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]

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.

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 ?

 

[Joe]

Go Here :: http://handbrake.m0k.org/ << a Decent Easy DVD Ripper Which Most Importantly supports x264 + AC3 >> Avi/OGM/MP4

It Requires This :: http://www.dvd43.com/ for reading commercial DVDs

BTW dint c ur prev Q .. footprint of round 1.2-1.5G depending on Length

EDIT :: The AVIs with AC3[Dolby Digital 5.1] + x264 seek well in MCE (as well as all other content i got my mitts on)

 

[WC Annihilus]

I would personally rip with something like DVD Decrypter, convert to lossless with VirtualDubMod, then encode into something like XviD (using VDM) or h.264 (using MeGUI or similar). Granted, that would take a lot of time... >.>

(I have hardly read this thread, so if I'm talking about something completely different, go ahead and ignore me)

 

[nathan]

Go Here :: http://handbrake.m0k.org/ << a Decent Easy DVD Ripper Which Most Importantly supports x264 + AC3 >> Avi/OGM/MP4

It Requires This :: http://www.dvd43.com/ for reading commercial DVDs

BTW dint c ur prev Q .. footprint of round 1.2-1.5G depending on Length

EDIT :: The AVIs with AC3[Dolby Digital 5.1] + x264 seek well in MCE (as well as all other content i got my mitts on)

i was always under the impression that seeking (when using avi ect) doesnt work at all with mce 2005. Am i wrong?