What video format should I be using?

raksasas

Limp Gawd
Joined
Dec 14, 2002
Messages
477
I am not video expert but what is the best format for videos?

I have 100+ dvd's and blu-ray moves in the ISO format. Mounting and trying to play the iso's just ends up with me pissed off. Playback is just awful. skips, jumps, stops, etc..

Here is my setup...
NAS: Synology DS508
HTPC (Primary): Asus Eee Box EB102P - Ubuntu (w/ xmbc)
HTPC (Secondary): Raspberry Pi - Raspbmc

Added benefit would be able to also watch on:
PS3
Xbox 360

Additional info:
Use AnyDVD for DVD/Blu-ray ripping

Thanks a bunch.
 
I personally just use MakeMKV to rip the main track into an MKV file. No quality loss, it just removes menus and any language/subtitle tracks you don't want. Works great for XBMC, though admittedly I've never tried to use an Xbox/PS3 for playback.
 
MakeMKV here has well. If you're using your 360 in WMC mode, it can play MKV with the right codecs at the main PC end; however it's still ultimately limited to bitrates up to ~20mbs.

I have not tried to play any mkvs through the normal dashboard in quite some time, so no idea if mkv is supported there.
 
MKV for best quality (if you don't wan't to encode at all). If you want the best non-techie (or easiest) cross platform compatibility then .mp4. Yes, you can have various players that play mkv on your devices; I know. I'm talking about a format that will work on all your devices out-of-the-box. The trade off is you lose quality by encoding (how much is entirely dependent on how much time you want to devote to each encode. Quick=lots a degradation, very long=you might not even be able to tell the difference).
 
MKV. Use MPC-HC with MadVR and LAV filters for playback.
 
I am not video expert but what is the best format for videos?

I have 100+ dvd's and blu-ray moves in the ISO format. Mounting and trying to play the iso's just ends up with me pissed off. Playback is just awful. skips, jumps, stops, etc..

Here is my setup...
NAS: Synology DS508
HTPC (Primary): Asus Eee Box EB102P - Ubuntu (w/ xmbc)
HTPC (Secondary): Raspberry Pi - Raspbmc

Added benefit would be able to also watch on:
PS3
Xbox 360

Additional info:
Use AnyDVD for DVD/Blu-ray ripping

Thanks a bunch.

I have over 500 movies, all stored in ISO format. I don't ever have a problem with the skipping.

If I had to wager a guess, it would be the hardware in the Eee Box, as XBMC certainly doesn't have a problem with ISO's. It doesn't have to mount them, it just plays them.

Actually, after looking at the specs on that, even that should be fine. Do you play all of these over wireless? If so, try wired, even if for a test run. I have heard of wireless having issues playing these. I occasionally get skipping on XBMC on my tablet when I run it over WiFi.
 
Do you play all of these over wireless? If so, try wired, even if for a test run. I have heard of wireless having issues playing these. I occasionally get skipping on XBMC on my tablet when I run it over WiFi.

Wireless is correct. Wish it could be wired
 
Yeah, wireless is the devil for this sort of thing. You might try powerline to ethernet converters, or coax to ethernet converters.
 
Yeah, wireless is the devil for this sort of thing. You might try powerline to ethernet converters, or coax to ethernet converters.

Confirmed. Streaming mkv's from my Server thru my blu-ray player req'd switching to ethernet. Wireless-n was not enough to handle HD content. 480p was okay (dvd quality) but HD exhibited all the symptoms you described.
 
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