# DVD Ripping



## tomm1079 (May 10, 2005)

I am planning on backing up my DVD collection so i can just stream it to my Tivo. What is the best software to do this with and what format should i set everything to so i can get it on my tivo natively?


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## Wingershute (Oct 22, 2010)

I use HANDBRAke. Works great and free.


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## ThAbtO (Apr 6, 2000)

I use DVD Decrypter to copy the contents to the HD and bypass its protection, then VideoReDo TVSuite to make .mpg out of the DVD's .vob, sometimes I have to use its Quick Stream Fix, and I know everything works on the Tivo.


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## lrhorer (Aug 31, 2003)

You can rip the DVDs directly to the hard drive and then publish them with the pyTivo DVD plug-in. 'No editing or re-coding required.


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## ThAbtO (Apr 6, 2000)

lrhorer said:


> You can rip the DVDs directly to the hard drive and then publish them with the pyTivo DVD plug-in. 'No editing or re-coding required.


The copy protection will prevent you from doing this.


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## jcthorne (Jan 28, 2002)

He said *RIP* them to the hard drive. Not copy. This implys using software like dvdfab or AnyDVD or such.

I use dvdfab to rip to a single vob file per title and then use meGUI to encode to IMSA standard streamable mp4 files for tivo. If any of your DVDs are PAL, be sure to down size the video to fit within a 720x480 frame. NTSC DVDs already are.


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## tomm1079 (May 10, 2005)

does the default (normal) settings for handbreak work good with tivo without having to reencode?


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## DrWho453 (Jul 16, 2005)

You might want to check out DVD Catalyst 4. It's a great product. I use it to convert DVD's and Video for the Nook Color and it is real easy to use. It will convert pretty much any DVD that is out there except for the Digital copy dvds. The author has a list of settings to use for some of the more stubborn DVD's and you can email the author if you still have trouble and he will tell how to fix the problem.

By default it is setup for easy, no hassle conversion but turn on power user and you have access to all kinds of advanced tools. For $10, it is well worth the price. He has filters for all different types of devices. He even has streaming mode to create videos that are optimized for streaming and he has a streaming server you can setup.

I am not connected with the author or trying to sell his program. It's just I have used other programs before and found DVD Catalyst to be the best out there. It is only available for the PC right now so macs will still have to use handbrake or other programs.

BTW, DVD catalyst is setup for multiprocessors so if you have 2 or more processors, you can speed up the conversion time.

Visit http://www.tools4movies.com/ to get the tool.


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## ct1 (Jun 27, 2003)

I use AnyDVD+Handbrake. I convert to M4V that I can send to TiVo with Streambaby, or direct to PS3, or play on laptop.

Streambaby transcodes quickly and seamlessly.


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## jcthorne (Jan 28, 2002)

If you used an mp4 file and selected the encode parameters correctly, streambaby would not need to transcode at all, it could be sent natively to series 3 and 4 tivos.

The Handbrake default settings are not correct for tivo. you will need to create a tivo profile. Others here can help you with the best settings as I do not use handbrake regularly


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## MrJedi (Apr 13, 2011)

lrhorer said:


> You can rip the DVDs directly to the hard drive and then publish them with the pyTivo DVD plug-in. 'No editing or re-coding required.


Can you explain how you are doing this and where you got the pluggin? I looked around the pyTivo forum and could not find what you are talking about.


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## jcthorne (Jan 28, 2002)

MrJedi said:


> Can you explain how you are doing this and where you got the pluggin? I looked around the pyTivo forum and could not find what you are talking about.


http://pytivo.sourceforge.net/forum/updated-dvd-video-plugin-for-pytivo-t1766.html


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## MrJedi (Apr 13, 2011)

jcthorne said:


> http://pytivo.sourceforge.net/forum/updated-dvd-video-plugin-for-pytivo-t1766.html


Thank you for the link. I understood everything except this:


```
--- a/httpserver.py 
+++ b/httpserver.py 
@@ -271,7 +271,8 @@ class TivoHTTPHandler(BaseHTTPServer.BaseHTTPRequestHandler): 
                             'Command=NPL&amp;Container=' + quote(section) +  
                             '&amp;TiVo=' + config.tivos[tsn] + '">' + 
                             escape(config.tivo_names[tsn]) + '</a><br>') 
-            elif plugin_type == 'video' and t.shares: 
+            elif ( plugin_type == 'video' or plugin_type == 'dvdvideo' ) \ 
+                    and t.shares: 
                 t.shares += ('<a href="TiVoConnect?Command=' + 
                              'QueryContainer&amp;Container=' + 
                              quote(section) + '">' + section + '</a><br>')
```
What file is this edited in?


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## ct1 (Jun 27, 2003)

MrJedi said:


> Thank you for the link. I understood everything except this:
> [...]
> What file is this edited in?


That is patch format -- the changes go into 'httpserver.py' starting about line 271. The '-' line gets removed, the '+' lines get added. The other lines are the context.


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## lrhorer (Aug 31, 2003)

ThAbtO said:


> The copy protection will prevent you from doing this.


You're the one who said he is using DVD Decrypter. DVD Decrypter will rip most DVDs to the hard drive.


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## jcthorne (Jan 28, 2002)

What is the suggested ripping software these days for blu-ray? I had thought about purchasing an upgrade to my DVDfab Platnium that I have used for years to the newer blu-ray version but thought I should ask for advise from this forum first to see what others experiences are. I just need to get the data from the disk to the hard drive in an un-encrypted format. I'll handle re-encoding etc seperatly.


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## StanSimmons (Jun 10, 2000)

SlySoft.com has AnyDVDHD. It handles BR disks nicely.

http://www.slysoft.com/en/anydvdhd.html


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## MrJedi (Apr 13, 2011)

So I tried the DVDPluggin with no success. Once I get to VIDEO_TS folder and click it pyTivo errors out. I would troubleshoot it, but I figured I have other options. I never got my activation email from the pyTivo forum either, so I can't get support even if I wanted it.

So I went to converting VOBs to mpgs. Worked great, until it didn't. Seems I can't transfer files over 5.5 GB. Different files error out at different points in the transfer. A 5.6 GB file errored out at the 1.8 GB transfer point and a 6+ GB file errored out at the 4.7 GB transfer point. So I accepted I am going to have to go back to .mp4 for the smaller file size.

