Ripping DVDs for Windows Media Center to play

[JohnKoz]

This is my first post, so I’d like to say thanks for making a suite of great products!

I have Windows Media Center 2005 and Vista editions (WMC). I’d like to rip some of my kids DVD’s to the server so I can store the DVD’s and keep them from getting destroyed. Then, play the main track from the WMC from their standard “videos” menu. I don’t need to do any special editing.
What’s the quickest and most efficient path from DVD (presumably using AnyDVD) to a high-quality format that the WMC will recognize? Size is not an issue. I also play everything from an extender (gen1 and gen2), but I’m happy if these DVD’s just play on my gen2’s.

Thanks a bunch

-John

 

[heartspeace]

Good question - any response?

Does anyone have a good response?

This is my first post, so I’d like to say thanks for making a suite of great products!

I have Windows Media Center 2005 and Vista editions (WMC). I’d like to rip some of my kids DVD’s to the server so I can store the DVD’s and keep them from getting destroyed. Then, play the main track from the WMC from their standard “videos” menu. I don’t need to do any special editing.
What’s the quickest and most efficient path from DVD (presumably using AnyDVD) to a high-quality format that the WMC will recognize? Size is not an issue. I also play everything from an extender (gen1 and gen2), but I’m happy if these DVD’s just play on my gen2’s.

Thanks a bunch

-John

 

[medic611]

The easiest way and highest quality would be to rip the DVD into a folder play from your Media Center Interface. However, If streaming to an extender is a must then you will need to convert your file. The only extender I am familar with is the Xbox 360, and if you want to use the same Media Center Interface as you HTPC's you will need to convert to either WMV or MPEG.

I am not sure about supported codecs with any of the other extenders. But that should be in the documentation of the extender.

 

[miroslav]

I use a program called magic dvd ripper to rip standard dvds, it can do a straight rip of the video/audio (without conversion) to an .mpg file which is very easy. Its about $35 - you also dont need anydvd for this as it can decrypt sd dvds on its own.

There is also a free tool called eac3to you can use (its a command prompt program though) to extract the raw video and audio from the .vob container. You then have to mux the video back into another container for it to be playable. You need anydvd for this though

There are 1 or 2 other free tools but ive not used them

 

[roman]

I have tried a few approaches and what seems to work best is a rip using Clone DVD Mobile to a single .vob file, then renaming it to .mpg.
The rip is fast (about 12-15 min) and I see no loss of quality.
I just put it in My Movies collection and it works almost great.
The only problem is the loss of ability to ff/rew, which is a bit puzziling.
I am not a video format expert, but i am guessing that the indexing information must be somewhere there, since in WMP I can jump to any part of the movie. But in MC (Vista) I can only play it from the start and pause if necessary. Nothing else.
Does anyone have any idea what can be done about that?
SlySoft guys - any chance you could provide a fix?

BTW: Love the products!

Roman

 

[bluemeanietsi]

I have tried a few approaches and what seems to work best is a rip using Clone DVD Mobile to a single .vob file, then renaming it to .mpg.
The rip is fast (about 12-15 min) and I see no loss of quality.
I just put it in My Movies collection and it works almost great.
The only problem is the loss of ability to ff/rew, which is a bit puzziling.
I am not a video format expert, but i am guessing that the indexing information must be somewhere there, since in WMP I can jump to any part of the movie. But in MC (Vista) I can only play it from the start and pause if necessary. Nothing else.
Does anyone have any idea what can be done about that?
SlySoft guys - any chance you could provide a fix?

BTW: Love the products!

Roman

You want Slysoft to fix the way extender handles video formats?

 

[roman]

Blue, I believe you are suggesting this is not really an option.
Well, my ignorance has just been confirmed, but I am ok with that.
So what's the next best option?
All the other formats I was able to find in Clone DVD Mobile result in significant loss in quality. I assume there must be a good reason for that, or am I missing something?
Thanks,
Roman

 

[friend]

if you reencode you will lose quality.