Playback of Ripped DVD's

[onlyzbest]

I am using DVD Fab - HD Decrypter. I have been transferring the folders over my network. When I first finished all the movies I played back with no problem. Now the unit has about 80Gb left I am finding that play back of the same movies is getting digital breakup and skipping. Anyone else experiencing this.

I actually upgraded DVD Fab 8.0.6.0 and are re ripping some of them. Others I don't own so I can't re-rip that is why I am looking for a solution. I have 155 movies ripped so far, I really don't want to re-rip them again.

[TonyPh12345]

I had a few where there were READ errors that DVDFab didn't "Abort" on; it just padded the file or something.    It made it impossible to convert the files to MKV using HandBrake, and caused what you describe when playing the DVD images...

I don't think DVDfab is just too stellar dealing with read errors; I just have to make sure I watch it and when the Read-rate gets REALLY LOW, I start watching the error counter.   If it goes so much as a single error, I stop and see if cleaning the disk helps.

[onlyzbest]

MKV's are for Blu-Ray's, correct?

I am wondering if converting my DVD's to ISO's instead would be a better alternative to TS files?

[TonyPh12345]

You can pretty much turn ANYTHING into an MKV, including the stuff in a DVD.

Technically, a DVD *is* a TS, in the strictest sense..  It's a "Transport Stream,"  hence the term "VIDEO_TS" which you see on DVD files.

I prefer ISOs for my DVDs though because it retains all the "features" of the DVD, including the menus and Extras, in a single, tidy file.    They can be BIG, though (on the order of 7 to 9 Gigabytes) whereas if you convert each item in a DVD into an MKV, they can be MUCH smaller (like 1 or 2 Gigabytes total.)

[onlyzbest]

That sounds like the way to go. What is a good program to convert DVD to MKV?

[RoofingGuy · Accepted solution]

If you want the file compressed (with no real apparent loss in visual quality), as opposed to just multiplexing the MPEG-2 stream into a .mkv container, then it's basically a 2-step process.

First, you need DVDShrink, or DVDDecrypter, or DVDFab, or any of the other DVD rippers to create a copy of the DVD without the CSS encryption.  It doesn't really matter whether your copy is .iso or VIDEO_TS.

Then, the second step is to open Handbrake, choose the .iso or VIDEO_TS folder you just made in step one as your input file, select the "High Profile" preset, change the output to .mkv (and add/remove any audio/subtitle tracks that you want/don't want) and then "Encode".