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Resolved Goodbye DVDs, Hello HD playback! (Almost..)
- Thread starter cheekypaul
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good question.
really, sending the movies to different rooms is not something I need or want to "get into" at this point. maybe at some point in the future, years from now. I imagine the files being on one or more hard drives, which I would hook up, when I want to watch something, to the spare Mac mini or the laptop. once hooked up, I'm aware I can then plug my computer output to a tv for tv convenience. or the projector.
I see no reason why hooking up to a tv or laptop makes much difference to the major process of getting the DVDs digitised. I like your forward thinking though.
many thx for your input thus far, dr sox, appreciated.
and to all posters, very interesting.
Just a quick question to the OP, you're fine with 5.1 surround sound?
(FYI I don't mean that in any way, I have a full theater so I notice differences between DTS-MA and 5.1, but a majority of people it makes no difference).
I'm experimenting ripping my blu-rays to an HD, and using my blu-ray player to access them via USB.
(FYI I don't mean that in any way, I have a full theater so I notice differences between DTS-MA and 5.1, but a majority of people it makes no difference).
I'm experimenting ripping my blu-rays to an HD, and using my blu-ray player to access them via USB.
actually, i'm not interested in preserving 5.1 in the dvd backup, or any other audio, in this instance.
plain stereo (or mono if the film is old enough) is fine.
ideal setup
i currently use MakeMKV for all my blu-ray ripping with my Lacie Blu-ray portable drive. Rarely use Ripit since my local Redbox has a ton of BR discs to rent. Created a hidef preset in Handbrake to give me a nice 2-3gb file that compares closely to the BR discs. Right now, i keep a copy of the videos inside my itunes library on my MBP but eventually will be purchasing a Synology NAS 5 bay drive, moving all of my BR rips there. The Synology drive allows for Airplay, all i need to do is install the app on the NAS drive and set up my ATV's to access the folder structure on the drive (i forgot to mention that the NAS drive will be connected to my Airport Xtreme). Hoping to install either 5 2tb drives or 5 3 tb drives into the NAS, this way it can handle future rips of any movies i rent as well as my Lightroom 4 (soon to upgrade to 5) catalog folder structure.
I have to say, the preset i use in Handbrake works really well with animation files, very clean and detailed. As for regular BR movies i don't see much of a loss in quality. Plays well. Eventually i'll upgrade my iphone 4 to an iphone 5s and my iPad to possibly a mini or 4th generation so i can access these higher resolution movies.
i currently use MakeMKV for all my blu-ray ripping with my Lacie Blu-ray portable drive. Rarely use Ripit since my local Redbox has a ton of BR discs to rent. Created a hidef preset in Handbrake to give me a nice 2-3gb file that compares closely to the BR discs. Right now, i keep a copy of the videos inside my itunes library on my MBP but eventually will be purchasing a Synology NAS 5 bay drive, moving all of my BR rips there. The Synology drive allows for Airplay, all i need to do is install the app on the NAS drive and set up my ATV's to access the folder structure on the drive (i forgot to mention that the NAS drive will be connected to my Airport Xtreme). Hoping to install either 5 2tb drives or 5 3 tb drives into the NAS, this way it can handle future rips of any movies i rent as well as my Lightroom 4 (soon to upgrade to 5) catalog folder structure.
I have to say, the preset i use in Handbrake works really well with animation files, very clean and detailed. As for regular BR movies i don't see much of a loss in quality. Plays well. Eventually i'll upgrade my iphone 4 to an iphone 5s and my iPad to possibly a mini or 4th generation so i can access these higher resolution movies.
this thread has been helpful to me as i've started ripping my movies to mp4 to watch on my apple tv. my question is this...will the movies be in the normal 5.1 SS, DTS or whatever when it's converted to mp4?
It depends on your settings for the encode! Are you using Handbrake to do your encoding? And if so, are you using the Apple TV preset?
yes, i'm using handbrake and 'apple tv' preset. i have a few that i'm transferring that have DTS audio but i can't honestly tell the difference when i'm watching it on my home theatre. I have my receiver (Denon 1912) set for Direct output. The files are much larger with DTS...so i may just go with the apple default since the files are smaller. esp. considering that i'm not noticing a huge difference in sound quality.
