Handbrake/Mactheripper

I've been using Handbrake for awhile but the quality on a television isn't the greatest. I use the iPod Hi-rez setting because iDVD doesn't work with .mkv files and I've heard converting .mkv's is lossy. I tried Mactheripper but I couldn't get iDVD to burn Video_TS files and again, am worried about lossy conversion. And I don't want to spend 80 bucks on Toast. What should I do? I want better quality than Handbrake "iPod Hi-rez" but can't get Mactheripper to work with iDVD. What are my options?

Well obviously the quality on the TV isn't going to be that good when you're using an iPod setting. An iPod's screen resolution is much lower than that of a TV, hence why videos don't look very good when played on a TV. I would suggest using the Normal setting, you'll get far better results that way.

iDVD won't burn VIDEO_TS folders, you'll either need to shell out for Toast or find a similar program. However, if you're simply trying to rip a DVD to your hard drive, then why you're even using MactheRipper is unclear.

Kash said:

Well obviously the quality on the TV isn't going to be that good when you're using an iPod setting. An iPod's screen resolution is much lower than that of a TV, hence why videos don't look very good when played on a TV. I would suggest using the Normal setting, you'll get far better results that way.

iDVD won't burn VIDEO_TS folders, you'll either need to shell out for Toast or find a similar program. However, if you're simply trying to rip a DVD to your hard drive, then why you're even using MactheRipper is unclear.

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Alright, I'll try the Normal setting. For some reason I thought the Normal setting wasn't very good because it said "default".. I have no idea why I thought the iPod setting would be any better, clearly I wasn't thinking. And most of the other settings use .mkv files.

I thought it was apparent that I was trying to burn the files as DVD's when I said I was trying to get them to work on iDVD... sorry if I wasn't clear. I tried Mactheripper because I heard it ripped better quality files than Handbrake.

batsy said:

I tried Mactheripper because I heard it ripped better quality files than Handbrake.

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MTR is strictly for ripping the VIDEO_TS folder to the hard drive, after which you can burn back to a DVD-R with Toast.

Handbrake is for ripping to the hard drive as an MP4/MPG/AVI/MKV/etc for use in iTunes/AppleTV/iPods.

If you rip with Handbrake, and the convert back to DVD using Toast, you'll notice some quality loss, but ripping from MTR is strictly unencrypting, there is no loss. Only if you remaster a dual layer DVD to fit onto a single layer DVD you'll notice some loss in quality, but if it's single layer to single layer or double layer to double layer, they should be identical.

Ok, so what am I doing wrong?? I don't use anything if I want to rip a DVD to my hard drive. I simply insert the dvd, wait til dvd player opens, close it and then open the dvd and copy the Video_TS file to a folder with the name of the DVD. If I want to watch it, I just use Front Row if its in my Movie folder, or use Quicktime if its on my portable hard drive. I imagine if I wanted to burn back to dvd that I might run into problems. I have not tried that yet.??
Let me add...these are my OWN personal DVDs....

When you copy the Video_TS folder, you get an exact copy of the DVD that takes up as much space as the DVD. With an App like Handbrake you can reduce the file size tremendously while keep a reasonably good quality video.

batsy said:

I thought it was apparent that I was trying to burn the files as DVD's when I said I was trying to get them to work on iDVD... sorry if I wasn't clear. I tried Mactheripper because I heard it ripped better quality files than Handbrake.

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Like others have said, using MactheRipper results in an identical copy of the contents of the disc, so you can't get much better quality than that. However, a full disc can range anywhere from 4.5GB to 8GB, so having a full backup can be a bit taxing when it comes to hard drive space (though I'll be the first to say that I'm quite guilty as I have some 300+ full DVD rips sitting on my media center computer, it takes up quite a bit of space, but I love having full quality and the menus). If you don't have the terabytes necessary to back up a modest sized DVD collection, I would highly suggest sticking with Handbrake.

I am running into the same types of problems. I ripped some video to my hard drive using handbrake on the normal setting as a mp4 file. Then I imported the video to imovie for editing. When I setup the video to be useful for idvd to burn, the only format options I had were small and medium, basically for ipods. That resolution is basically crappy on a screen any bigger than 4 inches. I want to be able to view these on something bigger. Is there any way to get the resolution nearly as good as the original source? What am I doing wrong? I even tried to make another copy of the source and edit usig mpeg streamclip, but I couldn't figure it out.

Kash said:

Like others have said, using MactheRipper results in an identical copy of the contents of the disc, so you can't get much better quality than that. However, a full disc can range anywhere from 4.5GB to 8GB, so having a full backup can be a bit taxing when it comes to hard drive space (though I'll be the first to say that I'm quite guilty as I have some 300+ full DVD rips sitting on my media center computer, it takes up quite a bit of space, but I love having full quality and the menus). If you don't have the terabytes necessary to back up a modest sized DVD collection, I would highly suggest sticking with Handbrake.

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I don't plan on keeping the files on my computer, I want to back them up on DVDs. So, what I'm hearing is, there's no way to burn a file from Mactheripper without Toast?

There are a couple of free options available, though they all essentially do the same thing, create a burnable disc image file that you then use the built in Disk Utility to burn.

One is DVD Imager, the download link and instructions to use are available through that link.

Second is using ffmpegX to do essentially the same thing as above. In ffmpegX click on Tools and then img. Browse to your VIDEO_TS folder and then hit Go.

Finally, you can use a Terminal command

Kash said:

There are a couple of free options available, though they all essentially do the same thing, create a burnable disc image file that you then use the built in Disk Utility to burn.

One is DVD Imager, the download link and instructions to use are available through that link.

Second is using ffmpegX to do essentially the same thing as above. In ffmpegX click on Tools and then img. Browse to your VIDEO_TS folder and then hit Go.

Finally, you can use a Terminal command

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Thanks. So do those programs make a DVD watchable in a DVD player?

That is correct

Kash said:

That is correct

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Thank you very much for your help, I'll see if I can make it work =)

So I tried ripping the disc with Handbrake on the Normal setting just to see what the quality is like and if it's good enough so I don't have to try Mactheripper again, and the same DVD I ripped perfectly fine in the iPod High-Rez setting would not rip on the Normal setting. The process froze and the drive started making whirring sounds like it does when it can't read a DVD. Any reason a DVD would rip on the iPod setting and not on Normal?

I use visualhub and it works great for me.

So, anybody know why a DVD would rip on the iPod setting of Handbrake but not the Normal setting? =/

If nobody knows I guess I'll try Mactheripper again, but last time I tried it, it unexpectedly quit during the rip.

batsy said:

So, anybody know why a DVD would rip on the iPod setting of Handbrake but not the Normal setting? =/

If nobody knows I guess I'll try Mactheripper again, but last time I tried it, it unexpectedly quit during the rip.

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Just set it up manually. I think normal is like 1500. I do about 3200 for good movies. mp4 no anamorphic and de-interlace where I have to.

///MPower said:

Just set it up manually. I think normal is like 1500. I do about 3200 for good movies. mp4 no anamorphic and de-interlace where I have to.

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I would, but I have no idea what all the settings mean..