What is the preferred format to keep movies stored by people?

 

I have some that are ISO, and some that are just the VIDEO_TS folder. Should I not worry or use one format? I also have some .mkv for the BRay movies, though not many of them yet.

 

Also, is there a way to convert the VIDEO_TS folders to ISO's? I am sure there is and that I am just not finding it. It has been a while since I messed with a lot of this, but now that I have my unraid going pretty good I wanted to get my movies all put on the server.

 

 

LOL...

 

 

Nevermind... I figured it out... IMGBurn to the rescue...

Ah yes, IMGBurn is a godsend.

 

My movies are in all different formats.  I like to encode my movies (so that they take up 1-4 GB per movie instead of 5-8 GB per movie, and with very minimal loss of quality), so I have a mixture of divx and xvid AVI's, x264 mkv's, and x264 mp4's.  Of those three formats, x264 mp4's are my favorite format by far.  They are a lot smoother than mkv's when scrubbing through the video.  It is my goal some day to replace all my divx/xvid encodes with x264, since the quality is so much better.

 

I very rarely keep movies in their original unencoded format.  When I do, it is generally in Video_TS format.

 

In general, I would say don't worry about it.  As long as your media player can play the format and as long as the quality is decent then it is fine.

Wise words.

 

I should also add that you could read from now to Xmas about howto encode, the benefits and losses of another and still know only a small percentage of it. It is a massive subject and insanity lies within if you are like me and like to know all about something before you commit.

Check out Handbrake also, it is a great transcoding app for linux/osx/windows

 

http://handbrake.fr/

Check out Handbrake also, it is a great transcoding app for linux/osx/windows

 

http://handbrake.fr/

 

Yes, Handbrake is indeed a great program t use.  I encode all my TV shows as .avi files around the 1GB range using HB.  My movies i keep as full ISO rips with no transcoding or compressing.  If figure that way if something was to happen to my disc i could get a full copy back.

I also use Handbrake, I love its simplicity.  I generally leave it on default settings ('Normal' preset) for older movies, and use the AppleTV preset for newer movies.  As NAS said, there are ways to make technically better quality encodes, but for me, the simplicity of Handbrake wins out.

 

prostuff makes a good point that by keeping either the .iso or Video_TS format of a movie allows you to burn a full quality, untouched copy of a DVD if you should ever lose or break the original.  However, I decided against this as soon as BluRay came out.  My reasoning is that within a few years when DVD is on the way out and we all have cheap BluRay players and BluRay discs, it won't be practical to store full 30-60 GB .iso's or Video_TS (or whatever the BluRay equivalent is), even with the 8 TB+ hard drives that should be available by then.  8TB / 30 GB per movie = 266 movies.  Compare that to encodes: 8 TB / 10 GB per movie (assuming they are high quality BluRay encodes) = 800 movies.  Quite a difference.

 

Of course, everyone's preferences will vary.  To some people, having the full BluRay/DVD (complete with extras, etc.) is more important.  To me, having only the movie is what's important.  I only bother with extras if its something I REALLY like.

Of course, everyone's preferences will vary.  To some people, having the full BluRay/DVD (complete with extras, etc.) is more important.  To me, having only the movie is what's important.  I only bother with extras if its something I REALLY like.

I rip to a full bit-rate ISO image of the main movie of a DVD.  I delete extra languages, subtitles.  I often leave second/third audio tracks with director's commentary.

 

If I want to view the bonus material, I grab the DVD of the shelf. (usually, we'll watch the bonus material when we first view the movie)

I own all the DVDs on my server.  They are there for the convenience of playback.

 

Most DVD ISO images average between 5 and 6 Gig.  some are as low as 3 Gig, some as high as 8.  Since I project on a 110 inch screen in my theater, I do not want to lose any detail by compressing the image.

 

Joe L.

Of course, everyone's preferences will vary.  To some people, having the full BluRay/DVD (complete with extras, etc.) is more important.  To me, having only the movie is what's important.  I only bother with extras if its something I REALLY like.

