iMac Handbrake Question

[roland.g]

I was wondering what is the better solution. I have a new 2.8GHz 24" iMac with 4GB RAM and a 750GB Seagate 7200.10 HDD (Thank you Apple for using a quality drive!)

a. Using Handbrake to rip a DVD for Apple TV using 2-pass encoding straight from the DVD.

vs.

b. Extracting the DVD using MTR and then using Handbrake at the same settings.

My reason for asking is most DVD's take approx. 12-30min to extract. And once that is done, I can queue several projects to run overnight. But mostly will I get a higher FPS/shorter rip time going from the HDD than from a DVD. i.e. am I limited by the speed of the optical drive read.

c. follow up: If I do rip from the HDD rather than disc, is it better to have the file on the internal from which it is reading and ripping, i.e. more strain on the HDD and slows down the process, or should I use an external HDD to read from. I already have a FW400 drive with a 500GB 7200.10 drive that already has about 40 MTR extractions on it - main features mostly, some with full menus/extras.

 

[macjonny1]

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I was wondering what is the better solution. I have a new 2.8GHz 24" iMac with 4GB RAM and a 750GB Seagate 7200.10 HDD (Thank you Apple for using a quality drive!)

a. Using Handbrake to rip a DVD for Apple TV using 2-pass encoding straight from the DVD.

vs.

b. Extracting the DVD using MTR and then using Handbrake at the same settings.

My reason for asking is most DVD's take approx. 12-30min to extract. And once that is done, I can queue several projects to run overnight. But mostly will I get a higher FPS/shorter rip time going from the HDD than from a DVD. i.e. am I limited by the speed of the optical drive read.

c. follow up: If I do rip from the HDD rather than disc, is it better to have the file on the internal from which it is reading and ripping, i.e. more strain on the HDD and slows down the process, or should I use an external HDD to read from. I already have a FW400 drive with a 500GB 7200.10 drive that already has about 40 MTR extractions on it - main features mostly, some with full menus/extras.

I always rip with MTR first due to the fact that it rips encrypted DVDs. I don't think it would matter that much if you had it on the internal HDD or your firewire drive, at least not matter enough to transfer all of the files over. I would expect slightly better performance having the files on your computer's drive, however.

 

[jive]

Rip it to the HD then use Handbrake to take it from there. The DVD spinning all night is worse for your disc drive than your HD spinning away.

 

[Hibbsy]

I keep reading about the MTR then handbrake method but I just can't get it to work.

I use handbrake straight off the disc at about 30 -35 fps depending on what else i'm doing.

Not sure what I'm doing wrong, although I can't see it being much quicker using a 2 stage process ... the disc can read at upto 8x the normal speed and even with 2.8GHz the machine can only process at 1.5 times the normal speed at best. This is a CPU bound process still not IO (DVD drive) limited IMO.

 

[caseybb4]

I'm confused about the lingo so please correct me if I'm wrong....I thought the following:

Ripping is to copy the data from the disc to a hard drive

Transcoding, sometimes less accurately referred to as encoding, is to convert the data from one format to another.

again, I'm not sure if this is correct

 

[Heb1228]

Ripping is to copy the data from the disc to a hard drive

Transcoding, sometimes less accurately referred to as encoding, is to convert the data from one format to another.

That's correct. But I think 'encoding' is accurate enough that it would probably be considered nit-picking by most to correct someone.

Ripping first allows for a faster encoding time. That's the way I always do it for several reasons. Less drive noise is enough for me.

 

[roland.g]

I'm confused about the lingo so please correct me if I'm wrong....I thought the following:

Ripping is to copy the data from the disc to a hard drive

Transcoding, sometimes less accurately referred to as encoding, is to convert the data from one format to another.

again, I'm not sure if this is correct

Yes and no. In common usage, when one rips a cd to iTunes, you are not only copying it to the drive, but also compressing into an aac or mp3 format, so there is an encoding/compression process as well. Same goes for DVD, to rip the DVD movie is to compress and convert the feature to a Quicktime playable format so that it can be viewed through Front Row or on an Apple TV/iPod/iPhone.

 

[26139]

Yep

I always rip with MTR first due to the fact that it rips encrypted DVDs. I don't think it would matter that much if you had it on the internal HDD or your firewire drive, at least not matter enough to transfer all of the files over. I would expect slightly better performance having the files on your computer's drive, however.

Same here. Also nice to have it queued so you can walk away.

 

[j26]

Rip it to the HD then use Handbrake to take it from there. The DVD spinning all night is worse for your disc drive than your HD spinning away.

What he said.


It's handy to fire up Handbrake and forget about it sometimes, but I reckon it's better for the dvd drive to use MTR if you have the time.
Plus the queueing feature is a great boon. I have 6 dvd's to do next week, and that's what I'll be doing.

 

[Heb1228]

Yes and no. In common usage, when one rips a cd to iTunes, you are not only copying it to the drive, but also compressing into an aac or mp3 format, so there is an encoding/compression process as well. Same goes for DVD, to rip the DVD movie is to compress and convert the feature to a Quicktime playable format so that it can be viewed through Front Row or on an Apple TV/iPod/iPhone.

Just to clarify, he's using the term transcoding because a DVD movie is already compressed into an MPEG-2 format so conversion/compression to another format is really what's going on. That's why some people want to use 'transcoding'. Sorry if you already realized this, I'm not trying to insult you. Just thought some people might not and it might be helpful.