How to convert a DVD to MKV without quality loss?

C

Chris230291

Member
The title says it all really. How do you convert a DVD to MKV etc without quality loss? I've done it before with unsatisfactory results. I want to slowly put our DVD collection on my home server.

Any help is appreciated.
Chris.
 
It's impossible to convert anything from it's original format to a different one without quality loss.
Handbrake is probably your best option, with the least quality loss.

http://handbrake.fr/
 
Hmmm. How come when you pirate Blu Ray rips etc they look and sound perfect? How do they do it? lol

I've tried handbrake but my output was kinda grainy and not very good :/

Im looking for advice from someone with experience that can talk me through it really.

Cheers,
Chris.
 
Well I wouldn't know about piratebay rips or whatever.

But anyway, because the quality of BluRay in MTS format is HD the quality is much higher. When they convert from MTS to MKV there is hardly any quality loss and is why the don't look so bad.

What you are doing is taking a SD low res quality format and converting it to a different format which will result in quality loss, it's how it works, there is no way around it, it can't be done.

At lower resolutions it wouldn't look as be bad, but if you are viewing them on anything other than a SD TV they are going to look like crap.
 
Last edited:
Ok thanks guys.

So the quality gets degraded if i take something like a Tom & Jerry DVD because it's SD? So what should i convert SD videos to to get no noticeable quality loss?

Chris.
 
you could convert to lossless RGB avi but the filesize would be huge. there's really not much point in trying to get a perfect copy of a dvd. I personally don't rip DVDs anymore since I don't have a dvd drive anymore, but there is a lot of free software around that can convert dvds to a good looking h.264 video. alternatively you could convert it to lossless RGB avi and then use a h.264 encoder (like the adobe media encoder) and convert the file at your discretion and quality standards. (but thats a 2 step process and you need some hard drive space for it if its a full length movie)

Edit: From what I've heard VobEdit works well for demuxing the Vob files of a DVD... You should be able to remux them to another MPEG based format at no quality loss
 
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It kind of depends what you want, if you want 100% quality (and yes, this is of COURSE possible), that comes at a cost, size.

A dvd averages 4.7gb so that's the kind of space you're going to need per movie.

You can pull the VOB files directly off the thing and muck about with them to get it to work. (there are ways for re-containering these without quality loss)

When you 'pirate' a bluray, these again come in various 'quality' versions, to get a full lossless copy, is around 25GB (the size of your standard single layer bluray disc) with all the menu's stripped out that's usually as good as it gets. If you add some mild compression and noise filtering, usually aroudn 14~18gb and if you don't mind a little blocky'ness you can pull them all the way down to 9gb or so.

Personally, I wouldn't really bother with archiving dvd's as to get them within a manageable size (around 1gb in my opinion) the source quality is lacking the definition required to really make it worth your while. I'd find some form of physical way to archive them, dump/recycle all the cases and keep the discs as they're never going to be actually worth anything.

My opinion of course, but ripping dvd's just isn't worth it anymore. :(

The matroska (mkv) format came about when mp4 and avi just couldn't handle the quality required for the high bitrate hd stuff, so it tends to perform better with HD video anyway.

You could try lossless .mov format, that's pretty good for keeping it's quality.
 
d3rrial said:
you could convert to lossless RGB avi but the filesize would be huge. there's really not much point in trying to get a perfect copy of a dvd. I personally don't rip DVDs anymore since I don't have a dvd drive anymore, but there is a lot of free software around that can convert dvds to a good looking h.264 video. alternatively you could convert it to lossless RGB avi and then use a h.264 encoder (like the adobe media encoder) and convert the file at your discretion and quality standards. (but thats a 2 step process and you need some hard drive space for it if its a full length movie)

Edit: From what I've heard VobEdit works well for demuxing the Vob files of a DVD... You should be able to remux them to another MPEG based format at no quality loss
Click to expand...

That sounds great, ill look into it thanks. :)

SuB said:
It kind of depends what you want, if you want 100% quality (and yes, this is of COURSE possible), that comes at a cost, size.

A dvd averages 4.7gb so that's the kind of space you're going to need per movie.

You can pull the VOB files directly off the thing and muck about with them to get it to work. (there are ways for re-containering these without quality loss)

When you 'pirate' a bluray, these again come in various 'quality' versions, to get a full lossless copy, is around 25GB (the size of your standard single layer bluray disc) with all the menu's stripped out that's usually as good as it gets. If you add some mild compression and noise filtering, usually aroudn 14~18gb and if you don't mind a little blocky'ness you can pull them all the way down to 9gb or so.

Personally, I wouldn't really bother with archiving dvd's as to get them within a manageable size (around 1gb in my opinion) the source quality is lacking the definition required to really make it worth your while. I'd find some form of physical way to archive them, dump/recycle all the cases and keep the discs as they're never going to be actually worth anything.

My opinion of course, but ripping dvd's just isn't worth it anymore. :(

The matroska (mkv) format came about when mp4 and avi just couldn't handle the quality required for the high bitrate hd stuff, so it tends to perform better with HD video anyway.

You could try lossless .mov format, that's pretty good for keeping it's quality.
Click to expand...

Size is not a problem. I have a 16TB home server dedicated to just media. The movies do not all belong to me so i can't just archive them physically. Besides, if they're on the server i can stream them over 3G on mobile devices. Thats one of the main reasons i want them backed up.

I think i"m gonna have another play with some convertors.
 
Its possible it just depends on the settings you use in your converter more than anything, just cause you convert something doesnt mean it instantly loeses all the quality.

http://www.dvdvideosoft.com/ is what i use, its presets work nicely, ive converted HD and SD stuff with perfectly fine results and its pretty quick.

Pick your file, pick an output folder, choose your quality/res (ntsc/pal dvd, 720p or 1080p) then if you want you can tweak/change the fps, bitrate, video codec ect but the presets seem to work fine for me.
 
Cheers mate i'll take a look.
Handbrake just totally butchered a DVD :/ lol


EDIT.

Is there some sort of chart i can refer to that will tell me the best format to convert "x" format to, with the correct/best/optimised settings?
 
Last edited:
there is no best format realy, they are just containers at the end of the day, if you want to keep as much quality as possible set the res to be identical to the source file, and dont put the bitrate to low.

I generaly stick with about 6.5-7.5Mbps for 1080p, 2.5-3.5Mbps for 720p and 1.5-2Mbps for dvd, higher of the range if its fast paced/lots of explosions ect like an action movie and lower of the range if its something with slower camera work say something like forest gump, alot of fairly static camera work (minus the war section) as you have a ton of storage you could just keep the the upper ranges tbh.
 
Are there any programs that can work out the best solution for me? It seems like a mission to keep testing different settings for each piece of media.
 
I am using Pavtube ByteCopy which can meet my demands of convert Blu-ray/DVD to MKV with lossless quality. You can download the free version to have a try. Hope it can help you as well.:)
 
DVD Fab Platinum will also convert your bluray and dvd movies to multiple file types it's what I have used myself in the past to put my dvd's onto my phone so have a look at it
 
Chris230291 said:
Are there any programs that can work out the best solution for me? It seems like a mission to keep testing different settings for each piece of media.
Click to expand...

You can give a try at EaseFab's LosslessCopy tool. It's very easy to use and provides a high definition rip without quality loss.
 
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