Does that mess with the quality or anything?

quote:

Originally posted by AllenInWV:
Does that mess with the quality or anything?

Yes it is lower quality but sometimes that does not matter.
I have all my kids movies in a lower format as the full experience is not always needed.
If need the full version I pop in the disc.

Get as big a drive as you can afford. Lots of deals today.

Seagate Expansion Desktop 8TB External Hard Drive HDD - USB 3.0 for PC Laptop (STEB8000100) https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01H..._api_i_Wdu4Db3A8QDBS

quote:

Originally posted by AllenInWV:
Does that mess with the quality or anything?

Yes, makemky is a file format changer, you always lose something in translation. How much that matters depends on you. I have a huge home theater and top quality matters to me. That's why I use AnyDVD, it makes an exact digital copy with no conversion. That way I have a full unchanged copy on my hard drive.
Then I use dvd shrink to separate the movie from all the dvd extras to save space, unless you want to keep the trailers and behind the scenes extra stuff. I have a huge library so I need the space. So I now have a full dvd copy in dvd format as just the movie file.
Now, I can take that full resolution video and use handbrake or makemkv to really shrink the video for portabliity. The screens on ipads or suburban are much smaller so I don't need full resolution on them. And they take up less space on a micro SD card. Then I keep the full resolution movie file only a portable 2tb Hardrive.
Now I have the best of both worlds, small size and portability for kids movies, but full resolution movies for my big movie screen.

It just depends on what's important to you.

quote:

Originally posted by AllenInWV:
Does that mess with the quality or anything?

Amplifying what Black and Jeff said; Yes, but you probably won't notice or care.

It's a tradeoff. I started by keeping the straight MakeMKV rips which are very close to original quality IMO. But it doesn't take long to fill up a hard drive with those, especially if you switch to blu-ray. Now I only keep the max resolution copies of the movies that I think really need it, and that's less than 10 out of a couple hundred. Everything else goes through handbrake and is compressed to either 720P or 1080P with reasonable compression. Main tv is a 58" 1080P plasma, other devices are iPads, smaller tv's, or the 27" mac mini in our kitchen. No complaints at all.

Yeah, the TVs in my RV are 1080p I think, so if that is what you all compress them to in order to save space, that should be fine!

quote:

Originally posted by AllenInWV:
Okay, so what I'm getting is this....

HandBrake and MakeMKV is probably what I should go with software-wise. MakeMKV to pull the info off the discs, HandBrake to manipulate the format for viewing (more or less).

I can use a regular HD, and considering it'll essentially be in the "house", I don't need the durability of an SSD. Maybe something around 4TB.

Sound about right?

Just FYI, Handbreak can rip the DVD as well. You don't need to use MakeMKV to full it off.

quote:

Originally posted by Chance:


Just FYI, Handbreak can rip the DVD as well. You don't need to use MakeMKV to full it off.

But handbrake wont break copy protection.So you need something else if you are going to convert commercial movies.

quote:

Originally posted by Black92LX:

Seagate Expansion Desktop 8TB External Hard Drive HDD - USB 3.0 for PC Laptop (STEB8000100) https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01H..._api_i_Wdu4Db3A8QDBS

Okay, last dumb question (for today). So if I stick that thing in my RV, and I disconnect the batteries or whatever and kill the house power, I don't lose anything? Logic says I'm good, as the external HDs aren't always plugged in.

Ugh....I hate getting old. LOL

quote:

Originally posted by AllenInWV:

quote:

Originally posted by Black92LX:

Seagate Expansion Desktop 8TB External Hard Drive HDD - USB 3.0 for PC Laptop (STEB8000100) https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01H..._api_i_Wdu4Db3A8QDBS

Okay, last dumb question (for today). So if I stick that thing in my RV, and I disconnect the batteries or whatever and kill the house power, I don't lose anything? Logic says I'm good, as the external HDs aren't always plugged in.

Ugh....I hate getting old. LOL

Everything (all files on the disks) will indeed be there when you power it back up!

quote:

Originally posted by jeffxjet:

quote:

Originally posted by Chance:


Just FYI, Handbreak can rip the DVD as well. You don't need to use MakeMKV to full it off.

But handbrake wont break copy protection.So you need something else if you are going to convert commercial movies.

It is simple to upgrade Handbreak so it has this functionality. You just need to download the libdvdcss library.

https://www.howtogeek.com/1028...so-you-can-rip-them/