Nick Glover

[part 1 (streaming)]

This part of the guide focuses on ripping DVDs to your computer for streaming to your PS3. You can also watch the videos on your computer, but most of the steps here are unnecessary if you only want to watch that way. These steps will leave you with a PS3-compatible video file. If you want to watch the video on your computer, you will likely need a good media player like VLC–the default players in most operating systems simply don’t have the right codecs.

Before we begin, you’re going to need some software. For all platforms, you will need HandBrake. If you are using Windows, you will also need DVD Shrink or a similar DVD decryption tool like Slysoft AnyDVD (we will be using AnyDVD HD later for HD DVDs and Blu-rays). I happen to like DVD Shrink best because it’s easy to use and allows you complete control over the what you copy over from the DVD, but it doesn’t work with some copy protection on some DVDs (I’ve noticed it most with Sony DVDs). If you’re using a Mac, you don’t need anything other than HandBrake. HandBrake is also available for Linux, but you may need additional software to decrypt the DVDs first. As a final note, remember that these procedures are only for DVDs you legally own. I do not condone illegal copying.

After you’ve installed the software, pop in a DVD and, if you are on Windows, open up DVD Shrink. HandBrake doesn’t decrypt DVDs on Windows, so we have to go through a couple extra steps first. If you’re on a different platform, hold tight while we get through decrypting. Let’s change some settings before we start ripping DVDs. Here’s how I have my settings:

I think most of those settings are the defaults, but it doesn’t hurt to make sure we’re on the same page. You can probably enable burning with Nero if you want, but I don’t have Nero, so there wasn’t any point for me to do so.

Now that are settings are set, click “Open Disc” and select your DVD from the drop-down menu. Hit ok and it will start analyzing the DVD. Once that’s done, you’ll see the main DVD Shrink window again, this time populated with a lot of options. We don’t need all the menus, so we’re going to reauthor the DVD. Click “Re-author” and you will see that the left pane is now empty. You want to drag over the main title (the main movie, as opposed to the extra features) from the right. It will be listed under the “Main Movie” section, like this:

In this case, there is also a “Title 2″ under “Main Movie,” which could be a set of alternate angles or something. Ignore it; we only need the original version. Click the “Compression Settings” tab and you will see a list of languages for both the audio and subtitles. DVD Shrink is very nice about telling you what language each audio file represents. Uncheck all of the things we don’t need, like this:

Make sure the top option is set to “No Compression,” as we want to keep the video at the highest quality possible. Click “Backup!” and a window will pop up. You shouldn’t need to change much, but tell it to save it to a folder and where to save that folder, like so:

Your settings should be all set from earlier and most of the other settings can’t be changed now anyway (most of the settings available here have to do with compression and we aren’t compressing). Hit ok and wait for it to finish (it could take a while). I recommend that you not do anything else on your computer while DVD Shrink is doing its thing. I have had problems with videos skipping when I try to play them later if I try to do much else while DVD Shrink is working.

If you aren’t using Windows, you can join us again. The next steps apply to everyone. Open up HandBrake. If you’re on a Mac, it will immediately prompt you to choose your video source, so select your DVD and hit ok. It’ll take a couple minutes to analyze the DVD, much like DVD Shrink did, before you can select options. On Windows, click “Source,” then “DVD/VIDEO_TS folder.” Find the folder you just created with DVD Shrink and hit ok. We’re going to need to change a bunch of settings. Start by selecting the PS3 preset on the right. The presets menu may be hidden if you are on a Mac; if it is, click the button to show it and select the PS3 preset. Under “Destination,” click “Browse” and navigate to where you want the final video file to be stored. Enter a name for it and hit ok. Now, under “Output Settings,” change the format to “MKV file.” As I understand it, the MVK format has the best support for AC3 audio, which is what we will be using. Under the “Video” tab, you may wish to enable “2-pass encoding,” which should–theoretically, at least–give you better quality video, but it takes longer and you may not notice any difference anyway. I have it enabled, but I haven’t actually tried leaving it disabled, so I don’t have much in the way of comparisons for you. The most important setting is under the “Audio & Subtitles” tab. On Windows, change the “Audio Codec” option to “AC3.” This leaves the original audio intact, preserving the surround sound that came on the DVD. Technically, you could get surround with a different setting, but Dolby Pro Logic II isn’t as good as having discreet channels like you do with Dolby Digital. On Mac, you have to enable AC3 passthru by selecting “AVC/H.264 Video/AC-3 Audio” from the codecs drop-down menu, next to the “MKV” option we selected earlier. Now you can go back to the “Audio & Subtitles” tab and make sure that “Track 1″ shows “English (AC3) (5.1 ch)” and that “Track 1 Mix” shows “AC3 Passthru.” Here are pictures of what your final settings should look like (Windows first, then Mac):

Now just click “Start” at the top and wait for it to finish! On Windows, a command line window will pop up showing you how far along the encoding is; on Mac, you’ll just see a progress bar at the bottom of the HandBrake window. The encoding process can take a while, so you probably don’t want to sit around waiting.

That’s all there is to it! You should now be able to access the movie files you created from your PS3. In part 3, I’ll show you how to put all your useless HD DVDs on your computer.

[Continued in part 3]