Author Topic: Help Compressing Video Files  (Read 3906 times)

extremeshannon

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Help Compressing Video Files
« on: May 03, 2009, 12:50:58 am »
I am looking for an easy solution to turn my DvD's into a more compressed format.I have hundreds of Dvd videos that I have created with menus and lots of extra stuff I do not want. When I let the Core rip them I get lots of extra. I have done some research and have tried lots of Window based programs, also I have tried some linux based programs but nothing that has wow'd me. If there is a better solution coming in 810 for this I can wait or if I have to do this on my desktop and transfer over to the core that would be great to. Any help would be great.

colinjones

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Re: Help Compressing Video Files
« Reply #1 on: May 03, 2009, 03:40:37 am »
This is a bit of a pain, as transcoding is a very heavy duty task and often an hour's worth of video takes an hour to transcode no matter what software you use (only hardware accelerated encoding would help this). Handbrake is a handy utility that targets exactly this issue ... it was a Mac program but is now available for Linux and Windows as well. It analyses the DVD and guesses which is the main title based on length (you can override if you need to), then allows you to pull that title out and transcode it to something else either in lower bit rates or higher compression formats (eg H264/MP4), and do other stuff like comb filtering, etc. It also allows you to set batches up and let it run over night....

The only failing really is that it does not decrypt protected DVDs, which is annoying (legal issues). You would need something like DVDShrink to do that first. Either you can use this to rip the DVD at the same resolution/size and remove the encryption, dropping it on your HDD then use Handbrake to transcode. Or you can just use DVDShrink to eliminate the extras and shrink it down - note that using DVDShrink allows you to reduce the bit rate (and therefore size), but doesn't allow you change codecs, it must be MPEG2, and so the equivalent bit rate coming out of DVDShrink will not be as good as that coming out of Handbrake if you transcode to a codec like H264.

extremeshannon

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Re: Help Compressing Video Files
« Reply #2 on: May 03, 2009, 04:30:22 am »
Thanks colinjones I am going to start playing with Handbrake and see what happens

Techstyle

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Re: Help Compressing Video Files
« Reply #3 on: May 03, 2009, 08:57:32 am »
I installed DVD:Rip on one of my MD's.  This works for any DVD, it uses XVID or Divx codecs and takes the file size down.  Not sure about the legallity side.  It works even when LMCE says the disc cannot be played or there are ripping errors.

skeptic

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Re: Help Compressing Video Files
« Reply #4 on: May 04, 2009, 12:53:57 am »
I've tried a bunch, and hands down handbrake is the best (IMHO) for ripping the movie to H.264/AC3.  No menus or anything else I don't want, just a small high quality rip of the movie.  Ripping time is HIGHLY subjective, different computers, different options all make a huge difference in rip time.  If you are going to rip hundreds of DVDs like I did, spend the time up front to find a method and program you are comfortable with and go with H.264.  Better quality and smaller file.  One other thing to think about, do your testing with a movie that has forced subtitles.  You don't want to be watching a ripped movie and someone says something important in a foreign language and then find out you are missing the forced subs.

pigdog

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Re: Help Compressing Video Files
« Reply #5 on: May 04, 2009, 04:08:43 am »
Hi,

Should we be talking about this kind of stuff?

I thought ripping, FTA, etc, was kinda taboo!

colinjones

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Re: Help Compressing Video Files
« Reply #6 on: May 04, 2009, 05:39:31 am »
hmmm... OK, ripping a DVD for the purposes of backup in some jurisdictions is perfectly legal. And ripping certain DVDs may not involve a breach of any copyrights. Also, many DVDs are not encrypted and so ripping them only has copyright implications, rather than copy-protection circumvention issues. However, I think this area is sufficiently dicey to say that for reasons Hari has given before, lets not take this thread any further...

extremeshannon

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Re: Help Compressing Video Files
« Reply #7 on: May 04, 2009, 06:52:21 pm »
Pigdog I was asking about Ripping DvD's that i have created over the years. There is no copyright issues with the DvD's I have. When I first started putting my videos on Dvd the format was large and has lots of extra stuff I want to get rid of.

Thanks everyone for the great advice.

:)

totallymaxed

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Re: Help Compressing Video Files
« Reply #8 on: May 04, 2009, 08:07:51 pm »
Pigdog I was asking about Ripping DvD's that i have created over the years. There is no copyright issues with the DvD's I have. When I first started putting my videos on Dvd the format was large and has lots of extra stuff I want to get rid of.

Thanks everyone for the great advice.

:)

I agree I cant see any issue with discussing this at all...

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skeptic

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Re: Help Compressing Video Files
« Reply #9 on: May 04, 2009, 08:20:42 pm »
IMHO,

discussing how to crack copy protection = not appropriate for this forum.

discussing applications, methods, codecs for moving personally owned movies stored on DVDs to your personal media center on a multi-national forum = just fine.