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Transcoding for ATV

Turnip-76

Turnip-76

macrumors newbie
Original poster
May 6, 2011
16
0
Im sure this is one of those subjects that could be debated to death, but.....

I have a fairly sizeable mp4 movie collection (a few over 500 titles) that I have (legally) built up over the last few years for my iPod (and yes I am going to mention a non-apple device) my Blackberry... for entertaining myself while travelling & working away from home.

I also have to admit that I have always used AVEX DVD2PSP on the windows laptop as despite most peoples love of handbrake, I have found it to be much quicker and very very very simple to use. The drawback now being..yes you've guessed it..... it only does stuff to PSP / iPod screen size....

Having now progressed into the world of ATV I now want to be able to stash all the DVDs up in the loft (as they take up loads of storage space) after re-encoding them to 40" TV standard...which even with the ATVs apparent skill at upscaling, the iPod versions just arnt up to the task of.

Ive tried a whole heap of programs and found them to be rather slow (despite running an Intel Core 2 Duo iMac with 4GB of DDR Ram)...as I type I have Toast 11 working on converting an MKV (a TV recording from the States) file to MP4 at a far less than impressive rate....

What are the collective thoughts on the best way to chug through my DVD collection.....?

Thanks Loads (in advance) for any help :)
 
Seriously, just take the time and use Handbrake. Rip a bunch of DVDs to your hard drive first, and then set up a queue. It takes time but the quality is much better and you'll only have to do it once. Anything that is substantially quicker than Handbrake is using MPEG 4 Part 2 which is less efficient and, these days, less compatible than Handbrake's H.264/MPEG 4 Part 10.
 
the single episode of Sons of Anarchy that I started before writing the opener to this thread is only at 60% now.... thats getting on for 6 hours for what equates to about 35 mins of footage....surely that cant be right!?:eek:
 
Toast is using Apple's QuickTime h.264 encoder which is much much slower than the open source x264 encoder in Handbrake. Last time I tried on a core2duo, the Handbrake encoder was 50% faster.
 
Also, depending on your mkv file, a lot are 3.0 profile AppleTV 2 compatible, you can just transcode with subler or MKVtools and it should take less than 15 minutes
 
What spec is your mac?
How long does it take with your alternative software method?

My MBP spec is in my signature, and I have to say handbrake takes about 6 minutes for a 2 hour film now.....down from 40 mins on my old C2D

Also I have to afree with some of the above with handbrake I only ever have to encode once.....

However if anyone knows any other greats apps always willing to hear about them... I tried ripit the other day for a simple rip and encode program but don't think I will be moving.
 
my specs shown below...

software.... Ive done all the stuff in the past on a Windows Laptop - mainly using AVEX DVD2PSP - this will convert at a rate of about x2, ie a two hour film will encode, with no hicups or errors in an hour (or a few mins less). I would stick with it, as have been very happy up till now, but its limited to compression for ipod & PSP size screens, while you can watch the product on a 40" LCD via ATV2 its like getting one of those cheap pirate DVDs from the street sellers.... not what you want to watch!
 
spacepower7 said:
Toast is using Apple's QuickTime h.264 encoder which is much much slower than the open source x264 encoder in Handbrake. Last time I tried on a core2duo, the Handbrake encoder was 50% faster.
Click to expand...

I set up handbrake to run overnight with the remaining episodes of SOA (S3) - agreed, it is much faster than Toast (which is a bit bad really seeing as Toast is $99 / £89 & handbrake is free!) but its still painfully slow, I set it off at around 1130 last night, and now (1109 am) its still only half way through episode 7, given that these episodes are only about 50 mins long that seems like a very long time to wait!
 
That's why I said MKVtools or Subler.

Most of the TV torrents in MKV format contain AppleTV compatible video and audio. You don't need to run handbrake, it's wasting your time and altering the original video quality.

Use MKVtools or Subler, and it will take the video and audio out of the MKV container and put it in a new mp4 or m4v container. On your set up it should take less than 10 minutes per episode. Subler can even tag the metadata to the new file.

Use one of those tools for your MKV files and use Handbrake for your DVDs.
 
I tried quite a few different programs to rip my DVD's, including the one you mentioned. I regretted using anything but Handbrake and had to re-rip a lot of my movies. The time I wasted trying different programs & re-ripping would have been better spent letting Handbrake do it's thing.
 
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eTip said:
I tried quite a few different programs to rip my DVD's, including the one you mentioned. I regretted using anything but Handbrake and had to re-rip a lot of my movies. The time I wasted trying different programs & re-ripping would have been better spent letting Handbrake do it's thing.
Click to expand...

It would be faster to download the movies you own via torrents.

First look for mp4 releases, then look for 264 releases in mkv format.

Use mkvtools and subler/identity to tag.
 
Handbrake did the job....

I tried Subler & MKVTools, but neither seemed to like my files (or me!)

Handbrake has done a good job, but still feel it was a bit slow, but thats not the end of the world.

I set Toast11 up to transcode half a dozen DVD's while we were out today and its done a very good job and was quite quick too... guess it just doesnt like recoding from MKV?

Going to beaver on ripping all the DVDs onto the desktop in batches of 20 or so and leave toast to do its thing.

Thanks for the tips guys...
 
Sparky9292 said:
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It would be faster to download the movies you own via
Click to expand...

Perhaps now- but not at the time I did the majority of my ripping. I had a slow internet connection and had Handbrake running on several computers. Plus, searching for the right torrent, weeding out the crap can take time as well. Ripping my own DVD insures I have the right movie and allows me to get the extras when I so choose.
 
Appreciate what your saying, but torrents just arnt for me.... Id much rather have high quality stuff that I know wont cause me any problems (ie crap piggy backing) and if the absolute worst happened and my Mac went tits up I know I could crawl back up in the loft and get back without having to go through the pain of trawling about the internet.....

Also, even though the concept of transcoding is still a little grey in some jurisdictions I am pretty sure on a legal footing Im safer with stuff I own... not very rebellious I know, but hey... thats just what comes with middle age! :D
 
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Turnip-76 said:
Appreciate what your saying, but torrents just arnt for me.... Id much rather have high quality stuff that I know wont cause me any problems (ie crap piggy backing) and if the absolute worst happened and my Mac went tits up I know I could crawl back up in the loft and get back without having to go through the pain of trawling about the internet.....

Also, even though the concept of transcoding is still a little grey in some jurisdictions I am pretty sure on a legal footing Im safer with stuff I own... not very rebellious I know, but hey... thats just what comes with middle age! :D
Click to expand...

Generally the quality is pretty damn high. Most release rips with crazy quality settings that take hours on a octo processor machine.

The main legal problem with torrents is that you upload to others while you are downloading.
 
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