AnyDVD and AnyDVD HD

[ILoveC4]

As I am sure many of you are aware, about 1 year Slysoft went away from selling lifetime licenses to AnyDVD and AnyDVD HD, and make you pay a subscription.

Right now they are running a special where they lowered the two year subscription price by 20%, AND it is a lifetime license as opposed to a two year subsciption.

Just an FYI. If you plan on migrating to digital video media this program is a must have.

The sale is on until 12/31/2009 I believe.

[piratemonkey]

As I am sure many of you are aware, about 1 year Slysoft went away from selling lifetime licenses to AnyDVD and AnyDVD HD, and make you pay a subscription.

Right now they are running a special where they lowered the two year subscription price by 20%, AND it is a lifetime license as opposed to a two year subsciption.

Just an FYI. If you plan on migrating to digital video media this program is a must have.

The sale is on until 12/31/2009 I believe.

Thanks Dan!......I saw this and too took advantage.

[takitezsdc]

What is the application that you use thse for?

I have both and use use them to burn my CDs I buy for back up............../smile!!! NETFLIX BABY!! /smile

What are you all using them for? and are u burning copies of BLU ? or?

[wingzz]

I use ANYDVD HD to rip my BR disks to my HTPC

[ILoveC4]

I rip my DVD and BluRay discs.

[bog]

I'm on a Mac but am considering switching to Windows to rip my DVDs using AnyDVD as I'm not happy with the tools on the Mac.

Once ripped, what software is everyone using to encode on Windows? I would like software that supports hardware encoders (like Elgato's Turbo 264 HD for my Mac). The Tubo 264 software does not support subtitle otherwise I'd be happy to stick to my Mac.

[ILoveC4]

I'm on a Mac but am considering switching to Windows to rip my DVDs using AnyDVD as I'm not happy with the tools on the Mac.

Once ripped, what software is everyone using to encode on Windows? I would like software that supports hardware encoders (like Elgato's Turbo 264 HD for my Mac). The Tubo 264 software does not support subtitle otherwise I'd be happy to stick to my Mac.

I don't understand your question. I just play them back using the EVA9150, I don't "encode" them...

[ms2bmw]

I use ANYDVD HD to rip my BR disks to my HTPC

How big are the files after ripping? Do you convert them to MP4 afterwards to reduce the size?

[wingzz]

I use ANYDVD HD to rip my BR disks to my HTPC

How big are the files after ripping? Do you convert them to MP4 afterwards to reduce the size?

I rip them as full ISO's so they are large, like 30-50G but I have 9Tb of space so I am not worried about running out of room anytime soon.

I have them setup so if I click on an ISO in WMC it mounts it in virtual clone disk and windows sees it as a newly loaded disk and auto starts TMT3 and plays the file, pretty slck, now I just need to get the same functionality from XBMC and I'll be all set

[ILoveC4]

BluRay rips are huge...usually 30-50 gigs. I don't compress them, I keep them original...

[bog]

@ILoveC4: i understand you just rip the movies to your hard drive as an ISO. Encoding will compress the movie using a codec like H264 (this is the process that can take hours). With a USB H264 encoder I can actually encode a full lenth movie in about 25 minutes instead of hours. Once encoded to H264 I can watch the movie on my Apple TV or iPhone.

[ILoveC4]

@ILoveC4: i understand you just rip the movies to your hard drive as an ISO. Encoding will compress the movie using a codec like H264 (this is the process that can take hours). With a USB H264 encoder I can actually encode a full lenth movie in about 25 minutes instead of hours. Once encoded to H264 I can watch the movie on my Apple TV or iPhone.

Is there any loss in quality when you do this? I actually don't rip to .ISO files, I just do the straight .VOB's.

[bog]

Ripping to ISO/VOB is essentially the same. It copies the movie to your hard drive while retaining the original format and menus. ISO is a just a container of all the VOB files. Some file systems don't handle large files gracefully so it may be easier to keep as VOB.

When you compress by encoding to a different format (like H264) you will lose some quality compared to ISO/VOB, however, it will also result in smaller file sizes. I can encode to a lower resolution and/or bitrate depending on the device I want to play it back with.

[bog]

Quality loss depends on the target resolution and bitrate I chose compared to the original. I can include stereo and AC-3 5.1 audio tracks in the encoded file. I will lose menus and extras in the encoded version (unless I encode them separately).

ISO/VOB tends to give the best compatibility.

[piratemonkey]

If this helps, I've done a ton of my bluray rips with both ANYDVD HD and choose to rip to hard drive.....I then use tsmuxer to remove unwanted audio and subtitles which at times can reduce quite a bit of unneeded space in my case (5gb-10gb).

Recently I've been using another tool, DVDFAB which I'm liking as much if not better......reason being is I can rip out the unwanted audio and subtitles all at one time as well and more importantly some blurays have multiple files sometimes organized and sometimes all over the place.......the cool part is DVDFAB finds the movie files, organizes and puts in order so it's very simple to join and mux with tsmuxer in this case.

Not sure if that helps but it's saved me a ton of time.

[bebster]

I haven't tried it yet with HD, but have used AnyDVD. It seems to just remove the protection, but doesn't do the actual copying.

I've had to use CloneDVD2 to do the actual copying from the DVD to an .iso file on my hard drive.

Is that what others have done?

[thecodeman]

With AnyDVD, it will decrypt on the fly. You have to right click the icon, and say "rip dvd to disk.." for it to actually copy.

[3fingerbrown]

Is there any good software out there for ripping DVD's and blu-ray discs on to my Mac? Perhaps not because I'm not sure if Macs even support blu-ray. I used to be a Mac fan but I'm finding control4 (and the integrated media world in general) is a very Windows-centric world.

