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Want to box all my DVDs and convert them all to watch on Apple TV

Handbreak create 2.8gb M4V File

I just got an AppleTV today. I used DVD Decrypter to place my DVD on my hard disk without encryption. I did this so I could try various settings in creating my AppleTV Ready MPEG-4 Files.

I used Handbreak with the "AppleTV" Preset which is describe as below:

Description:

HandBrake's settings for the AppleTV, including Dolby Digital 5.1 AC3 sound. Provides a good balance between quality and file size, and optimizes performance.

Codecs: AVC/H.264 Video / AAC + AC3 Audio


My questoin: It created a file size of 2.8gb which to me is very large. I purchased a DVD (Juno) which included a "Digital Copy". The size if just over 1gb and the quality seems good. Even though the quality was very good I don't like the size.

What sizes are others getting and are you happy with the quality. Also, if you are getting 1gb which settings are you using?
 
snowmaan said:
Oh cool, thanks for that. I have read up on interlacing and set the next try to slow, so see if this works.

One question - In terms of video quality - do you guys get DVD quality when you rip and encode using this process?

How do you find the end result compares to the original DVD?
Click to expand...

For progressive sources, I find that the AppleTV preset yields DVD-quality rips. If the source is interlaced, then it will look bad on an HDTV. A lot of TV show DVDs are interlaced. You can always do a preview in Handbrake to check before you encode.
 
Thanks spice
Guys, on my windows PC (While I await my iMac delivery) I set the movie to re encode again, on 2800 bitrate, encoder h264, aac+ac3 audio, deinterlace set to slow, 2 pass encoding plus turbo first pass, audio bitrate 192, sample rate 48, on Apple TV preset, and it's taken literally all day - about 10 hours, to finish. And it still has about 3 hours to go I think

Is this normal??
Gees, it better be dvd quality when finished.
 
I do all my encoding on two PCs and I've not known a movie to take quite so long. I think usually with two pass, turbo first pass, a complete encode takes around 1.5x the length of the movie being encoded (using a 2 GHz processor).

Bear in mind that the quality of the encoded movies should depend quite a lot on how they are going to be viewed. If you're watching on a 60" plasma then by all means go all out, but on smaller screens it might not be necessary to go quite so high with the settings. Rather than using a set bit-rate, I'd recommend trying out using the percentage quality meter instead. I tend to encode everything at 64 or 65% (Handbrake recommends 70%) with a fixed image height of 480 (I think DVDs are typically around 570 pixels in height) and I usually find that it will look more-or-less as good as an upscaled DVD on my 42" TV. This means that the bitrate will vary from film to film - an episode of the Office at 1500kbps will look a lot different to something like The Matrix at 1500 - using the % meter accounts for that.

If you're still encoding the Wiggles, I'd think about using some lower settings. Unless you have some really demanding kids, it might not be necessary to have 192kbps 5.1 surround sound for that kind of movie.

Also it's worth noting that sometimes the quality of a video can look poor if you maximise the Quicktime window on a computer (or on my PC anyway). Films tend to look pixellated if I try to view them above their native resolution on my PC, but the Apple TV will upscale the images to make them look much clearer. Did you try watching your first encode on the Apple TV, or only on the computer?

By the way, to encode a queue in Handbrake, once you've added everything to the queue, you have to hit the 'encode' button in the 'encode queue' window, rather than 'start' in the main Handbrake window (that will only encode the last selected item).
 
Streaming help

Hi

I hope nobody minds me jumping into this thread, but it is connected to my query. I have followed Spice's comments and advice and have ripped my DVDs using MTR and Handbreak. I currently have my iTunes music folder on my Time Capsule so I can access it from my iMac G5 and my G4 PB, not to mention it takes up less space on the computer itself. My music and photos are synced to ATV, which is fine and takes about 20Gb. What I want to do is continue to do this but at the same time stream the movies. How do it do this? Thanks in advance.

Rob Bray.:)
 
robbiebray said:
Hi

I hope nobody minds me jumping into this thread, but it is connected to my query. I have followed Spice's comments and advice and have ripped my DVDs using MTR and Handbreak. I currently have my iTunes music folder on my Time Capsule so I can access it from my iMac G5 and my G4 PB, not to mention it takes up less space on the computer itself. My music and photos are synced to ATV, which is fine and takes about 20Gb. What I want to do is continue to do this but at the same time stream the movies. How do it do this? Thanks in advance.

Rob Bray.:)
Click to expand...

Be careful with this option. With your movies on your timecapsule, it will be running overtime because it is streaming your movies to your computer, which is then streaming back back through the timecapsule to the apple TV. I've heard that stuttering can occur.
 
It sounds like you're more worried about the file size. Personally I do all my movies anywhere from 2500-2800. I converted all my DVDs over as a long term solution. So for my size isn't an issue. Space is cheap, and getting cheaper. I say go for better quality because in a few months, years, whatever, you're not going to want to rerip all of your DVD's at a higher quality. I've done 800, there, no way I'd ever do this project again.
 
Capt Crunch said:
Be careful with this option. With your movies on your timecapsule, it will be running overtime because it is streaming your movies to your computer, which is then streaming back back through the timecapsule to the apple TV. I've heard that stuttering can occur.
Click to expand...