Enter Handbrake. Handbrake works, but is slow as molasses. A 2 hour movie takes about 3.5 hours to convert if done locally, and the same movie takes 6.5 hours when done on my external drive where I store the conversions. I realize i don't have the fastest cpu with it being a 2.4 ghz dual core and 3 GB of ram, but the amount of time I listed seems like much longer than it should take. Most people here seem to swear by Handbrake so am I doing something wrong, or is it really this slow?


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## DrWho453 (Jul 16, 2005)

MrJedi said:


> So I tried the DVDPluggin with no success. Once I get to VIDEO_TS folder and click it pyTivo errors out. I would troubleshoot it, but I figured I have other options. I never got my activation email from the pyTivo forum either, so I can't get support even if I wanted it.
> 
> So I went to converting VOBs to mpgs. Worked great, until it didn't. Seems I can't transfer files over 5.5 GB. Different files error out at different points in the transfer. A 5.6 GB file errored out at the 1.8 GB transfer point and a 6+ GB file errored out at the 4.7 GB transfer point. So I accepted I am going to have to go back to .mp4 for the smaller file size.
> 
> Enter Handbrake. Handbrake works, but is slow as molasses. A 2 hour movie takes about 3.5 hours to convert if done locally, and the same movie takes 6.5 hours when done on my external drive where I store the conversions. I realize i don't have the fastest cpu with it being a 2.4 ghz dual core and 3 GB of ram, but the amount of time I listed seems like much longer than it should take. Most people here seem to swear by Handbrake so am I doing something wrong, or is it really this slow?


I am not sure if you are on the PC or the Mac but if you are on the PC, try the DVD Catalyst program that I refered to in my previous post. It normally picks the correct track on the DVD to convert to whatever device you want whether its android device or a tivo device or whatever. Just tell it what device you want to copy to and if necessary the format you want. The tivo just has two options MPEG and MPEG copy. You can try it for free or purchase it for $10.

again the link is www.tools4movies.com


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## MrJedi (Apr 13, 2011)

DrWho453 said:


> I am not sure if you are on the PC or the Mac but if you are on the PC, try the DVD Catalyst program that I refered to in my previous post. It normally picks the correct track on the DVD to convert to whatever device you want whether its android device or a tivo device or whatever. Just tell it what device you want to copy to and if necessary the format you want. The tivo just has two options MPEG and MPEG copy. You can try it for free or purchase it for $10.
> 
> again the link is www.tools4movies.com


I suppose it is worth a try. I don't see how it could be any slower than Handbrake.


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## wmcbrine (Aug 2, 2003)

MrJedi said:


> Seems I can't transfer files over 5.5 GB. Different files error out at different points in the transfer. A 5.6 GB file errored out at the 1.8 GB transfer point and a 6+ GB file errored out at the 4.7 GB transfer point.


If your errors occurred at different points, then what makes you think that they have anything to do with the overall file size? I can tell you that there is no such limit, either on the TiVo end (any model) or the pyTivo end.

Try the failed transfers again. If they stop at the same points (for each file), then I'd assume the file is corrupt, or at least TiVo-incompatible, in that spot. You could reencode it to MPEG-2 at the same size, even, to try and smooth out the error, or you could try one of the tools out there that purports to fix broken MPEGs.

If they stop at _different_ points than they did before, then maybe you have a connectivity problem... WiFi?

If they don't stop... then you're good.


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## MrJedi (Apr 13, 2011)

I re-ripped and re-encoded both of the Movies twice. Both times errored out at the same exact bit. Yes, I am using WiFi, but I am getting around 19 Mbps on it consistently if the transfer speeds from pytivo are correct. Example error message and transfer rates:


```
2011-06-07 00:56:37,858 INFO  pyTivo.video.video: [Errno 10054] An existing conn
ection was forcibly closed by the remote host
2011-06-07 00:56:37,859 INFO  pyTivo.video.video: [07/Jun/2011 00:56:37] Done se
nding "M:\TV\DVDs\Whats.Eating.Gilbert.Grape.mpg" to Living Room, 4783603712 byt
es, 19.97 Mb/s
```
That particular file was about 6GB.


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## lrhorer (Aug 31, 2003)

MrJedi said:


> So I tried the DVDPluggin with no success. Once I get to VIDEO_TS folder and click it pyTivo errors out.


I have no idea what you mean, here. There should be no VIDEO_TS folder evident to the pyTivo user. If you mean from the pyTivo web administrator, then the DVD rip folder should never appear there. It will only appear on the Now Playing list of the TiVo.

When setting up the dvd plugin, put the "dvdvideo" directory underneath the "plugins" directory which is underneath the main pyTivo directory that holds pyTivo itself. Example: "c:\Program Files\pyTivo\plugins\dvdvideo\" or "/usr/share/pyTivo/plugins/dvdvideo/". Then put compositefile.py dvdfolder.py, dvdtitlestream.py, dvdvideo.py, ilvuhack.py, stager.py, and virtualdvd.py into the main pyTivo directory. ( "c:\Program Files\pyTivo or "/usr/share/pyTivo" ) If you properly unzip the software archive, this will be handled for you.

Once the files are in the correct directories, edit the pyTivo.conf file and add entries like the following. Save that and restart pyTivo.

DVD section(s) of pyTivo.conf:


```
[DVD]
path = <path to DVD rips>
force_alpha = True
type = dvdvideo
fast_index = true
```
where <path to DVD rips> will be where your DVD files reside. Suppose you create a directory named c:\My_DVDs in Windows or /dvd_source in linux or on the Mac. For each DVD you rip, create a new directory under the <path to DVD rips> directory. ( "c:\My_DVDs\Avatar" and "c:\My_DVDs\Back to the Future" ) Each of those child directories will contain a VIDEO_TS directory.

