How to rip and convert TV Show DVDs for XBMC – Part 4

In Part 1 we looked at how to rip your TV Show DVD disc(s) to a VIDEO_TS folder(s) on the computer, in Part 2 we then looked at how to encode the episodes in to individual .MKV video files.
In Part 3 we looked at the resulting MKV files, their file size and Codec information, checked if they played and looked at a file renaming tool.

In this post we will look at Step four in our five step process - 4. Import the video files in to the XBMC 

TV Show library with TheTVDB.com scraper

The default TV Show scraper in XBMC is TheTVDB.com, a scraper gathers metadata information and artwork images, so your titles are displayed correctly in the XBMC media libraries.

I am currently using the Aeon MQ5 skin on this PC so all XBMC screen shots are from that skin.

Before you start an import you can review theTVDB.com scraper add-on settings in XBMC and that it is installed and enabled. Go to Settings – Add-ons – Enabled Add-ons



then select TV information



You can see I have TheTVDB add-on present and its enabled



If you right click the mouse or press C on the keyboard to bring up the context menu you can select Configure.

 

There isn’t actually a lot to configure however as you can see on the screen shot below. The main thing is that you have TheTVDB add-on installed which it should be as its the default for XBMC.



Updating Video Library

Now if you have already previously setup your sources in XBMC for TV Shows, its just a case of running a Update Video Library and your new MKV files will be scraped and added in to the TV Show Library, to do this you can (in this skin anyway) go to the TV Shows menu press down and select Video-Update Library.



You can also turn on a setting so that every time you open XBMC it will update the Video Library automatically. Settings – Video – Library – Update  Library on Startup



Adding a new Source

If you haven’t setup any sources in XBMC to point to the location of your TV Show files i.e. its a new / clean installation of XBMC, then you will need to add a source. To do this in this skin, I would go to TV Shows menu push down and select Files



You can see in the screen shot below, all my sources in XBMC. I split my TV Shows in to different sub-folders on the file server, if they were DVD rips or VIDEO files etc. And also I have the Kids TV Shows in separate folders.

If you are wanting to add a new source to point to your TV Show VIDEOS folder then select the Add Videos option at the bottom.



You will then see a screen similar to this one, click browse to browse to the location of your TV Show VIDEO files.



I am using a Windows Home Server so I select from this list Windows Network (SMB). If you are using a NAS as your media storage device then you may need to select another option.



Browse the network and select your file server



Select to your TV folder share



Here you can see my content type sub-folders, I am going to select the VIDEOS folder



And then I select OK



I am then presented with this screen, which confirms the SMB path I just selected. Also under “Choose a name for this folder” give it a meaningful name like “TV – VIDEOS”.

Click OK to continue adding the new source.



You will then see a screen similar to this one, ensure “Folder Contents” is set to “TV Shows” this is known as the content type.

You should see The TVDB listed as the scraper. If you click settings here you will be taken to the same settings screen I showed you earlier on in the post.

Click OK to add the source



After clicking OK above I am prompted: “Do you want to refresh info for all items in this path” you can select Yes here and your TV Show content should be added to the XBMC media library.



To confirm - the new source I just added can be seen in the sources list, the one named TV – VIDEOS FILES



If you right click any source with the mouse or press C on the keyboard to bring up the content menu. You can select “Scan for new Content”.

This will force XBMC to scan for new content in that particular source / location only.



Step 5. Delete the temporary DVD rip folders to get your hard drive space back (Optional)

Now that you have converted your TV Show DVD rip in to the MKV files and imported them in to the XBMC media library, there is no real need to keep the large VIDEO_TS folders in your temporary rip folder. If you remember in Part 1 I ripped my DVD in to the folder “Temp DVD rips” on my file server. I am now going to delete these temporary DVD disc rips to save on hard drive space.

Step 5a. Sit back and relax and watch a TV Show !

