Trouble With PAL DVDs

[bigshot]

Hi

I've been converting UK PAL DVDs of TV episodes to MKVs on my Mac using RipIt to rip the DVD and MakeMKV to split out the episodes as MKV files. But every minute or two, there seems to be missing frames. There's a hitch in a pan, or a jerk in the action. I tried ripping straight from the DVD using MakeMKV but it didn't work right. Huge glitches. If I rip using RipIt and then compress using HandBrake, it's smooth as silk. But I want to be able to split out the episodes without reencoding.

Anyone found a solution to this?

[Woodstock]

Let's see, you have a tool (MakeMKV) that can rip directly from DVD and BD sources, and you chose to use a tool with a bad reputation for screwing up rips (RipIt) to do that job, THEN use MakeMKV to try to fix up what RipIt did wrong...

Why not try using MakeMKV directly, and see what it does?

[bigshot]

I'll do a test ripping straight out of the DVD using MakeMKV. I kinda wanted to have a rip of the DVD with all the menus, and MKVs of the TV shows for my server. But if this works that's OK.

The strange thing is that the RipIt rip plays perfectly, and when I use HandBrake to convert out of the RipIt rip to compress the programs, there are no missing frames. I'm guessing that MakeMKV doesn't like working directly off a hard drive rip. It probably can't keep up with the rate the video is coming in at.

[Woodstock]

Actually, handbrake is one of the programs that has problems with RipIt rips, due to inconsistencies in the result.

But the only way to really retain menus is to stick with the ISO, or copying all the files out into a matching directory structure. The MKV file format doesn't have provisions for menus. And then you can't take advantage of the better compression that h.264 can give you.

[bigshot]

Well, I tried ripping direct from MakeMKV and it had the same problem. I think it's that Plex doesn't play well with the MakeMKV rips. I'm going to try turning off hardware acceleration, but I don't see why my computer can play the RipIt DVD rip perfectly, but not a MakeMKV rip. It should be the exact same MPEG-2 file in both.

I spent the day researching and configuring XMBC. Maybe that will work better. Also my projector was set to a 24Hz refresh rate while the Mac Mini was putting out 60Hz. They are both set to 60 now. I really don't even care about progressive. Interlaced is fine as long as it doesn't hitch.

[bigshot]

It seems to be a no-go. I can get smooth playback with combing artifacts in XMBC (argh!), and with Plex I get no combing, but little jumps in the motion every ten or twenty seconds (argh!). If I transcode to mp4 using Handbrake or RipIt, the motion is perfectly smooth with no combing. I'm guessing that something in the conversion process is interlacing smarter than Plex or XMBC does on the fly. If I play the DVDs in my region free Oppo player, they play fine, so it isn't my monitor settings. I may have to just pop my MakeMKV files into Handbrake and batch process them. Wish I didn't have to.

John Lennon left one verse out of Imagine... "Imagine stuff just worked"

[Woodstock]

Interlaced video is an artifact we have because of how cathode ray tubes worked. Getting rid of it once it is done is a pain. Digital TVs have it built into their hardware, but it is disabled when you switch them to monitor mode.

There are people over on the handbrake forum that can describe what is going on far better than I ever could, but, between interlace and telecine, jerky playback is an issue with converting DVDs, because they are made for a different environment than we're now playing them back.

[bigshot]

Yeah, I think the main problem is the 60Hz refresh rate, not 50Hz. 25 fps is what is messing stuff up. Maybe a converter, like handbrake can take more time to get the conversion done cleanly than real time players can. It's weird though that my Oppo region free blu-ray player plays them perfectly without any problem.

[bigshot]

Cross my fingers, I think I figured it out. It wasn't the rip at all. It was the way Plex and XMBC handle interlacing. I went into the video menu while the show was playing and selected a different interlace method (Software Blend). It removed all of the hitches. Setting the output of my server to interlaced 60Hz helped a little bit further. Now it looks good.