dgaschk Posted February 10, 2011 Share Posted February 10, 2011 Blu-Ray ClownBD -> TSMuxer -> ISO DVD CloneDVD -> ISO What player do you use for the ISOs? I have a Dune Prime 3.0 and Dune Base 3.0. Never had an issue playing any ISO. Can anyone recommend HTPC software for playing Blu-Ray and DVD ISOs? Quote Link to comment
queeg Posted February 10, 2011 Share Posted February 10, 2011 I'm using XBMC on a home built machine. A cheap Foxconn mobo with Intel 775 e3400 dual proc, 2 GB ram, MSI Geforce 210 video card that was $20 after mail in rebate. It boots from a 4GB flash (no hard drive). XBMC was from a live CD install I think. So $31 + $40 + $50 + $7 + $75. The $75 was replacing the psu that came with the Raidmax mini-itx case with a smaller one so the Foxconn flex-atx motherboard would fit in the mini-itx case. I had the case, cpu and ram just sitting around so getting the psu seemed like the right thing to do. I probably should have just bought a mini-itx mobo instead. There are other Geforce 210 cards that have fans and smaller heatsinks if needed. Quote Link to comment
dgaschk Posted February 10, 2011 Share Posted February 10, 2011 Does XMBC play both types of ISOs? Quote Link to comment
BRiT Posted February 10, 2011 Share Posted February 10, 2011 I know XBMC has no issues with my standard DVD ISOs. I have not tried a BluRay ISO. Most of the BluRays I converted to a single MKV out of habbit. Quote Link to comment
jamerson9 Posted February 10, 2011 Share Posted February 10, 2011 XBMC, the last time I checked, does not support Blu-ray or HD-DVD iso's nor discs. As there is no open source code to support play back. I think most people are ripping to mkv or using commercial software to play. Quote Link to comment
BRiT Posted February 10, 2011 Share Posted February 10, 2011 The closest I've seen is through the use of makemkv and a plugin on your xbmc head-end. Some versions of XBMC like XBMCFreak's already has makemkv installed so you only need the BluRay addon. Here's the LifeHacker Guide that helps out with this. Quote Link to comment
Bags Posted February 10, 2011 Share Posted February 10, 2011 Other than being able to put multiple files in the MKV container, is there any difference in quality between MKV and MP4? I am not worried about sub titles or multiple languages. I just want the movie and the sound track preferably the HD sound track or at least DTS. Of curse most of this is because ATV2 doesn't play MKV without jail-breaking. Also what is the best way to name the output folder for multiple players or apps like Plex,XBMC etc. Quote Link to comment
BRiT Posted February 10, 2011 Share Posted February 10, 2011 MKV is merely a container. It does not dictate anything about quality for your video or audio bitstreams. However with that said, some players use rather anemic software that is not as optimized for MKV containers so they might stumble at times if you're streaming on borderline throughput bandwidth. Quote Link to comment
queeg Posted February 10, 2011 Share Posted February 10, 2011 I don't have any Blue ray but I have a question. Is a blue ray DVD that has been compressed to make it streamable any better quality than a DVD that has been ripped to an iso and is still in it's mpeg2 format? Quote Link to comment
amatt Posted February 10, 2011 Share Posted February 10, 2011 Yes, much better quality if ripped well. It took some time to sort out the available doftware aand configuration of each, but I finally settled on the RIPbot interface and its associated software. Ripped BluRays vary from ~2GB (27 dresses) to ~8GB (Avatar extended) in h264 + HD audio. Quote Link to comment
BRiT Posted February 11, 2011 Share Posted February 11, 2011 As for your question, once again, it depends on what bitrate settings you use for audio and video. You can obviously use lower quality settings than even DVD has, but in reality you never would outside of specific targets. The closest would be if you're aiming specifically for iPod/iPhone/Zune portable or for a low bandwidth connection. Amatt, you must be using lower resolution or lower bitrate than what I am. The smallest 1080p BluRay rips to h264 I've done has been over 4GB and my Avatar Extended with DTS audio is a little over 15GB. Quote Link to comment
jamerson9 Posted February 11, 2011 Share Posted February 11, 2011 Yes, much better quality if ripped well. It took some time to sort out the available doftware aand configuration of each, but I finally settled on the RIPbot interface and its associated software. Ripped BluRays vary from ~2GB (27 dresses) to ~8GB (Avatar extended) in h264 + HD audio. Does this encoder do post processing on the media content? Lots of people don't mind compressing from the original, especially with high HD content, because they can't tell the difference between the raw and compressed. However, this is the first time that I've heard that compression increases the quality. Quote Link to comment
