcohol abuse, but I hope this finds you feeling better, Greg!

[GregiBoy]

Nah, I was in hospital, that's all under a strict regime, that's all!!

A mate of mine used to bring me in some "Iced Tea" when he visited and have you ever noticed the similarity in colour of Iced Tea and a good single malt Scotch?