Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Ripping entire DVD collection - advice / suggestions appreciated

G

grkmec

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Aug 15, 2011
16
0
So I just set-up a Synology DS1511+ NAS with 15TB storage in RAID 6. I am looking to rip my whole DVD collection (200+ dvds). I would like to put my collection on my NAS and have it available on my home network. I would like to be able to play media for any laptop, ipad, computer, home theater, etc.

So, with my limited understanding, I am going to take the following approach:
- Get a iMac 27" with 3.4ghz to serve as ripper / encoder / general media manipulation desktop for the office
- Get a Boxee Box to interface with NAS and HDMI out to my denon receiver to play in home theater
- Use Rip-it to rip all DVDs. Keep a set of raw copies on the NAS that will be highest quality for Boxee Box to play on my 52" HDTV
- Encode all dvd's using Handbrake to the highest quality available format for Apple TV / Ipad watching

Questions
1. What is the highest quality encoding that Apple TV / Ipad will support?
2. I realize my approach will use a lot of storage due to the duplicate copies, but storage is super cheap and I have a lot of it. However, is there a more elegant approach I can take without sacrificing quality?
3. I have a small blu-ray collection. Is it possible to rip a blue-ray on a Mac? If so, how?

This will be a huge project for me, so any advice / guidance would be greatly appreciated.
 
I am going through the same exercise with pretty much the same goals as you with a couple of small differences:

1. I have a Synology DS1511+ that will store everything
2. I use makeMKV to make full size rips of my DVD and BR collection in a mkv containter
3. I use Handbrake to make duplicate encoded copies for iPad and Apple TV
4. I am planning to get a Mac Mini with XBMC to play the mkvs connected to the main TV in the lounge
5. The ATV will be used for the TV in the bedroom


Q1. I tend to use the HB Presets without messing around too much. So I normally use the iPad preset for encoding. The only thing to consider is that some older DVDs, especially series, are interlaced. It’s ok when you’re playing back the ripped copy since XBMC can deinterlace for you, but it is an issue for encoding so in HB go into Picture Settings → Filters → Choose Deinterlace and then choose either Fast, Slow or Slower. This part requires a bit of trial and error unfortunately. First choose “Fast” and then test the encoded file so see if you have interlacing. If you do, then choose “Slow” and so forth.

I then use iDentify on the encoded m4v files to tag them for iTunes so that I have media info on the iPad and Apple TV.

Q2. Some would argue that there is no need to keep the ripped copies after you’ve encoded them, but since I will be watching them on a 55” screen, I really don’t like the idea of compressing them any further so I prefer to keep the original rips. Therefore I cannot see a more elegant solution than the one you’ve outlined

Q3. I rip BR discs using makeMKV and an external LG BR writer that works flawlessly. Again, you can encode the resulting mkv files into iTunes-friendly m4v containers. I have only experienced one problem with BR discs so far, as per my thread about Apocalypto in this forum.
 
working on the same thing. its a long tedious process :D

-i rip and encode using handbrake.
-highest video setting and surround sound audio.
-i then copy it to my dads 2 tb western digital which is hooked up to our mac mini running iTunes in the office. the apple tv in the living room sees it over the network.
-i also copy the video to my 5 tb array of hard drives which i bring to school for my apple tv there. i have an airport extreme making my own network and the apple tv in the living room sees the movies from the hard drive array in my room.

all i can say with handbrake my encodes take about an hour for standard definition and about 3-4 hours for blu-ray. i encode them all to .m4v and i am using an early 2009 mbp at 2.66 ghz with 8 gb of ram (as in my sig). i might start using my dads new mac mini with an external super drive because the i5 processor will encode a lot faster than my core 2 duo. you should be good with your iMac though. handbrake all depends on processing power. good luck!!!
 
I have a similar requirement but use a MAC mini which sits under the main TV and connects to it HDMI. The Mac mini has 3TB of external storage and runs PLEX client/server. The client on the mini is used to feed the main TV and the server feeds all devices in the house including a macbook pro, iphone and IPAD. They are all running Plex client. You can also run Plex client on the apple tv but you have to jailbreak first.

The advantage of this set up is that file type is no longer an issue. Blue Rays are ripped with makeMKV and kept as .MKV files I have a mixture of .m4v and .avi depending of the source of the file and they all play through the mini to any device.

This set up simplifies storage and eliminates any need to convert file formats.
I have an external Blue ray disk which I can plug into the mini or the macbook pro to rip DVD's and Blue Rays.

Since I have the 2010 mini I can also play DVD's directly on the mini.
 
nebo1ss said:
I have a similar requirement but use a MAC mini which sits under the main TV and connects to it HDMI. The Mac mini has 3TB of external storage and runs PLEX client/server. The client on the mini is used to feed the main TV and the server feeds all devices in the house including a macbook pro, iphone and IPAD. They are all running Plex client. You can also run Plex client on the apple tv but you have to jailbreak first.

The advantage of this set up is that file type is no longer an issue. Blue Rays are ripped with makeMKV and kept as .MKV files I have a mixture of .m4v and .avi depending of the source of the file and they all play through the mini to any device.

