[Simon]

Well, at least I hope so.

Today I found this: HandBrake or HandBrake (MacUpdate page)

It's a free little tool that takes any DVD or DVD folder, rips video and sound and exports to MPEG4 or AVI. It removes the DVD's encryption and includes cropping/scaling tools.

It's very simple to use since it has only a few settings and seems to run without a hitch. Basically you select the DVD and after some hours you get a movie file that can be played with QT player. It's that simple.

Now, I've found hardly any discussion about this software on this board. But it would be nice if some people who know anything about codecs, quality issues, run time, etc. could contribute and give some insight on what settings are best to use.

Anybody else use this?

[Cadaver]

Originally posted by Simon:
Anybody else use this?

I'll give it a try & report back.

[angelmb]

Simon, your sig is pretty impressive

[Simon]

Originally posted by angelmb:
Simon, your sig is pretty impressive

Unfortunately some aren't working anymore. But most are.

[-Q-]

Originally posted by Simon:


Unfortunately some aren't working anymore. But most are.

Computers aren't working or your heart after those double quarter pounders with cheese & bacon?

Thanks for the software tip. I'll give that a try today.

[chabig]

Anybody else use this?

I used it once. It was the easiest program I've found for ripping.

Chris

[Uncle Skeleton]

it doesn't rip to mp4, just avi

[chabig]

Yes, but once you get it off the DVD, other programs can convert to multiple formats.

[RevEvs]

i have it set on MP$ file/MPEG-4 Video/AAC

to rip the matrix, which is 2hrs 10min its estimating 1hr 3min @ an average of 60fps

pretty cool. last time i tried this on an older comp it took 7+hrs.

this is on a dual 2ghz g5 tho...

revs

[::maroma::]

I posted about this a while ago. I've been using it for months. It's the best. I'm also curious about bit rates, and quality settings.

[velodev]

How is this faster than DVDBackup?

Just curious as I barely know a spec about video codecs, etc.

If my current process is to rip via DVDBackup and then process via DVD2oneX to fit on single layer... where would Handbrake come in?

[Appleman]

Originally posted by ::maroma:::
I posted about this a while ago. I've been using it for months. It's the best. I'm also curious about bit rates, and quality settings.

So is it better than the combination I use:
DVDBackup & DVD2one ?

[::maroma::]

Originally posted by Appleman:
So is it better than the combination I use:
DVDBackup & DVD2one ?

Well, I'm not sure exactly. I friend turned me on to Handbrake a while back. I had not done any other sort of DVD ripping before then. And I really don't know all that much about video codecs, ripping, etc.

Handbrake is a very simple tool that rips DVDs to an AVI file that can be played with VLC or Quicktime (with the DivX codec). I'm not exactly sure what DVDBackup and DVD2One does. I guess it's all about the end file.

Can anyone else chime in on the differences here? I love Handbrake for it's simplicity and reliability. I've only run into one disc that it couldn't read for some reason (the movie Open Range).

EDIT: Here is the thread I started a while back. Got no answers to my questions about bit rates and all.

http://forums.macnn.com/showthread.p...ight=handbrake

[Uncle Skeleton]

Originally posted by ::maroma:::

Can anyone else chime in on the differences here?

handbrake, like all the other dozens of GUIs for ffmpeg, makes avi files (an inadequate video format that it's own creator, MicroSoft, has long since abandoned, but which has been hacked repeatedly to make it barely adequate for video pirates), which can be viewed on computers or on a few "Divx certified" set-top players. DVDBackup just copies the disc (to your hard drive) and removes CSS encryption. DVD2One removes some arguably unnecessary data from the MPEG-2 video stream in a DVD structure so it will fit on a consumer 4.7 GB DVD-R disc.

EDIT: Here is the thread I started a while back. Got no answers to my questions about bit rates and all.
http://forums.macnn.com/showthread.p...ight=handbrake

what do you expect to be told? higher bitrates give higher quality. lower bitrates give lower quality. just like mp3s. what don't you understand?

[::maroma::]

Originally posted by Uncle Skeleton:
handbrake, like all the other dozens of GUIs for ffmpeg, makes avi files (an inadequate video format that it's own creator, MicroSoft, has long since abandoned, but which has been hacked repeatedly to make it barely adequate for video pirates), which can be viewed on computers or on a few "Divx certified" set-top players. DVDBackup just copies the disc (to your hard drive) and removes CSS encryption. DVD2One removes some arguably unnecessary data from the MPEG-2 video stream in a DVD structure so it will fit on a consumer 4.7 GB DVD-R disc.

what do you expect to be told? higher bitrates give higher quality. lower bitrates give lower quality. just like mp3s. what don't you understand?

