I'm not sure if this is the right forum, but here goes. I recently purchased a NAS to stream video to my PS3, and I've been experimenting with various ripping/encoding methods to back up my DVDs. So far I'm not thrilled with my results, so I'm wondering what other people are doing. I have tried ripping and encoding to MP4 using both Handbrake and DVDFab Platinum. Both have presets for PS3, and using those presets (in 2-pass mode), the PS3 will play the files and the quality is great...except there's a bit of "jerkiness" when there is a lot of movement in the scene. I noticed this playing the files on my PC as well, so I tried increasing the bit rate. Then I tried changing the frame rate to 23.976. Not much difference. So is this a common issue with MP4s? Then I tried creating VOBs using DVDShrink. I've been combining the multiple VOBs on each DVD into one large, 75% compressed VOB file. Again, the files will play and the quality is great. The jerkiness is gone, but when I fast-forward or rewind long segments on the PS3 and then press play, the video freezes for a long time while my NAS "catches up." When it finally starts playing again, the audio is out of sync. I can correct this by stopping and restarting, but that gets annoying. This sounds like a network issue. I'm no expert on networking, but I'm running both my NAS and my PS3 into a new gigabit switch with jumbo frames, so I feel like I've got the fastest connection I can get. So before I try Dvix, avi, or some other format, I'm just wondering what other people are doing. How do you back up your DVD's? What software do you use, and what specific settings? And if you're streaming MP4s or VOBs, are you happy with the results? Thanks.
i have tried a number of programs for backing up my dvds on ps3. my favorite so far would have to be autoMKV, but can never get my resolution to look good. i get a block view instead of a wiedscreen(i tried anamorphic and it didn't work), i set a custom resolution but there seems to be a loss in quality. or the picture just looks grainy. im reading up on x264 codec settings to fix this. but do you have any ideas to what my problem might be? you seem a little ahead of me in encoding...
Well, since I originally wrote this, I've pretty much given up on re-encoding to MP4s, at least for stuff that I care about. I figure with encoding and compressing a movie to 1GB, you're going to be giving up some quality no matter what you do. The choppy movement just doesn't look good on a 50" screen, and I want to do this right. For now I've settled on ripping to VOBs using CloneDVD or DVDShrink with AnyDVD running in the background. I've been setting the compression level to around 80% to save some disc space. Then I run a simple little conversion tool called VOB2MPG. This converts the VOBs to MPGs and allows them to play on the PS3 with no freezing after fast forwarding or rewinding. (Make sure AnyDVD isn't running when you run VOB2MPG). The average movie ends up around 3-4gb, which is obviously much larger than a compressed MP4 file, but the PQ is excellent and space isn't too much of an issue right now. (I have a NAS). Good luck!
see i ain't burning to a disc but size is still a issue with me. i have a 1tb external but don't want to fill it up with 3-4GiB movies. if your coming out with files 3-4GiB you should just use xilisoft ripper ultimate 5. it has presets for the ps3 and you can rip straight off a NTSC dvd and convert to 720p mp4 files with near lossless picture and sound and the file size is about 2.56GiB