Dvd rippingto macmini via handbrake? Best setup please?

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ScottStevensNZ

245 posts

Master Geek

#352332 16-Jul-2010 14:46

timbosan:
ScottStevensNZ: Typically my mini will be able to rip a 45 minute TV show in 15-20 minutes. It usually averages about 50 frames per second - but I am not using H.264 which will tend to rip the content in near 'real time' per pass. I also use 'Average bit-rate' and set it to 1000-1500KB/Sec. A full feature film will take about half the time to rip as the films length, sometimes less. If the disc is dirty it may take more time. Typically I don't have any other apps open when ripping though I can watch a movie off of disk at the same time.

Ah ha, I think the Apple TV profile has 'constant bit rate' of about 2000kb, and uses H.264, so it will be slower. Wish I had it in front of me to check, but I think the options the profile uses just makes it slower. I will try on a movie with different options and see.

Its always best to rip in the best quality you can - something that I will regret later on most likely as I have gone for speed so do as I say not what I do lol. Your rips with those settings will be better than mine although from a couch on a 32 inch 720P Sony bravia without my glasses I probably wouldn't notice. The trick is to find the quality/time trade off that is most acceptable to you nice thing is that handbrake makes this nice and easy :)

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use strict;
my $sheepCount;

Yes, they can.

Madmax77

152 posts

Master Geek

#352336 16-Jul-2010 14:54

timbosan:
ScottStevensNZ: Typically my mini will be able to rip a 45 minute TV show in 15-20 minutes. It usually averages about 50 frames per second - but I am not using H.264 which will tend to rip the content in near 'real time' per pass. I also use 'Average bit-rate' and set it to 1000-1500KB/Sec. A full feature film will take about half the time to rip as the films length, sometimes less. If the disc is dirty it may take more time. Typically I don't have any other apps open when ripping though I can watch a movie off of disk at the same time.

Ah ha, I think the Apple TV profile has 'constant bit rate' of about 2000kb, and uses H.264, so it will be slower. Wish I had it in front of me to check, but I think the options the profile uses just makes it slower. I will try on a movie with different options and see.

Here are the specs for Apple TV from Compressor (Final Cut Studio)

Name: H.264 for Apple TV
Description: H.264 1280x720 video @ 5Mbps, progressive. Audio is 44.1kHz, stereo
File Extension: m4v
Estimated size: 2.25 GB/hour of source
Device: Apple TV HD
Frame sync rate: 5 seconds
Video Encoder
Format: QT
Width and Height: Automatic
Pixel aspect ratio: Square
Crop: None
Padding: None
Frame rate: (100% of source)
Frame Controls: Automatically selected: Off
Codec Type: H.264
Multi-pass: Off, frame reorder: On
Pixel depth: 24
Spatial quality: 50
Min. Spatial quality: 50
Temporal quality: 50
Min. temporal quality: 50
Average data rate: 5 (Mbps)
Maximum data rate: 14 (Mbps)
Audio Encoder
Format: MPEG4
Sample Rate: 44.100kHz
Channels: 2
Bits Per Sample: 16
AAC encoder quality: high
Data rate: 128 Kbps

jonherries

1396 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

Subscriber

#352337 16-Jul-2010 14:55

Couple of things to add:

ripping speed might be best described as frames per second (fps) same way they benchmark computers using the popular shootem up games.

This is my understanding of how the whole thing works, feel free to correct me.

mov, mp4, mkv and avi are containers (like a cardboard box)
in this you put a few files including: video, audio, subtitles...

common formats (codecs) for the video are h.264 (subset of mpeg 4), wmv, mpeg2, mpeg4, theora
audio same as your music

now video quality comes down to:

bitrate - normally written as kbps (kilobits per second)
encoding method for H.264 there is x264 (opensource) and h.264 (licensed for apple from mpeg peeps and comes with qt pro) codecs
other fancies like deinterlacing, cropping 2 pass filters etc.

I have found Handbrake to be quite good at do this, when using the universal setup from the app bitrate set at 500kbs, with x264 doing the encoding (comes with vlc) you can rip files at about realtime.

Note in my macbook I run smcfancontrol as doing this taxes the processor, and this will help keep the machine cooler which means a faster rip.

ScottStevensNZ

245 posts

Master Geek

#352344 16-Jul-2010 15:09

jonherries: Couple of things to add:

ripping speed might be best described as frames per second (fps) same way they benchmark computers using the popular shootem up games.

This is my understanding of how the whole thing works, feel free to correct me.

mov, mp4, mkv and avi are containers (like a cardboard box)
in this you put a few files including: video, audio, subtitles...

common formats (codecs) for the video are h.264 (subset of mpeg 4), wmv, mpeg2, mpeg4, theora
audio same as your music

now video quality comes down to:

bitrate - normally written as kbps (kilobits per second)
encoding method for H.264 there is x264 (opensource) and h.264 (licensed for apple from mpeg peeps and comes with qt pro) codecs
other fancies like deinterlacing, cropping 2 pass filters etc.

I have found Handbrake to be quite good at do this, when using the universal setup from the app bitrate set at 500kbs, with x264 doing the encoding (comes with vlc) you can rip files at about realtime.

Note in my macbook I run smcfancontrol as doing this taxes the processor, and this will help keep the machine cooler which means a faster rip.

Leo Laporte often covers this sort of thing on the Tech Guy show/podcast too which is well worth a listen to geek out on.

From memory the non-h.264 MPEG 4 option is H.263 (Standard MPEG-2 is H.262 - iirc). H.264 is supposed to provide better quality video at lower bit rates than older standards however the algorithm is more complex so it takes more time and grunt to do the math. If I rip using my Macbook pro I will use a laptop cooler or set it on a glass table to help dissipate the heat. If there is a video that I want to rip at best quality then I will use h.264 at a higher bit-rate otherwise I will stick to the 'Its good enough' option and save the time.

Considering 4 years ago I started doing this on an old athlon 2600+ with Dr. DivX it would take 'real time' to trans-code (after you had ripped the DVD to HDD as it couldn't do it direct from disc) the fact that I can now rip a disk quickly and at better quality really does amaze me - progress aye

In the old days....

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