Like the title says, I'm looking to rip all my DVD (only about 50, no blu-rays) to an Xbox extender friendly format. I use a windows 8 pc that I built myself as both a gaming and media center pc. It's connected to three Xbox's around the house. Im using the xboxes as my front end vs a htpc at every tv. I also have a hauppage 2250 tv card installed to record my analog cable tv that I still get. The wife loves the setup so far and I want to stick as close to stock with everything as I can to minimize headaches down the road. We are all transitioning to windows phones for the household so I'm not concerned with having the files play on many different platforms.
So what format should I use for everything? My priority list is as follows,
1. Has to work on the Xbox's with no stuttering or other issues for the wife
2. Best possible picture quality without sacrificing #1 above
3. Keep 5.1 sound
4. Keep the extras and subtitles in the movies. (they can be in separate files)
File size and transcoding time is not any issue.
Thanks in advance for anyone who has any suggestions or can point me to further info!
DVD to Xbox compatable format? So many choices...
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Dgr_874
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masonstorm1979
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I use DVRMSToolbox to convert all none-compatible content to WTV format. DVD would be easy to do as it is generally MPEG2 video and AC3 (DD) audio which is compatible with the WTV container. When I rip DVD content which isn't often I use MAKEMKV (Free) to rip to MKV and then change this over WTV using DVRMSToolbox. There might be other tools which can complete conversions in one action but this is quick as once the DVD is ripped the MKV to WTV container change is minutes as you are not coverting video or audio.
Good stuff and as it is WTV format is supports thumbnail skipping and proper rewind / FF. Excellent!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Good stuff and as it is WTV format is supports thumbnail skipping and proper rewind / FF. Excellent!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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FastRC45
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Can I bump this thread?
I'm a WMC noob and am on my 2nd iteration of trying to reduce my cable bill. My last experiment was with XMBC and a hacked Apple TV2. Great setup, but the ATV didn't have the horsepower to transcode on the fly and live TV was just too much for it, especially HD. Fast forward a year and I've picked up the project again (I have 2 small kids so shelving something for a long time isn't uncommon). I now have the HDHR (non Prime) I was using for the XBMC/ATV2 setup pointing to WMC and I picked up an XBOX slim on ebay. Next step, InfiniTV4 and deal with the cable co. All the TV stuff is working great and just as I've hoped (so far with clear QAM at least), but I've got all of my movies ripped into VOB's (used DVD Shrink). Works great in WMC, not so much on the XBOX. I've done some digging in this forum for ways to convert, but my VOB's are chunked in 1g files. Can someone handhold a noob and point me in the right direction? As an experiment so far, I re-ripped a DVD with MakeMKV into a single MKV file and converted to WTV with ToDVRMS, but I get a blank screen while audio plays, but even if it worked as advertised, I'm still stuck with 100 movies in 1G VOB files that I can't figure out how to get into something supported by the XBOX.
Any help is GREATLY appreciated... loving WMC, and even the XBOX, but the different devices supporting different codecs is starting to make my head spin a bit...
I'm a WMC noob and am on my 2nd iteration of trying to reduce my cable bill. My last experiment was with XMBC and a hacked Apple TV2. Great setup, but the ATV didn't have the horsepower to transcode on the fly and live TV was just too much for it, especially HD. Fast forward a year and I've picked up the project again (I have 2 small kids so shelving something for a long time isn't uncommon). I now have the HDHR (non Prime) I was using for the XBMC/ATV2 setup pointing to WMC and I picked up an XBOX slim on ebay. Next step, InfiniTV4 and deal with the cable co. All the TV stuff is working great and just as I've hoped (so far with clear QAM at least), but I've got all of my movies ripped into VOB's (used DVD Shrink). Works great in WMC, not so much on the XBOX. I've done some digging in this forum for ways to convert, but my VOB's are chunked in 1g files. Can someone handhold a noob and point me in the right direction? As an experiment so far, I re-ripped a DVD with MakeMKV into a single MKV file and converted to WTV with ToDVRMS, but I get a blank screen while audio plays, but even if it worked as advertised, I'm still stuck with 100 movies in 1G VOB files that I can't figure out how to get into something supported by the XBOX.
Any help is GREATLY appreciated... loving WMC, and even the XBOX, but the different devices supporting different codecs is starting to make my head spin a bit...
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lithium630
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It's pricey but VideoRedo would be great for you. Just open your movie folder and save it as WTV.FastRC45 wrote:Can I bump this thread?
I'm a WMC noob and am on my 2nd iteration of trying to reduce my cable bill. My last experiment was with XMBC and a hacked Apple TV2. Great setup, but the ATV didn't have the horsepower to transcode on the fly and live TV was just too much for it, especially HD. Fast forward a year and I've picked up the project again (I have 2 small kids so shelving something for a long time isn't uncommon). I now have the HDHR (non Prime) I was using for the XBMC/ATV2 setup pointing to WMC and I picked up an XBOX slim on ebay. Next step, InfiniTV4 and deal with the cable co. All the TV stuff is working great and just as I've hoped (so far with clear QAM at least), but I've got all of my movies ripped into VOB's (used DVD Shrink). Works great in WMC, not so much on the XBOX. I've done some digging in this forum for ways to convert, but my VOB's are chunked in 1g files. Can someone handhold a noob and point me in the right direction? As an experiment so far, I re-ripped a DVD with MakeMKV into a single MKV file and converted to WTV with ToDVRMS, but I get a blank screen while audio plays, but even if it worked as advertised, I'm still stuck with 100 movies in 1G VOB files that I can't figure out how to get into something supported by the XBOX.