You are now here, kick back grab a beer and watch the DVD TV Show you just converted to MKV and imported in to XBMC !!







Harold Steptoe: “You dirty old man!”

Summary

I will keep this short as I need to wrap this up now, if you have any comments or suggestions for improvements please let me know.





www.phaze1digital.com

How to rip and convert TV Show DVDs for XBMC – Part 3

In Part 1 we looked at how to rip your TV Show DVD disc to a VIDEO_TS folder on the computer, in Part 2 we then looked at how to encode the episodes in to individual .MKV video files.
In Part 3 we will be looking at the resulting MKV files, their file size and Codec information, check if they play and look at a file renaming tool.

Looking in Windows Explorer in the location where I opted to save my final .MKV files you can see I have the six episodes now split in to individual video files. And because I took the important step of naming them correctly with the SXXEXX format in Handbrake in Part 2, they are already in the correct order.



Looking at the file sizes shown above, I guess by playing around with the settings in Handbrake like bitrate settings you could reduce the file size further, but you would lose video quality. I am not totally sure if the process I have done means there is no loss in video quality, but judging by the size of each MKV and how they appear on my TV screen I think not. But perhaps the TV Show “Steptoe and Son” was not the best example as the quality is poor anyway. But I am confident your converted episodes will look good on the TV screen!

As a comparison below you can see the 70’s TV Show Planet of the Apes, that I converted from DVD last night with the exact same settings in Handbrake and their file sizes are larger



The first thing to test is do they actually play? I used VLC as its my default player on my workstation and yes they do playback fine.



If you would like to examine any video files in more detail you can download and install the MediaInfo application from here.

Once installed open the MediaInfo application, select File – Open – File and browse to one of your newly created MKV files.



You can see information like the video stream is AVC, that there is one AC-3 audio stream and that its 2 channels, that there is one text stream VOBSub i.e. the subtitles I opted to include. We can also see the video size 720x592 and the frame rate is 25,000 fps etc.



This is general advice really, but If for any reason you are ever unsure what is the correct order in which episodes should be listed, i.e. the order / naming of your TV Show video files, you should always refer to the website TheTVDB.com.

For example if you are manually renaming your TV Show files to include the SXXEXX format which XBMC and MyMovies require, you may find issues like IMDB might order the episodes differently to that of TheTVDB. Because XBMC and MCE / MyMovies both use TheTVDB, it is this website you should refer to.

Steptoe and Son on TheTVDB here. If we look at Steptoe and Son Season 1 on TheTVDB it looks like this:



A closer look



We are getting to the point of step three in our five step plan.

3. Bulk rename the video files with a re-naming program (Possibly Optional)

Looking at our newly created video files as they are named now, after the Handbrake process in Part 2,
XBMC could import these as is and it would work OK.



However it is my personal preference to add in the Episode title in to the file name so for example the first video file would be named like: Steptoe and Son – S01E01 – The Offer.mkv

To do this and to also rename other video files you may have downloaded from the Internet, so XBMC or MyMovies can import them, I use an application called TheRenamer. You can download it from here.
TheRenamer can be used to rename both TV Show and Movie video files, however I only use it for TV Shows. When you open the application it looks like this. Note it says theTVDB in the bottom right hand corner, I set TheTVDB as the website that TheRenamer program will use to obtain the names / order of the episodes.



If you click theTVDB in the bottom right hand corner you can change it so TheRenamer program will use other websites such as IMDB, EPGGuides, TV.com. I recommend you change this to use theTVDB.
First thing is to look in the Settings and change a few things. I want my TV Show video files to be named like this:

nameofTVShow – S01E01 – nameofEpisode.mkv

So I had to change the Separators 1 and 2 in the settings, with a: space dash space
You can see the Renamed Format Preview, you can use this preview to play around with the separators until you have your desired naming format nailed down.



OK I think that’s all I changed in the settings, so select Close and its time to auto rename some TV Show Video files.

