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  • Converting B5 DVDs to Apple m4v videos

    From Jeffrey Kaplan@3:633/280 to All on Fri Jul 18 13:15:38 2014
    I'm planning on getting an Apple TV soon, so I've been ripping my video collection from DVD to m4v files, importing to iTunes. I finished my
    movies last week, and am now starting on my TV series, starting with B5
    (it's alphabetically first).

    Much to my surprise, ripping to 720p is a horrible idea! That's the
    resolution I selected for the movie collection, and it seems to have upconverted well. The main reason I selected that was because the
    conversion software I'm using has a "Dolby Digital Pass-through" option available at 720 and 1080 resolutions, and the 1080 files were just too
    big.

    But with B5, upconverting while ripping is causing the output file to
    skip and stutter the video. I also noticed that unlike the movies in
    my collection, the upconversion is introducing jaggedness on lines (and
    curves) that are not straight vertical or horizontal - live-action as
    well as CGI. Issues that are not present when playing the disks and
    the DVD player upconverts via HDMI.

    --
    Jeffrey Kaplan www.gordol.org
    Double ROT13 encoded for your protection

    Peter's Top 100 Things I'd Do If I Ever Became An Evil Overlord, #36.
    I will not imprison members of the same party in the same cell block,
    let alone the same cell. If they are important prisoners, I will keep
    the only key to the cell door on my person instead of handing out
    copies to every bottom-rung guard in the prison.


    --- MBSE BBS v1.0.01 (GNU/Linux-i386)
    * Origin: EAS Agamemnon (3:633/280@fidonet)
  • From Richard Tibbetts@3:633/280 to All on Tue Jul 22 19:50:40 2014
    I bought an Apple TV last year, and have converted all the B5 episodes &
    films (plus several hundred other DVDs). FWIW this is the method I use
    after lots of trial & error.

    It's a two stage process (I couldn't find a single piece of software
    that did what I wanted and was reliable across loads of different DVDs).

    Firstly I rip the DVD using WinX DVD Ripper Platinum (commercial
    software). I use the preset "main title content copy" to get a .mpg
    file of the main contents. Sometimes there's a bit of detective work to select the right title number etc, but this has worked on more than 97%
    of my DVDs

    Secondly I use the freeware Handbrake software to convert to a
    compressed .mp4 file suitable for the Apple TV (and iPads etc). I use
    the supplied preset "Apple TV3" which I thinp converts to 720p.

    I then load the files up to iTunes so I can access them via Apple TV or
    any of my iDevices.

    It all works well for me, but if anyone has any better suggestions I'd
    love to hear them.


    --- MBSE BBS v1.0.01 (GNU/Linux-i386)
    * Origin: Deep Thought (3:633/280@fidonet)
  • From John W. Kennedy@3:633/280 to All on Thu Jul 24 00:24:59 2014
    I have no idea what Handbrake software does, but the only big change betwee=
    n the actual Apple TV 2 and Apple TV 3 devices is that the the Apple TV 2 w=
    as limited to 720p, while the Apple TV 3 can do 1080p, so if I were designi=
    ng the software, "Apple TV 2" would mean 720p and "Apple TV 3" would mean 1= 080p.


    --- MBSE BBS v1.0.01 (GNU/Linux-i386)
    * Origin: Deep Thought (3:633/280@fidonet)
  • From Jeffrey Kaplan@3:633/280 to All on Thu Jul 24 08:12:52 2014
    Previously on rec.arts.sf.tv.babylon5.moderated, Richard Tibbetts said:

    It all works well for me, but if anyone has any better suggestions I'd
    love to hear them.

    I have no problems with ripping to the native resolution of the video
    file, the playback device upconverts. I'm using Pavtube Video
    Converter Ultimate, commercial software. One-step process.

    Considering that upconverting my standard definition movie DVDs did not
    show any artifacting or stuttering, I'm blaming that all on the B5
    disks Warner Bros produced.

    I'm now almost done ripping season 4.

    Oddity: Seasons 2 and 4, don't know about 5 yet, the first episode on
    each disk is actually the last episode on the disk's filesystem. And
    the disks have the episodes on there twice, once in a all-in-one movie,
    and again as individual episodes. And some of the ones with commentary
    are actually on there THREE times, with an additional one with the
    commentary. On top of the fact that the commentary is available on the secondary audio track of the first found copy of the episode.
    Definitely not elegantly mastered.

    --
    Jeffrey Kaplan www.gordol.org
    Double ROT13 encoded for your protection

    Cat, n.: Lapwarmer with built-in buzzer.


    --- MBSE BBS v1.0.01 (GNU/Linux-i386)
    * Origin: EAS Agamemnon (3:633/280@fidonet)
  • From Chris Adams@3:633/280 to All on Thu Jul 24 09:40:28 2014
    Once upon a time, Jeffrey Kaplan <gordol@gordol.org> said:
    And
    the disks have the episodes on there twice, once in a all-in-one movie,
    and again as individual episodes. And some of the ones with commentary
    are actually on there THREE times, with an additional one with the >commentary.

