WonderFox DVD Ripper Pro is on GOTD, and the comments seem roughly the same as usual... **maybe** they're a **little** more rudimentary, as fewer PC users are still using DVDs. The reason for this longer post is to try and provide at least a minimal answer to some of the usual questions, maybe supply a few corrections to stuff said in comments past & present, and as always, in hopes that someone finds it useful.
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You can own movies & TV shows on DVD, Blu-ray, or with whatever online streaming service, the difference being streaming takes up no room, but is only available online. Blu-ray is the highest quality, since streamed video must be more compressed, reducing quality. DVDs are arguably the most durable, though they’re also a bit controversial – video DVDs have much lower visual quality, which frankly doesn’t bother a Lot of people, but they’re popularly scorned nonetheless because of that.
Video DVDs…
Retail video DVDs typically have artificially reduced quality levels to discourage re-encoding [converting] them to alternative formats. You can’t convert a video DVD produced in the last several years without Very noticeable degradation – much older DVDs in your collection will fare much better. When I talk about artificially reduced quality, I’m referring to the fact that you can re-encode Blu-ray to DVD spec video, and it will have Much better quality than the same video on DVD out of the box. The best way to handle DVDs is to either leave them alone or copy them [Not convert] to a hard drive or similar storage.
There’s no good way, or reason for you to upscale DVD video [the only exception might be spending mega bucks using AI] since your TV will do it for you, and probably better than any software or external device. That’s not to say that some TVs aren’t better at upscaling than others, and do note, there’s no way DVD video will ever look good full screen on a large 4k TV [outside **maybe** using AI].
Video DVDs have DRM, which means you’ll have to use special software [e.g. DVDFab or Passkey] to copy them. You can generally copy the entire DVD, which includes menus and special features, but the result will only fully play using DVD player software. Or you can copy just the main title [e.g. movie] and use a greater number of players. You can leave everything the way you copied it to a folder, or you can copy one audio track and the video to a regular mpg2 video file. Some software will let you copy multiple audio tracks, along with the video, and some will even include subs to a special MKV file, but fewer players can handle that. Everything you see on a video DVD is mpg2 video, which is Very easy to play – AVC/H.264 and H.265 are Very CPU intensive by comparison; Android tablets and phones typically use special hardware [chips] just for that. The DVD drives in PCs/laptops can have a speed governor built into their firmware, limiting how fast anything can be copied from a Video DVD – if it takes longer than you think it should, changing software is Not going to help.
Converting a video DVD to another format, e.g. AVC, is generally straightforward. Since the resolution of DVD video is very low, dealing with its relatively few pixels doesn't require a powerhouse CPU, or GPU assist, or any of that. Converting a DVD that's already been copied to your hard drive should happen fast enough that I'd question whether it was worth it to bother trying GPU assist, or even trying another app in case it *might* be faster. If the video is a movie, then most likely the original frame rate was 24 fps, with flags in the mpg2 that tell the player which frames to show more than once to meet analog video specs. Ideally those flags will be ignored, and you’ll get a converted file at 24 fps.
Working with the audio on a video DVD is often complicated because the studio chose to use the theater mix as-is -- that theater mix usually doesn’t work so well outside of a theater. DVD players [software & hardware] can usually compensate, but automated software conversions can get things wrong. If the converted audio bothers you, you can try some other converter, and you can replace the converted audio with the original track. You can also try using a variety of separate tools on the original AC3 audio – if you’re more of an audiophile you might convert the AC3 5.1 to 6 separate .wav or .w64 files, open them in a multi-track editor, and adjust the levels & normalization for each track, then encode to either 5.1 or stereo. And yes, that can get complicated.
DVD and Blu-ray subtitles are actually images on separate tracks that are stored in VOB files on a DVD, or in the .m2ts files on a Blu-ray disc. If you copied the video DVD to a hard drive, and don’t convert it, those subs should still be available to software players. If you convert the DVD, the best way is to use something like the free SubtitleEdit to OCR those images to an .srt text file. Name it the same as the video file and store it in the same folder – very many players can then use that .srt file to display subs, and you can turn that display on/off. CC is often embedded in a video DVD’s mpg2 video, and that can be stripped out and turned into an .srt file too. [Note that CC on a video DVD cannot be transferred over HDMI for the TV to display.]
