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I'm So New and So Confused

Ultra_Sunshine

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This forum is for power users. I am so confused here and so intimidated. Every post here is full of information and creates a new question in my mind, but I am not sure if it is applicable to my situation. What I want to do is put my movies in MP4 format onto a hard drive and output it to a TV.

What do I need to buy and install. OMG, ???RATIOS??? ???DRM??? ???WHAT BURNER??? (at least I know about using the right medium and make sure to defrag) ???Which software??? I don't even know where to begin in asking a question to accomplish this task.

First bit of confusion: The impression that I get is that AnyDVD will decode a movie for me so that I can convert it to the MP4 format or essentially capture the movie to a temporary file on my hard drive. Would I opt for the mobile version or do I need to change the captured movie with some other program. ...

I am here with the hopes and dreams of finding a solution and it's like hitting the afterdark forum with it's "don't bother posting if your are a newbie to this forum because we are way above you and there are tons of posts outlining the procedure." Well, I'm so new I can't navigate through this information in order to get out of the newbie status. In other words I'm a bit overwhelmed.

I could really use a roadmap to this site with maybe an overview of the general procedures/programs required in order to accomplish this task along with terms so I can effectively search and post to the forum (and links) for information pertaining to this type of task.
 
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Hi ultra nice to see you stop by. I think after maybe a few questions and answers the folks here can assist you to what you need.

Basically guys and gals this person wants to use DNC Pro to convert to MP4 format yes they own anydvd and they want to be able to stream or hook up the PC to the TV so this person can watch the video backup through either ITunes or Quicktime player on the TV. All help would be nice.
 
If you're going to watch on tv, from the hard drive, why do you want to convert to mp4?
Right click on the AnyDVD red fox, in the system tray, and click on "Rip Video DVD to Harddisk". If you have a video card that has a "TV Out" connection, and it is hooked up, it should just be a matter of looking through your dvd player software, or video card software, and find where it says "Send to TV". Of course, this is after it finishes ripping to hard drive.
Good luck!

Maybe someone else can be more specific with details. It might help if they knew what video card you have, etc..... :)

And it's AfterDawn forums, not Afterdark. There's only a couple of people there with that attitude. Most there are very helpful. But, at ANY forum, they like for you to use the search feature, because the same questions get asked constantly (because people won't use the search).

I don't think any of these will help with this, but here are some very good, step by step guides, on how to use some software. One or more of these may come in handy sometime: http://webpages.charter.net/bacitup/Guides.htm
He also has a page to dowload the software, the guides are for.
Good luck! :)
 
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Though "after dark" is a more fitting name! :D:D
jvc has you covered on he steps to view through your TV but note, the viewing quality will very possibly suffer.
Ultra_Sunshine......take some time and read through the forum and see what others are using for software.
There is a LOT of good info here.
 
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the viewing quality will very possibly suffer.
Why would it suffer? If he uses AnyDVD to rip, it doesn't compress, so the files on the hard drive should be just as good as the original. The only things I see that might cause PQ to suffer, is if the video card is a bad one, or the cable going to the tv is bad.

I've not used this personally, but a lot of folks like the VLC player. You can get it here: http://www.videolan.org/vlc/
I use WinDVD. My computer is setup as a standalone home theater, with 5.1 surround sound. WinDVD supports both Dolby Digital and DTS playback. It sounds and looks very good. I'm just using a 19" crt monitor.
 
Ultra_Sunshine wants to play back through a TV. Are you using a CRT 19" TV or PC Monitor?
 
I'm using a PC monitor, personally

Using a TV monitor will, most likely, degrade her playback. TV's do not have anywhere near the pixel rate of a PC monitor.
 
I agree... the standard format for (undegraded) playback is MPEG-2, no conversion needed. And yes depending on the display TV... it may of may not suffer. I note to Joe that she did not specify WHAT kind of TV was being used to display.

-W
 
I just know she wants to use DNC Pro and make the DVD's to MP4 format to save space and be able to stream it to the TV or hook the PC to the TV.
 
She is going to use MP4 format anyways so yes anything with compression is going to be a bit of degrade in quality.
 
Fyi

Since my husband never saw a movie he didn't like, we have over 3,000 movie titles in our collection. I first began this project with the goal to back up the collection onto DVDs. Upon closer inspection of this project, I realized the mess I would be creating (imagine the new library consisting of now 6,000 DVDs with cases).

MY NEW GOAL: I was hoping to put the 3,000 titles in storage and copy the movies to a couple of hard drives, then using the computer as an entertainment server to my TV (not HD TV just a regular TV). One of you suggests (through personal experience) one of those nifty new Monitors, which may be a nice alternative/addition to this plan and provide a viewing medium that is more than satisfactory (probably better than the existing plan I have).

In the meantime, I was hoping for a quick and user-friendly (be gentle, I'm really new at this) way to get about 300 movies on a 500 GB drive (so 10 hard drives vs. 3,000 DVDs with cases ... see the beauty to this plan). I have been told that MPEG-4 with the h.264 codec is my dream come true solution. It will convert a 4.7 GB file to a more compact 1.5 GB MP4 file that is viewable with QuickTime or some other viewing software. Hence my question regarding DVD to MP4 format. Is my question and goals becoming more clear to help you answer my question? DNC Pro with AnyDVD is the solution?

Thank you all for your quick responses.:D

P.S. Charlie, Thank you so much for helping in clarifying my goals, I need a translator in this well established subject.:clap:
 
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I'm of the (personal) opinion that reducing a movie (in any format) under 4.35 GB (DVD5 size) results in too much compression distortion to be happy with.

That's just my opinion.... you'd need 14 terrabytes of drive to house that much in MPEG-2 (yikes!)

Please solicit other opinions as to the quality of MPEG-4 vs MPEG-2

-W
 
I'm of the (personal) opinion that reducing a movie (in any format) under 4.35 GB (DVD5 size) results in too much compression distortion to be happy with.

That's just my opinion.... you'd need 14 terrabytes of drive to house that much in MPEG-2 (yikes!)

Please solicit other opinions as to the quality of MPEG-4 vs MPEG-2

-W
I agree. I wouldn't go less than 4 GB.
 
Well I've taken the flick " The River Wild " and converted to WMV so my wife could put it on her pod. BIG MISTAKE......:agree:

It came out so choppy it was not funny. Thought it might be my system or the I'mtoo program I was using. Come to find out, it was not. It's converting and compressing so much data into smaller files that is the killer.

Personally, you want to watch a flick, don't go under the 4.35 gig mark....


Cheer's

Wolfy
 
Good advice about over compressing! 500GB SATA HDD's can be had for as little as $100. My only concern with storing movies on HDD's....... They are mechanical and they will fail in time.
 
Good advice about over compressing! 500GB SATA HDD's can be had for as little as $100. My only concern with storing movies on HDD's....... They are mechanical and they will fail in time.

I want to something similar but with full sized, ripped DVD's. The danger fo hard drive failure is dramatically lessened if you use a RAID or RAIDS of your drives that way you don't lose anything if you lose a drive. Of course down side is more drives are required, up side, its still cheaper than a high quality automatic tape backup system. While I may have figured out the sotrage issue, I am still totally baffeled as how best to play the ripped files on my yet to be built Raid, any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
 
RAID array will lessen the chance for data loss but mechanical failure is eminent.
 
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