I rip to a full bit-rate ISO image of the main movie of a DVD.  I delete extra languages, subtitles.  I often leave second/third audio tracks with director's commentary.

 

If I want to view the bonus material, I grab the DVD of the shelf. (usually, we'll watch the bonus material when we first view the movie)

I own all the DVDs on my server.  They are there for the convenience of playback.

 

Most DVD ISO images average between 5 and 6 Gig.  some are as low as 3 Gig, some as high as 8.   Since I project on a 110 inch screen in my theater, I do not want to lose any detail by compressing the image.

 

Joe L.

 

 

 

Do you use handbrake to remove the extra s too when your remove them?

Of course, everyone's preferences will vary.  To some people, having the full BluRay/DVD (complete with extras, etc.) is more important.  To me, having only the movie is what's important.  I only bother with extras if its something I REALLY like.

I rip to a full bit-rate ISO image of the main movie of a DVD.  I delete extra languages, subtitles.  I often leave second/third audio tracks with director's commentary.

 

If I want to view the bonus material, I grab the DVD of the shelf. (usually, we'll watch the bonus material when we first view the movie)

I own all the DVDs on my server.  They are there for the convenience of playback.

 

Most DVD ISO images average between 5 and 6 Gig.  some are as low as 3 Gig, some as high as 8.   Since I project on a 110 inch screen in my theater, I do not want to lose any detail by compressing the image.

 

Joe L.

 

 

 

Do you use handbrake to remove the extra s too when your remove them?

I use dvdShrink.

I have used that in the past too. I liked it a lot since it was so simple.

 

But that will not do Blue-Ray movies will it? I only have a few so far, but haven't ripped those myself. I usually just go out and find it after I get the movie.

 

 

 

x264 encoding is amazing. i can watch a 720p HD movie and it is about 4G in size and looks amazing, with DTS or 5.1 sound. 4-8G for a 720 or 1080p is fantastic. mkv's are my new fav video format.

x264 encoding is amazing. i can watch a 720p HD movie and it is about 4G in size and looks amazing, with DTS or 5.1 sound. 4-8G for a 720 or 1080p is fantastic. mkv's are my new fav video format.

 

Hate to be so uniformed.. But is x264 format what is contained in the mkv container?

 

And if so what is your process for producing them? I want to try it out myself

Hate to be so uniformed.. But is x264 format what is contained in the mkv container?

 

And if so what is your process for producing them? I want to try it out myself

 

Here is a quick rundown:

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/X264

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matroska

 

basically x264 is an open source encoder for the H.264 format, which is a standard video compression for HD content.

matroska is a relatively new audio/video container format, like mpeg4 or avi, but is open source and very full featured.

 

alot of highdef content you will come across is encoded in x264 + matroska

you can get a bluray disc encoded down to ~4-8GB @ 720p and looks amazing.

 

handbrake has a crap load of options to it to support this, but i think there are presets to do a generally good encode, check out the preset formats such as:

 

+ Film: -e x264 -b 1800 -a 1 -E ac3 -B 160 -R Auto -6 auto -f mkv -p -m -2 -T -x ref=3:mixed-refs:bframes=6:weightb:direct=auto:b-pyramid:me=umh:subme=9:analyse=all:8x8dct:trellis=1:no-fast-pskip:psy-rd=1,1

 

I dont use handbrake all too often, and only use the cli version on linux, but the documentation should lead you the right way, just look around for x264 presets.

This might help you as well with the decisions on quality:

 

http://plastik.hu/2006/12/07/comparison-between-xvid-dvd-hd-720p-and-hd-1080p/

 

Its an old link but a good one. Download the full image and see the approx differences between types. The difference between 720p and 1080p is not that much and its alot of HDD to save.

yup. 720 works just fine for me it looks perfect. stuff in 1080p just seems to waste disk space for me and i cant tell any difference.

I can easily see the difference in 1080p vs 720p on my 54" Panny .... but then again, I'm a photographer.

 

Of course, the difference between badly encoded 1080p and a well-encoded 720p, can be such that the 720p will look better.... but all things being equal, I'll take the 1080p encoded AVC [email protected] in an MKV container.