Fast DVD ripping solutions?

[john dough]

A client wants to covert ~650 DVDs to his iTunes library and wants it done as quickly/inexpensively as possible. I suggested that he looks for a neighborhood kid to assist but he is not comfortable with that idea. I would be willing to take on this task if I could do several per hour (if there is a software/hardware combo that could do that).

Any experience or suggestions?

[kj4btkljv]

I would use Ripit to convert the DVD disc to a file on my hard drive, and then Handbrake to convert the disc file to an iTunes compatible mp4 file format.

Don't plan on doing them all at once - way too much hard drive space required to store all the DVD disc files at about 4-5GB each.

If I had to ballpark an estimated time frame, I would say about 10 days to complete.

Jeff

[space-time]

10 days is $5-10k, no matter how you slice it.

unless you get someone to work for free.

[olnacl]

And you can figure that you'll burn up at least one optical drive unless you have something external and heavy duty. I ripped my entire DVD collection over a period of 3 months using 3 computers, all C2D and ate 2 optical drives. I went to all external drives after having the failed drives replaced under AppleCare.

[sekker]

10 days would be quick.

[testcase]

My experience with RipIt is about 1/2 hour per movie. If you want RipIt to compress as well, then a lot longed.

[Grateful11]

Why use RipIt when HandBrake will do DVD's in one shot? It helped that I had the drive in the iMac and an OWC
Ext. I did mine with 2 Pass, Turbo Pass on first pass and if it was an 1:30 DVD I'd set the file size to about 1500,
I fit was say 2:30 DVD I would set for about 2500 file size. Queue up 2 at a time and let it do it's magic. Now that
I have the third drive, an external Blu-Ray I could do 3 disc in a row. TV series are the biggest pain because there's
a file on each DVD, at least there was on Gilligan's Island the only series I've done so far, that has every episode
in one file. The problem with ripping that file is that you can't pick and choose each episode so you need to queue up
each episode file and let Handbrake do its work, I used 350mb for each Gilligan episode. If you let Handbrake
automatically pick the file size it ends up being like 800mb and I put each size to test with my wife and she couldn't
tell the difference between the large and the small file size.

[ADent]

Take a look at http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=805573

Here (at the bottom) is a quick user summary of the process. Only 80% of the movies ripped flawlessly, without manual intervention: http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=1125625

[kj4btkljv]

Grateful11 wrote:
Why use RipIt when HandBrake will do DVD's in one shot?

Have you ever tried RipIt then Handbrake vs. just straight from DVD through Handbrake?

Here's why I ask - Handbrake can read RipIt disc files, and it has a queue. Meaning, I can spin the DVD movie as fast as my DVD drive will go, copy the disc to a file on my fast hard drive using RipIt, then fill up the Handbrake queue, then walk away for a long time. Maybe spend half a day converting to disc files, then use Handbrake to convert them down to iTunes compatible formats.

Or, that MacRumors post looks awesome. A lot of work, but really awesome.

Jeff

[laarree]

I ripped my entire DVD collection of c. 300 DVDs using RipIt and Mac DVDRipper Pro to video_TS folders around two years ago. It was a time-consuming and tricky process, with a bit of a learning curve, but most of the time it was as straightforward as sucking audio CDs into iTunes. I did several every day, and eventually it got done. RipIt couldn't handle some DVDs. I had to resort to using Mac DVDRipper Pro for the rest of them, which I grew to prefer. I wound up using two Macs and their internal optical drives, as well as an additional external optical drive to finish the project. All survived. I saved lots of time by not bothering to Handbrake them to a form usable in iTunes-- I just left them as is, and play them with XBMC or VLC.

I wouldn't envy anyone trying to tackle 650 DVDs, even if they were well-paid for it.