EDIT: Thank you so much everyone! There’s so much help for me here, and I’ll recommend anyone with similar question as me to read the comments
Basically title.
I have the DVDs and I have the hardware to burn them to my PC.
But the file size is too much. What software would be ideal to get the best quality with the lowest file size?
I’m going for file sizes per movie at around 2-3gb max.
Perhaps Handbrake.
But if you do care about the quality, then you should just download those movies in higher quality than DVD. Like this you’re just getting 480p/576p with visible compression artifacts at the same file size.
Do you still need to DeCrypt the DVD with DVD Decryptor?
Yes
If you still have the old torrent try and ask if you can join my entering their IRC or whatever
Thanks, I’ll try handbreak!
The problem is the DVDs is in a language I couldn’t find reliably to download. I once had access to a private tracker that had these things, but they got shut down, and I was on a long vacation while they migrated.
So I missed the window and I haven’t been able to get in since.
Jellyfin supports external audio tracks (see here). It works pretty well, so you could rip the audio tracks from the DVDs with Handbrake and download higher definition video files
Handbrake would be the easiest. For commercial DVDs, you just need to add
libdvdcss-2.dllin your Handbrake install directory and it will bypass the copy protection.For the container I’d suggest going with MKV. For the video codec you can go with x265 (HEVC) with a CRF/RF of 22, which should give you a good balance between quality and size. For the audio you can copy it as-is.
Would that work for Blu-ray? I’m guessing not.
You’ll need some other libraries (
libaacs,libbdplus) to be added to your Handbrake install directory to strip AACS but yeah it’s doable.Thank you!
Glad I could help :)
i use makeMKV rip the full Blu-ray file, then I use handbrake to compress it.
Since CRF settings aren’t that useful for hitting a specified filesize, you can use the following equation to calculate the bitrate needed to encode a video of a given runtime at a given file size
- s = length of video file in seconds
- t = target size in gigabytes
- b = target bitrate in kilobit/s
b = (t*8*10^6)/sie, my copy of Serenity is 01:58:55 long, which is 7135 seconds (see https://www.calculateme.com/time/hours-minutes-seconds/to-seconds), I want it to be 2.5gb, my equation is
b = (2.5*8*10^6)/7135 = 2803 kbit/sYou can use any tool, handbrake, ffmpeg, whatever, any codec, and this equation will tell you the average bitrate needed to hit that file size. You would use “vbr” encoding mode instead of crf. I’d recommend enabling 2-pass for x264, not sure if this would be needed/is available for x265 as I’m a bit of a stick in the mud re: video codecs.
Couple notes, I’m using SI units (powers of 10 instead of powers of 2) for the conversion, and am converting from bytes to bits as this is a more common unit to represent bitrates. If your software uses different units for the bitrate for some reason, or you prefer representing file sizes using gibibytes/etc then you’ll need to rewrite the equation accordingly
That’s a very good answer! Exactly what I needed.
Except don’t do that. Hitting an exact target filesize will unnecessarily compromise the quality. You want constant quality or some high motion scenes or high detail scenes (rain or large crowds) will look really bad because the encoder is throwing out quality to hit an exact file size target.
Do a constant quality encode at say Q19. If the file is too big for you, up that to 22 and try again. When you find a q factor that’s close to the file size you want, use it for everything.
Nice
MakeMKV to rip them from disc. Handbrake if you need to compress them.
If you don’t know anything about ripping video content, Handbrake is a good place to start. Regarding video codecs and best compression (filesize wise), I’d recommend x265 with HE-AAC (fdk-aac in particular). It will take longer to recode than x264, but it is worth it.
And 2 to 3GB is a lot more than what I had in mind. With x265, you can downsize it all to 700MB easy and get approximately the same quality as the DVD. If your target size is 2, 3GB, you could recode to x264, no need for x265.
Size wise if you are already taking the hit for time, you are now better off using AV1 instead of h265. Combine it with 120k OPUS for the best size-quality.
Assuming your planning for the future as av1 support is mostly software decoding rather than hardware.
Yeah, but x256 is a better choice regarding compression. And x265 has good software support as well.
