Hi there
Found this thread, amongst others, after quite a bit of Google searching. As ever, I've found lots of useful info, but never quite what I want (or quite enough for me to adapt).
First off, my
aim is this:
1) To simply place a
Blu-Ray disk into my home media server (running Ubuntu/Linux)
2) It will auto-detect it, and rip the files or
ISO into a directory, and eject
3) Then it will automatically transcode/recode to a smaller
h.264 file, with a
profile that would give good results for a
720p TV and
5.1 surround.
4) It would also then transcode/recode into a 'mobile' format, suitable for about an iphone
resolution screen, and only stereo.
5) I would get an email when
it's done.
6) I would then find two files like: /media/films/300.mp4 and /media/mobile/films/300, ready for playback
Now, I realise first off there are a couple of variables which would make the automation problematic:
1) Foreign films would have
sub-titles - I would therefore a)whether to use subs at all (it wouldn't know if it was a foreign film), and b) which of the subtitles to use if more than one. Potentially, the later could be automated by checking if there are a high proportion of matches to an English dictionary)
2) Which audio track to use - I think I could make this automatic by simply having a preference
list IE TrueHD first, then
DTS, then DD, then 2.1
3) Which video track to use - I don't know about this one. Is there some dependable standard for the 'main' track filename(s)?
Apart from those problems, then there's the actual software required. Two things here:
1) Most of the FAQs I see use Windows-based tools
2) Even assuming I can use WINE to run them, I'd really need tools which can be run from a command line if I want to automate.
Other steps I could introduce to the 'auto' script:
1) Have a stage that only does a small portion first, and then emails me a link to the
sample output. I can then just click 'ok' if it's fine, or 'cancel' if I need to tweal
2) Could be even more advanced, and have a link to a web
gui that emailed once the ripping part has finished, that gives me a sample of each of the audio tracks, subs, and video tracks.
I'd like to extend this 'auto' rip function to DVDs and CDs too, but let's just keep it to the
Blu-Ray in this forum/thread!
Finally, I'm not even sure of a few fundamentals:
1) BR disks, so far as I know, vary betwen around 40 to 20
GB in size. What, ballpark, is an achievable file size with little or no reduction in quality on a
720p TV / 5.1 amp
2) How long would this take on a good dual core machine? I assume we're talking aroudn 12 hours?
3) Is the quality of a BR disk, recoded to a smaller version, going to be any better than a
DVD? IE Is all this even worth it?
Would be most grateful for your input on this.
Thanks
Marcos
