Need input - best format for storage / playback

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damager99
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Need input - best format for storage / playback

Post by damager99 » Tue May 20, 2008 3:24 pm

I have Twonky running on a Windows Home Server, serving up movies via gigabit lan to my PS3.

I ripped a movie to vob (1 single large vob) and it seems to play back fine, although it uses a LOT of storage. I tried using DVDMobile from Slysoft to create a version that was further compressed, but ended up with audio out of sync with the video.

Can anyone recommend the best format to create smaller files that also plays back well using Twonky and the PS3? Specifically, I'd like the FF / RWD functionality to work and the audio to stay in sync.

Thanks.

bizniss
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Re: Need input - best format for storage / playback

Post by bizniss » Wed May 21, 2008 9:15 am

I use handbrake.http://handbrake.fr
There's a PS3 setting that creates a H264 encoded MP4 that is of good enough quality.

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mgillespie
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Re: Need input - best format for storage / playback

Post by mgillespie » Wed May 21, 2008 3:52 pm

H.264/AVC is by far the best bet, it's a modern high performance codec (much better than aging DivX and MPEG2 codecs).

Another vote for Handbrake here, it does a nice job of ripping/decrypting/encoding to PS3 compatible AVC.
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damager99
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Re: Need input - best format for storage / playback

Post by damager99 » Wed May 21, 2008 4:36 pm

Thanks guys...

damager99
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Re: Need input - best format for storage / playback

Post by damager99 » Mon May 26, 2008 7:29 pm

Handbrake seems to work well. The only problem I'm having at this point is that my sound is always 2 channel - not 5 channel as expected. Is there a setting in Handbrake that I'm missing?

TheCurse
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Re: Need input - best format for storage / playback

Post by TheCurse » Wed May 28, 2008 11:50 pm

I'm using a PS3 with Twonkyvision 4.1.

But when I try to play such a file, the PS3 says "format not supported". I know that the PS3 is not supposed to be supported until a later version but everything else works fine with the PS3 (MP3, MPEG2, pictures, etc.). Is the upgrade necessary to play files encoded with "Handshake"?

Thanks!

damager99
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Re: Need input - best format for storage / playback

Post by damager99 » Thu May 29, 2008 3:18 pm

I believe so - the newer version specifically talk about better PS3 support. No harm in trying a newer version.

Did you use the "PS3" profile when you used Handbrake?

cbreaker
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Re: Need input - best format for storage / playback

Post by cbreaker » Wed Jun 04, 2008 7:36 pm

I use DVD Decrypter to pull the main movie with the audio track I want from a DVD. Then I use AVI.NET to encode the video into DiVX format while keeping the AC-3, and use a VBR 2-pass encoding at 2000Kbit. The good thing about AVI.NET is that you can queue up multiple movie jobs - so you can rip a dozen movies to your hard drive and then queue them all up to run overnight. On a normal modern PC it should take about 1.5-2 hours a movie.

The movies look almost (if not as good) as the originals, and I keep the AC-3. Most movies are about 2GB this way.

This is the only way I've found to make good quality encodes and keep surround sound.

None of the other encoding apps will let you keep the AC-3. Everyone making these apps must assume the only reason you want to encode a DVD is for playing on a portable device or uploading as a torrent. I don't want to encode the audio into stereo, dammit!

These AVI's stream from Twonky perfectly.

cpeel2300
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Re: Need input - best format for storage / playback

Post by cpeel2300 » Tue Jul 08, 2008 4:59 pm

Can I just add to this?

My PS3 is downstairs and my router (BT Home Hub) is upstairs so the PS3 has always been connected via WiFi. This has always been a bit of an issue with poor signal strength (never better than 40%) and in the past I've tried wireless LAN extenders to no avail. I recently moved to TwonkyVision from EyeConnect as the latter is just appalling at streaming video and found it a lot better, although DVDs would still break up a bit.

Anyway, last week I bit the bullet and bought 2 NetGear HD Powerline adapators. Plugged them in and bingo - 'wired' Ethernet downstairs. Tested out some DVDs and found that VOBs and DivX (even HD) files streamed perfectly but MP4s still broke up.

I used Handbrake with the default PS3 setting to convert the VOBs to MP4 so I'm surprised they don't work so well - is there a better format/setting to use if I'm streaming video to my PS3? Obviously I'd like to keep as close to original quality as possible.

Thanks

Chris

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