Thanks for the clarification. It makes sense now. I'll have to check out those two apps.

And I understand that higher bit rates equal higher quality, but I was hoping for a more precise explanation. I mean, the app's default bit rate is 1024, so I was hoping to find out if that is high, medium or low. Is there a point where it's just overkill? What bit rate is closest to DVD quality video? Also, there is an option to do 1-pass or 2-
pass encoding, and again, I'm not sure how much of a difference that makes.

So far, I've just used the default settings (Bit rate - 1024, 1-pass encoding) for video. And bumped up the audio to 192bit mp3. It works for me, so I guess it's not terribly important to know the minutia.

[Turias]

Originally posted by ::maroma:::
And bumped up the audio to 192bit mp3.

That's overkill. For most stuff, 64 or 96bit aac is more than enough.

[bmedina]

The solution to DVD ripping already exists: http://home.comcast.net/~appleguru/dvdrip.html

You end up with a standards-compliant mp4 file, rather than a hacked together avi with questionable codecs that won't play in quicktime without installing extra stuff.

[Simon]

Originally posted by -Q-:
Computers aren't working or your heart after those double quarter pounders with cheese & bacon?

Well, the heart's probably screwed, but as long as the stomach can cope with the burgers I'm, happy.

Originally posted by Uncle Skeleton:
it doesn't rip to mp4, just avi

Is this true? For the output format I can select "MP4 File / MPEG-4 video / AAC audio". Which part of this format is AVI? There are however two other choices that say "AVI..."

I have been able to play the so-called MP4 output file with QuickTime Player just fine. No need for VLC or mplayer there.

Originally posted by velodev:
How is this faster than DVDBackup?

It is not! DVD Backup rips the tracks and removes the encryption, but it does no recompressing at all. Where DVDBackup takes an hour this tool takes 4 here, so I guess it's just that the compression takes the largest amount of time. I think DVDBackup's speed depends mainly on the speed of the DVD drive.

Re: HandBrake vs. other recompression tools.

I get the impression that HandBrake offers the necessary parameters in a neat and clean little GUI and gets the job done perfectly (except for missing subtitles which are supposedly coming in a future release). There are other tools that claim to do the same, but (maybe I'm mistaken here, but that's the impression I got up to now) they are either: commercial & expensive or ugly & complicated with no guaranteed results.

This tool seems to be both free and good. So, maybe somebody who knows more about video and codes can give better insight, but up to now I haven't seen any other tool that offers the same quality for free.

[daiSho]

would this program be appropriate for ripping a dvd for editing? i've been looking for something simple that would leave me w/ media that could be pulled onto a timeline w/ little hassle... do Mac NLE's allow editing .Avi files..?

[Turias]

The lack of subtitle ripping is unfortunate. Let me know when that is supported!

[Uncle Skeleton]

Originally posted by Simon:
Is this true? For the output format I can select "MP4 File / MPEG-4 video / AAC audio". Which part of this format is AVI? There are however two other choices that say "AVI..."

well it didn't the last dozen times someone here "discovered" it, and none of the open-source libs it uses write mp4 files that I know of, but I guess he could have added that recently. I can't even see the options because I don't have a DVD around at the moment though.

I have been able to play the so-called MP4 output file with QuickTime Player just fine. No need for VLC or mplayer there.

if you have divx installed an avi file wouldn't cause any problems in quicktime either.

[Arkham_c]

Originally posted by Simon:
It is not! DVD Backup rips the tracks and removes the encryption, but it does no recompressing at all. Where DVDBackup takes an hour this tool takes 4 here, so I guess it's just that the compression takes the largest amount of time. I think DVDBackup's speed depends mainly on the speed of the DVD drive.

Sheesh, on a dual G5, DVDBackup takes about 10-20 minutes, then DVD2OneX takes about another 20 minutes. I guess I'm just spoiled. I can have a copy on a DVD in under an hour.

[Simon]

Originally posted by Uncle Skeleton:
well it didn't the last dozen times someone here "discovered" it, and none of the open-source libs it uses write mp4 files that I know of, but I guess he could have added that recently. I can't even see the options because I don't have a DVD around at the moment though.

Here's some free advice: Get a DVD, try the new version of this app, and then come back and post some real info.

It does do MP4, not just AVI.

Now, can we talk about quality issues, better apps, etc. instead of debating outdated versions of this app?

Basically, if there is no need to save space DVDBackup seems the way to go. But, let's say you're running out of disk space, or you want to burn to CD or DVD, is there a better solution than this?

