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Digitize my DVD collection?

I've been working at this for a while. I just sorted through all my discs and made 1 box that is done or not worth doing. I've got one box that is full that I want to encode and another box that I move them to as I finish them. I use Handbrake alone and follow up with Metax. I'm sure I could be doing it faster, but I don't want to burn up my computer running it at 100% non stop. It takes 1-2 hours to do a full movie in handbrake on my 2009 iMac 2.93 ghz. I also do some on a laptop that has a 2.4 dual core running XP. It takes 10-20% longer than the iMac.
 
i'm doing about 120 DVDs right now.

I rip a few with mac the ripper and then use HB in a batch overnight.
works like a charm. then i use metax to add the cover art, other details and ratings (i have 2 kids so setting the ratings helps with the parental controls :)

play with your settings on a few movies to see what suits your eyes and tv best.

Cheers,
Keebler
 
rick3000 said:
The main reason I use MTR first is so I burn the TS_Folder to a DVD and have a backup DVD, but MTR maybe more successful than HB at ripping some protected DVD's than HB.

If HB is slow, try ripping without using H.264, it takes about 75% longer with H.264 but the difference in quality is negligible in my opinion, but you can decide for yourself.
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What program do you use to burn the TS_Folder to a DVD?

Also, newbie question, but how do you sync itunes with Front Row? My pictures work but no music/movies/tv shows.
 
I've ripped some of my favorites to itunes and agree that there is nothing like sitting in bed scrolling through your movies at the flick of a remote.:cool:
 
dlegend said:
What program do you use to burn the TS_Folder to a DVD?

Also, newbie question, but how do you sync itunes with Front Row? My pictures work but no music/movies/tv shows.
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Drag the converted (MEPG4) file to iTunes icon. iTunes will open and copy the file to Movies folder.

Will using apps like MTR or Ripit first then convert the rip to MEPG4 via Handbrake make the process go faster?
 
DjAmTraX said:
Drag the converted (MEPG4) file to iTunes icon. iTunes will open and copy the file to Movies folder.

Will using apps like MTR or Ripit first then convert the rip to MEPG4 via Handbrake make the process go faster?
Click to expand...

It makes the process go faster versus using Handbrake alone, if that's your question. I'm in the process of converting all of my DVD's and I find the MTR and then HB much faster. When using Handbrake alone, you have to be home to switch discs when ripping & encoding is finished. However, I use MTR Monday-Saturday as much as I can and then Sunday I fire up my Mac Pro to encode around 20-40 movies. Then on Monday I start the whole freaking process over again. It's nice to just let the computer do a bunch of encoding over a long session without having to be there to monitor it.
 
Hi,
I am about to digitize my DVD collection. I have around 100 DVDs and 60 gigs of music and 20gigs of Photos.

How are you guys dealing with the small storage capability of :apple:TV?
I want to have it all locally, so I don't need to turn my Mac on if i want to watch something. Also, what presets on Handbrake will offer the best quality (identical to DVD) without worrying too much about file size?

Thanks for any input.
 
gugy said:
Hi,
I am about to digitize my DVD collection. I have around 100 DVDs and 60 gigs of music and 20gigs of Photos.

How are you guys dealing with the small storage capability of :apple:TV?
I want to have it all locally, so I don't need to turn my Mac on if i want to watch something. Also, what presets on Handbrake will offer the best quality (identical to DVD) without worrying too much about file size?

Thanks for any input.
Click to expand...

You can upgrade the internal HDD on your own if you like. There are multiple guides here and on other sites online. I'm just using a 1TB drive (WD Caviar Black) for my iTunes folder on my Mac Pro. I'll have to update that pretty soon to a 1.5 or 2 TB drive. Holding out as long as possible b/c i'll need to buy 2 so I can have the drive mirrored just in case of failure.
 
i dunno if anyone else has got a similar problem/predicament/setup as me, i essentially have a bunch of movies from all over the shop that i have ripped, unfortunately i didnt really think of it in advance, so some are .m4v some are .avi and some are .mp4 all ripped through MTR on my macbook pro, encoded on HB. I then put all these on an external HD connected up to my mini.

I found that i wanted to have the functionality of the remote and front row at my finger tips so i made alaises of all these movies, i then put these alaises in the movies folder on the mini. I was then able to get to them on my Mac Mini with the remote. Its brilliant :) I also found a neat lil feature, Front Row can connect to other wireless itunes library's so i stream to my mac minis front row from itunes..

On a seperate note, does anyone know if i can change the place where front row calls "movies" if i can get front row to look at the ext HD then that simplifies things :)

Cheers PTP
:apple:
 
rick3000 said:
-Pick a movie you really want to rip
-Use Mac the Ripper to rip the DVD to a TS_Folder (no settings needed)
(This will work with most DVD's but some MTR can't rip, like Disney's)
-Open HandBrake and select the TS_Folder ripped by MTR.
-Set HB to the setting you want (use presets or do a google search for what works for your needs; I normally do about 1600-1800kbit/s in fullsize)
-Let HB run and your done

You can also just use Handbrake and ignore MTR, but the DVD will only spin so fast so using MTR can be faster.

For Disney's it is more complicated and I just figured out how to do it.
-Open the DVD in DVD Player, right-click on the video and find which track is playing.
-Close DVD Player and open MTR
-Select Title Set Extraction and Select the same Track you found in DVD Player
-Then select all of the chapters
-Run MTR
-Then run the VOB through HandBrake to get an iTunes compatible file

Hope this Helps!
Click to expand...

Thanks for that. At what point in this lineup do you do the tagging? What program does that, and how do you do it exactly?
 
AdamTro said:
Thanks for that. At what point in this lineup do you do the tagging? What program does that, and how do you do it exactly?
Click to expand...

I use MetaX after the video has been encoded and dropped in iTunes. You just drag the file out from iTunes and drop it into the MetaX program and check the boxes that you want tagged (i.e. photo, actors, year, synopsis, etc.)
 
Currently, I have just been naming the files with finder and opening them directly with quicktime, but I plan on adding more information when I add them all to iTunes. Tagging is the last step.
 
Speaking from experience, check your movies for subtitles before you rip them!

Obviously this is important for foreign-language films but many blockbusters have scenes set outside the Anglosphere (Iron Man's Afghanistan bits are one example, the first half of Hunt for Red October being another) that you might have forgotten.

You can manually select which subtitles to use in HB, or choose (from memory) "Autoselect" and "Forced Subtitles" to do it automatically. Note that the latter does add a time-consuming extra task to your HB ripping process but I leave it on so I don't have to think about it. :)
 
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