Handbrake question concerning DVD to MP4 conversion

Hi. I was trying to use handbrake to convert a dvd to mp4. I am doing this via a video_ts folder on my drive. I found some instructions online at these links and others said handbrake was good and fast to use.

http://www.dvd-guides.com/guides/dvdrip/23…using-handbrake

http://www.winxdvd.com/blog/how-to-backup-…rake-100914.htm

I have no idea how good and fast (and especially fast) handbrake is to use becuase I loaded the dvd folder and it's been over an hour and so far it's still processing title 20 of 20. The first 19 loaded quickly and it has been stuck on 20 for over an hour now.

The first member listed at the link below by the name of JPG said it took them 10 hours to make the conversion. I don't have that kind of time and have seen other programs do the conversion in as little as a half hour.

http://forums.tipb.com/iphone-ringtones-wa…e-iphone-4.html

What am I doing wrong? Why is the handbrake still processing for me like this? I thought it would quickly load the DVD like other programs and then convert it for about an hour and be done. Can someone tell me what I should do? Please help.

Thanks.

the time it takes to do a conversion depends totally on what hardware and os your using.. the faster and more cores a cpu has the quicker it'll encode the dvd. my overclocked i7(8 threads/cores) running linux can convert a dvd in 25 minutes or less depending on the dvd and what else the machine is doing at the same time.. i know someone who did a linux/windows comparison conversion on his i7 machine, in linux it took 30minutes and in windows it took over 2 hrs for the same file.

hi leader2 This sort of conversion is a very intensive process and needs a powerful machine and a fair bit of RAM helps…… It's rumoured that when Terry fires up his "monster machine" with RAM to match, the lights go dim in all the surrounding area! Regards paws

Thanks for your reply, but I think I need help…. I installed Microsoft net framework 4 and it finally added the dvd. Then it said it would take 1:36:00 or so to convert. It took about an hour and then produced an 11.1 gb file that didn't even work when I tried to play it. I checked the quality setting and am now adjusting the size to 700 mb. I am going to cross my fingers and hope for the best, but I am now having extreme doubts about the ability of this software to do what it says it can. Will this software really work? All I want it to do is convert my dvds to mp4s at a size of about 700mb-1gb like other converters do. Can it do that. I am going to try the 700 mb setting now… edit at paws, I just saw your reply there now. I have an hp pavillion p6140f with a quadcore processor 2.5 gigahertz and 8 gigs of ram. It may not be Terry's monster machine, but I think it's pretty good. Please tell me what you think of it . I was told in the area of power machines it would rate a 7. Do you agree? I thought it could handle handbrake, but I am starting to wonder what handbrake is going to do…

ain't that the truth.. i dread my electric bill..

i forgot to say i7's are one of the most powerful cpu's on the market at this present time, and i do have (only)6GB of ram.

it doesn't sound like you've done anything wrong, just that it's going to take a lot longer to convert with your hardware than you thought.

edit:- missed your reply.

yes your machine is good and easily up to the job(it's a lot lot better than i first thought you must have, 10hrs to convert a dvd.. )
yes handbrake does exactly what you want and it does it well. BUT i have noticed with some dvd's you need to make sure you've selected the correct title/file(from the drop down menu) off the dvd to encode, i have converted some and found the film to be all over the place so needed to redo it selecting a different title/file, and if memory serves correctly there was 1 that i just couldn't convert for some reason.

it's been a long time since i backed up my dvd collection to my pc so can't really remember the exact steps and settings, so it's just something i think your going to have to play with, but i'd recommend handbrake to anyone.

i'd also install vlc :- http://www.videolan.org/vlc/download-windows.html to playback the converted file just in case your media player is missing the codecs needed to play it correctly..

Thanks for your reply Terry. I tried handbrake with the settings at700 mb and it made a 1.45 gb video that was heavily pixelated and unwatchable. I was extremely disappointed since I heard handbrake was such a great software. I've heard that people should rip the dvd to their comp and then convert. Do you think that would work better? Could you suggest a simple tutorial for newbies? I'm new to handbrake so I'm not really sure what to do to make it work…. Thanks.

first thing is to do is make sure you have installed vlc(it'll give you the what's needed for copying drm protected dvd's that handbrake needs)

then just google handrake on youtube and you'll find lots of video's showing you how to use it correctly..

but to be honest from my memory just leave everything at defaults(think it uses h264 video codec) and just make sure you choose the correct title to encode off the dvd.



here's one :- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1xMPmgGpGyk…feature=related

handbrakes windows guide:- https://trac.handbrake.fr/wiki/WindowsGuiGuide

Simply download the “Windows GUI” from the Handbrake download page then run the installer. It's that simple.

You may additionally have to install the Microsoft .NET Framework 3.5 SP1 Please note, this must be installed even if .NET version 4 is installed. 4 is not backwards compatible.

HandBrake's installer should inform you if you do not have it installed, but this is not 100% reliable.

I'm sorry for the late reply terry. Thanks so much for your help. Handbrake didn't work for me so now I'm trying autogk. But I still really appreciate all the trouble you went to. Thanks again.

no problems, sorry to hear you couldn't get the results you were looking for with handbrake, let us know how you get on with autogk. i've never used that one and i don't think it's being actively maintained like handbrake is, ie. last release of handbrake was jan 2011 against feb 2009 for autogk, so would be interested to hear what you think of it and how well/easy it works.

Hi Terry and thanks for wanting to know about my experience with autogk. You've been such a help during my time here (first with the converter box issue, then with the vhs tapes and now this) and I'm glad you want my input. Autogk worked just fine for me. The quality wasn't bad for a much smaller file. (First conversion 1hr 58min 800 mb Second conversion 1hr 24 min 650 mb) The conversion time was longer than it would have taken for handbrake (about 2 hrs) but at least the conversion went through. With handbrake the file would convert for a while and then just stop and give me a botched file. Autogk made it through and someone on youtube (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xit7kmsa-Gk&list=PLBEE48BD1DE10DBCE&index=7) said it is possible to do this with dvd shrink as well as dvd decrypter.

Here are some tutorials on how to use Autogk:

Converting DVD movies into .avi using AutoGK
http://www.afterdawn.com/guides/archive/dv…sing_autogk.cfm

How to create aXXo quality DvD Rips
http://isohunt.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=1…tart=0&sid=

Please tell me if you will use it and what results you get when you use it.

i doubt i'll use it but glad it gave you the quality you were looking for, and if anyone else has trouble with handbrake at least now we can recommend autigk.