With the continuous growth of sales for computer equipment used for home entertainment purposes, I receive many questions in regards of “backing up” DVDs so they can be used in some form of jukebox enviroment.

The time of renting VHS tapes is over. No longer do we need to rewind the tapes to be able to watch a movie, or pay a fee at the rental store because we forgot to rewind it when we were finished watching the movie. Technology has given us DVD and Bluray, disc-based systems that vaguely remind us of the “good old days”. However, the one thing still left with these formats is that we have to change discs when done, or to watch another movie.

Here is where devices such as HTPC and Media Center PC’s come in. These devices are full-blown computers, usually in a small or stylish design, created to match stereo equipment so they do not look out of place. These devices enable you to access movies stored on the device, in an amount only limited by the size of the build-in harddisk. With just the remote, you can skip through movies just like with DVDs and VHS tapes, but, the main advantage is that you never have to leave your seat to pick the next movie. Just select it and watch another one.

These computers have evolved over the years into devices such as DVR’s (TiVo) and more recently into “Media Tanks” such as the Apple TV, Popcorn Hour and the Western Digital HD Media Player.

For all these devices, HTPC, Media Center PC and Media Tanks, the one question remains on how to get video content on there. The Apple TV connects to the iTunes store as well as an iTunes installation on your computer, a DVR gets it’s content from either TV (recordings) or services such as Amazon UnBox (rental). Recently, even the XBOX360 received a major update enabling it to stream Netflix movies. However for the non-branded devices, getting content is more troublesome.

This is where DVD Catalyst comes in. While in it’s early days it was designed to create video files for portable devices, with the newer versions, it is more than capable to fill up your media jukebox device with video content at great quality.

Here is how to get started.

Step 1. Video format.

The most important thing is to figure out what video formats your device supports. For full-blown HTPCs or Media Center systems, it usually does not matter. Because these devices are just your standard computer in a different box, you can always install some codecs to be able to play the video files you have. For the Media Tank devices, it’s a little different. These devices usually have their own operating system or firmware, and depending on what formats the manufacturer decided to provide support for, you will have to choose the format you need.

So, to make sure you pick the right format, visit either the website of the product you have, or look in the manual.

Below a list of common formats, in order of quality. The first format mentioned will provide the best possible quality, however, it will also convert slower.

MPEG4 AVC / H264 / x264. These formats are pretty much the same, but some companies use one term, other companies use the other term. This format is currently the video format with the best possible quality and compression, and is used for all of Apple’s iTunes video content, as well as Bluray, HD-DVD. Files in this format usually have the .MP4 file extension.

MPEG4 SP / DIVX / XVID. While there are differences, these formats are nearly the same in quality vs compression ratio. MPEG4 SP usually has .MP4 as a file extension, while DIVX / XVID have .AVI as a file extension. DIVX can also have .DIVX as a file extension, but more often than not it’s .AVI.

MPEG2. This is the format used for DVDs

MPEG1. This is the first MPEG version, and is used for VideoCD as well as video content on very limited devices.

For best quality, use the above order to determine the best choice for your device. MKV, a format growing in popularity, can contain different kinds of video formats, mainly H264 and XVID, but it is not limited to these. Devices that support MKV can usually play any other video format as well.

Step 2. Limitations to the settings.

Depending on the kind of device you use, there are of course limitations to what it can handle. Some devices support up to 1080i video, while other devices can barely handle 480i (Standard Definition, DVD) or 720i. In addition, the playback experience is also limited to the quality settings themselves. While most devices can handle 1500Kbps video or 5000kbps video, not all of them do. All of this information can be found in the specifications of your device, either online or in the manual. If you are using a computer (HTPC or Media Center) please keep in mind that the processor speed of the computer affects playback performance as well. Especially with H264/AVC/x264 video, a lot of processing power is needed for playback, and if you are using an older computer for playback (or an Intel Atom/Celeron-based system) you might experience issues during playback.

Step 3. DVD Catalyst 3 Settings

With the above information, we can set up DVD Catalyst to do the conversions.