Thus, my /RAID/DVD directory contains the following:


```
RAID-Server:/RAID/DVD# ls
39 Steps                                   Harry Potter               Pale Rider
50 First Dates                             Her Alibi                  President's Man, The
Abyss                                      How to Steal a Million     Rio Lobo
Adventures of Robin Hood                   In Like Flint              Scarlet Pimpernel
Big Sleep, The (1945)                      I, Robot                   Seabiscuit
Big Sleep, The (1946)                      Last Starfighter, The      Silencers, The
Blade                                      Laura                      Son of Paleface
Blob, The                                  Lemon Drop Kid, The        Spellbound
Bullit                                     Man from Sonwy River, The  Star Trek - Nemesis
Butcher's Wife, The                        Mannequin                  St. Ives
Celtic Thunder - The show                  Mark of Zorro, The         Telefon
Count of Monte Cristo, the - Robert Donat  Mask of Zorro, The         Them
Donovan's Reef                             McLintock!                 To Kill a Mockingbird
Dreamscape                                 Messenger of Death         Total Recall
Exodus                                     Mouse on the Moon          Twilight Zone Vol 25
Father Goose                               My Bodyguard               White Christmas
Fawlty Towers                              My Chauffer                Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory
First Men in the Moon                      Nightingale, The           Young Frankenstein
Green Mile, The                            One Magic Christmas
Hard Times                                 Our Man Flint
```
Looking at the "Abyss" directory, we have:


```
RAID-Server:/RAID/DVD/Abyss# ls
default.txt  VIDEO_TS
```
The same goes for essentially all the other directories, with the exception of franchises. I choose to put all franchises under a single directory, so looking at the "Harry Potter" directory, for example, we see


```
RAID-Server:/RAID/DVD/Harry Potter# ls
and the Chamber of Secrets  and the Half Blood Prince    and the Sorcerer's Stone
and the Goblet of Fire      and the Prisoner of Azkaban
```
Each of those in turn has a VIDEO_TS cirectory containg the .TS, .BUP, and .VOB files.



MrJedi said:


> I would troubleshoot it, but I figured I have other options. I never got my activation email from the pyTivo forum either, so I can't get support even if I wanted it.


You can get support here, too, although the pyTivo forum is a batter place, especially for anything more involved.



MrJedi said:


> Enter Handbrake. Handbrake works, but is slow as molasses. A 2 hour movie takes about 3.5 hours to convert if done locally,


Without transcoding, a DVD rip should only take 20 minutes or so. That's one reason I suggest using the DVD Plugin for pyTivo.



MrJedi said:


> and the same movie takes 6.5 hours when done on my external drive where I store the conversions. I realize i don't have the fastest cpu with it being a 2.4 ghz dual core and 3 GB of ram, but the amount of time I listed seems like much longer than it should take. Most people here seem to swear by Handbrake so am I doing something wrong, or is it really this slow?


A full recode certainly can be, but simple transcoding should not. Converting to h.264 is a full recode, though, so don't expect it to zip by.


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## MrJedi (Apr 13, 2011)

To some degree I think I am even more confused now. 



lrhorer said:


> I have no idea what you mean, here. There should be no VIDEO_TS folder evident to the pyTivo user. If you mean from the pyTivo web administrator, then the DVD rip folder should never appear there. It will only appear on the Now Playing list of the TiVo.


That was not at all clear to me. I never use the Tivo interface for transfer because I am already having to spend my time at my desk ripping/reencoding I might as well use the web interface. Gives me one less reason to use the SDUI.



lrhorer said:


> When setting up the dvd plugin, put the "dvdvideo" directory underneath the "plugins" directory which is underneath the main pyTivo directory that holds pyTivo itself. Example: "c:\Program Files\pyTivo\plugins\dvdvideo\" or "/usr/share/pyTivo/plugins/dvdvideo/". Then put compositefile.py dvdfolder.py, dvdtitlestream.py, dvdvideo.py, ilvuhack.py, stager.py, and virtualdvd.py into the main pyTivo directory. ( "c:\Program Files\pyTivo or "/usr/share/pyTivo" ) If you properly unzip the software archive, this will be handled for you.


That conflicts with what is posted on the pyTivo Forum:


> Just place in the extacted files in a new folder called dvdvideo under pyTivo\plugins\


 There was also no stager.py file in the zip.



lrhorer said:


> Once the files are in the correct directories, edit the pyTivo.conf file and add entries like the following. Save that and restart pyTivo.
> 
> DVD section(s) of pyTivo.conf:
> 
> ...


Again, this does not at all match what is on the forum post:


> ```
> [_tivo_SD]
> audio_lang = en, 5.1, 6 channels, ac3
> 
> ...





lrhorer said:


> where <path to DVD rips> will be where your DVD files reside. Suppose you create a directory named c:\My_DVDs in Windows or /dvd_source in linux or on the Mac. For each DVD you rip, create a new directory under the <path to DVD rips> directory. ( "c:\My_DVDs\Avatar" and "c:\My_DVDs\Back to the Future" ) Each of those child directories will contain a VIDEO_TS directory.


And this is where I think this solution won't work for me, but I'm not sure. I don't mind having separate. Folders on my computer, but I don't want 200 separate DVDs listed in my NPL. Right now I am using the meta file to have them show up in a "DVDs" folder. If I can still manipulate the meta data in the same way, then great. If not, I would rather continue dealing with the headache of re-encoding.



lrhorer said:


> Each of those in turn has a VIDEO_TS cirectory containg the .TS, .BUP, and .VOB files.


I understand the VIDEO_TS directory, but not at all why you have .TS, and .BUP files. Sounds like you are using "File" method.. In DVD decrypter I always use IFO mode so I can select only the 16x9 version of the movie (if applicable) and the 6 Channel AC3 stream. When file splitting is set to "None" you get an IFO file that seems to be useless, and a single VOB file.



lrhorer said:


> Without transcoding, a DVD rip should only take 20 minutes or so. That's one reason I suggest using the DVD Plugin for pyTivo.


 I mostly agree with you on this, but I have had take as long as 45 minutes for a 140 minute movie that is using a 8000kbps rate.

I appreciate the help and feedback.


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## MrJedi (Apr 13, 2011)

DrWho453 said:


> I am not sure if you are on the PC or the Mac but if you are on the PC, try the DVD Catalyst program that I refered to in my previous post. It normally picks the correct track on the DVD to convert to whatever device you want whether its android device or a tivo device or whatever. Just tell it what device you want to copy to and if necessary the format you want. The tivo just has two options MPEG and MPEG copy. You can try it for free or purchase it for $10.
> 
> again the link is www.tools4movies.com


Tried it didn't like it at all. Looks like it is really geared more to Mobile devices. The program complains about having .mpgs higher than 2000kbps. 2000kbps is fine for h.264 but it is too compressed for .mpg. Obviously you can change it, but that struck me as the guy created this doesn't know what the TiVo can handle. Additionally, having audio max out 256 didn't make sense to me. The AC3 portion of a .VOB file is relatively small compared to the video portion. There is no reason to compress it and he should have allowed either pass-through, or up to 448kbps.

I can seen it working for some things, but not for TiVo. Thanks for the suggestion though.


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## lrhorer (Aug 31, 2003)

MrJedi said:


> That was not at all clear to me. I never use the Tivo interface for transfer because I am already having to spend my time at my desk ripping/reencoding I might as well use the web interface. Gives me one less reason to use the SDUI.


