New to Forums.

[tjb]

Thanks - I have never used a forum before and I am just struggling a bit to find my way around. I will give it my best shot.

I have downloaded your profile I do have a Samsung TV - it is DLNA enabled and I have a 1tb Iomega Media NAS where I plan to store all my DVDs and eventually BluRays too. My initial experience of DVDFab has been good although I am struggling to understand the distinction that you seem to be making between Source and destinations. In your recommendations for best practise it seems that you suggest to use DVD to DVD and put it on a HD folder.
Then use DVD to Mobile to transfer to a file - is that right?

What would be the process for BR discs?
Can HD playback be achieved?

Thank you for your help.
Rgds
TJB.

Hi TJB...

We moderators do not, as a matter of policy, provide support by email.

To ask the forum a question on the Mobile options, please post a thread here.



The guides are set so that you cannot ask a question there.

I suggest that you also have a look at the "New Profiles" thread in the subforum above as I have posted a profile that I use for my Samsung 52" TV as I suspect yours is one also.

Use DVD To Mobile, not File to Mobile.

[GregiBoy]

In your recommendations for best practise it seems that you suggest to use DVD to DVD and put it on a HD folder.
Then use DVD to Mobile to transfer to a file - is that right?

What would be the process for BR discs?
Can HD playback be achieved?

Hi TJB, Welcome to the forum and glad you found your way here.

On the DVD to Mobile, that is right, to Hard Disk first, then produce the file to mobile. I have outlined all the reasons in my best practices post but in a nutshell, overall it is quicker, you have less glitches and can batch process overnight.

On the source and destinations, what you do is rip the DVD to a destination folder, eg: C:\DVD Rips and it will create another directory under that with the name of the volume label of the DVD. You then move to DVD to mobile mode and select that destination as the SOURCEa nd then select where you want the encoded file to go as the destination, eG: C:\Encodes.

There is no such process in Fab for BR Disks but I am sure the developers have it on the drawing boared once they get this BR+ problem under control.

I will not be moving to any BR scenario in the near future as I regard the whole cost/benefit/quality equation as still being way out of proportion.

As a general comment, I very rarely use my Samsung with DNLA even though I have a huge library and use TwonkyVision to manage/distribute it throughout my house to a wide variety of players.

On the Samsung, I have after much research, actually found an external Hard Disk Caddy that you can just pop SATA drives and memory cards in and out of that the Samsung recognises. I also have the same caddy attached to my PC.

This makes the whole process very simple and really unlimited content. I keep 3-4 1Tb SATA drives around with content on and can be transferring data, encoding data and watching media at the same time.

It also has the added advantage that I can put the girlfriends favourite movies or something that I have just encoded on to SD Cards, plug them in and watch them. For example, a friend dropped over with the new Stargate Universe episode on a SD card (We are about 10 days behind the US) and we just popped it in and watched it.

The external SATA Caddy has these added advantages:-

When the SATA drive is attached, the Samsung TV will will create thumbnalis of the movie instead of the Camera icon. The Sammy chooses an arbitary scene so sometimes the choice it makes is less than ordinary.

Also, when I create an encoded file, I check the release date and genre of the movie on movies.msn.com or imdb.com and use the "FileDate" utility (Free Download) to change the file date to "01/01/XXXX" (Year of release) and mark them read-only. This then makes the Samsung "Timeline" mode work properly.

I then have the disk set up with sub-folders that are labeled as the "Genre" and drop the encoded file into the correct sub-folder. This then makes the Samsung "Folder" mode effectively a "Genre" feature.

Another plus is that you can use the Samsung "Favorites" mode and mark the media files as 1,2, or 3 stars and sort accordingly.

Hope this helps.
GregiBoy

[tjb]

Hi Gregiboy

I have used your profile and created a single avi - great but when I play it it will not output the audio to the hifi that I have connected I have an avi created by an aquaintance that does output to my hifi - so connections etc are OK.
Have you ever heard of such a thing?
If I sent you my other avi - would you be able to figure out how it was created? or is my only option to go through all teh avi profiles untgil I find one that works properly?

Your suggestions would be really appreciated.

rgds

TJB.

[GregiBoy]

Hi TJB...

If you used my Samsung profile, it retains the original Dolby Digital 5.1 sound (You obviously have to select the DD5.1 (AC3-5.1) soundtrack. I always retain this as I always want to have the surround sound option available to me.

I then have my Samsung connected by fibre optic cable to the Pioneer 5.1 amp and everything works perfectly. Even with the amp off, the TV sound downmixes correctly.

I will bet that your friend's file is only MP3 stereo.

How are you connecting and what is the actual model of your TV?

[tjb]

Hi Gregiboy

TV model is
UE46B7000WW
I purchased it partly because it has DLNA so can talk to my Iomega NAS Media Drive over mt CAT 5 cabled network.

