UKC

Having finally beaten my music collection into order, and now found a way to pull recordings off my Humax 9300, it's time to start ripping my DVD collection.

So, suggestions please for:

i) free DVD ripper software
ii) best video file format to use (bearing in mind I'm going to be using a Twonky DLNA media server, and Android viewer apps)
iii) free video format converter, to accept ripped DVDs and MPEG-2 Transport Stream (.ts files) from the Humax

Thanks.

In reply to captain paranoia:

If it fits your criteria.https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=roman10.media.converter

In reply to captain paranoia:

On iii) I have heard good things about Handbrake. Very versatile, you can configure everything about the audio and video streams but it also has presets for a decent number of target devices. With the addition of libdvdcss it might suit your needs for i) too. Alternatively I think VLC can rip almost anything, and is also a good player/streamer for non-android devices.

Handbrake: https://handbrake.fr/
VLC: http://www.videolan.org/vlc/index.en_GB.html

In reply to Jack B:

I found that VLC would play the .ts streams pulled from the Humax last night, and did a pretty good job on the PC; good picture quality (on a 14" monitor, mind...), and good lipsync audio.

I've just spotted that it also claims to do conversion as you suggest, but I tried it and it came back with an empty output file immediately; I'm sure I must have done something wrong. I could probably do with getting the latest version, as I'm sure the one installed on the PC is ancient; I can't remember installing it...

Currently trying Oxelon media converter, but there's a vast array of output file formats... Currently converting to AVI container, MPEG4 video, MP3 audio, with HDReady output resolution. We'll see how that goes... It's using the ffmpeg library fro the conversion.

It's going to take a long time to convert everything, so I'd like to make a good choice of container, video & audio formats. Some experimentation is in order...

The plan was to convert on my PC, but I guess I could try one of the little quadcore android media boxes I have (and would be used for playback).

Thanks for the suggestions. Keep them coming...

In reply to captain paranoia:

ffmpeg (or more accurately libavcodec) is used to do the heavy lifting in a huge number of media converters and players, including VLC. With the right codec pack it can play anything. So you'll probably find similar results whatever program you use, the the main difference being what options you can change, and what options the software chooses for you. There are several different codecs for some file formats, which can be used by libavcodec, and some are more efficient than others, so that might make a difference too.

ffmpeg is a set of command line utilities for libavcodec, anything you can do with the software you can also do at the command line. It has a steeper learning curve, both by nature of being the command line and because there are a huge number of options. It's very good for batch converting video through a script, I use it for dealing with odd formats from microscope cameras.

In reply to Jack B:

Yes, I've seen ffmpeg used widely.

Hah. Just spotted that Twonky has added a test .ts file I stuck in my Video library, and XBMC on the Hudl plays it without any further work...

And the trial conversion I did with Oxelon from .ts to .avi/MPEG4(1280x720, 800kbps)/MP3(stereo 128kbps) also works just fine. It converted in about real time, though...

So, until I start ripping DVDs, it looks like I can just take the recorded files straight off the Humax disk, and bung them on my network drive.

Now to see why my PC router connection is slugging my internet... Just done a virus and malware sweep: nothing. Sigh.

In reply to captain paranoia:

Excess network traffic of unknown origin? There's a tool for that too: https://www.wireshark.org/download.html

In reply to Jack B:

WireShark was the tool I was trying to think of, thanks...

Tried the .TS files on the little android media box, and all the videos were horizontally compressed in XBMC. Odd, because they're fine on on the Hudl 1, and the media box is essentially a headless Hudl, being based on the same Rockchip RK3188.

In reply to captain paranoia:

Another try for you. http://sourceforge.net/projects/mediaportal/?source=directory