Any help is GREATLY appreciated... loving WMC, and even the XBOX, but the different devices supporting different codecs is starting to make my head spin a bit...
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FastRC45
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I've got no problem paying for what I use, but $100 is too much for something I'll use for a few days to convert my movies and then get used once/twice a year max... I'll re-rip them all if I have to, but looking for pointers/alternatives!
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lithium630
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I think I paid half of that way back when. I think it comes with a two week trial which might be enough to convert what you have.
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FastRC45
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Looking at their website, only the most expensive option supports WTV. But a trial is a good idea - if it's fully functional. Didn't think of that, thank you
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aeblank
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Handbrake does vob rips. Seems like it supports .wtv, but i don't do .wtv so I'm not positive.
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FastRC45
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Played with Handbrake some, then took the output into ToDVRMS, but the result is a blank screen with audio... Need to do more research/playing, but time limited...
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shultice
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So here's what I have.
PC running W7/Ultimate
3 - XBoxes
Ceton InfiniTV 4/USB
$8/month Comcast Cablecard
I rip all of my movies (and I do own all of my movies!!) using AnyDVD/HD which is fully integrated with MyMovies (http://www.mymovies.dk). That way I get all of the artwork and it looks pretty cool. After I've ripped my movies I convert them using PavTube's Blu-Ray Ripper. I convert all DVD's and Blu-Ray's to WMV. That way I get full 5.1 and up to 1080P. Regular W7/WMC will auto-transcode DVD's on the fly, but I've found that the fast forward, reverse and skipping functions were basically worthless. Converting them to WMV's solved that issue and freed up disk space. After conversion, I re-point the MyMovies pointer to the new WMV file and delete the ripped folder.
As far as the Cablecard goes, I get all of the HD channels that we're subscribed to. Pretty slick having everything integrated throughout the house.
If you have any questions, PM me and I'll do my best to answer them.
PC running W7/Ultimate
3 - XBoxes
Ceton InfiniTV 4/USB
$8/month Comcast Cablecard
I rip all of my movies (and I do own all of my movies!!) using AnyDVD/HD which is fully integrated with MyMovies (http://www.mymovies.dk). That way I get all of the artwork and it looks pretty cool. After I've ripped my movies I convert them using PavTube's Blu-Ray Ripper. I convert all DVD's and Blu-Ray's to WMV. That way I get full 5.1 and up to 1080P. Regular W7/WMC will auto-transcode DVD's on the fly, but I've found that the fast forward, reverse and skipping functions were basically worthless. Converting them to WMV's solved that issue and freed up disk space. After conversion, I re-point the MyMovies pointer to the new WMV file and delete the ripped folder.
As far as the Cablecard goes, I get all of the HD channels that we're subscribed to. Pretty slick having everything integrated throughout the house.
If you have any questions, PM me and I'll do my best to answer them.
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foxwood
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There is no transcoding performed in this case - the DVDs/DVD-rips are just played as native MPEG2 content.shultice wrote:Regular W7/WMC will auto-transcode DVD's on the fly
If you want fast forward, reverse and skipping functions for ripped DVDs, remuxing to WTV is far more efficient and faster than transcoding to WMV.
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ssterb1
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Will PavTube Blu-Ray Ripper gab forced subtitles and hard code them into the WMV?shultice wrote:I rip all of my movies (and I do own all of my movies!!) using AnyDVD/HD which is fully integrated with MyMovies (http://www.mymovies.dk). That way I get all of the artwork and it looks pretty cool. After I've ripped my movies I convert them using PavTube's Blu-Ray Ripper. I convert all DVD's and Blu-Ray's to WMV. That way I get full 5.1 and up to 1080P.
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foxwood
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Dgr_874
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just bumping this to keep the discussion going...
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FastRC45
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@ masonstorm1979 - do you have a profile or specific guide you use for DVRMStoolbox? I used MakeMKV to re-rip a DVD yesterday, plugged the mkv in to ToDVRMS, converted to WTV - though once all the processes kicked off, there was no indication it was doing anything other than looking at processor load/thread utilization. When I checked it in WMC (on the PC) it started playing fine, but tried to skip fwd and fast fwd and it froze. Then it popped up a video error and locked up the PC... That ended my experimentation for the night as there were screams from separate parts of the house as I killed recording/watching whatever horrible shows that are currently popular with wives and teen girls... Seems like DVRMStoolbox will do what I need if I re-rip everything, but I'm not having too much luck with finding help that isn't either geared toward video philes or dumbed down too much to be useful?