Posted by paxswill 
Category: I rip my DVDs using a combination of Handbrake and MacTheRipper. I use the 3.0 R14m version. Find a good torrent on TPB, I can;t remember where I got it, but I didn’t pay the stupid ‘donation’. As they’re using libdvdcss, it’s kinda illegal for them to be using it without releasing the source. For Handbrake, I’m using a beta I compiled a while back that has processor specific optimizations. It also has the patch for the Quicktime AAC encoder. If you want it, drop me a comment, and I’ll put it up, but it’s only for Core 2 Duos.
First, I rip the main feature of the DVD. I don’t have any need for the special features. Select just the languages you need, and let MTR do it’s magic. Occasionally MTR will die right at the end of the rip, but switching so it rips the whole disc usually solves it. Be careful when ripping foreign films, as the English track may not exist even of MTR selects it. I usually rip the whole disc for those.
Next, I encode it using Handbrake. For video, I use the x264 encoder into a MP4 file. Two pass encoding with a turbo first pass. Average bitrate of 1850kbps, and for widescreen movies I use strict anamorphic. For audio, I use the AAC (CoreAudio) encoder, mixing down to Dolby Pro Logic II at 192kbps. I fill in the chapter titles when I can from the DVD liner notes, and I have a custom advanced settings string:
ref=6:bframes=4:subq=6:me=umh:deblock=1,2:trellis=2:direct=auto:weightb=1:brdo=1:bime=1:analyse=all:8x8dct=1:merange=24:mixed-refs=1:psy-rd=1.0,1.0
These settings take a while (if it’s the only thing running, you’re looking at about 5-6 hours per movie). I get about 1GB per hour of movie, and minimal blocking and a high enough quality for me. For most people, the defaults will work fine.
I have a ‘Scratch’ Folder on my desktop where I store the files used in the intermediate steps so Time Machine doesn’t fill up on unfinished files. To do this, Go to the Time Machine Preference pane and add an excluded folder.