This set up simplifies storage and eliminates any need to convert file formats.
I have an external Blue ray disk which I can plug into the mini or the macbook pro to rip DVD's and Blue Rays.

Since I have the 2010 mini I can also play DVD's directly on the mini.
Click to expand...

what is the difference between .m4v and .avi i have both but trying to make everything .m4v. i think mostly because if its not all the same ill go crazy but i just want to know lol
 
nebo1ss said:
I have a similar requirement but use a MAC mini which sits under the main TV and connects to it HDMI. The Mac mini has 3TB of external storage and runs PLEX client/server. The client on the mini is used to feed the main TV and the server feeds all devices in the house including a macbook pro, iphone and IPAD. They are all running Plex client. You can also run Plex client on the apple tv but you have to jailbreak first.

The advantage of this set up is that file type is no longer an issue. Blue Rays are ripped with makeMKV and kept as .MKV files I have a mixture of .m4v and .avi depending of the source of the file and they all play through the mini to any device.

This set up simplifies storage and eliminates any need to convert file formats.
I have an external Blue ray disk which I can plug into the mini or the macbook pro to rip DVD's and Blue Rays.

Since I have the 2010 mini I can also play DVD's directly on the mini.
Click to expand...

Wow, this is a brilliant approach! This is exactly the kind of advice I was looking for... I am going to add a mac mini to my shopping list!

What are you all using for external blu-ray players? I assume that is connected via USB?
 
I know people like as much quality as they can get and storage is cheap but there's really not too much difference between a good ATV2 rip and the original source file.

I think keeping dupes is just wasting good server space. Besides, you've still got the DVD if you really want to watch the full quality that badly.
 
I used to use Handbrake. Now I just use MegUI on my Windows system. 2-socket Xeon X5650's ... takes about 3 min to encode the average 22 minute sitcom episode from a DVD rip. It's been a while since I did a DVD or Blu-Ray movie encode, so I can't remember how long those take.

The longest part is the actual ripping itself. It's the worst part of the entire process.

Few more tidbits:

- I encode the audio with NeroAAC @ 96kbps, MP4.
- Video is encoded as 1000kbps, x264, MP4 file format.
- Total job is muxed into an MP4 file container.

Those three tidbits ensure that they can be played on the ATV2, Xbox360, PS3, iPad2, and iPod Touch, while keeping the files at an acceptable size for their quality (to me anyway.) Avg 2hr movie is about 1GB after it's all ripped and encoded. Sitcom is about 180MB per episode, give or take a few MB's.

I also usually rip everything first, since that requires human interaction that is unavoidable for now. Then I kick off batch jobs of the indexing, encoding, and muxing. Go away to do other things, then come back when it's done.

I know that lots of people out there will probably have different tastes regarding file formats, hardware, acceptable file size and quality, etc. However, the way I've got things done at the moment work fine for me, especially given that my storage has to be used for other things, both for work and family, for the foreseeable future.
 
benh911f said:
I can confirm that the ATV2 preset does play on both an iPhone 4 and the original iPad.
Click to expand...

Just not ATV1, right? How about a 3GS, my wife has the 3GS. Also ATV2 (720p, right?) > AppleUniversal (480p) >= ATV1 (480p), is that correct?

Just want to make sure I'm using the right settings from now on. I've been ripping all of my BlueRays with both Apple Universal for SD and then ATV2 for HD (nothing for 1080p yet).
 
I have the same exact thing going on, however I chose to use External Seagate Go Flex 2 and 3 TB Hard drives running FW800. I am in the proces of doing 400 DVD's so tedious and painful but well worth the results as we can watch any DVD movie anywhere in the house :rolleyes:

I use Rip it to rip the DVD which is stored on one External 2TB Drive

I use the Apple TV preset to Encode it for use on the Mini library which has a 3 TB drive connected to it.

I now use CCC (Carbon Copy Cloner) to clone the external HDD and then the clones go in my firesafe.

Seems like a lot of work, but I do not want to use a NAS or SAN type device because then you need a second to back that up
 
I rip DVD and Bluray to MKV files with MakeMKV and store the MKV files on my FreeNAS server that currently has 20TB of storage. My Mac Pro has an AFP connection back to the FreeNAS server and is running Plex server sharing the media throughout the house. The FreeNAS server also serves as a Time Machine backup for all of the Macs in the house.
 
Ripping my DVD Collection

So far I have ripped 10,000 TV episodes and about 1,200 Movies.

Not many TV DVDs left to do but over a 1,000 more Movies.

I am ripping everything off the DVD over 4 minutes to get all the DVD extras, I am also grabbing all the English commentaries.

I am currently using 2 Drobos with 4x2TB, and three 4x2TB DAS boxes, plus a few others for offsite backups etc.

I am using IVI to rip, encode to H.264 and add the meta data, then have to use Name Mangler to fix the way IVI names files.

I bought two powered hubs and added 7 external DVD drives so I could keep the iMac fed 7x24.

The core duo 2.66GHz 20" iMac with 4GB Ram rips a TV series DVD is about 3 hours, x that a total of 8 DVD readers and you can set up a line of work to keep the iMac busy for more than a day, you can remove DVDs as they are done and add new ones to the queue.

