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General discussion

I've ripped my DVD collection, now what?

by Neo911 Oct 9, 2007 4:05PM PDT

So I've backed up my DVD collection (to several HD's), and need some advice on what to do with all those VOB files. Currently running winXp system but will be adding a Mac in November.

Having settled on the Netgear EVA8000 over appleTV due to my lack of a widescreen tv (my old box doesn't have component inputs either), to stream all those movies (about 300), what I need to know is the best file format to use. Am interested more in quality than size although I'm not leaving them in the current VOB state as that just takes up silly amounts of space (aprox 4.35GB/movie). I also want to be able to play them on my pc or Mac easily. MPEG-4, WMV, MOV, H.264, DivX??? My head is spinning from all the reading I've been doing.

I guess I want the highest quality video in the smallest size possible, emphesis on quality! Right now I'm kinda leaning towards H.264 in case I change my mind about the appleTV thing later on, but that just takes a crazy long time to convert a movie (about 7-10 hrs on my current 1.8ghz Athlon). AppleTV only accepts H.264 while the Netgear will take just about any format out there.

Any suggestions would be greatly appreaciated.

Mark

Discussion is locked

5 Posts
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I think PC will be able to play all that you've mentioned,
by ahtoi Oct 9, 2007 5:06PM PDT

but I have no idea what mac can play. Since I don't have a mac, my choice is divx.

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found your solution?
by czani01 Oct 11, 2007 10:02AM PDT

Hi there, I have the exact same question and haven't found any information, did you come to a conclusion that you'd want to share? Thanks.

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No luck yet!
by Neo911 Oct 11, 2007 2:27PM PDT

Still looking...for now I have my desktop encoding 24/7 into h.264 until I find out otherwise...

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Here's some more info...
by Neo911 Oct 13, 2007 5:58AM PDT

Hey chani,

I've posted the same question on a different forum, geared towards "videohelp", the reply that I got there was to basically keep going with h264 encoding. It seems that it's going to be slow but it's the one to use.

If you have a Mac and are concerned about speed another thing to look at is the h264 video encoder hardware usb stick, I don't have one yet, but if the encoding speeds with a 2.4/2.8ghz Mac are still not what I want then I'll be looking at getting one.

Let me know if that helps or if you've found anything different answers.

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2.4ghz iMac
by Neo911 Nov 6, 2007 10:46AM PST

So I got me a new 24" 2.4ghz iMac and what a speed difference...WOW! What once took 6-8 hrs now takes no more than 2 with Handbrake. I can queue up all the movies I want and let it go for a day or 2 and its all done, no problems.

I've also been reading that the usb encoder really makes no difference on the 2.8ghz cpu and little difference on the 2.4. I'm planning on spending the extra $100 on some RAM instead, I figure what little speed increase I could get from the encoder is money better spent on RAM.

Had the iMac for about 2 weeks now...going out to get a Macbook next week to replace the current Acer lappy...its that awesome.

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