Best digital formats and ripping software

WD Legacy Products WD TV Live & Live Plus
1

Hi - I just bought my WD TV Live player.  I have been using Aimersoft to rip DVDs to digital formats (MP4, WMV, etc.) to play on my Zune, iPod, etc.   However, those devices have a small form factor and I’m not sure what format will provide the best resolution for my HD TV (55").  Can someone give me a suggestion about that?

I also just bought a Blu-Ray drive for my computer and I have a few Blu-Ray movies.  What’s the best method for getting them on a USB drive (WD, of course!) so that my WD TV can play in them in HD (1080p) on my television?  Do you rip them with software or just copy certain files to the USB drive?

Any suggestions are guidance will be appreciated.  I plan to read the manual tonight (I haven’t opened the box yet), but I’m interested in your actual experience as to what works best.

Thanks!

2

I have not yet ripped BR yet, but I’ve been ripping my DVD collection to .MKV using Handbrake. Aside from a gnarly audio problem (which ended up being my sub), this has worked great for me.

3

Someone here (sorry man) recommended MakeMKV which is working really well for me for most of the rips I need, but it will not work with some of my personal DVD’s that I recorded off TV using a Panasonic burner.  For those I use iRecord Pro set to D1 and those files are outstanding.

4

rgladney wrote:

Hi - I just bought my WD TV Live player.  I have been using Aimersoft to rip DVDs to digital formats (MP4, WMV, etc.) to play on my Zune, iPod, etc.   However, those devices have a small form factor and I’m not sure what format will provide the best resolution for my HD TV (55").  Can someone give me a suggestion about that?

 

I also just bought a Blu-Ray drive for my computer and I have a few Blu-Ray movies.  What’s the best method for getting them on a USB drive (WD, of course!) so that my WD TV can play in them in HD (1080p) on my television?  Do you rip them with software or just copy certain files to the USB drive?

 

Any suggestions are guidance will be appreciated.  I plan to read the manual tonight (I haven’t opened the box yet), but I’m interested in your actual experience as to what works best.

 

Thanks!

Hi, rgladney

WD TV HD Media  Player promises to play just about any video format you throw at it, including  high definition video up to 1080p. You put the videos on any USB mass storage  device, like an external hard drive or a thumb drive, and plug it into the  device, WD TV HD Media Player will recognize the files on the drive and play  any video, audio, or photo files it finds. However, according to the feedback  provided by some users, WD TV HD Media Player does play m2ts selectively only,  some are, and some are not. In purpose of solving this problem, this post will  talk about how to rip Blu-ray movie to USB for playback on TV via WD TV HD  Media Player.

The Blu-ray  ripper we will use is called Pavtube  Blu-Ray Ripper , which can rip and convert DVDs and  Blu-Ray movies directly to any other formats, including HD video format.

Here’s the list  of WD TV HD Media Player supported file formats:

Video: MPEG1/2/4,  WMV9, AVI (MPEG4, Xvid, AVC), H.264, MKV, MOV (MPEG4, H.264), Subtitle SRT  (UTF-8)

Audio: MP3,  WMA, OGG, WAV/PCM/LPCM, AAC, FLAC, Dolby Digital, AIF/AIFF, MKA Playlist PLS,  M3U, WPL

Photo: JPEG,  GIF, TIF/TIFF, BMP, PNG

you can find  the guide(play Blu-ray movies on HDTV via WDTV HD Media Player) here: http://itvoir.com/portal/boxx/modules/blogs/Blog-Detail.asp?BlogID=20656

5

I use the ZC line of products (ZC DVD to HDTV Converter, ZC Video converter, etc…)  They have been working good for the past 2 weeks as far as converting old movie files and ripping DVD’s.  They are not free but are worth the money.  That is at least what I have experienced.

Here is the link:

[Deleted - no advertising allowed]

6

it seems a pity that handbrake can support blu-ray.

7

WD TV HD Media  Player supported file formats:

Video: MPEG1/2/4,  WMV9, AVI (MPEG4, Xvid, AVC), H.264, MKV, MOV (MPEG4,  H.264), Subtitle SRT (UTF-8)

I usually convert my blu ray movies to MPEG4 HD Video,5.1channels via PavTube Blu ray ripper.

It’s a very good product. Interface is clean, works well, what more could one ask for. Well perhaps more speed but I’m not complaining. Converting is a breeze, and quality was good in my opinion.I am happy with it.

[deleted - no advertising allowed] 

8

kate59588 wrote:

WD TV HD Media  Player supported file formats:

Video: MPEG1/2/4,  WMV9, AVI (MPEG4, Xvid, AVC), H.264, MKV, MOV (MPEG4,  H.264), Subtitle SRT (UTF-8)

 

I usually convert my blu ray movies to MPEG4 HD Video,5.1channels via PavTube Blu ray ripper.

It’s a very good product. Interface is clean, works well, what more could one ask for. Well perhaps more speed but I’m not complaining. Converting is a breeze, and quality was good in my opinion.I am happy with it.

[deleted - no advertising allowed] 

 

 

Nice advert.

9

I would be tempted to keep HD material at the original resolution and bitrate, but maybe without some unwanted audio streams. However, if drive space is not unlimited, and the files will be played over a network, it could make sense to reduce them to 720p. AnyDVD is good, if you just want to transfer content from Blu-ray or DVD or HD-DVD without transcoding. MakeMKV could be more appropriate if you just want a movie file to play (no extras). DVDFab is another one: the free demo will copy DVDs to the hard drive, or just the movie without transcoding. One tip: consider patching the DVD/Blu-ray firmware to unlock higher ripping speeds. MediaCodeSpeedEdit does this… http://ala42.cdfreaks.com/MCSE/ I’ve used this on a several different drives, and so far no smoke, just much faster rips. It also allows cross-flashing, if your drive has a twin with more features. Some BenQ drives were sold as Sony and/or Plextor, just with modified firmware and front panels, for example.

10

http://www.xmedia-recode.de/

This programm has something like a profile for WDTV.

You can use MPEG 4 AVC/H.264 and AAC or other formats and Convert it in a mkv container.

You can keep aspect ratio , keep audio (meens you dont need to convert it) , keep framerate as original etc…

Its a good tool for people without many expirience in Media-Converting.

(Sorry for bad english, i hope i cood help)