What is it you are trying to do? My understanding is you want to rip DVDs to your PC hard drive in order to play them on the TiVo. If you are looking to "push" the DVDs to the TiVo, then the DVD plugin won't work. To my knowledge it only allows "pulls".



MrJedi said:


> That conflicts with what is posted on the pyTivo Forum: There was also no stager.py file in the zip.


Ah! I didn't know that someone had picked up development of the app from TheBayer. I'm using an older version (the original fork, from TheBayer), and some of the files are different.

Hmm. Some of my files do seem to be scattered, don't they? I'm not sure how that happened. Looking at the new archive, having all the python files in one directory should be fine.



MrJedi said:


> Again, this does not at all match what is on the forum post:


The bare mimimum requirement for any share is the share type ( "video" for MPEG files, "music" for music files, "dvdvideo" for DVD rips, etc. ) and the fully qualified path to the parent directory containing all the files in the share. Other fields, like force_alpha and fast_index affect the way the files are presented or performance.



MrJedi said:


> And this is where I think this solution won't work for me, but I'm not sure. I don't mind having separate. Folders on my computer, but I don't want 200 separate DVDs listed in my NPL.


Well, first of all, I don't know what you mean. If you have 200 DVDs, how are you going to select a specific one unless they are all listed as separate entities? Do you expect to select a single title labeled "DVD" and it magically plays the one you want, say, #177?

As far as organization is concerned, you can organize them any way you like, with the exception that any DVD shares must be separate from ordinary MPEG2 shares. You can create a share called "Action DVDs" and put all action / adventure films in it, with another for comedies, etc. You also can create a single DVD share with the DVDs sorted into directories. Just create whatever structure you want under the share on your PC, and that structure will be mirrored on the TiVo.

As I said, what I do as a personal preference is put all the unrelated DVDs in the main DVD share, and then create a single directory for each franchise - one for "Harry Potter", one for "Blade", one for "The Scarlet Pimpernel" etc. Each of these franchise folders has two or more DVDs in it.



MrJedi said:


> Right now I am using the meta file to have them show up in a "DVDs" folder.


You don't need the metafile for that, but OK.



MrJedi said:


> If I can still manipulate the meta data in the same way, then great. If not, I would rather continue dealing with the headache of re-encoding.


You've lost me, again.



MrJedi said:


> I understand the VIDEO_TS directory, but not at all why you have .TS, and .BUP files. Sounds like you are using "File" method.. In DVD decrypter I always use IFO mode so I can select only the 16x9 version of the movie (if applicable) and the 6 Channel AC3 stream. When file splitting is set to "None" you get an IFO file that seems to be useless, and a single VOB file.


The settings were all default, as I recall. Don't ask me. It's been ages since I ripped a DVD and even longer since I looked at the specs for DVD files.


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## jcthorne (Jan 28, 2002)

MrJedi,

If what you are trying to do is put movies from dvd onto your tivo via push, the dvd plugin is not what you need. You seem to be using dvdfab and that will work fine. I use dvd to mobil, vob to save the main movie to a single vob file. I then use meGUI to convert to mp4 although handbrake will work as well. Yes its slow.

You can also convert the single vob to an mpeg2 file that will push just fine but I do not remember the software for proper conversion to mpg. Someone else will have to help with that. I also thought that pytivo could transcode/push a vob file as well and it stays as mpeg2. An mp4 file will take much less space on your tivo so its your choice on the conversion time vs space use.


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## noseph (Oct 13, 2003)

After ripping a DVD to a single .vob I always run it thru VideoRedo's Quickstream Fix. This will take care of any timestamps issues and leave you with a .mpg file. Quickstream Fix will most likely take care of the transfer failing issue also.


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## MrJedi (Apr 13, 2011)

lrhorer said:


> You don't need the metafile for that, but OK.


Maybe I wasn't clear, I meant a "DVDs" folder on my TiVo in the NPL. Just like I have "Friends" folder, "Dexter" folder, etc. I know of no other way to have pushed media display as a group in a folder in the NPL other than to use a meta data file.



jcthorne said:


> MrJedi,If what you are trying to do is put movies from dvd onto your tivo via push, the dvd plugin is not what you need.


That's exactly what I was hoping to do. Thanks for clarifying.



jcthorne said:


> You seem to be using dvdfab and that will work fine. I use dvd to mobil, vob to save the main movie to a single vob file. I then use meGUI to convert to mp4 although handbrake will work as well. Yes its slow.


 I still use DVD Decrypter. Its free and still works most of the time. I haven't found a way to rip to single VOB in the free version of DVD Fab, so I don't use it.



jcthorne said:


> I also thought that pytivo could transcode/push a vob file as well and it stays as mpeg2. An mp4 file will take much less space on your tivo so its your choice on the conversion time vs space use.


I haven't seen anything on the wiki that says you can transfer VOBs so I never tried. I will tonight. I don't mind the space. I just put in a 2TB drive specifically to do this and the old 320GB drive was never more than 70% full. My DVDs transfered as VOB or mpg (difference in file size seems to be negligible) should be around 900GB. I realize with MP4 it would be less than half that, and I have compared a special effects intensive movie (Explosions, Fog, Lasers, etc) in mp4 to DVD and I nor my friend who is as discerning as me or more so agreed they looked the same. However, as I have found the conversion time is unbearable. I set up a queue of movies to convert the other night. Between 2am and 6pm the next night it had only processed 3 of the 6 movies, and was only a few minutes in to the fourth. So I don't mind using that much space for my DVDs if it means I will have a single point for entertainment other than Blu-Ray (I would rip those too if I have the hardware to do so).

Right now this process seems to take the following length of time:

DVD->VOB->MP4 = 6 hours
DVD->VOB->MPG = 45-60 minutes
DVD->VOB = 20-40 minutes

The program I use to transcode my VOBs doesn't have a queue so If I could have pyTivo do it instead, while I am asleep/at work that would be ideal. Otherwise, converting each VOB to MPG seems to be the best option. Don't get me wrong I have found software free or limited use software that will queue up VOBs for MPG conversion, but none of them seem to do a direct stream of both video and audio. All the ones I have looked at will do one but not the other, or compress both.



noseph said:


> After ripping a DVD to a single .vob I always run it thru VideoRedo's Quickstream Fix. This will take care of any timestamps issues and leave you with a .mpg file. Quickstream Fix will most likely take care of the transfer failing issue also.


 I am currently using freeware by a similar name that is supposed to do the same thing, but so far my limited experience is showing it may not be doing it well.