It does, I store movies on an external HDD and stream to my computer 1 PC and 1 Mac and it stutters once every few minutes :mad:
 
I've got all my movies stored on an external drive connected to a Mac Mini which in turn streams them an :apple:TV & another Mini and I have no problems. I'm using a firewire drive and gigabit network
 
When I first started ripping I used 'Handbrake' but after a while I purchased 'DVDremaster' and 'FairMount' and never looked back. Most of my movies are 1 to 1.5GB and look fine on my 27 inch HDTV. Now if I was using a larger TV I might go for a tighter rip but since I find myself watching most movies/TV shows on my 27 or Mackbook the picture is fine. If I'm in the mood for HiDef I watch my Blu-ray movies on my bigger 42" HDTV.

I also have a 8GB ram MacPro for ripping so it goes through movies in a hour at most. If you have low ram you can be looking at ripping taking over 10 hours on some cases. With 2GB I find a 1:1 ratio when it comes to ripping time on standard def.
 
pagansoul said:
If you have low ram you can be looking at ripping taking over 10 hours on some cases. With 2GB I find a 1:1 ratio when it comes to ripping time on standard def.
Click to expand...

That sounds about right. With my Macbook 2GB ram 2.4GHz it will do a 2 hour movie in about 2:10 or so.
 
Let me make one minor point about ripping all your DVDs: pack them up and put them away if you must, but don't put them so far away that you can't access them if you should need to. There are lots of cases where you may want or need to re-rip a disc.
 
snowmaan said:
Thanks spice
Guys, on my windows PC (While I await my iMac delivery) I set the movie to re encode again, on 2800 bitrate, encoder h264, aac+ac3 audio, deinterlace set to slow, 2 pass encoding plus turbo first pass, audio bitrate 192, sample rate 48, on Apple TV preset, and it's taken literally all day - about 10 hours, to finish. And it still has about 3 hours to go I think

Is this normal??
Gees, it better be dvd quality when finished.
Click to expand...

There will be no noticeable quality increase with 2800 vs. 2500. Especially when it's just for your kids. Click on the AppleTV preset. Set the audio to AAC only. 128kbs. Don't bother with 2-pass. Try fast deinterlace.
 
Thanks emt1

Can I ask a question of you, and others here of course.
I now have my iMac, arrived on thursday, and my ATV
OMG, how cool are they, I am so addicted now, how did I ever get away without these, and suffer through years of PC issues??

Ok I have tried to figure this out, but need to throw it out there for help

Ok, I just don't get itunes.
  • I have movies on my HDD, plus on an external drive
  • The ones on my HDD are in a folder I created and called "my movies"
  • I mainly want to watch movies on my 160gb Apple TV I also bought
  • When I open itunes, and I clicked on movies under library, then add to library, it pulls all the movies into itunes it seems, and duplicates the files.
  • It seems I now have the 1.2gb or such movie in one lace, and also another, and I am quickly eating up HDD space
  • It now also syncs these all automatically onto my ATV, even though when I click on ATV, then at the top, Movies, and tell it to only sync the below selected movies I choose to tick

Also, I don't understand why on the left of the screen, under ATV, there is a playlist for ATV as well as Movies - what the?

Hmmm, I just don't get it. How do you guys organise your files?
I.e. Do you just put them all under user/music/itunes/itunes music/movies

And finally, I want to just let the ATV see my itunes files, no matter if they are on the HDD or on the external drive - and just stream the content across instead of having to copy these across on each occasion, as it takes ages

Thanks for any assistance or experiences in the past anyone's had, I just cant seem to find answers to these questions, but am sure it is simple once I know how

Oh, by the way, DVD's rip/encode about 10 times faster now than they did on my PC
Now I just need to figure out why the metax tagging tells me the number of chapters differ on the tagging I am putting in, compared to those on my file
:confused:
 
You have to tell :apple:TV to only 1. to load movies you check off, the ones you don't will be streamed but not loaded. 2. to show all movies in iTunes (sinc times get shorter after the first time). We can now do 'playlist' for music or movies... do not combine them.
 

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why anyone with an AppleTV that is connected to a HDTV would not rip SD DVD's at their highest resolution possible is beyond me. Always use the deinterlacing software as well.

I would be willing to bet many, if not most on here have flat screen HDTVs capable of 720p or 1080p, so if your ripping non-HD content, you will want it at it's highest possible form when ripped, as your Apple TV is upscaling it to your HDTV, thus in reality degrading its content visibilty (essentially trying to polish a turd)
 
macrabbit said:
why anyone with an AppleTV that is connected to a HDTV would not rip SD DVD's at their highest resolution possible is beyond me. Always use the deinterlacing software as well.

I would be willing to bet many, if not most on here have flat screen HDTVs capable of 720p or 1080p, so if your ripping non-HD content, you will want it at it's highest possible form when ripped, as your Apple TV is upscaling it to your HDTV, thus in reality degrading its content visibilty (essentially trying to polish a turd)
Click to expand...
What???? You should only use deinterlacing software when it's necessary -- the majority of content today is not interlaced. Using them when not needed will severely degrade quality.

Also, you should use the native resolution of the DVD and not try to "upscale" it while encoding. The upscaler in the AppleTV or TV is going to give you much better results.
 
I have the same issue (want to box my dvds) but I want to know if there is a program that UPSCALE to 720p properly, and still, retain the sound options (because each movie has its own kind of sound decoders)

thx any ideas?
 
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