    You sure you aren't just seeing some seamless branching, with the same
    video data showing up under multiple titles?
    --
    Chris Adams <cmadams@cmadams.net>


    --- MBSE BBS v1.0.01 (GNU/Linux-i386)
    * Origin: Deep Thought (3:633/280@fidonet)
  • From Jeffrey Kaplan@3:633/280 to All on Sat Jul 26 09:35:50 2014
    Previously on rec.arts.sf.tv.babylon5.moderated, Chris Adams said:

    Once upon a time, Jeffrey Kaplan <gordol@gordol.org> said:
    And
    the disks have the episodes on there twice, once in a all-in-one movie,
    and again as individual episodes. And some of the ones with commentary
    are actually on there THREE times, with an additional one with the >commentary.

    You sure you aren't just seeing some seamless branching, with the same
    video data showing up under multiple titles?

    No, I'm not. I do know that Pavtube examines the disk and "filters"
    looking for the movie file. I suppose it's possible it's reading the
    disk menu and assembling the titles based on that.

    But then why would some of the seasons have the episodes presented out
    of order and some not? It's not a per-disk effect I'm seeing there,
    it's a per-season thing.

    BTW, just popped season 5 disk 1 in, and the episodes are in the
    correct order.

    --
    Jeffrey Kaplan www.gordol.org
    Double ROT13 encoded for your protection

    Notes on Fortress Construction: 5. Self-destruct mechanisms should
    only be triggerable from the heart of your device/ship/fortress, and
    should implode from the outside rather than explode from the inside.


    --- MBSE BBS v1.0.01 (GNU/Linux-i386)
    * Origin: EAS Agamemnon (3:633/280@fidonet)
  • From Richard Tibbetts@3:633/280 to All on Thu Jul 24 01:48:29 2014
    On 23/07/2014 15:24, John W. Kennedy wrote:
    I have no idea what Handbrake software does, but the only big change between
    the actual Apple TV 2 and Apple TV 3 devices is that the the Apple TV 2 was limited to 720p, while the Apple TV 3 can do 1080p, so if I were designing the software, "Apple TV 2" would mean 720p and "Apple TV 3" would mean 1080p.


    Handbrake is (very popular) open source video conversion software. What
    I doesn't do is actually rip DVDs (hence the other software) but it does
    seem to keep more of the quality in the conversion than any other
    product I've tried.

    The documentation is here - https://trac.handbrake.fr/wiki

    I'm not really sure *exactly* what it does (I'm increasingly more
    interested in the content rather than the technology - that's what a
    career in IT will do to you eventually!). The crucial thing is that I
    missed from my original post was that I've not noticed* any problems
    with the result.

    * Disclaimer - not that I can see (or hear, taste...) like I used to.


    --- MBSE BBS v1.0.01 (GNU/Linux-i386)
    * Origin: Deep Thought (3:633/280@fidonet)
  • From Jeffrey Kaplan@3:633/280 to All on Sun Jul 27 06:01:04 2014
    Previously on rec.arts.sf.tv.babylon5.moderated, Richard Tibbetts said:

    Handbrake is (very popular) open source video conversion software. What
    I doesn't do is actually rip DVDs (hence the other software) but it does seem to keep more of the quality in the conversion than any other
    product I've tried.

    I like all-in-one solutions, myself, whenever possible. :) I've taken
    a look at Handbrake in the past, and it just never clicked with me.

    Well, give Pavtube a try. The trial version does put an ugly watermark
    in the middle of the video, but it does give you the chance to see how
    well it converts. If you don't need Bluray support or the ability to
    stitch two videos together, they have cheaper less-featured versions,
    too. :)

    * Disclaimer - not that I can see (or hear, taste...) like I used to.

    I know that feeling...

    --
    Jeffrey Kaplan www.gordol.org
    Double ROT13 encoded for your protection

    [Ivanova kicks a cabinet] "That's one cabinet that will never threaten
    us again." (Talia Winters, B5 "Divided Loyalties")


    --- MBSE BBS v1.0.01 (GNU/Linux-i386)
    * Origin: EAS Agamemnon (3:633/280@fidonet)
  • From Chris Adams@3:633/280 to All on Sun Jul 27 09:29:29 2014
    Once upon a time, Jeffrey Kaplan <gordol@gordol.org> said:
    No, I'm not. I do know that Pavtube examines the disk and "filters"
    looking for the movie file. I suppose it's possible it's reading the
    disk menu and assembling the titles based on that.

    Probably so. A video DVD is a bunch of chunks of video and audio, and a
    title is basically a playlist for those chunks (some movies, like IIRC "Terminator 2", allow you to watch multiple cuts of a movie this way
    without including multiple complete video streams). If they'd put
    multiple copies of the episodes on the DVD, they would have had to
    compress them significantly more to fit, and somebody would have noticed
    that long ago.

    I would have thought DVD ripping software would notice that and figure
    it out, but maybe there's something about the authoring that tripped up detection.

    But then why would some of the seasons have the episodes presented out
    of order and some not? It's not a per-disk effect I'm seeing there,
    it's a per-season thing.

    It could be that somebody had an out-of-order episode list when the DVDs
    were initially authored, and they just shuffled the menu entries after
    the fact. It could also be something as simple as the original raw
    files were named by episode (or something random), the disc authoring
    software sorted them alphabetically, and then the menu authoring put
    them in the desired order.

    BTW, just popped season 5 disk 1 in, and the episodes are in the
    correct order.

    They may have changed software or procedures in between.
    --
    Chris Adams <cmadams@cmadams.net>


    --- MBSE BBS v1.0.01 (GNU/Linux-i386)
    * Origin: Deep Thought (3:633/280@fidonet)