[Uncle Skeleton]

Originally posted by Simon:
Here's some free advice: Get a DVD, try the new version of this app, and then come back and post some real info.

It does do MP4, not just AVI.

don't : stick : at me. 1, I'm at work and I don't have access to any DVDs, even if my Pismo's DVD drive was still reliable. 2, the last time this was discussed was only 3 months ago (link above), and at that time I did try it out, and it didn't offer mp4 format support. 3, neither you nor the app's website made any mention of the mp4 format being a new feature, and I don't think any of the open source projects listed there support mp4 file writing, and I knew from before that the codec options said something like "Xvid MPEG-4" and "FFMpeg MPEG-4," just like in ffmpegX, and people mistake that codec for the mp4 format all the time.

Now, can we talk about quality issues, better apps, etc. instead of debating outdated versions of this app?

Basically, if there is no need to save space DVDBackup seems the way to go. But, let's say you're running out of disk space, or you want to burn to CD or DVD, is there a better solution than this?

already posted here but I guess you missed it the first time: http://home.comcast.net/~appleguru/dvdrip.html

[mitchell_pgh]

Originally posted by Uncle Skeleton:
already posted here but I guess you missed it the first time: http://home.comcast.net/~appleguru/dvdrip.html

Not to be a jerk, but that 7-9 step tutorial you posted (where you need to download 3-5 different application) is ridiculous.

Although it may produce PERFECT MPEG-4 files, this application seems to work just well. I did NOT have DivX loaded on my system, and it created an MPEG-4 file that played in QuickTime (without any extra codecs).

I found the quality to be good, but wanted to let it run on a few different DVDs before I give my final results.

I'll post my results tomorrow.

[Uncle Skeleton]

ok, you're right, I downloaded the release version instead of the beta. I'm sorry. That said, I tried ripping a short title to mp4 and it opened in QT as an empty movie (VLC played it). I guess that's why it's beta.

Originally posted by mitchell_pgh:
Not to be a jerk, but that 7-9 step tutorial you posted (where you need to download 3-5 different application) is ridiculous.

He said "can we talk about quality issues", not "I don't want to push the mouse button more than absolutely necessary." And most of the steps (like "step 5: navigate to the folder you ripped your DVD to") are just being verbose, or unnecessary (adding chapters, menus, exporting to mp4 from mov, etc).

The apps in the tutorial give you full control over the encode at a minimum of complexity. They let you crop and scale at high quality, while viewing any frame of the movie (in a dark movie it's tough to find a bright frame to judge borders by, and the 6 options Handbrake gave me weren't enough), access any advanced codec options (not to mention a lot more codecs), suppress credits' datarates, include as many audio tracks as you want, normalize audio tracks, free your DVD drive after the first half-hour, and so on. The point is that specialized apps for audio, video and decryption allow for better quality and/or performance.

And if one app can't perform (like if there's no audio, or you actually WANT to rip the menu track or a featurette (Handbrake refused to process my second disc of Fight Club at all)), you can do the rest and find another option for the part of the process that didn't work.

If you value automation above quality, by all means use this or one of the many other one-click ffmpeg/xvid interfaces.

[Simon]

OK, after MP4 was mentioned (about four times by people who were actually using the new version of this app) and we have debated outdated versions to no end it seems we have come to a point where we can all agree that it does do MP4.

So, now I'm looking forward to some testing results people have promised.

The tutorial is much too tedious for my taste and I'll just second what mitchell_pgh mentioned. I'd rather stick with this app and DVDBackup anytime. I don't need total control over each and every parameter and I don't want all the extras. I just want decent output made easy. And I guess this is what this app was made for.

For the uncompressed stuff I guess I can stick with DVDBackup.

So, any other suggestions than those already made? No better alternatives?

[titer]

Hi there,

I am the author of HandBrake. I've just set up a forum on the main site so people can more easily discuss about it. Please use it and give the link to anyone you know who uses HandBrake!

That would be easier for me to answer people if I don't have to read forums on every Mac website

HandBrake forum

[voodoo]

HandBrake looks cool. I'll try it.

[mitchell_pgh]

OK, I tried it with a Star Trek episode.

Show Length: 50:22
Video Size; 640 x 480
29.9 FPS
File Size: 426 MB (total)
Video Size: 378MB
Audio Size: 42.1MB
(not sure where the extra 6MB is but who cares)

Picture quality was solid to good (there were some slight artifacts, but I would say they weren't nearly as bad as many of the higher quality videos I've downloaded on the web) and the audio stayed in synch while also being very good.

I don't know, but we might have a winner!