I did, for a while, use my 3.4GHz i7 Quad iMac, that did each DVD in an hour. So it exhausted the DVD array three times a day. Setting up 8 DVDs to rip is a time consuming job and can take an hour to do, I really dobt have three hours a day to spend on this so moved it back to my old iMac.

I rip everything into iTunes, because I want everything to drop into the household iPhones and iPads while pushing them through AppleTV2s throughout the house.

Besides, it just makes sense to me to store all the programme's meta data in the file itself. Much tidier.

I really hope it gets done by Christmas ..... It has been a hard, long slog.

Mind you, I did stop to scan every photo had, Also now scan every document, receipt and business card.

Also, getting the equipment to maintain on and offsite backups was a distraction.
 
Last edited:
Badger^2 said:
for that much ripping you really want to go with an external Firewire DVD drive and not the slot load on an iMac.

$10 for the case: http://www.cooldrives.com/index.php/alox911fiusb.html

$23 for the drive: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827106281&CMP=BAC-dealmac
Click to expand...

I used a powered USB hub and added USB DVD ROM drives, USB Powered at £17 each, a blob of blue tack between them and they stack very nicely.

Added 7 external DVD drives that way.
 
Badger^2 said:
for that much ripping you really want to go with an external Firewire DVD drive and not the slot load on an iMac.

$10 for the case: http://www.cooldrives.com/index.php/alox911fiusb.html

$23 for the drive: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827106281&CMP=BAC-dealmac
Click to expand...

Almost any external optical drive will be faster than the slot load in the iMac. I am using a drive that I salvaged from an old windows desktop with a universal SATA/IDE>USB cable. This is much faster than the slot load in my Late 2009 iMac and it keeps the wear and tear off the expensive internal drive.
 
Busta999 said:
So far I have ripped 10,000 TV episodes and about 1,200 Movies.
Click to expand...

when are you actually going to have time to watch all or any of that?

even at 3 movies a day (about 6 hours a day), *every* day of the year, including holidays = it would take almost 3.5 years to watch them all?

and you have another 1,000 to import?

dont take this the wrong way -- but whats the point? are you planning on opening your own on demand movie channel? think of all the time and money you have spent on this -- when you could have been outside instead?

and when will you find the spare 3.5+ years you will need to watch all of these movies -- because the whole point of ripping all these movies is to watch them, right? otherwise why rip them? Just watch once an be done? rent again if you really liked it?

Im sure the cost of renting all the ones you really like would never equal the amount of money you have spent on all those DVD drives, plus drobos, plus drives, etc. And the time. Time = money...
 
Badger^2 said:
dont take this the wrong way -- but whats the point? are you planning on opening your own on demand movie channel? think of all the time and money you have spent on this -- when you could have been outside instead?

and when will you find the spare 3.5+ years you will need to watch all of these movies -- because the whole point of ripping all these movies is to watch them, right? otherwise why rip them? Just watch once an be done? rent again if you really liked it?

Im sure the cost of renting all the ones you really like would never equal the amount of money you have spent on all those DVD drives, plus drobos, plus drives, etc. And the time. Time = money...
Click to expand...

I kind of agree. Of course there is the 'collecting' aspect of it. Surely the poster is a collector of movies , and I have a small colloection too (200+DVDs) but I have slowed down dramatically my importing for many reasons. Just like you said, there's not enough time to watch them all...PLUS, Netflix-type movies and TV show providers will continue to provide potentially better-resolution versions of the movies I am encoding from DVD.

Right now, I would say that 40-50% of my unencoded DVDs are available on Netflix to stream, PLUS I am catching up on shows all the time and can't keep up with that, let alone try to follow new runs of new shows on the networks (thank God it's summer!)

To me, it's a bit mind-boggling how one could amass 1200 movies and thousands of TV show episodes on DVD...the cost of those easily approaches $25,000 conservatively...plus having to invest in the infrastructure to turn all those into viewable files and you probably add another couple thou, along with the cost of your time...however you price it. And storage of the physical media. The show "Hoarders" comes to mind. ;)

I guess at first, I started doing my 200+ DVD collection and it was cool having the movies at my fingertips on ATV, BUT Netflix and other services have made me doing that almost a moot point. I even gave up on my transfer of MST3K episodes from tape a few years back (to DVD) since the episodes were starting to show up on DVD...now they are on Netflix in a MUCH better quality than I could even hope to get from the old VHS.

More power to you I suppose, but my gut tells me that in as little as 5 years, all of that material you are now turning into digital copies will soon be available on-demand, and of a much higher quality than your original DVDs. :(
 
CylonGlitch said:
Just not ATV1, right? How about a 3GS, my wife has the 3GS. Also ATV2 (720p, right?) > AppleUniversal (480p) >= ATV1 (480p), is that correct?

Just want to make sure I'm using the right settings from now on. I've been ripping all of my BlueRays with both Apple Universal for SD and then ATV2 for HD (nothing for 1080p yet).
Click to expand...

I unfortunately don't know 100%. I believe it does not work on the ATV1, the 3GS i'm not sure of. Hopefully someone else knows this.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back