Movie Storage (What file sizes?)

Hey everyone.

I'm looking at purchasing a Western Digital 1TB "My Book - Home Edition" to store/playback my DVD movie collection, and I'm also looking to use it to store/playback HD movies.

I was wondering if anybody here knows what the best file format is for storing/playing back HD movies? And how big the file sizes are on averge for a true HD movie...

Somebody I know sometimes gets a movie that plays back out of synch with the sound. What causes that? (Just so I know)

Thanks!

 

nowadays most people use the H264 codec to encode .mkv files. They range from 4-8GB's.(for 720p-1080p).

 

Whats a good encoder for doing this? I been meaning to convert some of my DVD's to digital copies.

 

There is the recent "Real Network squabble" with the DVD copier...

With some DVDs you can just copy them onto your harddrive using Windows Explorer.
(And as long as you've got the DVD, are you breaking any laws?)

 

Nope. It's considered backing up what you already physically own.
However, things get complicated when you try to reproduce or share it with others who do not physically own it (i.e. file sharing online).

 

Or when you try to get through their copy protection... basically, I don't try...

I had someone do a backup of a CD though - so I could play it on my computer...
(again, own the original )

 

I've been looking into storing and playing back HD streams myself. I have season 4 of the Office stored and and they are about 2.3GB an episode to give you an idea.

 

A mate's .mkv movie file collection averages at around 4.4GB for a 90min movie.

 

What? 2.3GB for a 20ish minute episode? what.


Is it 1080i?

 

Use DVDFab to rip and handbrake/SUPER to convert.
Or skip converting and use VLC to play the dvds straight from the ripped files. (I assume they're still *_TS folders?)

 

I've converted a lot of BR disks to 1080p & 720p MKVs (H.264 + DTS) and typically aim for a DVD9 for 1080p and a DVD5 for 720p, though for a really grainy movie you might need more (if you're doing more than a DVD9+DVD5 for 1080p you're doing it wrong). For 1080i HDTV, assuming the source is good enough to keep, I usually deinterlace, filter a bit, resize to 720p, and then sharpen a bit before encoding.

For 480p DVDs I usually do 1/3 DVD5 or 1/2 DVD5 for something really long, with DTS audio, or with a lot of grain.

Some of the newer releases of x264 are really good at grain optimization if you're willing to blow a LOT of time encoding, so the 480p sizes are probably higher than are needed (I picked those sizes a couple years back).

If your files are playing out of sync then the most likely reasons are that your machine is too slow (possibly the case for 1080p unless you've got a bleeding-edge system or are using CoreAVC) or that the file was not muxed correctly.

 

What's the best software for encoding then? And is it free?

EDIT: I was hoping to download files straight to an external hard drive, and then play .mkv's through my laptop which I was planning to install a decoder/codex on that will allow playback of .mkv's. Which decoder is recommended?

 

SUPER or Handbrake

 

Super is very good, but: You need a powerful computer.
(my SZ7 is fine - 2,5GHz Core Duo 2... 4Gb RAM)
(The latest version doesn't want to run on a Pentium M 1,6Ghz and 1GB RAM)

And lots of time - leave it to run overnight.

 

Use VLC and you shouldn't need a decoder.

 

actually VLC lags on my laptop attempting to play 1080p. I installed cccp along with coreavc. Works much better.