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ault45

macrumors member
Original poster
Jan 15, 2008
48
0
Delaware, OH
I am the proud new owner of apple tv, and would like to put my 300+ dvd collection on my 1tb external hard drive, connected to AEBS. My question is what is the most efficient way to do this? I have both mac the ripper and handbrake, but have never used either. Any advice on how to do this, including what setting I should have would be great. Thanks everyone.
 
Hmm, just an observation from my personal experiences, but in the last couple weeks or so I've had problems on my MBP and certain DVD's, such that Handbrake and MacTheRipper had problems.

My solution in the end was run Windows XP inside of VMWare Fusion and use DVDFab Decrytper, a free Windows program, which worked great every time where the other programs wouldn't.

http://www.dvdfab.com/free.htm

Not sure if there are better Mac solutions for ripping, MTR seems to be the recommend program, but my impression was that it is getting a little long in tooth.
 
Under the 'preset' drop down menu, I think I remember a 'load presets' or something. Hit that and they should appear. Not in there by default for some reason.

Hope this helps.
me
 
gotcha, now i see it. is about 1hr and 45min the average time it takes to do this? seems like a long time to me.
 
Not sure if there are better Mac solutions for ripping, MTR seems to be the recommend program, but my impression was that it is getting a little long in tooth.

The current freeware/shareware version of MTR is 2.6.6. Version 3.0 is available as beta and is currently at build "m", I think. The beta is available only after donating to the developers.

For the most part, 2.6.6 can handle most DVDs. Some Disney and Sony movies will choke it. However, many new DVDs still work ... for instance, I Am Legend can be backed up using 2.6.6.

For aTV users, using Handbrake after using MTR is generally the typical workflow.

ft
 
so your saying rip with mac the ripper, then convert using handbrake? any special settings for mtr?

No real special settings for MTR. Just whatever works. MTR should rip an exact copy of the DVR. Typically, I'll rip the entire disc. If that doesn't work, I'll try to rip the movie only. If that doesn't work (either I'll give up and put the DVD back on the shelf) or I'll try the ARCCOS options.

Once the DVD has been ripped, Handbrake shouldn't have any problems. Handbrake will usually choke on DVDs that MTR has problems with. That's why most use MTR first, then Handbrake to convert for iPods, aTVs, and other devices.

ft
 
gotcha, now i see it. is about 1hr and 45min the average time it takes to do this? seems like a long time to me.
If that is as long as it takes you, that's pretty good. My encodes take about 3-4 hours and average about 9FPS, although my settings are drastically different than the AppleTV preset. :cool:
 
I think the fastest, easiest and simplest way would be this...

1) Put DVD into drive.
2) Open Handbrake.
3) Rip DVD with AppleTV preset (click 'toggle presets' to view)
4) Take HD file and drag to right pane of MetaX (do a Google search to find MetaX)
5) Add Tag data as you wish and click "write".
6) Drag video file into iTunes.
7) Enjoy high quality videos with dvd cover, actors, synopsis, and other data handy from the comfort of your couch over AppleTV.
 
gotcha, now i see it. is about 1hr and 45min the average time it takes to do this? seems like a long time to me.

I'm writing this from memory, but make sure you click "picture settings" and adjust the "interlace" option to "fast". Otherwise I get lots of little horizontal lines on edges of shapes.
 
I'm writing this from memory, but make sure you click "picture settings" and adjust the "interlace" option to "fast". Otherwise I get lots of little horizontal lines on edges of shapes.
*Only* on interlaced sources. And the slow deinterlacing is magnitudes better than the fast setting. For most major motion pictures you should need no deinterlacing. Deinterlacing will slow your encodes.
 
Personally, I used the rip first with MTR and then encode with Handbrake method as well. The main reason being was that I could rip movie with MTR in about 20-30 minutes, but my iMac took about 3 hours to encode each movie. By using the 2-step method, I could rip about 5 or 6 movies each night after work, then set up my handbrake queue to encode overnight (TV preset + Two pass encode Turbo 1st pass) and those movies would be done about the time that I would get home from work the next day. Rinse & Repeat. Then I would tag the movies with MetaX, and put them on my external.
Just finished my 200 or so DVD library. Took about a month and a half. I had my wife's MacBook join the party most nights, so I could get more done. The frustrating times were when I would check on it in the morning and find that it crashed on the 1st encode sometime shortly after going to bed.
 
heres another question. how can i rip dvds of television shows, and encode them so each episode is independent, and not the entire disc? Any help will be appreciated.
 
typically each "episode" is a separate title on the dvd, just pick a title, add to queue, rinse and repeat. His "Start" when youre all queued up.
 
I have been converting my DVDs' files to MP4 format in the shortest and simplest way possible: I use Handbrake to rip them directly from the disk and then create a .m4v copy. I have Handbrake create the file in my Apple TV Movies folder within iTunes. It works great. Although the ripping and conversion processes take nearly 2 hours to complete, there is nothing you have to do between the time you start and the time Handbrake finishes its work.

My resulting .m4v files have been fantastic, indistinguishable in both picture and sound quality from the original DVD when played on my Apple TV and displayed on my HDTV via its component connection.

I have a MacBook Pro 2.4 GHz computer, which easily allows me to put Handbrake in the background and do anything else I want in the foreground while Handbrake is working. The computer gets a little hot and the foreground processes are a little slower than normal with Handbrake working in the background but I am very pleased, nonetheless.
 
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