Best practice, codecs/format & encoding tools for ripping DVD-Video movies for Xbox?

[jerkychew]

hi all,

i'm new to the xbmc scene. i installed it on my xbox via a softmod, and am still getting to know it. i've gone through the wiki and the online manual, but can't find an answer to my issue...

i've been ripping dvds to my home server in standard 'ifo' mode - i browse to the video_ts folder for a specific title and launch the dvd by clicking on the first .ifo file.

anyways, is there a better way to do this? for my windows network i have shortcuts to each ifo set up in one directory (i.e., the shortcut called 'snatch' goes to the .ifo file in the snatch\video_ts folder), so double-clicking the file from a windows box will launch the dvd app and we're golden. is there a way to do this in xbmc? i'd love to have a folder of nothing but thumbnails, where clicking on a thumbnail would launch the corresponding dvd.

thanks!

[snappz]

if you have all of your movies in seperate folders eg

'matrix' - 'video_ts' - vobs/ifos

'lord of war' - 'video_ts' -vobs/ifos

with the bits inside the ' ' being folders, you can simply press play on the remote while on the matrix folder. you can also bring up the context menu (white on controller) and select play. you can have a thumb with each parent folder.

is this what you were wanting?

snappz

[jerkychew]

yup, that sounds perfect! i'll test it when i get home.

thanks!

[swans13]

i use a program like autogk to compress my ripped dvds into a single .avi file. this allows me to save tons of space since the actual ripped files are still pretty bulky. you can play with the settings to keep the best quality and you can adjust the files size as you want. the only thing you lose is time. it can take 5-7 hours to compress depending on lenght of movie and how much compression you are using. the manual is very good at helping set this up.

[jarod71]

i agree with the use of autogk. i get very good quality at 1.5gb per movie. others will want uncompressed dvd on a server somewhere, for me several hundred movies from my dvd collection backed up onto one 500gb drive in my xbox internally and out of my kids hands is much better for me....

[Caldor]

meh, mpeg4-asp is so yesterday. using megui on xbmc hi res profile and mkvtools you can use the higher quality avc video encoding and package the native ac3/dts stream into a mkv container. plus multiple subs, chapters etcetc

[jerkychew]

i do have some movies converted to either divx avi or mpeg, but i like having all the included menus and options when i play a movie. that way i can do a chapter jump, view the original menu system, etc.

that being said, my server is almost full, and with my dvd rack containing over 150 movies, i'll have to add on some disks if i want to keep it this way.

[LaTropa64]

Originally Posted by (caldor @ july 08 2006,18:20)

meh, mpeg4-asp is so yesterday. using megui on xbmc hi res profile and mkvtools you can use the higher quality avc video encoding and package the native ac3/dts stream into a mkv container. plus multiple subs, chapters etcetc

maybe i shouldn't ask because, if i like it, i'll probably want to re-rip all my dvd's but do you have any more information on this?

about how long does it take to go from dvd to mkv? with my current machine (p3 2.8ghz) it has been taking about 3 hours to rip the average dvd movie to an avi.

[Caldor]

jerkychew, in mpeg4-asp you have the .divx container format which allows for menus and other dvd like features. you can do this now in that format.

as well, hd-dvd and bluray is supporting mpeg4 part 10 codecs like avc and vc-1 wmv9 advanced profile with their own two different platforms of menu features. you should be able to do this soon with tools for hd-dvd and bluray authoring.

latropa64 the internet is full of information on avc and mkv. some search strings in goodle would be:

matroska
mkvtools nix
x264
megui

avc encoding is slower than mpeg4-asp due to its complexity but using megui with sharktooth's pd_hires xbox profile it's well fast enough on moderate machines. x264 as an encoder is highly optimised using assembler and will take advantage of symmetrically multiprocessing machines.

[chall5]

Hi, what is the best format to store DVDs on my Xbox HD for a good space/quality ration, I have a 400GB drive in my XBox. Don't necessarily need the DVD extras just the main feature.

thanks for any help