Naaythann's Journal: Mass Encoding DVD to MKV

I am wanting to finally start encoding my DVD collection for easy playback on a media centre, after much research I decided on using the MKV format as it allows me to rip all audio channels and even subtitles into one file. The trouble is, type DVD to MKV into google and there is a giant list of options and i am pretty sure most dont allow me to do it as i want. What software do you fellow slashdotters recommend?

Your question sucks

[Qzukk]

most dont allow me to do it as i want

What do you want?

http://catb.org/esr/faqs/smart-questions.html [catb.org]

Re:

[Naaythann]

MKV format as it allows me to rip all audio channels and even subtitles into one file... Not always on except the primary audio, some of the stuff is anime and i rather keep the japanese audio track with english subtitles when it comes to those.

Re:

[Qzukk]

Still depends on what you want (and what OS you want it on). Do you want to transcode the video and audio to another format with higher compression? If not, then the simplest method I know of is a two-step process: demux the DVD .vob files into their component parts (eg http://www.wxfs.org/guides/UsingDVDDecryptortoDemuxaDVD.pdf [wxfs.org] or http://www.transcoding.org/cgi-bin/transcode [transcoding.org] on linux), then use mkvtoolnix to re-assemble them into an .mkv (eg http://www.bunkus.org/videotools/mkvtoolnix/doc/mkvmerge-gui.ht [bunkus.org]

Re:

[Naaythann]

Yeah i've used various rippers before but none seem to do the compression with all the bits audio and subtitle wise. I'll have a look at this later tonight, dont mind chucking a linux distro onto the machine to do this. Its going to be a very long task with my dvd backups as they are already using about 2.4TB and i'd like my HDD space back eventually.

Re:

[tqft]

I use handbrake (handbrake.fr) to rip stuff to mp4 (for my ipod). It also has an mkv option to rip to.

Does handbrake throw away the other material as you describe?

Is there any easy way to tell?

Re:

[Qzukk]

Interesting, I can't find a setting in the Windows GUI for it (reading the docs for the presets, it looks like it's specified in there), but the Linux commandline version can rip multiple audio tracks at once if you use -a 1,2,3,etc along with -E aac,aac,aac,etc. http://trac.handbrake.fr/wiki/CLIGuide#options [handbrake.fr] The docs say it converts subtitles to hardsubs though, rather than storing them as a vobsub track.