Handbrake Tipps/Settings

I'm planning to get all my DVDs from Disk to HDD and I'd lile to know if there is anything I should know in advance, or if there are any important options I definitely need to (un)check.

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just set your threads correctly and hit go, if the result is unsatisfactory raise the bitrate.

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I done the exact same thing years ago, 200+ DVDs ripped to a HDD, that cleared up a lot of space and a charity no doubt benefited from the DVDs. Was a very tedious job though!!!

I used the Apple TV preset, as I had one. Quality on the default settings was perfect on that whilst only taking up 2Gb or less per disk. Kept the Dolby Digital 5.1 (& DTS if available) and the Dolby ProLogic II stereo down mix for compatibly.

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Don Melton has put TONS of analysis and work into his packaged tools for ripping videos. He used to work for Apple, was on the team that developed Safari, and is quite obsessed with video quality now it seems. These will run on Linux, macOS, and Windows.

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If you want to save space look into h265. It is nearly double the length it would take for h264 if not longer. But I rip a bluray episode to 500mb with h264 being about a 1.2gb with the same settings of quality.

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Thanks for the replies :slight_smile:

@tkoham Doesn't handbrake set the number of threads automatically?

@raz0rblade Yeah, I'd like to do the same, I especially would like to have a copy of LotR's Extended Edition :wink:

@willrun4fun I'll definitely look into this

@Argone While h265 sounds interesting I'm afraid it won't run smoothly on my RPi3 (Not quite sure though...)

As a side-note: This handbrake/ripping thing sounded like a perfect job for my Ryzen CPU, but unfortunately my external DVD drive is not the best one to say the least, which is why I have to use my old PC :frowning:

HandBrake can’t copy copy-protected DVD so if you have problems with it. You can use this method: http://www.videoconverterfactory.com/tips/handbrake-copy-protection.html
Beyond that, you’d better to convert DVDs to compatible formats with right encoders as some devices doesn’t support specific encoders. Compared with xvid and divx, h264 is cool that can decrease video size with same video quality.
If you’re not familar with those codecs, some program that can set the smart fit parameters are available.