poofyhairguy Posted February 11, 2011 Share Posted February 11, 2011 However, this is the first time that I've heard that compression increases the quality. I have found that by re-encoding (shrinking) my Blu Ray rips with handbrake often 24p judder is made much better. The "picture tears apart" effect goes away... Quote Link to comment
aiden Posted February 12, 2011 Share Posted February 12, 2011 As for your question, once again, it depends on what bitrate settings you use for audio and video. Amatt, you must be using lower resolution or lower bitrate than what I am. The smallest 1080p BluRay rips to h264 I've done has been over 4GB and my Avatar Extended with DTS audio is a little over 15GB. I have found that by re-encoding (shrinking) my Blu Ray rips with handbrake often 24p judder is made much better. The "picture tears apart" effect goes away... So, what settings are you guys using? To date, I have not compressed a single BluRay, and my Avatar Extended is well over 30GB. Quote Link to comment
JackBauer Posted February 12, 2011 Share Posted February 12, 2011 For me, compressing is "short sighted". I use clownbd to mitigate size, but still keep the audio and video as originally encoded. It is bound to be a long time before BR is replaced... But new television technologies are coming out every year, improving picture quality, resolution, brightness... You name it. What looks perfect today (further compressed) on your television might look un-spectacular in 3 years. (And I really don't want to recode all my stuff again later) Because of this I built (late last year) an unraid solution that will scale to 20 drives. I don't foresee going over 38TB, and once I do - 8TB drives will probably be common. Quote Link to comment
poofyhairguy Posted February 12, 2011 Share Posted February 12, 2011 So, what settings are you guys using? To date, I have not compressed a single BluRay, and my Avatar Extended is well over 30GB. I use handbrake. Full settings: http://forums.plexapp.com/index.php/topic/5176-handbrake-settings-for-plex/ Quote Link to comment
thejtiggidy Posted February 14, 2011 Share Posted February 14, 2011 I agree with uncompressed. I am here in these forums because I need copious amounts of storage to keep my uncompressed bluray collection. Disk space is cheap.. I spent good money for AV equipment so I could enjoy movies in all of their glory. The previous poster makes a good point.. TV's are getting better and you may want the higher resolution. But, eventually the standard is going to change and we will all be doing this again at 1450p or whatever the standard ends up being. I use makemkv because its quick, simple and uncompressed. I also dont have any issues with the sound being off. Quote Link to comment
jamerson9 Posted February 14, 2011 Share Posted February 14, 2011 I agree with uncompressed. I am here in these forums because I need copious amounts of storage to keep my uncompressed bluray collection. Disk space is cheap.. I spent good money for AV equipment so I could enjoy movies in all of their glory. The previous poster makes a good point.. TV's are getting better and you may want the higher resolution. But, eventually the standard is going to change and we will all be doing this again at 1450p or whatever the standard ends up being. I use makemkv because its quick, simple and uncompressed. I also dont have any issues with the sound being off. The next proposed standard is called Super-Hi with 7,680 x 4,320 resolution (8k4k or Ultra HD for short) developed by NHK. Supposed to be based on the maximum parameters of the human vision. Also, they don't want to use any compression, such that they don't compromise on the quality. So the 15 minute demo footage they have is around 3.5 terabytes. They are proposing to use this technology at first for large audience outside broadcasts such as the 2012 Olympics and in 10 years time move to full broadcast. Only problem they need to solve to how to shift that much data. Quote Link to comment
thejtiggidy Posted February 14, 2011 Share Posted February 14, 2011 That's some serious resolution.. a bit more than necessary for a 55" display! Guess I will have to buy a 10' set I cant wait! Quote Link to comment
neilt0 Posted February 14, 2011 Share Posted February 14, 2011 That's some serious resolution.. a bit more than necessary for a 55" display! Guess I will have to buy a 10' set I cant wait! I've already got one... if you have a projector, re-compressing already compressed video is noticeable. 1:1 for me. Quote Link to comment
