Video Encoding

[longhorn]

I went through a sharp learning curve to find this forum and product for audio. Now I am faced with a similar ordeal for video and I don't really have time to do a ton of research. Any suggestions would be appreciated.

All I need to do is convert some videos to a lossless format that will contain all the files on the DVD. Preferably one that can be streamed on a local network.

Just to give you an idea: I currently have my entire audio CD collection in FLAC format on my server which is decoded to mp3 to stream (the FLAC files remain intact). I would like a similar setup for video DVDs.

Thanks for any help you can offer.

[pjc2]

Re: Video Encoding

All I need to do is convert some videos to a lossless format that will contain all the files on the DVD. Preferably one that can be streamed on a local network.

Very short tutorial:
DVDs use MPEG-2, which is lossy. I presume when you mean "lossless" you simply mean not-any-lossier.

DVDs encode MPEG-2 as VOBs. Many programs can play VOB files, even over a LAN. (Take a look at VLC.) There are also ways to convert the VOBs to raw MPEG files, but then you lose multiple audio tracks, menus, etc.

The catch with DVDs is that they're encrypted, so you would need to use software to decrypt them. Whether or not that is legal depends on where you live. There's tons of software that can do so.

There are many programs that assist with ripping DVDs. Handbrake is very popular, but its typical defaults convert MPEG-2 to MPEG-4, a newer lossy format. MPEG-4 is much more space-efficient than MPEG-2, but you'll lose some quality in conversion. Handbrake also makes it easy to convert a DVD for use on an iPod (low-resolution MP4).