[mitchell_pgh]

I also used 2 pass encoding (which isn't the default) as time really isn't an issue. It's the perfect "OK, TIME TO GO TO BED" activity.

Everything else was using the default configuration.

[cesious]

Thanks for letting me know, I will have to try it out.

[::maroma::]

Originally posted by titer:
Hi there,

I am the author of HandBrake. I've just set up a forum on the main site so people can more easily discuss about it. Please use it and give the link to anyone you know who uses HandBrake!

That would be easier for me to answer people if I don't have to read forums on every Mac website

HandBrake forum

Hey, thanks for putting up the forum! And thanks for a great app! Keep up the good work!

[mitchell_pgh]

Wow, this is a nice application... I've been encoding a few thing just waiting for the "Oh crap... this sucks just like X Y Z" but it doesn't.

I've been able to make MP4 files for a while, but it's always a five step process, and many times I end up redoing them because of various problems.

I'm not saying it couldn't be nicer, but I don't know how it could.

I'm excited about an application for the first time in a long time. I would say the it's been since the iTunes days...

[Kenneth]

I did try the 0.6.0 Test 2 release this morning.

The movie is right from a Video_TS folder.. all default setting.. .MP4 output.

The duration of the movie is 1hr 42mins 12sec. The whole process finished took about the same amount of time as the movie... slightly shorter and ended up with a 864MB .mp4 file.

I am on the DP 1.25Ghz G4 with 1.25GB of RAM.

[Simon]

Great results coming back.

Originally posted by Kenneth:
The duration of the movie is 1hr 42mins 12sec. The whole process finished took about the same amount of time as the movie... slightly shorter and ended up with a 864MB .mp4 file.

I am on the DP 1.25Ghz G4 with 1.25GB of RAM.

The developer claims the app is highly multi-threaded. Did you take a look at top on your DP machine? Did both CPUs show high usage during compression? How many threads?

Your time looks very good. It would be interesting to see how much better your machine does than a SP 1.25GHz G4.

My 1GHz PowerBook is taking about as long as the movie length in single pass mode (and with 1024kbps) to get the MP4 file. Double pass increases the time by a factor of almost two. So I guess unless you have a DP 2.0GHz G5 this is more of an overnight type of job.

Is it just me or is 0.6.0-test-2 carshing more than 0.6.0-test-1 ?

[Cadaver]

I also tried 0.6.0-test 2 last night.
Tried a commercial DVD (one I own). Let it run overnight (about 7 hours)...
Two-pass encoding took less than 2 hours - 70fps average - using both processors on my dual 2.0GHz G5. However, it got stuck at 100% for over 4.5 hours.
The resulting mp4 (1.2GB) file isn't readable by Quicktime.

Any thoughts?

I know the FAQ that came with the app said it might get "stuck" at 100% while the file is being optimized or something like that, but for almost 5 hours???

[mitchell_pgh]

Another success story for me...

I don't know if this helps anyone, but I'm NOT working directly from the DVD disk. I'm copying the DVD to my HD using DVDBackup (removing all of the nasty CSS Encryption, Macrovision and Region encoding)

Then I launch HandBrake (I'm still using 0.6.0-test1) and select the "DVD Folder" radio button (because I'm reading it from the HD) and then select browse (then I navigate to the the VIDEO_TS folder) and click "Open".

For the Star Trek DVDs, they have two episodes per disk. So I simply select one of the two longer times under "DVD title" in the General section.

After that, I simply hit rip... and that's it.

I also had my computer get "stuck" last night, but the MP4 file it created was still fine.

[Kenneth]

Originally posted by Simon:
Great results coming back.



The developer claims the app is highly multi-threaded. Did you take a look at top on your DP machine? Did both CPUs show high usage during compression? How many threads?

Your time looks very good. It would be interesting to see how much better your machine does than a SP 1.25GHz G4.

My 1GHz PowerBook is taking about as long as the movie length in single pass mode (and with 1024kbps) to get the MP4 file. Double pass increases the time by a factor of almost two. So I guess unless you have a DP 2.0GHz G5 this is more of an overnight type of job.

Is it just me or is 0.6.0-test-2 carshing more than 0.6.0-test-1 ?

Yes.. I did fire up Terminal and see. It took ~157% of CPU.. of course it kept changing. I didn't read the number of threads and RAM usage at that time.

Working from the local HD would be much better then from the actual DVD.

[mitchell_pgh]

FYI, test3 was just released...

Also, if you go to the screenshots section of VideoLAN.org, the OS X shots have it in the dock.

[Simon]

This is slightly OT, but it has come a couple of times in this thread that people use DVDBackup to rip DVD's, strip region code, remove encryption, but w/o any re-compression.