Thanks.

[ILoveC4]

Mac the ripper is good I hear.

[ms2bmw]

I use handbrake for regular dvds and it works really well. Blu-ray will probably be a combination of windows software (AnyDVD HD) and Handbrake(for compression) plus an external BD drive.

[dannyboy]

Hi guys, interesting thread... I'm at the point of trying to work out what format to rip blu-rays to and how I will implement a media player solution with control 4.

I've got time on my side to implement the media player but keen to get my rips in the right format as I go as of now.

Dan,

What format do you rip your Blu-rays to play on the EVA9150?

Also do you get cover art with your blu-ray rips?

Bog,

What Hardware USB H.264 encoder do you use?

Do you view via control4 and if so do you get cover-art?

What file size do you typically get for a Blu-ray rip in H264?

I guess the resulting file container is a mp4?, if so question for anyone

I imagine that the control4 media player is an option to play the resulting file reliably (given mp4, H264-video and AC3-audio formats)

Thanks

[bog]

A quick background to set some terminology straight. Some programs may only rip or encode... others can perform both steps with one click.

Ripping: Copying contents from a DVD/BlueRay disc to hard drive. Strips copy protection (i.e. CSS encryption). Resulting files are usually VIDEO_TS folder containing VOB files or in an ISO image. File size is the same as the original disc. For DVD this is usually about 4-7 GB. No video or audio quality is lost. DVD's are MPEG2 video and Blu ray video may be MPEG2, H.264 or other. Audio can will sill contain the DTS 5.1 audio. You can also maintain menus and extras (or extras can be removed or ripped separately). Many media players can play these VOB or ISO files. Example of software that rips is Mac The Ripper for the Mac or AnyDVD for Windows. Since ripping removes copy protection from DVDs this is a gray area and not all programs support ripping in this sense. There are few options for ripping.

Encoding: Converting the format of an audio or video file to a different format. For example, MPEG2 video from a DVD to DivX or H.264. Encoding with newer codecs (like H.264) allows for greater compression. Depending on resolution and bitrate settings, a 7 GB movie may be compressed to 700 MB (a common size found on the Internet so they fit on a CD). To achieve this level of compression means loss of quality. Encoding a movie usually takes several hours. Majority of encoders will only support non-protected DVDs to avoid the legal issues around removing copy protection. Handbrake is a popular encoder for Mac and Windows. DVDFab is also a popular encoder for Windows (I believe this can also perform rips). Elgato, Roxio and many other commercial software vendors create encoding software.

@dannyboy

I use Elgato's Turbo.264 HD. There are similar Window based solutions. However, I must warn you that the Elgato software does not support subtitles. Encoding with these devices really does only take me about 30 minutes. I can adjust the resolution and video bitrate based on what device I want to play it back in. My DVDs are usually about 1.5 GB once encoded for my Apple TV (1500-2000 Kbps video bitrate and keeping original resolution and 5.1 audio tracks).

I don't have any blu ray discs. I convert my existing DVDs to VOB/ISO. I play these back using Boxee or XBMC installed on my Apple TV. I do not like media management capabilities in Control4 so I do not use C4 for playback. I do use C4 to switch to my video source (I use my Onkyo receiver to switch audio and video, I distribute video using an Audio Authority ballun) where I use the Apple TV/XBMC/Boxee interface for media playback and control. C4 sends the necessary IR commands to my Apple TV (located in my media closet) so I can navigate that interface. All my media is stored on a NAS and Boxee/XBMC scans the NAS for new content and automatically downloads metadata from IMDB.

[dannyboy]

Bog... Thanks for the lesson/details. I like this level of technical detail and clarity.

Ive just changed to DVDFab for DVD rips to isos. I've been very happy with this. works everytime, which was not the case with another product I was using.

DVDFAB also does Blu-ray and allows me to strip out all the nonsense stuff, but I'm still a little lost on what the preferred strategy is for blu-ray (ripped or encoded media)/control 4 - but I'll keep following the posts to see what you all are doing.... not having an eva or control4 media player yet - I cannot test, but am keen to rip/encode my blu-rays as I go into a supported format that will get the cover art.

[wappinghigh]

A quick background to set some terminology straight. Some programs may only rip or encode... others can perform both steps with one click.

My DVDs are usually about 1.5 GB once encoded for my Apple TV (1500-2000 Kbps video bitrate and keeping original resolution and 5.1 audio tracks).

G'day Bog. I've only just realised that you can drag the folder that MTR produces into the OSX "username"/movies folder and it will show up and be playable by OSX Front Row. Duhhhh..it's only taken my hrs to do this :rolleyes:

You don't seem to have to encode/compress anymore to get them to play in Front Row.

So is this now the same case for the ATV and frontrow on this? My other question is, if you want to still keep things organised in iTunes...is there some way of doing this? I can't seem to link or drag the same uncompressed file into the movies folder of itunes...

This seems a little different how itunes handles highres music. You can still drag 24/98 tracks into itunes even though you might not be able to play them on a device that can't handle the higher res format...

So do you basically have two files for videos? And two different locations/file paths for each type. One H264 for itunes content..playing on smaller devices like ipods etc and the uncompressed ones you use for XBMC?

Thanks as always for you invaluable help on all this

[bog]

Yes, Front Row plays ripped movies although iTunes does not. I've never tried with Front Row on Apple TV.

I only keep one version of my movies. I do not watch them on my iPod or iPhone. I only use native Apple TV features when I want to rent a movie from the iTunes store. I use Boxee or XBMC to play all my content which is stored on a NAS.

So what is your media setup? Have you checked out the XBMC app for the iPhone yet? I want to see how it works with the Boxee beta.