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## Stuxnet (Feb 9, 2011)

MrJedi said:


> Right now this process seems to take the following length of time:
> 
> DVD->VOB->MP4 = 6 hours
> DVD->VOB->MPG = 45-60 minutes
> DVD->VOB = 20-40 minutes


WOW that's huge on MP4. I use RipBot to VOB>MP4, at CF20 w/deinterlace, it takes about 90 minutes for a 90 minute VOB.


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## lrhorer (Aug 31, 2003)

MrJedi said:


> Maybe I wasn't clear, I meant a "DVDs" folder on my TiVo in the NPL. Just like I have "Friends" folder, "Dexter" folder, etc. I know of no other way to have pushed media display as a group in a folder in the NPL other than to use a meta data file.


If you are not using the TiVo to pull the files, then I am not sure why the presentation matters, but as I said, the structure you create on the PC will be mirrored on the TiVo, starting with the share folder.

IOW, you can create as many share folders as you like by specifying them in the pyTivo.conf file. Here is mine:


```
RAID-Server:/usr/share/pyTivo# cat pyTivo.conf
[RAID Server]
force_alpha = True
type = video
path = /RAID/Recordings

[_tivo_SD]

[_tivo_00000DEADBEEF]

[Server]
tivo_password = XXXXXXXXX
tivo_mak = YYYYYYYYYY
ffmpeg = /usr/bin/ffmpeg
togo_path = /RAID/Server-Main/Movies/TiVo_TS
debug = True
tivo_username = [email protected]
port = 9032

[_tivo_HD]

[Videos by Genre]
force_alpha = True
type = video
path = /usr/share/pyTivo/pyshares

[Group by Alpha]
force_alpha = True
type = video
path = /usr/share/pyTivo/alphagroup

[Unverified]
type = video
path = /usr/share/pyTivo/Unverified

[DVD]
path = /RAID/DVD
force_alpha = True
type = dvdvideo
fast_index = true

[Videos by Date]
force_alpha = True
type = video
path = /usr/share/pyTivo/dategroup
```
In the NPL, (or in vidmgr, excluding the DVD share) this shows up as


```
RAID Server
Videos by Genre
Group by Alpha
Unverified
DVD
Videos by Date
```
The "RAID Server" share is the main share. That is on a RAID6 array where all the videos other than the DVDs physically reside. It doesn't have to be that way, but it is how I like to do it. When I select the "RAID Server" share, I am currently presented with 686 videos and 78 folders. Each folder contains two or more movies not listed among the 686 in the root of the share. You can see the results, roughly speaking, here. That is because in the /RAID/Recordings directory of my video server, there are 686 .mpg files and 78 sub-directories. In the "/RAID/Recordings/Man with no Name" directory on the server, for example, there are the following files:


```
RAID-Server:/RAID/Recordings/Man with no Name# ls
A Fistful of Dollars (Recorded Thu Nov 26, 2009, MGMHD).mpg
A Fistful of Dollars (Recorded Thu Nov 26, 2009, MGMHD).mpg.txt
For a Few Dollars More (Recorded Thu Nov 26, 2009, MGMHD).mpg
For a Few Dollars More (Recorded Thu Nov 26, 2009, MGMHD).mpg.txt
Good, the Bad and the Ugly (Recorded Thu Nov 26, 2009, MGMHD).mpg
Good, the Bad and the Ugly (Recorded Thu Nov 26, 2009, MGMHD).mpg.jpg
Good, the Bad and the Ugly (Recorded Thu Nov 26, 2009, MGMHD).mpg.txt
Hang 'Em High (Recorded Sun Nov 22, 2009, MGMHD).mpg
Hang 'Em High (Recorded Sun Nov 22, 2009, MGMHD).mpg.jpg
Hang 'Em High (Recorded Sun Nov 22, 2009, MGMHD).mpg.txt
High Plains Drifter (Recorded Wed May 11, 2011, AMCHD).mpg
High Plains Drifter (Recorded Wed May 11, 2011, AMCHD).mpg.jpg
High Plains Drifter (Recorded Wed May 11, 2011, AMCHD).mpg.txt
```
which means on theTiVo, five titles show up, whose names are determined by the "title :" entry within each related .txt file.

Nearly 700 titles in the root is a bit of big chunk of information, however, so I created additional shares to handle different presentations. The root of the "Group by Alpha" share, for example, has precisely 27 entries:


```
RAID-Server:/usr/share/pyTivo/alphagroup# ls -1
0-9
A
B
C
D
E
F
G
H
I
J
K
L
M
N
O
P
Q
R
S
T
U
V
W
X
Y
Z
```
As I am sure you can guess, the /usr/share/pyTivo/alphagroup/0-9 directory contains movies like 2001: a Space Odessy and 9 to 5. These directories don't actually contain any video files, though. Instead, they contain symlinks to the files in the /RAID/Recordings directory. The TiVo can't tell the difference, and when pyTivo goes to transfer the video, it gets physically pulled from the RAID array, rather than from /usr/share/pyTivo, which is not on the RAID array at all.

What's more, the "Videos by Genre" share contains the following folders:


```
RAID-Server:/usr/share/pyTivo/pyshares# ls -1
Action
Adventure
Animated
Biography
Classic
Comedy
Crime
Documentary
Drama
Family
Fantasy
Film_Noir
Holiday
Horror
Musical
Mystery
Nature
Romance
Science
SciFi
Series
Thriller
tmp.fil
Tragedy
War
Western
```
Each of these in turn also contains symlinks to the video files in /RAID/Recordings. In addition, the same symlink - or at least withe the same target - can usually be found in more than one of these folders. Thus, Support Your Local Sherrif shows up under "Comedy", "Crime", "Romance", and "Western".

Certainly each video does have a metafile associated with it. Not only does the metafile contain a lot of good information, it also controls how the video shows up in the NPL folder. When sorted by name, the filename controls the order in which the shows are listed, but the metafile controls the name display. Thus, the file "Lion in Winter, The (Recorded Thu May 08, 2008, HDNETMV).mpg" shows up between "Life Stinks (Recorded Thu Apr 16, 2009, MGMHD).mpg" and "Little Miss Marker (Recorded Wed Dec 16, 2009, MAXHD).mpg", but the NPL listing shows:


```
Life Stinks
The Lion in Winter
Little Miss Marker
```
DVD shares for the DVD plugin can work essentially the same way, except that DVD shares extend typically at least one additional directory deep.


----------



## MrJedi (Apr 13, 2011)

lrhorer said:


> If you are not using the TiVo to pull the files, then I am not sure why the presentation matters, but as I said, the structure you create on the PC will be mirrored on the TiVo, starting with the share folder.


