DVD Ripper Ripping my movie collection - question about formats/codecs

[azr8rfan]

I have a WMC Server and 3 TV's with xBox 360s. Each TV is HD capable (not that it matters for DVD) and varying sizes from 32" to 55". The xboxs and server are on a Cat5e network. My question is this: When I rip my DVD movies for playback through media center on my server, are there any gotchas or pre defined profiles that would allow me to rip these with DVD Ripper without losing quality?

Is it possible to compress into a different format and keep the dvd quality and sound? Being read by media center is critical.

I'm currently trying the demo and using a straight vob copy to see how that works. I think this will keep the quality but it will be full dvd size if Im not mistaken. The other format I was thinking of trying is MP4/.264, but not sure about media center playback nor am I sure if the quality would be identical to dvd in both picture and sound.

Any advice or tutorials you can point me to would be great. Im going to poke around the site some more to see if I can find any suggestions.

[AGJ]

To be able to see on your Xbox you will either need to use the VOB, WMV or the Xbox setting using the DVDFab DVD Ripper. Can try the other profile settings as well but the one's I mentioned will give the better picture quality you want that can be streamed and seen by the Xbox

[azr8rfan]

To be able to see on your Xbox you will either need to use the VOB, WMV or the Xbox setting using the DVDFab DVD Ripper. Can try the other profile settings as well but the one's I mentioned will give the better picture quality you want that can be streamed and seen by the Xbox

Any particular advantage to using any of the 3 you mentioned? Im looking for quality, not really space savings.

[AGJ]

NO not really but if not worried about space use the VOB Passthrough as it gives the best quality out of them all.

Give the Vob Passthrough a try and same goes for the others to actually know what the difference is and to make sure it can be streamed to XBox for you

[MRL_DVDFab]

Passthrough VOB can not be played directly to the xBox. Needs to be transcoded. WMV is the media of choice as it's fully supported on the xBox but DVDFab can not currently produce an in-sync unpixelated WMV file. True for both WMV xBox profiles, WMV9 and WMV10 WMA95.1. There are other options with AVI, H.264 and MPEG-4 but they must follow the guidelines below. Notice only the WMV10 and the AVI formats support a 5.1 audio track.

AVI
* File extensions: .avi, .divx
* Containers: AVI
* Video profiles: MPEG-4 Part 2 (Simple Profile and Advanced Simple Profile)
* Video bit rate: 5 Mbps with resolutions of 1280 × 720 at 30 fps.
* Audio profiles: Dolby® Digital (2 channel and 5.1 channel), MP3
* Audio max bit rate: No restrictions.
H.264
* File extensions: .mp4, .m4v, mp4v, .mov, .avi
* Containers: MPEG-4, QuickTime
* Video profiles: Baseline, main, and high (up to level 4.1)
* Video bit rate: 10 Mbps with resolutions of 1920 × 1080 at 30 fps.
* Audio profiles: AAC, 2-channel, Low Complexity
* Audio max bit rate: No restrictions.
MPEG-4
* File extensions: .mp4, .m4v, .mp4v, .mov, .avi
* Containers: MPEG-4, QuickTime
* Video profiles: MPEG-4 Part 2 (Simple Profile and Advanced Simple Profile)
* Video bit rate: 5 Mbps with resolutions of 1280 × 720 at 30 fps.
* Audio profiles: AAC, 2-channel, Low Complexity
* Audio max bit rate: No restrictions.

[JellyBean88]

I have almost the same setup as you with the same goal, except I use Windows Home Server and a PS3 instead of xBox.
VOB passthrough gives me a DVD quality picture, whereas mp4 gives a slight blur in a scene with a lot of action.
The advantage of mp4 is:
With PS3, I can skip scenes(the PS3 allows me to skip mp4 on 1-2 or 5 minute intervals)
Small file size
The disadvantage is:
A slight blur in scenes with fast action

The advantage of VOB is:
A DVD quality picture even in fast action scenes
The disadvantage of VOB is:
I can't skip scenes with my PS3, only fast forward
Large file size (but this doesn't bother me as my server has 10TB of storage with more HDD's waiting in the wings for when/if I need them)

So, my choice/opinion is the VOB, because like you, I want the best quality.
I might also mention I have a WDTV Live on one TV and the VOB passthrough works great on that also. You might consider one of these as they can be a fairly cheap alternative to the xBox.

