Another newbie! Couple of questions, please

[PacMama]

Hello! I hope you don't mind me asking here, but I have a couple of questions that weren't completely answered (or at least not in a "language" I understand) in several forum searches, as well as general Google searches.

I am attempting to put my family's entire DVD collection into a digital format so that we can just watch our movies using a media center thing. I haven't gotten that far yet, but have been looking at different options. While I'm researching those options, however, I wanted to start at least ripping and formatting the DVDs because I have a feeling this is going to take quite a bit of time. We have about 500 DVDs, including some from our favorite TV show series, etc. This is all because I'm so tired of finding my 2- and 4-year olds tearing through the DVDs. We have lost so many due to rambunctious little boys and their unique ability to destroy anything they come in contact with. I'm sure you all know the drill.

At this point, I don't have a bluRay reader and we don't have many BR discs anyway, so these questions only pertain to regular DVDs. So here's my questions, after having read many tutorials and searches:

I'm having a hard time deciphering which title to choose from the Disney DVDs. I did read that Disney and some other companies do this to deter ripping, and I read that the BDinfo database can be helpful for choosing which title to pick. However I saw that it was on a bluRay forum... and these are regular DVDs. I just want the movie in English with regular audio, subtitles not necessary. We're keeping all our DVDs so we'll have the original, but I'm hoping to box them up and put them in the garage until/unless we need it for some reason. But, for example, when I've have MakeMKV open the 2-disc special edition version of Beauty and the Beast, it shows 5 titles, 4 of which all appear to be the actual movie. MakeMKV has checked two of these as well as the first title that doesn't seem to be the movie. But I don't know which one to choose for this purpose- how would I know to pick? Can that BDinfo thing be used for regular DVDs? I'm anticipating encountering this several times because we have a large Disney DVD collection, so having a good method for identifying the correct title to choose would be very helpful.

Title01- 22 chapters, 3.4GB (angle 1) duration 1:30:37, segment count 47;
Title02- 22 chapters, 3.4GB (angle 2) duration 1:30:37, segment count 47;
Title03- 21 chapters, 3.2GB (angle 1) duration 1:23:46, segment count 53;
Title04- 21 chapters, 3.2GB (angle 2) duration 1:23:46, segment count 53

There is more information about the segment map as well, let me know if you need that info too!

Second, I had done a few other DVDs using this process, and then I encoded it with Handbrake, as suggested by a friend of mine. I used his preset that he emailed me (similar to "normal" with a couple settings tweaked) After that encoding process was done, I tried to play the mp4 file in VLC player, but it wouldn't work. I'm assuming that the issue is something having to do with Handbrake, not this original rip from MakeMKV. Sounds silly, but can you advise me if I should ask in the Handbrake forums for that, or is it a potential issue with how I ripped it?

I really appreciate any help or advice that you can offer! This is something that is pretty foreign to me, but I want to learn how to do it so that we can preserve our movie collection before my darling monkeys destroy anymore DVDs! Thanks again for the help! I'm willing to learn and to try things, but I don't speak computer very well and have to google just about everything in order to find tutorials... it's a long process. lol

Have a great day!!

[PacMama]

Also, I saw another thread mention that I could open VLC and play the movie to see just what track it actually plays. I'm doing that now, but can't figure out how to tell which title it's actually playing. Also, it's going through the whole menu/previews and I don't want that on the ripped version of the movie. Hmmmm

ETA: May have figured it out- when I played it on VLC, I looked at the "navigation" and saw that there was a dot checked next to title 16. Since MakeMKV only selected one of the two title 16s, I went with the one it checked, highlighted the movie and the audio in English, and clicked the big button! Hopefully that does the trick!

[Smithcraft]

Disney delights in doing this, and it makes it difficult.

One option other than using VLC to deduce what track to rip, is to rip them all, and figure out which one is the one to keep with VLC.

SC

[Chetwood]

Play them back in PowerDVD and see what title is selected.

[PacMama]

Thanks guys! I did figure out with VLC which title was the correct one to keep. However, I'm encountering a new problem. If this belongs in the other forum for HB, please just let me know!

I encoded 4 files overnight- Aladdin, Beauty & the Beast, Cars, and Hotel Transylvania, after having used MakeMKV for each of them.

The file sizes are larger than the mkv sizes, and they won't play on VLC now. For example, Aladdin's mkv is 3.98GB, but the mp4 is 6.38gb.

Not sure what to do from here! Guess I'll sign up on the other forum too! Thank you all- I really do appreciate your help!

[Woodstock]

Handbrake's normal settings will make the file smaller, but there are a number of settings in the "quality" area (RF being one of them) that can make the file LARGER in a hurry. Cars, for example, with the standard Handbrake "High Profile" preset, shrank about 60%, down to just under 1.6GB, for me.

The handbrake wiki pages cover this.

As for it becoming unplayable in VLC, THAT is actually understandable. Most likely, your preset does not have the "Large File" checkbox set, which means the >4GB file won't work. The "Nightly Builds" versions of Handbrake all use large file settings by default, so that you don't spend hours encoding an invalid file.

[PacMama]

Handbrake's normal settings will make the file smaller, but there are a number of settings in the "quality" area (RF being one of them) that can make the file LARGER in a hurry. Cars, for example, with the standard Handbrake "High Profile" preset, shrank about 60%, down to just under 1.6GB, for me.

The handbrake wiki pages cover this.

As for it becoming unplayable in VLC, THAT is actually understandable. Most likely, your preset does not have the "Large File" checkbox set, which means the >4GB file won't work. The "Nightly Builds" versions of Handbrake all use large file settings by default, so that you don't spend hours encoding an invalid file.

Hi Woodstock, thank you so much for that information! I did browse around on their forums (I'll admit my intimidation comes partially from their requirement to post logs with support requests, and I'm currently typing this on a Mac, but doing this whole process on my husband's Windows laptop... ) I downloaded a "nightly build" and tried the 4 files again, this time on the "normal" preset, outputting to mp4, and it appears to have worked well! I might look further into it when I get into our "real" movies, but for the kids stuff, I just want it playable and decent so that they don't destroy the discs anymore. So I think this will work well!

One last question for now, and I'm sure it's a matter of opinion only, but when I back these files up to an external hard drive (currently, I'm copying them to our PS3 to play... but I have another external drive just to use for backing up the movies) should I back up the MKV version, or the MP4 encoded version? What would you do? THANK YOU! Seriously, I really appreciate the help. It's very nice of you and I'm glad you don't mind taking time to help someone who really, really doesn't know what she's doing without all this advice!

[setarip_old]

Hi!

should I back up the MKV version, or the MP4 encoded version?

Whichever plays on your backup system (In general terms, I believe you'll find that the Matroska [MKV] container is more flexible for conversions of incorporated formats - but that's not what you're inquiring about.)

[Woodstock]

Personally, I back up to MKV, but the "production" ends in MP4 format.

There are things you can't do in MP4, but... The players the family uses all understand MP4 in one way or another, and not all understand MKV. And some will play MKV files if they're on a USB drive, but not over the network.

What's really irritating is that they all understand MP4, but they all disagree over what MP4 file extension they'll play! The system has 3 copies of each file, with extensions of MPG, M4V, and MP4, to satisfy the prejudices of each player.

But, the backup is in MKV, because it will store ALL the parts of the video, including the PGS subtitles of a Bluray or the 3D code, if I ever buy one of those.