 The presentation absolutely matters in terms of grouping. I don't want 200 DVDs interspersed among all the shows that get recorded.



lrhorer said:


> IOW, you can create as many share folders as you like by specifying them in the pyTivo.conf file.


I'm going to stop you right there because I don't think you understand what I am doing at all. I am not accessing shares. I am pushing files to the TiVo to remain there permanently. I have no desire to do adhoc transfers. Now, this may be my fault that I gave you this impression because I may be using incorrect terminology. I apparently am one of the few people who love the HDUI and hate dealing with the SDUI at all. So when I use the term NPL, I assumed that is interchangeable with "My Shows" in the HDUI. When I am referring to a folder, I really mean a "Group" Like when you record the Daily Show for a week and then you have a Group of 4 shows indicated by a folder called "The Daily Show". I am doing the same thing with my DVDs and using the meta data to transfer them to a Folder or Group, named "DVDs." Currently I have 13 files in that Group. I watch them the exact same way I do any show the TiVo would record. I don't have to have a working network connection, or pyTivo running to watch these shows, once they have been transferred (which I do at night and during the day) the work is done.

Basically the goal is to transfer all the movies I own to the TiVo and leave them there. It sounds to me that you a queue up a Movie when you want to watch it and start doing so once enough is in the buffer, and then possible delete it.


----------



## MrJedi (Apr 13, 2011)

jcthorne said:


> MrJedi,
> You can also convert the single vob to an mpeg2 file that will push just fine but I do not remember the software for proper conversion to mpg. Someone else will have to help with that. I also thought that pytivo could transcode/push a vob file as well and it stays as mpeg2. An mp4 file will take much less space on your tivo so its your choice on the conversion time vs space use.


To Follow-up I sent a single .VOB via pyTivo and it worked like a charm. This will make this process so much easier. Thank you for suggesting this method.


----------



## lrhorer (Aug 31, 2003)

MrJedi said:


> The presentation absolutely matters in terms of grouping. I don't want 200 DVDs interspersed among all the shows that get recorded.


That certainly will not happen with any share management. The DVD plugin always creates its own folder. There is no other choice.



MrJedi said:


> I'm going to stop you right there because I don't think you understand what I am doing at all. I am not accessing shares. I am pushing files to the TiVo to remain there permanently.


To what purpose? The TiVo provides a singularly anemic storage medium.

1. It is very limited in volume. Even with a Premier, one is limited to 4T of storage, and that only with an auxilliary external drive.

2. It is very frail. There is no backup system available, and the loss of a single drive will potentially lose all the recordings, and almost surely most of them.

3. The management capabilities are so limited as to be nearly non-existent.

4. File access is strictly limited to playing the video files.

5. Expanding the TiVo's storage is "expensive". If not in dollars, then at least in time and effort. It's not hideously so, but expanding the drive system of an external server is dead easy, and not expensive in terms of either cash or time.

The TiVo was not designed to work this way, and therefore its suitability to the task is very low.



MrJedi said:


> I have no desire to do adhoc transfers.


I don't know what you mean by that. Highlight the video, press , and then again. If it happens to reside on an external file system, press , again. Watch the video. How is it beneficial to any significant extent to have the video on the TiVo? Saving a single button press? Really?



MrJedi said:


> Now, this may be my fault that I gave you this impression because I may be using incorrect terminology. I apparently am one of the few people who love the HDUI and hate dealing with the SDUI at all. So when I use the term NPL, I assumed that is interchangeable with "My Shows" in the HDUI. When I am referring to a folder, I really mean a "Group" Like when you record the Daily Show for a week and then you have a Group of 4 shows indicated by a folder called "The Daily Show".


Yes. Certainly this is possible with both pushes and pulls. The ability to manage such features with pushes is extremely limited, though. While your library is rather small, the importance of being able to manage the filing structure may seem rather low, but once the library grows into the thousands of files, it starts to get more and more important. Of course, I am not saying that you "must" be able to call up shows by alpha, genre, most recently recorded, chronological air date, and franchise /series grouping, but surely you can see the advantage of such a system, controlled completely by the user? Surely you can see the advantage of being able to re-organize the filing structure at will? Once a grouping structure is established on the TiVo, it is basically set in stone.



MrJedi said:


> I am doing the same thing with my DVDs and using the meta data to transfer them to a Folder or Group, named "DVDs." Currently I have 13 files in that Group.


Again, what advantage does that offer as compared to having an apparently identical group that uses no resources on the TiVo? What happens when the list becomes tediously long? You see no advantage to having a sub-group in the "DVDs" folder named "Star Trek the Next Generation" with 172 titles in it? (If you don't like STTNG, then substitute whatever long running TV series you like.) Of being able to seek the movie Mannequin in a fraction of the time it would take to bring it up in a sorted, but un-categorized, pool of titles?



MrJedi said:


> I watch them the exact same way I do any show the TiVo would record. I don't have to have a working network connection


Is there some advantage to a local area network being unavailable or intermittent? Some reason why one would make accommodations for an inconsistently available network, rather than just fixing the network so it works properly? Clearly, you only have one Tivo. What happens when you get two? Three? Four? Are you going to push all the videos to all the TiVos? What happens when you add a non-TiVo device to the mix?



MrJedi said:


> or pyTivo running to watch these shows


Is there some reason why the user would prefer pyTivo and other services not to be running? Some advantage to shutting them down? Some over-riding reason not to maintain all data files (not just videos) in a central location?



MrJedi said:


> once they have been transferred (which I do at night and during the day) the work is done.


To most intents and purposes, the only work being done by you is work you are unnecessarily generating for yourself. I put one or several DVDs in DVD-ROM drives attached to one or more peripheral computers. All of them have their ripping software pre-configured to point to the RAID server. I start the rip(s) and walk away. A half hour or so later, I saunter back, remove the DVDs, and put them in their cases. If I want, I may move one or more of the directories created by the ripping software underneath a franchise directory and possibly rename it. This takes a few seconds. I'm done.

I certainly can't dictate how you should organize your systems, but that's a pretty labor intensive system you have there, just so ... well, frankly I'm having trouble understanding why you want to do things the way you do. All that said, it's certainly possible to do what you are insisting. It's just a rather rickety system cobbled together from components used in a way they were never intended.

You're free to do it however you like, though.



MrJedi said:


> Basically the goal is to transfer all the movies I own to the TiVo and leave them there.