Basically pick any format in DVD Catalyst 3, and click on “Modify”

Screen size: set this to the maximum of what your video player device can handle, or if your TV is smaller, use the screen resolution of your TV. DVD Catalyst does not “upscale” the video to that size, however, it is safer to set the resolution this way to avoid any playback issues.

Video format: pick the format determined in step 1.

For H264/AVC video, select “H264_IPOD” in the dropdown. This format is the most compatible. The other formats are for specific devices (such as PSP, XBOX) and are non-standard.

For DIVX you should select “DIVX5_MP3″. While DIVX is currently on version 7, most devices do not use any additional features it has to offer, or are not compatible. DIVX5 always works. If your device supports surround sound / DTC / AC3, you can select “DIVX5_COPY” for DVD conversions. This will keep the audio unmodified, retaining it’s multi-speaker setup.

For XVID you should select “XVID_MP3″.  If your device supports surround sound / DTC / AC3, you can select “XVID_COPY” for DVD conversions. This will keep the audio unmodified, retaining it’s multi-speaker setup.

For MPEG4 (SP) select “MPEG4_IPOD”

For MPEG2 you should select MPEG2_MP2″.  If your device supports surround sound / DTC / AC3, you can select “MPEG2_COPY” for DVD conversions. This will keep the audio unmodified, retaining it’s multi-speaker setup.

For MPEG1 you should select MPEG1_MP2″.  If your device supports surround sound / DTC / AC3, you can select “MPEG1_COPY” for DVD conversions. This will keep the audio unmodified, retaining it’s multi-speaker setup.

While H264 is the best video format, it might be more desirable to pick DIVX or XVID instead due to it’s capability of retaining the surround sound audio format.

Video Quality: This depends greatly on the selected video format, as well as the kind of video content you are converting. The kbps values mentioned provide reasonable quality, but quality can always be better. Quality depends on numerous things, including the kind of movie, as well as your own perception. Do note that with conversion, there will always be some quality loss, regardless of what program you use. Also the device that you use to play the files will have great impact on the quality as well.

DVDs. DVDs have a screen size of 720×480 (480i) . Even if you have set the screen size in DVD Catalyst to something higher, DVD Catalyst does not “upscale” by default (your video player does that) the screen size will be similar to that of the DVD. For H264 as a video format, you can get a good quality on about 1200kbps. If you use DIVX or XVID, you can use 1500kbps / 2000kbps to achieve the same quality, for MPEG2 it will be around 4000kbps, while for MPEG1 it will be more like 6000kbps.

HD content (Bluray rips, downloaded TV episodes in HD) This depends greatly on the screen size. for 1080i files (1920×1080) converted to the same size, I would suggest to tripple (x3) the values mentioned above. For 720i (1280×720) conversions on the same size, I would multiply the mentioned values by 1.5.

1-pass or 2-pass. This can greatly improve quality, however, it is dangerous as well. 2-pass conversions use a variable quality setting. For slow-changing scenes, the conversion will use a lower quality setting, while for fast changing scenes, the conversion will use a higher quality setting. The overall quality will be a lot better, but, if there is a fast scene, or a scene with a lot of changes (a simple ocean view with clattering waves) the quality can exceed the maximum the player can handle. When you view the movie, at these points, the movie appears to freeze or slow down a lot. If you view the same scenes on a file converted with 1-pass, you might see some artifacts, but at least the movie doesn’t freeze.

Audio Quality. This also depends on the device capabilities. If you use one of the _COPY profiles, because it does not modify the audio in any way, any changes (including volume) will not have any effect. Only the language selection will be used.

DVD Catalyst 3 has a few profiles already set up that can be used for these conversions. The Western Digital profiles will work just fine, or, you can pick the TiVo > to MPEG profiles as a base as well.

For all conversions, try a few small clips using your settings first to see how things look and play. Once you have found the settings you like, you can save them to a new profile, ready for quick selection whenever needed.

Note: the issues mentioned above (freezing on 2-pass for example) apply to ALL software that can be used to fill up your video jukebox, not just DVD Catalyst.