Old Fart needs new brain !

[quint]

Hello to anyone who might read this, before you slate me for not reading various documents that might help I have absolutely no comprehension of technical jargon so just need some plain english advise . . . .

I have after a lot of difficulty (coz I really don't understand computers AT ALL) managed to download 2 things

1 DVD43 No idea what it does but believe I need it ???
2 Handbrake

All I want to do is make hard copies of 2 of my favourite series of films to an external hard drive so I can store the original discs and preserve the boxes etc

Now that I have got the ???approriate programs what do I do ??? I've tried clicking all sorts of menus but all I've managed to achieve is waste about 4 hours of life and have got nowhere ???

HELP ! But please don't take the p*** or give me geek tech stuff coz it might as well be japanese all I need is someone to explain how to send what's on the disc to the external drive and when it is there how to view what I have ???

I managed to do this with a really easy prog called DVD Decrypter but it didn't produce good results sometimes partial copy sometimes wrong language copy sometimes jerky picture etc etc BUT it was real simple NO menus no clicks just 1 button ! If it worked I'd be laughing but life ain't that good !

My hard drive is a WD Element 1.5 Terabyte thingy and I have a WD media player to use IF I can get the bits from disc to PC to Drive ???

So fingers crossed one of you kind people will take pity on an old fart who needs help ???

Cheers

[s55]

http://trac.handbrake.fr/wiki/WindowsGuiGuide

If it's just playback on your PC, then I'd use the "High Profile" preset.

IF you want to retain all the DVD Menus, special features etc, then HandBrake isn't the tool for the job. If you just want a copy of the main movie, then read the above guide.

[quint]

OK, I'm looking through this link you sent and am suitably impressed with the nature of the way it explains things so for that I thank you greatly !

I have so far managed to work out how to send a file (episode) from a disc to my hard drive (G:/) BUT when I came to replay it the film played, however certain functions were inoperative (fwd/rew, skip etc) Now although not absolutely crutial they are very nice features to have and I don't need menu's and scene selections etc so I was wondering if they are "gettable". If I haven't read far enough yet and this is covered later in the text you sent me then I apologise in advance ! but I heartily thank you for your assistance so far - top tip !
Cheers

[Bling2Ming]

If you are saying that fwd/rew skip are unavailable when playing back on the WD TV media player, it's because the High Profile preset defaults to the M4V file extension, simply rename the file extension to a MP4 and these functions should then be available.
Better yet, the next time you try to encode for the WD TV, select the High Profile preset as s55 says. but then change the file container from MP4/M4V to MKV and you will get working chapters plus working 5.1 audio.

[quint]

OK I'll give that a go ! Many thanks !

Cheers

[foolingno1]

Bling2Ming,
Will your advice yield an exact copy of the video and audio tracks in the quality they are on the DVD?
If not, what do I do to get the screen resolution and audio formats that are on the disk.
I am only in need of the best 5.1 soundtrack for my HT and one that will play on my PC.


Thanks,

Mort

[Bling2Ming]

Bling2Ming,
Will your advice yield an exact copy of the video and audio tracks in the quality they are on the DVD?
If not, what do I do to get the screen resolution and audio formats that are on the disk.
I am only in need of the best 5.1 soundtrack for my HT and one that will play on my PC.

As HandBrake will always transcode the video there will always be some very minor degradation in quality. Whether you could see it using a sane Rate Factor (19 to 20) at normal viewing distances, is debatable.
It will however, allow you to keep the full resolution.

Handbrake will also passthrough Dolby Digital 5.1 (AC3) or DTS 5.1 audio from a dvd unmolested into an mkv file.


I would suggest that you use something like Makemkv http://www.makemkv.com/ if you require an exact copy of both video and audio as it just decrypts all the streams and remuxes them into an mkv file.
The makers of Makemkv do promise that DVD decryption will always be free, but not bluray decryption.

[quint]

Hello again you "more experienced persons" I have had limited success with the advise given but wondered if anyone can help with the ridiculously LONG time it takes to encode 1 single movie ??? I could put up with some of the minor defects if it were QUICK ! but 3 hours per film is killing my life ! LOL !

Heeeeelp !

[mduell]

Use faster settings. They've been mentioned repeatedly in other threads.

[quint]

Thanks but as previously mentioned I have absolutely no comprehension of the techno jargon stuff, I have looked at loads of threads and only find one thing . . . . . . CONFUSION !

Actually 2 things, the second is no matter how basic a question can be the answer is always MEGA complex and includes loads of garble that only fuels ther confusion of the original question ???

so which buttons do I click or boxes tick ???
Sorry !

[TedJ]

Code: Select all

fast - rc-lookahead=30:ref=2:subme=6
faster - no-mixed-refs:rc-lookahead=20:ref=2:subme=4:weightp=1
veryfast - no-mixed-refs:rc-lookahead=10:ref=1:subme=2:trellis=0:weightp=0

Select any of the three advanced option strings (minus the label and leading hyphen) and paste it directly into the text box at the bottom of the x264 advanced options tab.

[quint]

TedJ you are talking my language !!! LOL !!! THANK YOU VERY MUCH !!! I'll certainly try that !

And to all you tech knowledgable guys . . . . . . . . Sorry and yes I am a sad old git !

LOL ! Happy New Year ALL !

Cheers

[quint]

OooooooooK ! I had some decent success with TedJ's info BUT I just got an upgrade to a "better" version of handbrake and find that even with the above codes the films now take upwards of 1.5 hours to transpose ??? I am as is clear no expert in this but I noticed absolutely no decernable change in replay quality from fast to faster or very fast but the very fast did get the encoding down to about an hour ! Can TedJ or anyone advise me on altering settings for this "new" version ??? Did I do right in accepting the upgrade or would it be better to go back to the previous version ???
All finer details are wasted on me as I'm after decent watchable and quick !!!

Cheers all in advance of your help