Believe it or not, AV1 is better for compression across the board. https://subclassy.github.io/compression
The author uses ffmpeg as it’s encoding library. Ffmpeg doesn’t implement all x265 features. Have no idea about AV1, but it’s generally not advisable to use ffmpeg as an x265 encoder.
Since you are asking in c/piracy, just download it. Either Blu-ray RIP or Web-DL (ripped from streaming services) will have far better quality than a DVD RIP. Unless is something unique, there is no real benefit in doing the leg work yourself.
If you want max bit-rate or lossless sound get a Blue-Ray remux. Otherwise WEB-DL looks as good for most people and weights a fraction.
Yeah, my content is unique and in a language not found at any public trackers.
I’m asking here because some people may be uploading files themselves, and may have experience in compressing. And how to do it.
Handbrake will be what you want. I would just Google the recommended quality settings for it for DVD.
Actually these days I would recommend using ChatGPT to get the ideal settings based on source medium and target quality/device
There is a third option for you - as others have suggested, you can use a tool like Handbrake to extract the content from your DVDs, but from there, if you’re feeling adventurous, you can acquire a higher quality release from… Somewhere else… Get it in .mkv format, and you can use a tool like MKVToolNix to extract the audio from your DVD copy and “mux” it onto your HD copy.
MKV files are great because they are really just containers (like a fancy .zip), keeping the audio and video independent, allowing you to easily swap one out for the other.
The only downside is you may have to edit the audio slightly to sync up with your video
That’s very clever! I’ll try that. Thanks!
I’ve not ripped any dvds in a while but this is what I used back in the day.
I recommend ffmpeg, use the CRF option
I would advise Handbrake over ffmpeg. I have spent months in both and Handbrake yields the best results with the least hassle. Crop, anamorphic pixels, quality, etc.
H265 nvenc is supported on Handbrake now and works great. Very fast.
LOL, easier interface, sure, but:
I actually had problems using Handbrake a few years back, ffmpeg has really good documentation and almost every software uses it under the hood
I have a custom ffmpeg script to automate what Handbrake does in a few clicks. Newer versions of Handbrake are great imo. I was on the fence and spent a lot of time trying to get ffmpeg going but there’s just too many variables for me to continue down that path.
Start by using MakeMKV to rip the dvds onto your pc and then use Handbrake to decrease the size even further.
makeMkv first and handbrake to compress. When using handbrake make sure to pick video and audio formats that work for your clients. I recommend h265 and eAC3 audio.
Far more work than just acquiring a ready made one. It’s not worth your time to do all of them. Some so you can say you did it and know how, sure, but not all.
Exceptions are for anything you can’t find, of course.
It’s in a language not on the seven seas, so it’s all something I can’t find.
If it’s rare content, it would be nice if you uploaded it to the Internet Archive
Maybe it’s rare but mostly it’s because I don’t have access to any private trackers in my language.
If you can find the correct video though that will cut your encoding time way down. Then you’d only need to pull the audio off the discs and can copy the video stream from the file instead of the disc. I’m not sure what movies you’re talking about so maybe that wouldn’t work either, but it’s worth mentioning.
Thanks! I’ll try that.
Do contribute them to I2P. That can’t be taken down. You can even use biglybt or qtorrent to seed to I2P and non-anonymous trackers.
I noticed you are having an issue finding a partial language of content, you could extract the audio track from the DVD and add it to the copy you find on the seas.
Oh, that’s clever! I’ll definitely try that also!
Do keep in mind that if it’s PAL DVDs and the original film was 24fps, it may likely be 4% faster.
My really nice blurays that are new, I use Make-MKV and I don’t compress them. My normal movies/etc, I just download high quality rips.
I’d like to recommend you some freeware like handbrake, makemkv, dvdfab hd decrypter. But if you DVDs are copy protected, you’ll need to try some paid tools like DVDFab DVD Ripper, WinX DVD Ripper. Here’s also an article about how to copy protected DVD for your reference.
If you want customized editing options, you can rip DVD to iPad or convert DVD to MP4 on Mac or Windows using paid software.
