Being economical with storage on a HTPC

[Rastalovich]

If u have put u`r dvds onto u`r htpc`s hard drive, have u:

a] just used a 1:1 backup util so they`re same size as on dvd

b] used something like rat/shrienk to make them 50% but retained the menus etc (cut the languages out)

c] used something like convertDVDtoX?? to make them into 1 file (then which codec did u find most effiecient ?)

It`s all well and good giving u`rself a tera or so to play with, but dang that space gets used up!

[Joe]

My rips are small and damn near the original DVD in Quality

personally I use Option C -- I rip all my DVDs to x264 using Gordian Knot

The Video CODEC I use is x264 ~ 1.2 KBps using a dual pass encode with a customish Quant Matrix ... all Encoding Quality options set to high (longer to encode but worth it)

I also take the original 5.1 track and embed it into the video file ... no conversion as it is basically compressing a compressed source and IMHO too risky for audio artifacts

I keep the source res minus Black Bars (auto Crop)

I know what u mean by using a tera ... looking @ adding an extra 500 - 750 Gb Disk to my Raid In my media center/Torrent/File server (aka my dual Xeon workhorse)

[nathan]

takes too much time for me to convert to avi or whatever. So i just transcode to dvd5. You do loose a little quality depending on the size.

[Rastalovich]

Originally Posted by name='nathan'

takes too much time for me to convert to avi or whatever. So i just transcode to dvd5. You do loose a little quality depending on the size.

Yeah, I can understand that, it`s kinda the way I was leaning, but the storage situation is getting a bit silly. Looking into the future, I`m gonna be knackered carry on at approx 5g a dvd.

Originally Posted by name='Joe'

My rips are small and damn near the original DVD in Quality

personally I use Option C -- I rip all my DVDs to x264 using Gordian Knot

The Video CODEC I use is x264 ~ 1.2 KBps using a dual pass encode with a customish Quant Matrix ... all Encoding Quality options set to high (longer to encode but worth it)

I also take the original 5.1 track and embed it into the video file ... no conversion as it is basically compressing a compressed source and IMHO too risky for audio artifacts

I keep the source res minus Black Bars (auto Crop)

I know what u mean by using a tera ... looking @ adding an extra 500 - 750 Gb Disk to my Raid In my media center/Torrent/File server (aka my dual Xeon workhorse)

I`m gonna have to adopt something like this. I don`t think the time issue will be that much of a problem.

I think if I try and stick to a routine of watch the dvd `from it`s case` the first time around. Then once it`s over, rip the sucker, probably using a pc setup to do exactly that coz I got a spare 3800x2 that handles video conversions pretty smartly.

As opposed to an approx 5g footprint per dvd - what are u getting ? 1.5g or less ?

[weihk]

sorry for bumping old thread back up......

Rastalovich - would a external HDD setup work better for what you need?

i too have a HTPC, but only with 36G worth of HDD space.....but i use a ext-hdd for storing most things in

bought a Akasa intergral ext-hdd, with E-Sata/USB2 blah blah sata/pata config, works pretty well

[Rastalovich]

Hey m8,

No, for personal reasons I just cannot stand using complete units, like pcs, laptop, whatever, that require another `unit` plugged into them in order to operate. In this term, storage wize.

As a temp means of moving stuff external drives are excellent. But for a `solution` I would much rather change-out hard drives. I`ve got enough of them about to do that.

[nathan]

As this thread has come alive again, i'll update you lot with a change in mind i had.

I now convert to avi, my main reason for this is because i filled my hard drives already :s So each film is about 1gb.

[Rastalovich]

Which method u use nat ? Something like Joe ?

[nathan]

yeah, but i cant be arsed to fine tune it ect. So i just use autogk. It still gives some pretty good results.

[Rastalovich]

Does it react well to fastforwarding and stuff ?