Page 1 of MKV conversion....

I know a few of you here are gurus at this.. i picked up a tv for the bedroom yesterday (samsung 27" TA550) that has a USB input for movies that will play MKV - now i know you can get 16 - 32gig memory sticks, but can i use a self powered external hdd and load all my dvd`s onto said drive and use it like a media server? - and has anyone got suggestions as to what proggie i can use to do the conversion?

I have had a little experiment so far using iso`s to convert - they were around 4.5gig in size but the conversion to mkv brought them down to around 1.2gig and the quality was appalling (dvdfab q8 - couldnt see a way to increase output size) - is it possible to do a 1-1 conversion so as to keep the image quality?

I quite fancy having a drive full of movies so the OH can pick and choose when theirs nowt on the usual channels but am loath to sacrifice picture quality when the tv has quite a good screen res.

Edit... been rummaging throught my bits box and found a 2.5  120gig lappy drive, have seen some external 2.5 to usb cases for about a tenner, wonder if thats worth a try? 

many thanks

Grumpy      

This item was edited on Sunday, 25th March 2012, 07:25

I believe the current program of choice from a few of our more Learned colleagues on here is called Handbrake.
I have no idea of the settings etc. to use but I`m sure Miles, Ogs or one of the others who know loads more about this will be along soon to set you on the right path to many headaches and hours of ripping and converting ;)

Jimbo : oÞ

"There`s that word again... is there a problem with the Earth`s gravitational pull in the future?"

to be fair, i rarely need to convert anything these days, dont even remember the last time i used a DVD...     but for file to file conversions i used to use Videora (free) & AVS video converter,  

Bear in mind if your TV can handle MKV, it should have no problem with divx/xvid (mkv is just a container format)  so it may be easier to convert to xvid, .MKV is more commonly used for HiDef content (but not exclusively so)

The only other issue i see you having is with the hard drive,  most external self powered 2.5" drives need 2 usb ports, this lets them bleed the extra power they need to run, i deal with this by using a powered usb hub, this would work with the TV, but obviously would add more cables etc,

hope this helps.Quote:
Grumpy Old Git says...
Edit... been rummaging throught my bits box and found a 2.5 120gig lappy drive, have seen some external 2.5 to usb cases for about a tenner, wonder if thats worth a try?


Also, bear in mind if it`s an older drive it`ll probably be mini ide, rather than sata,  but either way, you should be able to get a 2.5" caddy on fleabay for around a fiver

This item was edited on Sunday, 25th March 2012, 08:37

I bought this - Sumvision-Cyclone-Micro-Media-Player for my parents, it powers from your TVs USB port.....(I have not tried this yet).... has built in 8GB storage with an additional 16GB SD card that i plugged in.....it can take a 32GB SD and also has a USB connection, and can play right up to 1080p 24hz. 

I think it`s a bargain for £35

Here`s a review

Guys thx for the quick responses, - whilst you were kindly replying to the questions, i  found this- www.makemkv.com - from my limited knowledge it seems to do what it says on the tin, i have a rather large movie collection in iso format and tried it a few times on a few titles, did the conversion in about 8 or 9 mins - and plays fine on the pc (apparently it also does Blu Ray as well but havnt tried that yet) - the file size is withing a few kb of the original.
 
Ogs - the tv does play mkv as i tried it earlier, what it handles is a bit sketchy as their is nothing in the handbook or that i can see on the website (typical..) As for the 2.5 drive yep its a mini ide, tho the caddy i saw was for that format - i did take in the power requirements info, but might give it a shot anyways as if it doesnt work at least i have a portable drive i can use!

Skirps, thanks for the link, i did look at that kind of device as an option but i`m looking for having about 120gb which should hold about 20 or so movies at the same quality as the original dvd (or am i missing something here?)

Grumpy

another option might be to get a much larger external drive, one with it`s own psu, that you could hide away under/behind the tv, then just run the usb to the TV, that way you could have all your movies connected to the TV all the time,

BTW,  theres a strong possibility that the TV will be able to read the raw .iso`s, which would be another good reason to get the larger drive,  it`s nice having the smaller file size vids, but if you have 100`s of movies,  it becomes a huge chore.

Ogs, the raw isos i will try as that will save a bit of time i`ll drop one on my mem stick and give it a try, the external drive is becoming more attractive as i can just dump files on it and away it goes so to speak...

keep you posted

Grumpy  

Use Handbrake.  The 4.5GB iso`s will go to between 900MB-1.2 or so GB and be a great copy - even on the default settings.  Soundwise, I would use the `passthru` option.
I would be gobsmacked if the TV can play the raw iso`s.

Ste

"I would be gobsmacked if the TV can play the raw iso`s."

the cheapo 19" technika i got for connor at xmas only officially plays mp4, but it`ll happily play mp4/xvid/iso/ & some mkv`s..

tho, to be fair, i was gobsmacked about it at the time ;) either way, it`s worth a punt ?

 well good news first...  i was in town and popped into Maplins to see if they had any caddys for the 2.5 HD - seemed the only ones they had were for esata drives, then the young guy said he had one out the back returned which he thinks was ide/esata... just had no documentation or box - let me have it for £15.00 their retail was about £29.00 said i could bring it back if it didnt suit... guess what, he`s not getting it back!

The drive pulls around 450ma which i think is about nudging the max for a usb port, plugged it in, Windows found it, formatted it and dropped half a dozen MKV files on it and with fingers crossed plugged it into the TV and lo and behold all the films play without a hitch ( i may just as a precaution rig the drive with an external power supply to take the strain off the tv but i dont see why it shouldnt handle it)

Next is to drop and iso on the drive and see if the tv can play that....

Edit... well fail on the ISO but not a biggie as 98% of my movies i have in ISO anyways - next step is to have a look at handbrake and see if the quality drops that much..

Thanks for all the input tho - pretty chuffed really, got a media "server" for less than £15.00 and an old laptop drive - one happy bunny...   

Grumpy    

This item was edited on Sunday, 25th March 2012, 14:29