With more than 12 Terabytes of videos on the server, that would be a singularly problematical goal for me. What happens when you fill up the TiVo? It won't take long.



MrJedi said:


> It sounds to me that you a queue up a Movie when you want to watch it and start doing so once enough is in the buffer, and then possible delete it.


No. I select the movie I want to watch, start the transfer, and start watching immediately. I usually delete it (from the TiVo, not the server, of course) once I am done watching it, which is the default action the TiVo suggests at show's end. I don't ever start watching a movie from the server unless I want to watch it. I may pause it indefinitely if something intervenes, but that's another matter. The only exception are some 720p videos and a very small number of 1080i videos that cannot transfer to the TiVo quite in real time. (With a Premier, this should never be an issue.) Those I usually select at least a few minutes ahead of time. They also only constitute about 50 out of well over 2000 videos, and I know which ones they are.

I have no idea why you would think I do anything like what you say.


----------



## lrhorer (Aug 31, 2003)

MrJedi said:


> To Follow-up I sent a single .VOB via pyTivo and it worked like a charm. This will make this process so much easier. Thank you for suggesting this method.


Yes, that is one of the major features of pyTivo, and indeed why it was originally created. Files that do not need to be transcoded are sent as-is to the TiVo. If pyTivo calculates the video needs transcoding, then it passes it through ffmpeg to convert it to an MPEG2 stream on the fly while sendiing it to the TiVo. This means pyTivo can handle an ungodly number of different file formats for the user. For many people, this all by itself blows TiVoDesktop out of the water. For me, personally, it's not a major selling point, since all of my videos are MPEG2.


----------



## MrJedi (Apr 13, 2011)

I only inquired about the dvdvideo option because I thought it was the only way to transfer VOBs. I have since learned it is not, so I don't see the need to use that pluggin. Explaining my reasoning beyond that is a waste of both your time and mine.


----------



## orangeboy (Apr 19, 2004)

If Windows, would something like this work?


```
COPY /B VTS_01_1.VOB+VTS_01_2.VOB+VTS_01_3.VOB+VTS_01_4.VOB /B OneGiantVOB.VOB

ffmpeg -i OneGiantVOB.VOB -vcodec copy -acodec copy -f vob OneGiantMPG.MPG
```


----------



## jcthorne (Jan 28, 2002)

MrJedi said:


> To Follow-up I sent a single .VOB via pyTivo and it worked like a charm. This will make this process so much easier. Thank you for suggesting this method.


Be aware that this method sometimes has hickups with the audio/video sync. Its rare but does happen. That is why others suggested you use the quickstream fix. Usually the transfer just hangs. Just so you know.


----------



## jcthorne (Jan 28, 2002)

lrhorer said:


> DVD shares for the DVD plugin can work essentially the same way, except that DVD shares extend typically at least one additional directory deep.


Without quoting your whole example, I am intrigued by your use of symlinks to have videos appear under various different folders. Do you have to create these links manually for each video (all 2000 in your example) or do you have some more automated way based on the metadata? What file system does your RAID use? NTFS?

To be honest, I use a mix of both systems. Current tv, both recorded and sourced from the internet is stored on my tivo for one use. A selection of current movies we have not yet seen is also stored in a group on my tivo.

The rest is stored on my file server (soon to be a RAID as my storage has grown) for quick access via vidmgr. Sort of a 'near local' archive.

This way stuff we use everyday is local and not subject to network issues at play time (rare but they happen at the worst times) and every thing is available with a few more clicks in a deeper menu structure.


----------



## westside_guy (Mar 13, 2005)

Back to the original question...

You don't seem to mention what OS you're running. On my Mac, I'm using RipIt ($20 I think, IIRC) to make digital copies of my DVDs, mainly to save wear and tear on my DVD drive - that may or may not be a valid concern . Then I use handbrake to generate an h.264 file that's streamable to my Tivo.

As far as settings go - RipIt doesn't have any. For handbrake, I just recently posted the specifics of what I do on another thread here. But it always comes down to personal taste, the speed vs. filesize argument, and such. A lot of people are perfectly happy with the results using the high-profile preset and no additional monkeying around.


----------



## lrhorer (Aug 31, 2003)

jcthorne said:


> Without quoting your whole example, I am intrigued by your use of symlinks to have videos appear under various different folders. Do you have to create these links manually for each video (all 2000 in your example) or do you have some more automated way based on the metadata?