[azr8rfan]

I have almost the same setup as you with the same goal, except I use Windows Home Server and a PS3 instead of xBox.
VOB passthrough gives me a DVD quality picture, whereas mp4 gives a slight blur in a scene with a lot of action.
The advantage of mp4 is:
With PS3, I can skip scenes(the PS3 allows me to skip mp4 on 1-2 or 5 minute intervals)
Small file size
The disadvantage is:
A slight blur in scenes with fast action

The advantage of VOB is:
A DVD quality picture even in fast action scenes
The disadvantage of VOB is:
I can't skip scenes with my PS3, only fast forward
Large file size (but this doesn't bother me as my server has 10TB of storage with more HDD's waiting in the wings for when/if I need them)

So, my choice/opinion is the VOB, because like you, I want the best quality.
I might also mention I have a WDTV Live on one TV and the VOB passthrough works great on that also. You might consider one of these as they can be a fairly cheap alternative to the xBox.

Im wondering if ripping to ISO would be better. I was reading that WHS can read ISO, Video_TS, or WMV... any truth to this? I dont have WHS YET... All I have are the XBox's at each TV and 300 DVD movies to start ripping. Im planning on using the Media Center connector in the xBox to connect to the WHS.

[sourceminer]

Just curious if anyone has concluded anything here. I tried the xbox360 preset and was disappointed in the audio (cracking sounds) I have would love to save some space on my drives and convert all my movies from VOB (long time using DVD Fab myself).

[GregiBoy]

Yeah, I've concluded after 8 years of ripping my media collection to a digital library, that the game consoles are a piece of SH1T for playing media.

Do yourself a favour and save yourself a lot of heartache and time and buy a dedicated media playe that will play H264 MKV's with the source DD5.1 audio,

You will never look back.

[sourceminer]

I know its always bothered me how MSFT gets somethings right (media Center) and otherthings way off (extenders) so what dedicated media player do you suggest that works with MCE?

[GregiBoy]

I would suggest none because in my estimation MCE is a POS.

You just need to buy a media player that will network to your PC and read from the shares where your media collection resides.

Also be sure to purchase one that fully supports MKV's as this is the way of the future,

By fully support, I mean that it will navigate by chapters and also supports multiple subtitle and audio tracks held WITHIN the MKV file,

[sourceminer]

So help me out here. What device are you using? Boxee? XBMC? If either of these then what are you using in place of a Guide/Recording TV solution? MythTV?

[GregiBoy]

Neither of them and I'll try to help you out by telling you how I do it.

I will firstly say that I have been in the business of developing and selling media player boxes in Australia for over 8 years and have some experience in this subject but am not pushing any sales wheelbarrow. I also can have, at any one time, up to 10 players connected in to my network in various stages of testing/development.

1, I have implemented a fully wired network within my premises. DO NOT EVEN CONSIDER WIRELESS.....
2. I have implemented network Attached Storage for my media library. This seems to continually require more space.
3. For my Digital/Analogue TV needs, I have a PC with a WinFast DVB-T card installed and I use the Realtek software supplied software for sheduled recording, etc. I have set the directory for recording to a share on the NAS that all the player devices can see and record in MPEG format which is far more universally playable that the M$ wtv or dvr-ms crap.

All the players can access the NAS and then therefore can basically play anything on demand.

My current choice of the best players are the Kaiboer K530i, H1073 & M1073 ( www.kaiboerhd.com ) and they may be able to assist you with a US supplier. The first two will actually act as a NAS with an internal hard disk whilst the M1073 has no internal disk but will play from the media library stored on the others,

[sourceminer]

I would agree with the way you have your setup as probably the most stable way of doing things, however here is my stance on things.

I have tried all the above, everyone falls short of a few things 1 mostly being the ability of playing Live TV in an interface outside of WMC, or 2 being able to record on the fly, or 3 being able to search a guide and record series.

Having said this, I believe that WMC is the best choice for several reasons but as you pointed out the extender devices Freaking suck due to movie playback (funny that this is really the only thing that sets WMC from being the best solution.)

I too have been using a "Wired setup", Buffalo Teristation NAS's, and been doing this since WMC 2004.

Really disapointed that there isnt really any other solution that sums everything up in 1 interface (without having to become a programer to make it work (IE:MythTV))

Going back to DVD Ripper - is there any way of getting rid of the buzzing noise in the Xbox 360 WMP 10 5.1 preset?

[GregiBoy]

Yeah, place it in the big bin outside labelled 'Garbage".