Forum.HaveTheKnowHow.com

Hi guys,

In my quest to try and build a forum where like-minded individuals can hang out, help each other and share ideas (and chatter of course!) I thought I'd fire off a couple of questions which I hope have more than one answer

So, first one: how do you rip your media? I rip my CDs as FLAC using EAC. I tag them using MP3Tag. For my DVDs/Blu-rays I rip as ISOs using DVDFab (the free version) and tag using MCM.

I like to rip my media as an exact 1:1 copy, nothing added nothing taken away. So, when I come to stream the music or video file it's the same experience as if I was playing the physical disc.

On the downside tho, it takes a lot of disc space and I still have to enjoy (endure?) the trailers and warnings that accompany each movie but once I've got past that I get full menu support with movie extras, soundtracks and commentary etc.

How do you rip your media and why do you do it like that?

I'm no Audiophile .. or even Videophile. I've used Handbrake to convert to a more manageable file sizes. There are limits to how small you can make it, i've found that ~1 Gig files for movies are Very decent. Depends on what codec and size you rip it to, but if you plan on moving over to a Big Screen. Don't cut the video too much. I suggest running a movie at ~ 5 or 6 different settings and see what you like the best. ( do something with some action scenes, Scenery, Audio variety... A movie that wont' kill your mental state...) once you've found your happy median on file sizes on the screen you are going to watch it on. Make that your default setting.

One of my friends who shares access to one of my servers throws on Blueray Rips all the time and it drives me crazy. i've got a big storage area but when 15 movies fill 100 gigs... versus 70-100 ( TV shows especially... those add up quickly)

my short answer.. don't go full size, but find your happy compromise for your speakers/ Display.

~Wingsigmortic

Ian,
You say you use DVDFab to rip your DVDs. I did the same thing, but am having trouble playing them back.
Granted I have not installed a media server on my ubuntu box and in fact I have not gotten Samba working just yet. So I am doing this all from my windows 7 computer. I installed TVMOBili on my windows computer to experiment with ripping and streaming. What has happened is that after ripping I get 2 folders AUDIO_TS and VIDEO_TS. In the VIDEO_TS there are several files, the ones with .vob extension are the video files. But they only play one file at a time, I want to be able to somehow string them together so that it will play as one continuous stream. Of course maybe it will do this when I get mediatomb up on my server, or maybe it is a problem with my streaming device (LG BD570 bluray player). I really want to get this working using the then .vob files. I only have about 20 or 30 DVDs so I am thinking that disk space will not be a problem. And I like the idea of being able to navigate the disk menu and chapters as well.

Thanks,

Hi,

The .IFO file is the one that contains the info which explains to the client how all the other files hang together. Try and play that one instead of the individual VOBs. That should also give you the menus.

Instead of mediatomb try using PS3MediaServer. That is far superior "out of the box" apparently. I don't use either of them as my clients handle everything natively (I rip to ISO) but PS3MediaServer looks like a better bet.

Ian.

Does the player(LG BD570 in my case) have to be able to "play" the IFO file which would be listed in the specs of the player?

Sorry for all the dumb questions, but I am trying to learn stuff here.

Thanks for putting up with me!

Not sure about your player. All I can suggest is try it and see what it does and does not support (using your W7 desktop as the host for now?). I'm not familiar with that player but very often these sort of players only support a small handful of formats and codecs. Codecs and containers are an absolute minefield and cause plenty of headaches.

Don't apologise for pinging questions at me. I enjoy trying to help and I never forget that everyone has to start somewhere. Anyway, sooner of later you'll go outside my area of expertise so I'll enjoy helping you whilst I can

Ian.

I use my server for ripping as well:

For CD's I use ABCDE ( Here is a excellent guide for setting it up: http://www.andrews-corner.org/abcde.html ) It can rip to any format. I use FLAC
For DVD's I use MakeMKV. It justs rip, no compression etc, If I would need to make it smaller I would use Handbrake, but with the HDD prices today I don't see any point in doing it.