I have several scripts that manage the files. Altogether, they do more than just create them, and there is actually more than one script that creates them based on different criteria. For example, there is one run as a cron script that inspects the main file name and creates link names based upon the recording date (which is automatically embedded by kmttg in the file name):


```
RAID-Server:/usr/share/VideoScribe# cat DateGroup 
#! /bin/bash

monthlist="Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec"
LinkDir=/usr/share/pyTivo/dategroup

cd $LinkDir
find /RAID/Recordings -name "*.mpg" | while read Source
do
        vname=${Source##*/}
        datname=${Source##*Recorded }
        vname=${vname% (Recorded*}
        x=1
        for mon in $monthlist
        do
                [ $mon == ${datname:4:3} ] && monnum=$(( 22 - $x ))
                x=$(( $x + 1 ))
        done
        if [[ ${datname:8:1} == "0" ]];
        then
                daynum=$(( 41 - ${datname:9:1} ))
        else
                daynum=$(( 41 - ${datname:8:2} ))
        fi
        echo $vname
        yearnum=$(( 3200 - ${datname:12:4} ))
        Link="$yearnum$monnum$daynum - $vname".mpg
        [[ -h "$Link" ]] || ln -s "$Source" "$Link"
        [[ -h "$Link.txt" ]] || ln -s "$Source.txt" "$Link.txt"
        [[ -h "$Link.jpg" ]] || ln -s "$Source.jpg" "$Link.jpg"
done
```
The routines that set up the alphabetical links are usaully run from within another script:


```
RAID-Server:/usr/share/VideoScribe# cat GroupAlpha 
#! /bin/bash

alphagroup=/usr/share/pyTivo/alphagroup
vdir=/RAID/Recordings
Alinks=/usr/share/VideoScribe/Alinks

ls -1 $alphagroup | while read dirname
do
        cd $alphagroup/$dirname
        find $vdir -maxdepth 1 -type f -name "[$dirname]*" -exec $Alinks {} \;
        find ./ -follow -type l -exec rm {} \;
done


RAID-Server:/usr/share/VideoScribe# cat Alinks 
#! /bin/bash
Source=$*
Link=${Source##*/RAID/Recordings/}
[[ -h "$Link" ]] || ln -s "$Source" "$Link"
```
When I edit the files and dump them onto the video repository, I send them to one of the TiVos to make sure there are no errors. Once this is verified, I run a script that tidies things up as well as creating the genre links per my input. This could of course parse the metafile, but I prefer to set the genres myself. The pertinent sections of code follow:


```
RAID-Server:/usr/share/VideoScribe# cat Verify 
#!/bin/bash
DefaultIFS=$IFS
IFS=$'\n'
[email protected]
abort=\<Abort\>
if [ -z $filespec ];
then
        echo No Args!
        exit;
fi
clear
filelist=$(find /RAID/Recordings -iname "*$filespec*.mpg")

select filename in $filelist $abort;
do
        IFS=$DefaultIFS
        if [ "$filename" == $abort ];
        then
                exit;
        fi
        shortname=${filename##*/}
        echo $shortname
        echo
        echo is this correct \(Y\)?
        read response
        if [ -z $response ];
        then
                break;
        elif [ "$response" == y ];
        then
                break;
        fi;
done
/usr/share/VideoScribe/Vlinks "$filename"


RAID-Server:/usr/share/VideoScribe# cat Vlinks 
#!/bin/bash

VideoName=$1                    # Get the file name of the main video
VideoMeta=$1.txt                # Set the file name of the Metafile
VideoThumb=$1.jpg               # Set the file name of the ThumbNail
LinkName=$( echo ${VideoName##*/RAID/Recordings/} | sed 's/\//-/' )       # Get the root file name after the Recordings dirname for the video link
LinkMeta="$LinkName".txt        # Set the name of the Metafile link
LinkThumb="$LinkName".mpg.jpg   # Set the name of the Thumbnail link

# Set up the Genre name array
Genre="Action..... Adventure.. Animated... Biography.. Classic.... Comedy..... Crime...... Documentary Drama...... Family..... Fantasy.... Film_Noir.. Holiday.... Horror..... Musical.... Mystery.... Nature..... Romance.... Science.... SciFi..... Series..... Thriller... Tragedy.... War........ Western.... Done"

echo
echo ${VideoName##*/}
echo
Gselect=""

select Gselect in $Genre;       # Assign Genres to the video
do
        if [ "$Gselect" == "Done" ]
        then
                break;
        else
                Gselect=`echo $Gselect | tr -d '.'`
                cd /usr/share/pyTivo/pyshares/$Gselect
                if ! [ -h "$LinkName" ]         #Check to see if the link already exists
                then
                        ln -s "$VideoName" "$LinkName"
                        ln -s "$VideoMeta" "$LinkMeta"
                        ln -s "$VideoThumb" "$LinkThumb"
                fi;
        fi
done
```
These are written in bash, but could be fairly easily converted to Perl or Python.



jcthorne said:


> What file system does your RAID use? NTFS?


XFS.



jcthorne said:


> To be honest, I use a mix of both systems. Current tv, both recorded and sourced from the internet is stored on my tivo for one use. A selection of current movies we have not yet seen is also stored in a group on my tivo.


I do something similar. The RAID server is only used for archive storage. Most of the videos are not archived. Those are stored on and managed by the TiVos.



jcthorne said:


> This way stuff we use everyday is local and not subject to network issues at play time (rare but they happen at the worst times) and every thing is available with a few more clicks in a deeper menu structure.


I have never had a network issue in my LAN that prevented network access, unless you count the time the server's motherboard and power supply fried themselves.


----------



## jcthorne (Jan 28, 2002)

Thanks for the info. I am currently setting up a new Synology RAID NAS on oru network. Once I get that running right and the backup sorted out, I want to tackle something similar to your structure. I am starting much smaller than your RAID, I just outgrew connected USB drives and moved up but this RAID solution will only be about 8TB for now but has plenty of room to grow going forward. I also hope to move pytivo, vidmgr and harmonium over to the NAS box at some point. Lots to learn to be sure.


----------



## thomb (Jan 22, 2008)

I ripped a few DVDs to my PC, and all of the ripped movies (.vob file) play fine directly on my computer. However in Now Playing > MyVideos a couple of the movies are getting snipped.
"Clerks" gets shortened to ~25 minutes.
"King Kong" shows the entire length.
"Old School" gets shortened to 7 minutes.

I ripped the DVDs with DVD Decrypter using the same settings each time. What would cause the Tivo to not show the full length even though the file is ok on the computer?


----------



## ThAbtO (Apr 6, 2000)

Sometimes there are discrepancies in the viideos, or time stamps problems. If you have VideoReDo, run Quickstream fix and then you can save to .mpg.

If you have VideoReDo TVSuite, it can read the whole folder of your ripped DVD.


----------



## thomb (Jan 22, 2008)

ThAbtO said:


> Sometimes there are discrepancies in the viideos, or time stamps problems. If you have VideoReDo, run Quickstream fix and then you can save to .mpg.
> 
> If you have VideoReDo TVSuite, it can read the whole folder of your ripped DVD.


Thanks ThAbtO, worked perfectly. I only wish this step wasn't necessary - 250+ DVDs to convert. Ah well it looks like I can just set them all up in a batch to run overnight.


----------



## ThAbtO (Apr 6, 2000)

thomb said:


> Thanks ThAbtO, worked perfectly. I only wish this step wasn't necessary - 250+ DVDs to convert. Ah well it looks like I can just set them all up in a batch to run overnight.


I use DVD Decrypter and VideoReDo for DVDs.


----------



## thomb (Jan 22, 2008)

ThAbtO said:


> I use DVD Decrypter and VideoReDo for DVDs.


A couple questions:
1) What mode and settings do you use for DVD Decrypter?

2) Can you run Quickstream fix on a master folder of DVD titles? For example on the folder called DVDs:
- DVDs
--Star Wars
---A New hope
---Empire Strikes Back
--Fight Club
--Albino Alligator
That could save me a lot of time - not having to set the batch up.

3) Do you also run it on movies that do not seem to have "the issue"?


----------



## ThAbtO (Apr 6, 2000)

I don't set any special mode for DVD Decrypter, just use file mode mostly. You can have folders to place the files into. For me, I just have "disk 1", "disk 2", etc. For generic purposes. But, under VideoReDo TVSuite, You can hit Ctrl-shift-O and then select the folder, and you can then select the video with the appropriate time and it will be onscreen. You can then run quickstream fix, which will write a new file as a .mpg. I do QSF on all my copies just in case. VRD can work when there are multiple episodes on the DVD, just one at a time.

You can also edit out any unwanted material afterwards with the new file.


----------