I connect the TV via Fibre Optic Cable to a BOSE stereo - as I mentioned this works to give surround sound using some avi files but not the ones I have been able to create using FabDVD? I have tried several avi profiles so far to no avail. But I do have avi files on the NAS that play on the TV and output through the stereo - so connections are OK.

I also have some files with filetype mpg - might this be a better option for storing and playing via the NAS drive?

Thanks for your patience.

Rgds

TJB.

[GregiBoy]

Hi TJB...

As my profile works perfectly for me, I think it is time to do some troubleshooting.

I could not find your TV on the Samsung site so I don't know the specs, but let's cut out as many variables as we can.

Can you see if you can find a link to the specs and post it here, please?

Sorry if some of the questions are basic but we need to cut out all possibilities.

Firsly, when you are setting up to encode the DVD (I presume you are following my "Best Practice: DVD to Mobile" thread) is a Samsung device showing up under the DVD to Mobile pane on the LH side of the Fab window and are you selecting this?

After you have done this and and are opening the DVD Source, are you selecting the AC-3/5.1 Audio track on the Audio pane on the RH side of the Fab window?

If yes to both, produce a file like this and copy it to a USB drive, plug that into the TV and play the file and let me know the results. This way we can cut out the possibility of your DNLA server doing any transcoding.

[tjb]

Hi Gregiboy here is a link to the specs for my TV it is a 46" LED very slim model I like it!

http://www.samsung.com/uk/consumer/tv-audio-video/television/led-tv/UE46B7000WWXXU/index.idx?pagetype=prd_detail&tab=spec

First step I did was copy DVD to DVD full disc and set this to HD.
Then using your profile I did DVD to mobile but I did option to select AC-3/5.1 Audio
I will put this file on a memory stick and try with it - I will let you know.
Thanks for your help.
Rgds
TJB.

[tjb]

GregiBoy - a breakthrough.

Hi Thanks for all your help up to know - I have made a breakthrough when I created a avi version with the profile generic.divx.mp3 and this played out through the stereo. The screen sizse however was not right how should I get this so that it fills the screen properly?

If i have avi,s that are not of the right type - can I convert them using file - file in FabDVD to the right config for my setup?

Rgds

TJB.

[GregiBoy]

It sounds like your audio setup does not support DD 5.1

I have found the results are better for the Sammy using the generic.avi.h264 profiles and that is what I based my Samsung profile on.

As you are in the UK (PAL), you should be choosing a resolution of 720 x XXX when going from DVD.

Also, the Samsung TV's also have a setting in them to eirther resize to fit or maintain original size. A 720 x XXX file will show up as a smaller size if the resize is not turned on.

[tjb]

Hi Gregiboy
I have been experimenting like crazy and I have found that the highest resolution that will work for me is:
720 x 308, 0.200 , 2.33 does that look righ to you for my TV?
I also realise that this profile divxmp3.avi sets teh audio to Dolby PRologic II - now this rang a bell because I am feeding into an old BOSE lifestyle for audio and it was only designed to support that form of surround sound. It sounds great to me - but I suppose compared to the TV speaker anything would? If I convert all my DVDs like this am I really losing out?

I may consider purchase of a 5.1 system when the budget allows but for now this will be my setup I guess for a good while.

Can you please advise if it is possible to convert other avi files to this setting if they already exist as avi?

Thanks for your help up to now.

Rgds

TJB.

[GregiBoy]

Hi TJB....

Yeah, the resolution looks right for a PAL region DVD. As a general rule though, I think the H264 profiles give better looking video.

I generally find that I can reduce the bitrate to bring the 0.200 back to 0.160 with out any significant loss in quality but this is subjective and it really comes down to what you think is the best.

The profile you are using will only contain 2 channels of audio, so if you upgrade your A/V amp, don't expect to get full surround sound from the files that you have created.

You can convert other files to this format by purchasing the "File to Mobile" option of Fab which uses the same profile for conversion.

[GregiBoy]

TJB, are you saying that your Bose amp is only a stereo?

[Aircraft800]

New Here

Hi Guys,

I figured I should post here so as not to get bashed for not using the search function or for my ignorance!!

I was googleing to find the best practice to rip a DVD to my Networked Media Tank EG-M32B and I found this forum. I have a big DVD collection that's getting trashed, so I want to rip them to my NMT. I've seen the different formats for HD video, but was unsure which of MKV, X264, H264 is best. I realize an my player will play a .iso, but If I loaded all of my movies, my 2TB internal drive would be full. I'm willing to compromise, If I could keep them 2-3G each with little-to-no loss, that would be ideal. Sounds like this ripper is capable of doing that!

EDIT: I found this great guide by GregiBoy but am unable to thank him or post in that thread

[GregiBoy]

Have a read of my "Best Practice: DVD to Mobile" thread (Link in my signature below) and then go from there.