Today I have just seen MacTheRipper which seems to do the same.

Can anybody compare the two? Advantages? Disadvantages? Speed?

[mitchell_pgh]

Originally posted by Simon:
This is slightly OT, but it has come a couple of times in this thread that people use DVDBackup to rip DVD's, strip region code, remove encryption, but w/o any re-compression.

Today I have just seen MacTheRipper which seems to do the same.

Can anybody compare the two? Advantages? Disadvantages? Speed?

They do the exact same thing. Speed seems to be the same as well. I'm sticking with DVDBackup as it has always worked for me... there are also some reports that the DVD won't play when using MacTheRipper, but it worked with mine.

My opinion is (they are both free, DVDBackup is more popular so I'll stick with it.

[superfula]

Originally posted by Arkham_c:
Sheesh, on a dual G5, DVDBackup takes about 10-20 minutes, then DVD2OneX takes about another 20 minutes. I guess I'm just spoiled. I can have a copy on a DVD in under an hour.

On my Quicksilver 867 it takes no longer than an hour to rip and burn a dvd with DVDBackup and dvd2onex

[Turias]

It takes me over a day to rip and encode on my 400MHz G4...

[Simon]

Originally posted by superfula:
On my Quicksilver 867 it takes no longer than an hour to rip and burn a dvd with DVDBackup and dvd2onex

Keep in mind that DVD2oneX costs more than 60 bucks.

IMHO that's way too much for an app that is basically not much more than a GUI wrapper for a couple of free libs.

I really appreciate these free and open tools like DVDBackup and HandBrake. Even if they are not wuite as fast as the commercial apps they are (of course just IMHO) the better deal.

[Simon]

And BTW, on faster G4s (and all the G5s of course) in the case of DVDBackup the speed is limited by the drive only. If you have a fast Combo you will rip much faster than on a slow SuperDrive. These machines have more than enough power to encode the DVD and decrypt it , the bottleneck is the drive.

Re-compression however is a whole different ball game which relies solely on your CPU power (assuming you have ripped the DVD already to your HD).

[superfula]

Originally posted by Simon:
Keep in mind that DVD2oneX costs more than 60 bucks.

IMHO that's way too much for an app that is basically not much more than a GUI wrapper for a couple of free libs.

I really appreciate these free and open tools like DVDBackup and HandBrake. Even if they are not wuite as fast as the commercial apps they are (of course just IMHO) the better deal.

It's hardly a gui wrapper for "a couple of tools". I haven't found ANYTHING that does anywhere near as good or as fast of a job as dvd2onex. There's just nothing out there. Handbrake, imo, is poor compared to dvd2onex. Price has no bearing on the choice, since so many just go ahead and find a serial for it anyway.

[Simon]

Originally posted by superfula:
It's hardly a gui wrapper for "a couple of tools". I haven't found ANYTHING that does anywhere near as good or as fast of a job as dvd2onex. There's just nothing out there. Handbrake, imo, is poor compared to dvd2onex. Price has no bearing on the choice, since so many just go ahead and find a serial for it anyway.

Well you can hardly use piracy as an argument against the price issue...

What I meant by GUI wrapper is that this tools does something I have seen done under Linux by a few CLI apps. They are fast, they are free. But yes, they are a PITA to use and offer no comfort. But they exist.

It's just a matter of time until somebody comes along and ports them to OS X together with a nice Aqua GUI. On that day nobody will be left to charge 60 clams for a simple utility.

DVD Shrink on Windows costs 30 bucks btw. It's fast, it's simple and it offers more than DVD2oneX.

I'm not saying DVD2oneX is bad, it's just overpriced IMHO.

[superfula]

Originally posted by Simon:
Well you can hardly use piracy as an argument against the price issue...

These days you have to. In case you haven't noticed, warezing stuff is a pretty big thing. Seems like every's mom and their dog has a working copy of Photoshop or Office on their computer these days. When dealing with software, price is not taken into consideration for a large portion of the end user.

Until someone does actually port an app from linux that is better, dvd2onex will be more than simply a wrapper. It's easily the best solution in a category where everything else pretty much stinks. For that reasoning as well, people will try that much harder to find a sn for the app

[superfula]

Originally posted by Simon:
DVD Shrink on Windows costs 30 bucks btw. It's fast, it's simple and it offers more than DVD2oneX.

I'm quite surprised you are using a windows app to justify your opinion. The windows world is much different than the Mac world. Everything is more expensive when it is made for Macs...including the hardware. Shrink can't afford to charge 60 dollars for their program since there are so many other alternatives out there.