Buying media appliance, best codec and questions

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  • rabidjade
    Junior Member
    Junior Member
    • Apr 2009
    • 2

    Buying media appliance, best codec and questions

    Here is my situation.

    I am in the move to buy a D-Link DSM-750 for my home entertainment setup. I have over 300 DVD’s in my collection. Currently they are all ripped/converted into Xvid/AC3 format. Not know anything before, I used AGK and set the size to 2GB. Now all the videos have different resolutions due to the method used by AGK to keep the size steady. One thing bugging me about this is I have to install an AC3 audio filter on every PC just to play these and I would rather keep the computers in as close to normal/stock configuration as possible to play the videos.

    A friend of mine turned me onto DVD Catalyst 3.7 and I purchased it. I have been converting some of my videos into a H.264 format in an AVI container thinking that container was universal. Now I read it isn’t the best thing to use for H.264. Someone mentioned H.264 was best in the .MKV container but I’ve read several reviews stating .MKV doesn’t work well with stock WMP and the DSM-750 won’t read them.

    The movies that I have ripped/converted look good in H.264/AVI but the animations such as Family Guy have issues with interlacing which I got 90% fixed (faster animation parts, mainly the mouths when talking, has horizontal line distortions).

    I’m not a video nut and don’t care to tweak the setting on each and every movie conversion. I prefer to keep the settings the same from movie to movie with the exception of sub titles and wide screen/full screen when possible. I prefer to queue up ripped movies/shows with minimal effort/pre-sets and let them convert when I’m at work/sleeping.

    So after the long winded post, what is the best container/codec to use and what program is the best for this for automated and ease of use? I prefer to stay away from the fringe stuff and like using Windows WMP and Media Center but will install simple codec’s if needed and it needs to work with the DSM-750.
  • Budreaux
    Super Member
    Super Member
    • Jan 2006
    • 278

    #2
    I like H264/MP4.
    I use Fair Use Wizard for my conversions.
    I have a set template for my movies and I can que up as many as I like for batch processing.
    WMP will play MP4, mine does it fine.
    These files are placed on my HTPC and I view them on a 50 Plasma, using Vista Media Center.

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    • rabidjade
      Junior Member
      Junior Member
      • Apr 2009
      • 2

      #3
      Originally Posted by Budreaux
      I like H264/MP4.
      I use Fair Use Wizard for my conversions.
      I have a set template for my movies and I can que up as many as I like for batch processing.
      WMP will play MP4, mine does it fine.
      These files are placed on my HTPC and I view them on a 50 Plasma, using Vista Media Center.
      Thanks for the post. I have seriously considered going to the MP4 container but the information on how it relates/works with H264 is hard to find when I searched.

      Someone on another forums has suggested using handbrake as a converter. Anyone have experiences with it? Also all my converting is done on either Windows 7 or Vista SP1.

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