I thought that i could do goodbye Dvds hello HD streaming, But i went DVD to HD Streaming to BluRay for the quality, HD streaming is just still not up to scratch
When you compare HD streaming to BR, aren't you really comparing 720p streaming to 1080p BR? I ask that because I see in your profile you have a 1st gen aTV which only supports 720p.
I have actually converted all of my dvd/BR's to mp4 and have since found the aTV3 streaming (1080p) to be so close in quality to BR that it's not worth the expense/time of buying the BR and converting it. So I have decided to stream almost everything, now. Will probably only buy a BR for those really special and rare classics.
I think you are very lucky if not blessed if you can't tell the difference between a compressed file from BR material for ATV and streaming a direct m2ts or uncompressed mkv file via a streamer to a 1080p tv.
As for me, I am not so 'lucky' per se. I can quickly tell the difference between blu ray level goodness and an overly compressed 1080p file for ATV3. I prefer to stream my movies through my blu ray player itself or via XBMC on a Mac Mini with full uncompressed video and hd audio (on the Mini, the HD audio only uses the core and thus is akin to DVD and what Handbrake offers unless I opt to use Window on a Mini and XBMC within Windows).
I admit I don't understand the philosophy of taking the original, reducing it down so much and then returning it to a screen (and possibly audio system) that handles the uncompressed original. This to me is akin to having a great stereo system or headphone and insisting on taking CD quality or better music files and compressing them down to 128 bitrate. The 128 is not arbitrary here as it probably the best comparison to Handbrake for ATV3 as opposed to 320 or 256 bitrate.
Okay just my two cents and again, if you don't feel a difference you are luckier than many of us.
!st gen apple TV, with the WiFi card out and a h.264 d/encoder board in its place so i can view true 1080p with no problems , sure i have to be wired to stream content, but i also can load up 140gb of 1080p movies and TV shows and take them on the road with me to remote places with shocking or no connectivity.
Im comparing 1080p content from apple (and 1080p content ripped and compressed down to 4gb ish file sizes from blu rays) to a true blu-ray experience.
I got an apple Tv3, but because its not "portable" (i.e has to be connected to either a network or internet source to work) its just no good for "movie nights round at a friends house"
AT1 i unplug with content on it, take it to friends house, plug into HDMI port and power and off i go... but for Quality, richer blacks, brighter colours and better sound, its bluray all the way at the moment
Just a slight correction. All video is compressed (even on BD). Streaming services just compress it more. To store an uncompressed 2 hour HD movie in 4:4:4 RGB would require over a TB.
Videophile.Well...i guess that makes you the true audiophile
Just a slight correction. All video is compressed (even on BD). Streaming services just compress it more. To store an uncompressed 2 hour HD movie in 4:4:4 RGB would require over a TB.
Videophile.
LOL right!
Just a slight correction. All video is compressed (even on BD). Streaming services just compress it more. To store an uncompressed 2 hour HD movie in 4:4:4 RGB would require over a TB.
Videophile.
We agree. However it was for the sake of discussion. I'll rephrase that a compressed copy being compressed yet again, will give inferior results when using something like Handbrake. As for the audio, DTS-Master is very close to uncompressed as it comes and in fact, is superior to most LPCM audio streams as most LPCM ratios are set lower though it is considered uncompressed. (This is the difference between something like CD quality verses a flac file that is 96/24 as opposed to 44/16 or 41/16.)
I appreciate the correction on your part.
Btw, I am neither an audio or videophile per se. I just appreciate matching input with output. If I had a tube TV or 720 flatscreen I would probably see less difference. If I used TV speakers vs AVR to higher end speakers I would notice less difference. However, if one can see or hear a difference, then it is simply logical to get a good match (grin).
Yes and a good analogue of using Handbrake would be like taking an audio file in AAC 320Kbps (very close sounding to the original) file and compressing it agin and down to MP3 96Kbps (audible artifacts added).
Just a little DTS-MA (and TrueHD) info. Both are totally lossless compression (like ALAC, FLAC or a Zip file) and are 100% bit for bit identical (not just "very close") to the LPCM master after decoding. Some BD's do contain LPCM tracks instead (or too) but they are almost always identical copies of the master (not down-sampled and/or bit lowered).