Video Blu-ray…
The single pro is that you’ll not likely get higher quality video. The cons include terrible DRM and the fragility of the discs themselves. Additionally, Blu-ray discs you burn may have a very short lifetime. Like video DVDs, it takes special software to copy video Blu-ray discs to a hard drive, and because the DRM can be excessive, that software might not always work, and you might not be able to tell it did not work until you’re a good way through watching the movie. Unlike video DVDs, the DRM on video Blu-ray discs also [too commonly] can mean that the original disc will not play the way it should, because the player just can’t handle it. Video on a near 100% of video Blu-ray discs is AVC/h.264, which nowadays is so common that even the cheapest Kindle can play the original video as-is. Problem is, the video file from a Blu-ray disc is often in the 30 – 40 GB range, and may even get close to 50 GB.
The menus on a retail video Blu-ray disc use Java programming, which means that only a few software players can handle them. You can copy a video Blu-ray disc, either complete or just the main title, with all audio & sub tracks or just those you choose. You can also copy just the basic 5.1 audio, rather than the full HD, which reduces the .m2ts file size. However, re-encoding or converting Blu-ray video using AVC/H.264 or H.265 to full HD, or even 720p can take a while, and quality loss is certain – the lower the band width the smaller the file and the more quality that’s lost. You can increase the quality in the settings for the x264 and x265 encoders bundled in ffmpeg, which is used by all the converters that have been on GOTD, but that will make the encoding take longer. Partial hardware assist is available in some encoders, e.g. some from Sony and MainConcept, and that can help – full hardware encoding is the fastest, but lowest quality too. [x264 & x265 have very limited capabilities when it comes to hardware assist.] Mpg2 can be a viable alternative – it’s much easier and faster to encode, is part of the Blu-ray spec, and it can have great quality, but the result will be larger.
The audio on a video Blu-ray disc often suffers from the same theater mix problems that video DVDs have, and the treatment or fix is the same. The Blu-ray’s audio will have a higher band width, so you can save more space by reducing the band width if/when you re-encode. Unlike video DVDs, CC is not normally included, while subs are much the same, mainly being bigger with higher resolution.
Video Streaming…
Streaming is by far the easiest, but it requires a good connection to the network with sufficient band width available. A poor or overly congested WiFi connection may not have enough bandwidth, and in fact, connecting the streaming device, e.g. Roku, to a separate switch that’s connected to the router *may* actually help wired network connections. That said, video can stall or stutter, freeze momentarily, even with the best connections with more than adequate band width.
One problem with streaming is the balkanization you face. You sign into an app for each service, e.g. HBO, Starz, TNT etc. when you want to watch whatever that service offers. You can subscribe to a service like HBO directly, or you can subscribe through Amazon video, so HBO is only available signing in using Amazon’s app. To watch content only available on HBO Max, I have to use a web browser, because they refuse to put their app on Roku or Fire TV. Some services work with Movies Anywhere, so if I buy a movie on Amazon or from Microsoft, I can watch it using the app for several other services, e.g. Fandango, BUT, there are exceptions where the studio that owns the film opts out.
The streaming apps themselves differ in how you sign in – thankfully *usually* just once – as well as in how they work. Apps do break – the Spectrum app I depend on has been broken by varying degrees since around January 2020. [And there’s no way to go back to the older version that worked!] Not every app is available for every type of device, &/or some content is restricted to one brand of device. There is no good way to browse available content [movies, shows etc.]. I try to make up a list of what I want to watch browsing the various sites with my PC, which itself is harder than it should be, because services like HBO & Disney+ seem to hide what they offer, maybe figuring that’s somehow the best way to get people to subscribe.
Maybe the biggest con to streaming right now however might be the price. People are home during the pandemic, or at least they’re supposed to be, and many are watching TV. Hollywood and/or the streaming services have decided that the market’s so good, there’s no need for sales or reduced pricing. Even Netflix stopped offering their free trials, which go back as far as I can remember.
Cable TV…
Yup, it’s still here, and despite all the talk about cord cutting for years, it doesn’t seem to be going anywhere. The internet connection has problems more often than cable, the cable box has the only good guide of what’s on, the cable box & remote still outperform using our smart TVs, Rokus, mini PC, and Fire TV. And maybe most important, the cable subscription also includes all the individual streaming subscriptions I’d pay for separately if I dropped cable, so the savings from dropping cable just aren’t that great.