Open Windows Explorer in a Window not full screen and browse to the location of the video files you want to rename. Select them all and drag and drop them on to theRenamer application.



I then get a preview of before and after or old and new. You can see under new that the names of the episodes will be added in to the actual video file names.



I can then double check this against theTVDB.com website itself, to see if the episode order and names match, which they should do.



Once happy I click Proceed and all six files are automatically renamed in to my new desired naming format.
To start a new renaming operation with a different set of video files you must first click the New button to reset theRenamer so its ready again etc.



Here you can see the files after they have been renamed in Windows Explorer.



The other thing I should mention I guess quickly, is the folder structure for your TV Shows that are Video files, it should be something like mine:

\\Server\TV\VIDEOS\NAMEOFTVSHOW\
                                                       SEASON 1\
                                                             nameofTVShow – S01E01 – nameofEpisode.mkv
                                                             nameofTVShow – S01E02 – nameofEpisode.mkv
                                                             nameofTVShow – S01E03 – nameofEpisode.mkv
                                                        SEASON 2\
                                                             nameofTVShow – S02E01 – nameofEpisode.mkv
                                                             nameofTVShow – S02E02 – nameofEpisode.mkv
                                                             nameofTVShow – S02E03 – nameofEpisode.mkv

At this point I am now ready to proceed to step four which is: Import the video files in to the XBMC TV Show library with TheTVDB.com scraper. Which I will cover in Part 4 soon.





www.phaze1digital.com

How to rip and convert TV Show DVDs for XBMC – Part 2

In Part1 we looked at using DVDFab HD Decrypter to rip a TV Show DVD disc in to a VIDEO_TS folder on the computer.

The next step in our five step plan is step 2. Extract the episodes from the DVD rip and re-encode them into individual video files (MKV)

To do this we will use a free program called Handbrake and this application is really free! Download and install Handbrake from here. Once installed launch the new Handbrake application you will be greeted with a screen that looks like this one.



Click the Source button and select Open Folder



Browse to the VIDEO_TS folder of Disc1 that you previously ripped in Part1 and press the Select Folder button.



Handbrake will then read and scan the DVD disc structure



Now this is the tricky bit! Click the down arrow on the Title dropdown list as shown



You will then see a list of titles that are on the DVD disc / rip and their durations.



Now this is the hardest part, we need to know / workout which title number corresponds to which episode number ?

Because for example Title 3 on the disc is not necessarily Episode 3, read on…

You’ll see a group of titles and durations. You should find a group of titles with running times that match the approximate running time of a single episode in the series. In our example, we are converting a series of 30 minute shows, so we have six titles running close to 30 minutes.
You can ignore any additional smaller title clips. They are likely to be intros and extras.
 
You can double check which title on the disc corresponds to which episode number? By playing the DVD rip in Windows Media Player (WMP). Launch WMP and press Alt+F on the keyboard to open the File menu, select Open and browse to the VIDEO_TS folder you are working on and open the VIDEO_TS.IFO file.



This will start the DVD playback in WMP, right click with the mouse and select “Show List” from the menu



On the below screen shot you can see the List pane on the right hand side.
Also note from the DVD’s main menu I selected the Episode Selection feature and you can see on this “Steptoe and Son” Season 1 / Disc 1 there are six episodes.



If you select to play episode number 1 which is called “The Offer” and if you watch the list on the right, you will see it jump to the Title number that corresponds to this particular episode.



Above you can see that Title3 corresponds to episode 1 “The Offer”.

You can also use this method in other players such as VLC.

Titles as listed in VLC



Playback of episode 1 “The Offer” in VLC again you can see that Title3 is the title number that corresponds to episode 1 “The Offer”.

It’s actually easier to look up the titles in VLC over WMP, but you now have both options!



So now armed with this knowledge about the structure of this particular DVD TV Show Disc rip, we should switch back to the Handbrake program.

On the Title drop down box select Title number 3 as in this example, title number 3 we now know is episode 1.



