First off let me say that I’m very impressed with my WDTV LIve …
Good work guys!
I have a couple of questions though. First, I have discovered that when playing movies from an ISO format that I only get the main feature and none of the supporting files, like movie previews and such, not a big deal, but would be nice to have it all.
Are there any plans to fix this issue ?
I saw in another post that there is a work around by using MKV format … which brings me to another question.
When playing ISO files I’m not sure that I’m getting full 5.1 surround sound, is there something I’m missing here ?
Also how does MKV compare with ISO in terms of quality of picture and audio ?
I have my WDTV live hooked up to a 5.1 surround sound AV tuner via HDMI cable.
I can’t speak to most of your questions but in terms of MKV versus ISO there really isn’t any difference in terms of quality. MKV is just a container type – what you put in it determines the quality. You can put higher or lower quality video and audio into an MKV container versus an ISO, that’s totally up to you.
However, the Live does LIKE mkv containers – it digests them very well .
No, sorry – wasn’t meant to be an innuendo. I actually mean they are very kind to the Live’s stomach, as it were.
ALL of my files are in MKV containers, and all play without any difficulties (assuming you understand the limitations of streaming extremely large bitrate files). I actually recommend putting your files in such a format for playback (I had to convert literally hundreds of MP4 files but now I’m a happy camper).
Thanks for the reassurance on DVDFab, so far I’m happy with it.
As for HandBreak, I downloaded it earlier today and left it chugging away at a VIDEO_TS folder. I was a little dismayed at the speed, or lack there of, but I guess good things cant be rushed … lol
Handbrake will use every last ounce of computer power you have – on my i7 machine it will encode a standard DVD in about 50% of the play speed (so 1 hour for a 2 hour movie) and about 200% of a blu-ray (so a 2 hour movie takes 4 hours), all using the High Preset. Lesser machines will have lesser results (but it has a batch mode and your machine isn’t doing anything else while you sleep/work, right?).
As for HandBreak, I downloaded it earlier today and left it chugging away at a VIDEO_TS folder. I was a little dismayed at the speed, or lack there of, but I guess good things cant be rushed …
The point is, using Handbrake is not necessary. You can simply convert your DVDs into MKVs with MakeMKV which will do it a copy speed since no encoding is done.
Forget Handbrake! After running all my 300 dvds through handbrake over 4 months I can tell you:
The only thing Handbrake is good for is creating small size files. For WD TV LIve it creates so many problems with file playback, regardless of the qulaity setting you use, it is just not worth it. I tried mp4, mkv and both have major playback problems with wd tv live. mkv was better but still many sync issues.
My solution - DVD Shrink and mkvmerge.
For dvds that I have purchased i use dvd shrink only and output the movie as an iso file…best quality and flawless playback on wd tv live with no sync problems at all and fluent FF and REW too, unlike FF or REW when going through a Handbraked mkv file!
For movies I have recorded from TV onto dvd I use DVD Shrink as well but output the file as mkv, not iso. Reason for this is that movies recorded from TV always turn out as 4 to 3 aspect (at least with my setup they do) so I simply take the dvd shrinked mkv and run this file through mkvmerge which allows me to change the aspect ration to 16 to 9.
Handbrake is also WAY TOO SLOW. DVD Shrink MUCH faster. I also use the 8.5GB setting on DVD Shrink rather than 4.5GB when producing the iso files to get original quality. Yes, this does create many movie iso files aroung 7 GB in size each, but I bit the bullet and bought 2 1.5TB WD USB hard drives to fit things on. Am happy now.
Have you actually played them all? And when you FF through them do you see 'continous almost fluent 'video or does it go really jerky and stop start - my handbraked mkvs were all choppy when FF them which made it really hard to stop near desired scene.
I have used handbrake 0.9.3 and 0.9.4 on various settings, including the ‘best’ quality ones and at least half the movies have audio sync problems. Sometimes this sync isue is not obvious until you watch a movie and the sync gets gradually worse as the movie progresses. Oh, and forget FF and REW as this really mucks up the sync.
I very quickly figured that mp4 files from handbrake running through WD TV Live was hopeless so thereafter only used mkv, but still way too many issues and way too slow too!
DVD Shrink to iso file is great.
DVD Shrink to mkv file is great too if I need to adjust the aspect ratio (using mkvmerge on the mkv file).
Yup, played them all. And do I FF through all of them – of course not. Why in heck would I need to do that? I FF if (very rarely) the power goes out and I need to get back to where I left off (because otherwise the Live keeps track of this). If I need to get very far into the video I use the jump ahead key (so, obviously, don’t need to FF through a lot). But I have no problem getting to any desired scene.
Now, I use exclusively the latest Handbrake snapshot – .94 (and, of course, earlier) had all kinds of issues with blu-ray that were fixed in the later releases. I use exclusively the High Preset (passing through either AC3 or DTS audio and outputting to an MKV container). And sync is absolutely not an issue in any instance (but this is with the MKV container – the Live has a problem with ANY MP4 file, not just ones produced with Handbrake, when it comes to sync).
I’ve used DVDShrink but it does not have nearly the quality or the space saving ability of Handbrake. And I’m not alone in doing this – the Handbrake forum is filled with dozens of Live users doing the same thing I am (and all happy). But if you’ve found something that works for you, good on you (just don’t discourage others from trying Handbrake for themselves).
This has turned into a healthy discussion on the merits and workings of HandBrake. I’m finding it very interesting to hear the views and opinions of other, more experiences users, you are all bringing up points and issues it would take me months to discover on my own, THANK YOU !
I only thing I will say is that DVDshrink is very quick but at the extreme there is a noticeable loss of quality which is what you should expect, after all it works by reducing the bitrate.
In the same folder do you have an ISO file? Or a jpeg? Or something other than just the one MKV file? And how are you trying to view these? Network shares, media player, or directly on a locally attached HD.
(It might be better to start a new thread with your problem so we can isolate and see it better).
