Converting DVD to iPad formats?

[trm]

Hi all,

I'm experimenting with ripping some of my DVDs into a suitable format for playback on my iPad. I've got plenty of space on there so am looking for some nice high quality results.

At the moment I'm trialling Handbrake (on the PC). Unfortunately it's having some problems. A 50 second test clip has the murky green screen of corrupt MPEG-ness for the first 20 seconds and then starts showing blocks of (corrupt) video along with elements of the audio and by about 35 seconds it's fine. A different, longer test clip exhibited the same faults for about 20 seconds before turning out OK.

BITD I used to use some DeCSS app which filtered all DVD IO but as Handbrake is (eventually) producing good video I don't think this is a CSS problem. That and the fact the dodgy output is symptomatic of corrupt MPEG data. When working the quality is fine but I'm not keen on missing the first minute or so of every conversion

So does anybody have any good suggestions for ripping DVDs to MP4? Preferably PC based unless they work on G5 Macs, but the PC is 4-way and the Mac only 2-way so I'd prefer PC for speed.

 

[thegreathopper]

I use handbrake on a Mac and it works perfectly for the ipad and iphone, I have heard from friends that handbrake is not so good on a PC.

 

[trm]

Did you need any DeCSS tools? I've just grabbed DVD Decrypter and am reading the DVD to a folder on my machine which I'll then point Handbrake at. Assuming I get the same green MPEG corruption then I'll either fire up the Mac or look for something else PC based.

Cheers for the data points though.

 

[guddler]

I've used Handbrake on the mac for getting stuff onto the iPhone before now but I've not really used it enough to have much of a comment. Don't have an iPad yet either

May not have an iPhone for much longer either the way Apple are heading with today's announcement!

 

[trm]

What announcement?

 

[guddler]

That the white ones will now not be released until "later in the year" due to continued manufacturing issues. As far as I know, that means they can't get the white the correct shade consistently enough! You'd really think they'd have got that sorted before launch wouldn't you!!

Couple that with the fact that the O2 store in Maidenhead where I was on Thursday had stock but O2 won't let me buy one without a 24 or 18 month contract, which I don't want - I have the reddies for a phone on it's own and want to keep my £15 / £20 per month SIM only thanks.

If Apple had any, none of that would be such an issue but they just don't.

It's all an utter farce.

So this afternoon, being pretty well sick to the back teeth of the whole mobile phone subject I started browsing for other phones. I really wouldn't bother but my iPhone 1 is on it's last legs. The plastic is physically coming apart.

I pretty well fell in love with the HTC Desire. It truly looks to be a superb device and I know HTC's to be high quality kit as a few guys at work have them.

Guess what? Same bloody story as the iPhone. Seems to be unavailable anywhere unless you want a 24 month contract again.

Oh, and on top of that, I discovered that O2 are ripping me off even at £20 per month as Tesco do more minutes and unlimited text / data for that same price. And it's even the same network. But guess what? They don't have any iPhones, and they don't even do the HTC Desire.

Oh well, rant over

 

[trm]

That is pretty rough! But I'd not give up on i4. Apple do make the best UIs going and the new phone is lovely.

Saying that I just downloaded the app to order my free bumper Sadly my phone is pretty chronically affected by shorting the over the plastic bridge.

 

[trm]

Just for reference, Handbrake works perfectly if you feed it files dumped with DVD Decrypter first I'm using the Universal target profile with Slow mode deinterlacing (Fast seems to be a simple line doubler, Slow is some kind of interleave).

Not experimented with pulldown yet but I suspect for this vid (Daft Punk, Interstella 5555) I'll need to as I think it's been nastily buggered during some rate conversion during the production process.

When I have this working I'm going to try to automate it so I can rip my 500+ DVD collection and stick it on my NAS. Homemade iPlayer

 

[DanP]

This is great stuff. I've always struggled to find a definative DVD ripping solution. By the sounds of it I'll just need to borrow your NAS and I'm done In the past I have played with DVD Decrypter and Handbrake, but with varying results. Not done it for a few years though so I assume (hope) they've improved.

Dan

 

[trm]

I'll post up full details and links for my tool chain after I've checked the last batch run (which was a full DVD) once I've caught up with the F1 quali on Sky+. I have to say the trials I did earlier seem very positive and I think I've got a solution, I just might mess with the conversion options a bit to see if I can get it even closer to perfect.

DVD Decrypter can be run from the command line and it should be possible to turn it into an Autorun option, so it could be as easy as "insert DVD and wait" transcoding

The only thing missing is a Handbrake profile for iPad but I can produce one of those when I have the config finalised. A bit of time spent with the tech specs for the iPad will give me the detailed codec choices and frame rate/size/ratio settings and then it'll be blind testing on the iPad.

The only slight embuggerance is perhaps the source DVD. It's Daft Punk's Interstella 5555 which is animated, but using that distinct super-saturated colours with Gaussian blur effect you used to see on Japanese cartoons like Battle of the Planets, so it's not 100% representative of much of my collection. I'll pick a nice Hollywood blockbuster as my second sample to make sure it handles that equally well. At the moment a 5 minute chapter is coding down to ~ 85MB but the quality is indistinguishable from source

Once I've got the ripping and coding sorted I'm going to see what iPlayer like streaming functionality I can add onto my ReadyNAS NV+. Stream to iPad for personal viewing or stream to PS3/Xbox360 for group viewing I'm wondering about providing a native DD/DTS soundtrack for TV/home cinema and a muxed stereo soundtrack for iPad.

I'll post up some OT tutes when it's working.

Tim

PS Cheers Dan for recommending the 64GB iPad

 

[thegreathopper]

Did you need any DeCSS tools? I've just grabbed DVD Decrypter and am reading the DVD to a folder on my machine which I'll then point Handbrake at. Assuming I get the same green MPEG corruption then I'll either fire up the Mac or look for something else PC based.

Cheers for the data points though.

On the Mac you do not anything else, I have not had a disk yet that refuses to be copied. A friend tried hand brake on a pc and had problems with encryption etc.

 

[trm]

On the Mac you do not anything else, I have not had a disk yet that refuses to be copied. A friend tried hand brake on a pc and had problems with encryption etc.

After using DVD Decrypter to deCSS the files prior to Handbraking them I'm getting perfect results It's true what they say though: Everything is just easier on a Mac

 

[trm]

Right. I've done some tests and with the current release of Handbrake, the Universal profile gives very nice results. The only change you need make is to set Deinterlacing to fast or slow, depending on how urgent the conversion is and how fast your machine is. Fast isn't quite as pretty, and slow doesn't really take that much longer and gives a much nicer result.