Best way to bulk convert DVD TV Show box set to H264?

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gbwelly

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#214826 30-May-2017 15:23

I have a relatively obscure TV show box set, which I've not watched due to loathing optical media (not to mention I'd need to bring a USB DVD drive out to the lounge to play them). I would really like to watch the show again.

I want a tool which I can point at the discs, rip the shows, encode them and name them using something like TVDB for example. I have a 12 core Xeon workstation available to me too so the more multi threading the better.

Anyone got any suggestions? I really want to just pop my head into the study once and a while, and if the drive is ejected, pop in the next disc and click continue.

Should I just torrent the show and get someone else to do all the leg work for me? I really would like to control the quality of the rips as the originals were pretty rugged (1997 TV) to start with.

tehgerbil

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#1791807 30-May-2017 15:27

Handbrake sounds like your app!

Senecio

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#1791816 30-May-2017 15:35

+1 for Handbrake. I ripped a few old DVD box sets when I moved country as I didn't want to carry the optical media with me. A bit of messing at first to select the pre-set that delivers the results that you're happy with but once you've done that you can just walk away and pop a new disc in when complete.

You'll probably want to use another piece of software to tag your files as it's not Handbrake's strongest point.

davidcole

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#1791835 30-May-2017 15:59

Rip the disks to ISOs first...so there's no need to fuss around with disks. Then yeah handbrake. You can script it somewhat, but regardless, some dvds muck around with the titles, and put duplicates and all sorts of stuff in.

Personally I have taken your other approach before and let someone else do the leg work.....but one of these suggestions is more legal than the other. Depends how strong your moral compass.

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BlueShift

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#1791845 30-May-2017 16:35

davidcole:

Rip the disks to ISOs first...so there's no need to fuss around with disks. Then yeah handbrake. You can script it somewhat, but regardless, some dvds muck around with the titles, and put duplicates and all sorts of stuff in.

Personally I have taken your other approach before and let someone else do the leg work.....but one of these suggestions is more legal than the other. Depends how strong your moral compass.

My moral compass would tell me that if I've paid for it, I can watch it. If ripping the DVD then watching it is OK, then watching a rip someone else has made should be no different, as long as you retain ownership of the originally purchased media. Especially if the ripped version is of no better quality than the one you own - if you own it on VHS and download a 4K version, that's not like-for-like. If you rip it then sell the disks, then it becomes a darker shade of grey again.

Stu

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#1791859 30-May-2017 16:51

Actually, ripping your personal copy of the DVD/Blu Ray/VCD/Laser Disc/VHS tape/etc isn't legal in NZ. Conversion of music is fine, video not so. But that's the legal view. One day they'll catch up.

Edited for clarity

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afe66

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#1791863 30-May-2017 16:56

I use handbrake running on a Ubuntu 14 machine with the css plugin.

The hassle is some of the DVD have multiple titles on them to try to make it hard to work out which track is the actual file. If you are ripping something "old" then most likely they will just be sequential tracks except for the largest file which will be loop of all the episodes as one track. For newer dvds I use vlc to play the dvd and select the episode I want to play (ie one) then look to track details to see which track number is the correct one, then go back to dvd menu, load the next episode and note its track number, then queue up all the episodes/track with a different file name (xxx - s01e01, xxx -s01e02 etc) on handbrake and it will rip them all as separate files

When I converted the boxed set of inspector morse (?24 dvds), the episode names where sequential so I ripped all the dvd as iso's then mounted them and ripped them with handbrake. This way I could convert multiple DVDs without having to swap dvds. Although I had to swap dvd's to create the iso's its much quicker to create iso's than ripping in real time.

Files then place on plex server on NAS which would look up the episode names on tvdb when indexing them. You just had to make sure the s01e01 etc matched the tvdb.

(Technically against the law but I'm ok as I bought them all and still have all the original dvds in garage. And im sure most of us ripped cd's and recorded from the radio when it was illegal too)

davidcole

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#1791890 30-May-2017 17:46

BlueShift:
davidcole:

Rip the disks to ISOs first...so there's no need to fuss around with disks. Then yeah handbrake. You can script it somewhat, but regardless, some dvds muck around with the titles, and put duplicates and all sorts of stuff in.

Personally I have taken your other approach before and let someone else do the leg work.....but one of these suggestions is more legal than the other. Depends how strong your moral compass.

My moral compass would tell me that if I've paid for it, I can watch it. If ripping the DVD then watching it is OK, then watching a rip someone else has made should be no different, as long as you retain ownership of the originally purchased media. Especially if the ripped version is of no better quality than the one you own - if you own it on VHS and download a 4K version, that's not like-for-like. If you rip it then sell the disks, then it becomes a darker shade of grey again.

I use that logic also

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Senecio

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#1792288 31-May-2017 12:38

I don't have a moral compass. I find it easier that way.

lurker

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#1792291 31-May-2017 12:45

Depends on how you are watching these, but I personally prefer ripping as ISOs and watching them that way on my HTPC via Kodi/PowerDVD.

That way I keep all the extras & commentaries on my movies and don't worry about compression.

It might sound a little crazy but with storage being relatively cheap I don't have a problem being wasteful, I even do this to my blurays now.

Otherwise +1 for Handbrake if wanting individual files

richms

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#1792294 31-May-2017 12:54

I just rip and dont bother converting. DVDs are so small that the file size isnt a problem and in the past when I have tried converting TV content which was interlaced I could never get it looking as good as when the TV deinterlaced the 480i input from a disc player.

Richard rich.ms

mdf

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#1792302 31-May-2017 13:01

+1 for Handbrake. However, wasn't Handbrake recently compromised and an infected version used as a vector for spreading spyware? Might want to download with caution.

loceff13

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#1792327 31-May-2017 13:25

Seems like a waste of power to encode something if it's available elsewhere in a quality you are ok with. If you think torrents will be of dubious quality consider just making images of the discs in question that you can mount using a virtual drive etc.

gbwelly

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#1792330 31-May-2017 13:28

Thank you to all who have replied, separating the ISO rip from any further decisions about re-encoding is great advice. I might do the math and decide if it's worth the disk capacity to even re-encode. Also I didn't realise Plex was smart enough to get the show name from the folder without needing to put it in the file name too.

afe66

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#1792379 31-May-2017 14:47

mdf:
+1 for Handbrake. However, wasn't Handbrake recently compromised and an infected version used as a vector for spreading spyware? Might want to download with caution.

Yes the mac version.

Since fixed obviously.