High Quality DVD Copies with HandBrake

January 25, 2009 by chrisdpratt

I recently set out on a mission to convert all my season box sets and other DVDs to compressed video files that I can stream to my TV through my Mac Mini turned media server.

This is certainly not the first time I’ve done such a thing. I’m an old pro at ripping DVDs. I even got past the encryption on the Dark Knight DVD, but that’s another tale. (Pirating DVDs is wrong. Don’t do it kiddos. However, you are allowed by law to make a copy of any DVD, Music CD, software, etc. that you own, as a backup. Aren’t disclaimers fun?).

Anyways, this time, I wanted to ensure I got a near DVD-quality rip while still conserving file size. Any compression format is going to be lossy, sure, but you can get awfully close to the original, and that’s what I was looking for. That’s also what I had no idea how to do. I use HandBrake religiously but it’s not always obvious what presets or options to use for any given case. So, I turned to my old friend, Google, and started researching.

After a fair amount of work, I finally came across a thread in the HandBrake forum that gave me the info I needed. One of the developers of HandBrake suggested that the AppleTV preset in HandBrake with the quality slider bumped up to 62% gives a near perfect encode. What the thread didn’t mention is that you’ll need to uncheck “Large file size”, as well, since this is only for encodings where the produced mp4 will be greater than 4GB and breaks compatibility with most software and devices when enabled.

I gave it a whirl, and I have to say that it definitely does the trick. The mp4 produced is virtually identical in quality to the DVD, at least to my eyes (YMMV).

It also seems to be a relatively quick encode. On the low-end model Mac Mini (1.8Ghz, 1GB RAM), I get about 12-14 fps converting directly from DVD to an external hard drive over USB2.0. It usually takes twice as long, roughly, as real-time, so a 2-hour movie would equal a 4-hour encode.

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  • For some reason this post is getting heavy comment spam.

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  • SJB
    You are not allowed "by law" to make fair-use (backup, or archival) copies of DVDs. Copying DVDs for any reason is currently illegal under the Digital Millenium Copyright Act, which prohibits the circumvention of encryption technologies, such as the CSS on DVDs, in order to make a copy. Just fyi.
  • Incorrect. Fair Use allows you to make copies of any software, music, DVDs, etc. that you own. The DMCA, only says that it's unlawful to crack the CSS protection if it exists on those items. Therefore, at its heart DMCA would only exclude media with copy-protection mechanisms. But, even there, who is truly doing the "cracking" of the CSS? The end-user or the developer of the software the user makes use of.

    The DMCA, plain and simply, is a legal trainwreck, the language of which is often contradictory and clearly in violation of previous legal pronouncements (i.e. Fair Use). Whether it's illegal or not under the DMCA, I'll leave to the law professors. But, as none of them can agree on anything, you're not going to see a court case for CSS-decrypting for Fair Use purposes.

    The only law that is clear on this particular issue is Fair Use and thus holds precedent.
  • FOXEO
    Hi Chris. Actually, last I read about copyright law and according to my most recent conversation with IP lawyers, you are indeed *not* allowed to make backup copies of DVDs, whether you own them or not. Some areas of copyright law are vague and contain a lot of gray area, but apparently this is pretty clear.

    Fair Use is the least "clear" of any copyright law IMO. It is the most niched area of the law and contains a lot of murky waters that even expert IP lawyers have trouble navigating. Fair Use is the most overrated aspect of copyright law, and I would guestimate that 99% of the time, when someone mentions Fair Use as their defense it is plainly wrong usage of the law.

    It may be possible to fight the "no backup" rule for DVDs on the grounds that this restricts Fair Use rights. And while we're at it, we should fight the encryption methods too, since it also impedes the right to Fair Use (despite how little that actually is properly used). Australia is a world leader in this realm, fighting for consumer's rights over the power of media moguls demanding more control over their content.

    The "Pirate Bay" concept of copyright is plainly wrong and gives far too much power to the consumer, but the RIAA and the "Hollywood" concept of copyright law gives far too much power to the producers of this content.
  • Your comments just go to further demonstrate that these are murky waters no one cares to tread. Regardless of individual interpretations of the laws, I again state with reasonable certainty that you will never see an individual dragged to court over creating backup copies of their DVD collection. First, in order to even bring a lawsuit, the plaintiff would have to demonstrate some financial detriment from the user's act. Since the DVDs were purchased, the suit would never survive summary judgement. This whole issue is entirely separate from pirating music and movies from torrent sites like TPB, and shouldn't be viewed in the same light as cases brought against users in those scenarios. This is Fair Use at its core.
  • detroitrec
    is the mp4 better than the h.264
  • h.264 *is* mp4; it's simply an mp4 encoding method, and by far the best mp4 encoding method.
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  • GSP
    Technically ripping a CD you just purchased at Wal Mart is illegal, yet iTunes does it automatically. You could do such a thing with an FBI agent standing behind you and they cannot do a thing. The company would have to hire a lawyer and bring it into the court system. There just aren't enough lawyers in the world for that. Another thing is, do the companies really care about Billy Bob encoding a movie to stream it to his shiny new Apple TV when there are people downloading terabytes worth of copyrighted material illegally? I don't think so.

    I am not a laywer, This is not legal advice, I am not a pirate. I am not responsible for any actions you may or may not make based upon said statements; said statements are opinions only!

    ^That's called covering your [self-censor]
  • GSP
    Using these settings with the latest version of Handbrake I'm getting a bit over 100 fps average. I can get around 120 with the normal preset. This is encoding on my main rig, i7 920 processor (overclocked to 4.1 GHz, Hyper Threading enabled) and 6GB of DDR3 1600 RAM.

    I had previously just tried this preset on 1 chapter and it looked great, This is my new custom preset :P
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