Click the browse button and select the location where you wish to save the final .MKV file.

I am wanting to use MKV so I selected MKV from the “Save as type” field.

You can see my final path for this TV Show video file is:

\\WHS\TV\VIDEOS\Steptoe and Son\Season1\

You need to enter a file name for the new MKV file that is to be created, it is critical that you at this point enter in the correct Season and Episode numbers in the SXXEXX format.

So I named this file: Steptoe and Son – S01E01.mkv

Where S01 = Season 1 and E01 = Episode 1.

Once happy with the save location and file format and the file name, click the Save button



When you are returned to Handbrake it should look like this:



OK so now we need to look at some of the Handbrake options for conversion. I am by no means an expert with all the settings in Handbrake, in fact this is the first time I have used this application!

None the less – In the pane on the right hand side there are various presets for creating video files suitable for different devices such as iPad, AppleTV, Android etc, I am just selecting the Normal preset here.
I then selected the Audio tab, by default Handbrake will downmix the audio to Dolby Pro Logic II and use the ACC Codec. I prefer to see the Dolby Digital logos in XBMC so I am going to change this setting to AC3 (ffmpeg) instead but you don’t have too.



This Steptoe and Son DVD I am converting only has 2.0 channel audio anyways. I have not as yet tried to convert a TV Show DVD that contains 5.1 Surround Sound for example and in that instance I would probably want to try and preserve the 5.1 audio track, which I assume would mean changing the Mixdown option to something like Dolby Surround or 5.1 Channels, I will have to come back and address this again when I rip a TV Show that contains 5.1 audio.



Next I went to the Subtitles tab which looks like this



I wanted to keep the subtitles within the MKV file, so I can toggle them on and off in XBMC. So I just clicked the Add button, which adds a subtitle source called: 1. English (VobSub)



Taking a quick look on the Video tab I did not change any settings in here.



Also on the Picture tab, I can see that the MKV will be 720x576 with a 1:33 Aspect Ratio again I didn’t change any settings on here, mainly because I don’t know what I am doing LOL.



OK so once happy with all these settings, you need to add this title / episode  in to the queue for conversion. Click the Add To Queue button.



You can view jobs to be processed by clicking the Show Queue button.
Below you can see my first job in the queue. The “When Done” option might be handy, the default is do nothing, but you can change this to things like Shutdown and Suspend the PC.



OK so what about the other episodes on this DVD disc rip I hear you ask? Episodes 2-6. We now need to repeat this process for the remaining titles and add them to the job queue for processing.

After we examined the disc structure in WMP and VLC earlier, I am just going to assume that Title 4 corresponds to Episode 2 and that Title 5 corresponds to Episode 3 and so on.

A final quick triple check in VLC and you can see that indeed episode 2 called “The Bird” does correspond to Title 4.



So select the other titles in Handbrake, give it a correct file name with the SXXEXX format, check your settings, select Add to Queue



and repeat



and repeat



and repeat



and finally repeat



OK OK already, I am sure you get the idea but I wanted to make sure! Now look at your queue, select the Show Queue button.

You can see I now have the six episodes in the queue ready to be processed in to MKV files.



Now you are ready to Rock “n” Roll, click the green Start button.
The encoding process will begin and once each episode has completed you will see a green tick next to them. You can queue up as many items as you like and let the process run over night, I recommend you do all of this on the fastest computer you have in the house as it will eat CPU time.





Summary

WOW I am really glad to be at the summary part, this was a long post and my fingers are killing me from typing..

In Part3 / Part 4 we will look at the MKV files and check they play OK, maybe look at the Codec info with MediaInfo. I will take a look at using a bulk renaming program called TheRenamer and look at importing these new files in to the XBMC TV Shows library. I might also take a look at TheTVDB.com for this particular TV Show I am converting as XBMC uses that as a metadata source.
 
 
 
 
www.phaze1digital.com