Import DVD lossless into iTunes ?

[Angelo95210]

Hi Guys,

I have received a brand new 24" iMac for Christmas and I think it's time for me to start ripping my DVD collection !

I have a very good home cinema and I am very picky on quality (especially on the sound), I would like to know if there is any way to import them in iTunes lossless...

I have been digging the forum these past two days... I didn't find anything about Lossless but feel free to redirect me to a relevant post if you know one...

Thanks !!!

 

[ugacdawg]

If you plan to play via ATV on the TV then hack the ATV with a patchstick, install Boxee and then stream from the original VIDEO_TS folder you ripped the DVD to...

If you are just playing it on the iMac then there are a number of viewers that will let you watch the original .vob files from the VIDEO_TS folder...

 

[NightStorm]

I have a very good home cinema and I am very picky on quality (especially on the sound)

Not possible with iTunes as you'll have to encode to MPEG4/h.264, but the audio would be untouched as long as you use AC3.

 

[hayduke]

YOu can rip DVDs with something like MacTheRipper and it retains the file structure and quality of the original DVD. FrontRow can play these files. The DVD is simply copied to your local drive so it plays just like a normal DVD, except it loads more quickly!

 

[Angelo95210]

Not possible with iTunes as you'll have to encode to MPEG4/h.264, but the audio would be untouched as long as you use AC3.

That's exactly what I am looking for ! I am ready to sacrify the video a little, but want to keep the sound untouched. Thanks for this Night Storm

YOu can rip DVDs with something like MacTheRipper and it retains the file structure and quality of the original DVD. FrontRow can play these files. The DVD is simply copied to your local drive so it plays just like a normal DVD, except it loads more quickly!

Really ? And this with many DVDs on your hard drive without any trick ? I will try... thanks for the tip.

 

[hayduke]

Really ? And this with many DVDs on your hard drive without any trick ? I will try... thanks for the tip.

No tricks, provided MacTheRipper works. Some DVDs try to thwart programs like MTR by including bad sectors etc. Not every DVD is rippable, or rather -- not every DVD is *easily* rippable. The VIDEA_TS folder that is extract is a binary copy of the DVDs file structure and FrontRow natively supports this (somewhat surprisingly!).

 

[Angelo95210]

So you just then drag the TS folder into iTunes ?

 

[rspeaker]

Somebody already said it: iTunes does not support Video_TS files. Front Row does, though. Put your TS folders into your Movies folder on your Mac, bring up Front Row, go to Movies, then Movies Folder, and whatever folder you created and put your TS folders in within that.

I recently started the long process of archiving my DVDs. I am making TS folders of all my movies and TV shows, so I can pack away the DVDs and reclaim some shelf space. I'm storing everything on an external harddrive.

However, I am also converting my DVDs into .m4v files so they will play within iTunes, on my iPod, iPhone, and someday, maybe an AppleTV. The videos have pretty good quality; I don't have an HDTV, but on my SDTVs, the picture is phenomenal. You couldn't tell it wasn't a DVD. I'm tagging everything in iTunes, with descriptions, episode numbers, artwork, etc. You can find lots of information on this in other threads.

My project is big, time-consuming, and a bit expensive (the harddrive space required is incredible.) But it is beautiful. I'll be able to transfer any movie or TV series to my iPhone or iPod, but if I get an HDTV and a home theater setup, I can just queue up my TS folders and get a better picture and surround sound.

 

[iann1982]

Just to add my view on this.

I tend to rip TV Shows using handbrake to the iPod High Rez preset, 1500kps video, 160kps sound.

That looks great and my iPhone, and good on my Macbook, on a 40" HDTV it still looks good, about the quality of a normal SD channel in my view, it's lost a little of the crispness but it's worth if for being able to watch the same file on my iPhone / iPod.

For films, which i'm much less likely to ever want to watch on my phone, I rip to the Apple TV preset 2500kps and include the AC3 original file of the DVD. on the 40" hdtv I struggle to tell the difference - it's better than the old dvd player (which is hooked up by scart RGB) the colours are crisper. There's sometimes a little bit of blockyness in dark backgrounds, but this is rare, I think I only notice it as i'm looking for it. The encoding seems to have got better with the releases of Handbrake, a lot of my rips were done a while back using 0.9.1, i think 0.9.3 is quite a bit better.

Just my tuppance worth..

 

[south8212]

Just to add my view on this.

I tend to rip TV Shows using handbrake to the iPod High Rez preset, 1500kps video, 160kps sound.

That looks great and my iPhone, and good on my Macbook, on a 40" HDTV it still looks good, about the quality of a normal SD channel in my view, it's lost a little of the crispness but it's worth if for being able to watch the same file on my iPhone / iPod.

For films, which i'm much less likely to ever want to watch on my phone, I rip to the Apple TV preset 2500kps and include the AC3 original file of the DVD. on the 40" hdtv I struggle to tell the difference - it's better than the old dvd player (which is hooked up by scart RGB) the colours are crisper. There's sometimes a little bit of blockyness in dark backgrounds, but this is rare, I think I only notice it as i'm looking for it. The encoding seems to have got better with the releases of Handbrake, a lot of my rips were done a while back using 0.9.1, i think 0.9.3 is quite a bit better.

Just my tuppance worth..

I do the same thing, im curious however what do you put the constant quality at? I just leave mine on the 59 percent preset but im wondering if i put it up some if it would make the video better with the sacrifice of a bigger file.

 

[SFStateStudent]

I do the same thing, im curious however what do you put the constant quality at? I just leave mine on the 59 percent preset but im wondering if i put it up some if it would make the video better with the sacrifice of a bigger file.

+1 ^^^ HandBrake and MPEG Streamclip have always done the trick. I struggled with MacTheRipper, but that was years ago when I was new to ripping DVDs...