Joe L. Posted February 14, 2011 Share Posted February 14, 2011 That's some serious resolution.. a bit more than necessary for a 55" display! Guess I will have to buy a 10' set I cant wait! I've already got one... if you have a projector, re-compressing already compressed video is noticeable. 1:1 for me. I run 720p on a CRT front projection system to a 110" screen in my theater. Even at that resolution any additional compression noticeable. (As are poorly mastered Movies direct from the studios... there is a HUGE difference in quality, even in standard resolution DVDs) Joe L. Quote Link to comment
barrygordon Posted February 14, 2011 Share Posted February 14, 2011 When I started I used AnyDVDHD for BR Disks with Clown BD. Ripped to Standard Bluray ISO format. I ripped all DVD's to Iso format using anydvdhd plus CloneDVD. I now rip exclusively to a MKV Containier. I converted all the iso formatted stuff to MKV containers by using MKV in its command line/batch mode. I never compress anything (moves, music, slides) There ar 4 user shares; Movies, Concerts, TV Shows, and Miscelaneous. All music is ripped to FLAC in a fifth user Music share Music is played by the Squeezebox system. The movie/concert/Misc shares are all organized the same way; One folder per movie or movie part. I use my own librarian to populate the folder with sub files. The process is driven from the DVD Profiler Exported database. The folder contains a movie.nfo file that I use for XBMC, The .mkv fle, a chapters.txt file, a fanart.jpg file which is a 1920x1080 50% washed out background image, a Folder.jpg file which is the cover art (from dvd profiler), and lastly a trailer.avi file which is a 2-3 minute theatrical trailer of the film. Some files are missing if I cannot find them. The locating and selection of fanart is currently manual via IMDB and other sites but I may be automating it. I normally use a Dune player with my own librarian, although XBMC seems to have no issue with what I do. The Dune player is controlled over IP and is completely blanked out with regard to its GUI. You start at the librarian selecting the movie you want to watch. The librarian supplies several UI modes and search modes. I normally use the UI that has the washed out background of the selected movie with the left side being a scrollable title list (subject to filters) the right side has the cover art, all info about the movie/disk, and space to view the trailer. As the list is scrolled the entire screen (Main Theater Screen) is refereshed in under 1 second. Other UI modes are pure list (25x2) and cover collage. When a movie is selected the dune player is given the correct IP command to play the movie. Average load time is about 5 seconds for A BR disk (from hitting Play on remote till A/V starts). I have stripped all trailers, removed all dire warnings, and keep only the highest quality english audio track plus any forced subtitling. My web site has screen snapshots of the Librarian's UI. Quote Link to comment
bkasten Posted February 14, 2011 Share Posted February 14, 2011 I've already got one... if you have a projector, re-compressing already compressed video is noticeable. 1:1 for me. I may not have anything so big, but I can notice even on my 47" LCD TV. Mostly I convert DVD VOB files to one big VOB, all additional languages and subtitles intact. That way there is only the initial compression of the manufactured DVD, no re-encoding. When I must, I use Handbrake and make .mkv's with little or no compression. I figure I want to make these files once, and not have keep re-converting them as the technology gets better. So, I guess I am saying: 1:1 for me also! Bruce Quote Link to comment
aiden Posted February 14, 2011 Share Posted February 14, 2011 When I started I used AnyDVDHD for BR Disks with Clown BD. Ripped to Standard Bluray ISO format. I ripped all DVD's to Iso format using anydvdhd plus CloneDVD. I now rip exclusively to a MKV Containier. I converted all the iso formatted stuff to MKV containers by using MKV in its command line/batch mode. I am currently using the method you initially employed, so why the switch? What did you do with the lossless audio, change it to FLAC? Is your Dune supporting subtitles from MKV? What is your process for the MKV ripping? Quote Link to comment
barrygordon Posted February 15, 2011 Share Posted February 15, 2011 I guess I just wanted to play around with MKV and I liked what I got, I single uniform container for all my disk types. The lossless audio just seems to get properly converted without my doing anything special besides requesting it. I check that I want the lossless audio. When I play it lback my Pre/PRO (Anthem avm 50v) reports that it is what I expect and it sounds terriffic. When I check one of the files with""MediaInfo" it reports exactly what I expect. I strongly recommend mediaInfo as a good tool to check what you actually have Quote Link to comment
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