Backing up DVDs

[six_storm]

I'm doing some research to see what is the best way to back up my DVD collection. Now that I have a copy of DVDFab Platinum, I can back up my DVDs into any format I want. What settings do you guys recommend in order to have a close 1-to-1 copy of a DVD, but have the movie as an AVI or MKV? All of these backups will go to my HTPC and used with XBMC, it will play any format.

So what is it? What bitrate for video and audio? What format? AVI? MKV? What audio format? AAC, MP3?

[mullet]

I back them up as .ISO with no compression. I don't understand why you guys don't use MediaPortal it has way more options. DVD/HD-DVD/Blu-Ray/ISO.

[nekrosoft13]

Originally Posted by six_storm

I'm doing some research to see what is the best way to back up my DVD collection. Now that I have a copy of DVDFab Platinum, I can back up my DVDs into any format I want. What settings do you guys recommend in order to have a close 1-to-1 copy of a DVD, but have the movie as an AVI or MKV? All of these backups will go to my HTPC and used with XBMC, it will play any format.

So what is it? What bitrate for video and audio? What format? AVI? MKV? What audio format? AAC, MP3?

depends what your goal is

if you want to make a full backup then iso, but that can end up in quite a bit of wasted space.

I personally don't care about menus, trailers extra audio tracks and all that other junk they put on disc these days.

for re-encoding i would use h264 codec with bitrate of about 4-6Mbps that is enough for DVD, don't crop/resize

audio just leave AC3 (dolby), don't use mp3.

[nekrosoft13]

Originally Posted by mullet

I back them up as .ISO with no compression. I don't understand why you guys don't use MediaPortal it has way more options. DVD/HD-DVD/Blu-Ray/ISO.

simply is not good enough, and much worse compared to xbmc. remember that without xbmc media portal wouldn't exsist. xbmc is open source, and media portal continues to copy code from it.

[mullet]

There both open source. You can play HD-DVD & Blu-Ray with xbmc? You can use external players with xbmc? You can use image mounting with xbmc?

MediaPortal's roots lie in the XBox Media Center (XBMC) project which goal was to build a media center application for the Microsoft XBox gaming console. Erwin Beckers (also known as Frodo) concluded early in the XBMC project that there were notable limitations to the xbox platform, mainly that it is unable to support TV cards. XBox Platform limitations like these would ultimately hinder the vision of a feature rich media center application.

In February 2004, Erwin left the Xbox Media Center project to start a new project, now known as MediaPortal that would run on the Microsoft Windows platform. Initially existing code was re-used from the XBMC project but after several releases and innumerable feature enhancements there has been almost a complete re-design.

Today, MediaPortal continues as an open source project, has a core team of developers and a growing community of over 60,000 registered users.

In 2006 MediaPortal enters a new aera with the release of the TV server. For the first time users can now use multiple frontends for viewing & recording TV streamed from 1 or more TV servers.

[nekrosoft13]

[nekrosoft13]

Originally Posted by mullet

There both open source. You can play HD-DVD & Blu-Ray with xbmc? You can use external players with xbmc? You can use image mounting with xbmc?

yes, yes, not sure about the last, don't see point (it will play iso)

[mullet]

ok it has a built in movie player, I wonder what it is using to play Blu-Ray's with. I may give it a try then.

[nekrosoft13]

and one more important aspect, xbmc has HUGE fan/community following. with media management apps, skins, patches etc...

[mullet]

Well I only use MP to play HD-DVD/Blu-Ray/DVD's. The reason I like it is because I can use PowerDVD and it has a Demon tool plug-in with it. It is pretty simple to setup. I have to admit the XBMC has a pretty slick GUI.

Sorry Sex_storm didn't mean to high jack.

[six_storm]

Originally Posted by mullet

Well I only use MP to play HD-DVD/Blu-Ray/DVD's. The reason I like it is because I can use PowerDVD and it has a Demon tool plug-in with it. It is pretty simple to setup. I have to admit the XBMC has a pretty slick GUI.

Sorry Sex_storm didn't mean to high jack.

No problems. I guess ISO is the way to go . . .

I've been using Aeon since day 1 and I love it. No other skin or media player app looks better on my HDTV.

[nekrosoft13]

Originally Posted by six_storm

No problems. I guess ISO is the way to go . . .

I've been using Aeon since day 1 and I love it. No other skin or media player app looks better on my HDTV.

try the Hitched Aeon, much better, with added user mods.

http://xbmc.org/forum/showthread.php?t=54500

djh is a bit thick headed, everything must be his way, and doesn't want to add any features that other users are requesting. Hitcher took all those added features and merged them into Aeon.