Funny story, 2 weeks later my "rock solid" PC hit a rock and sunk like the Titanic. Long story short it looks like the processor and Core 2 processors are still sadly expensive so I was "forced" to upgrade.

New PC is

Intel i7 2600k
Asus P67 Pro (saw no value in the Z68 platform)
AMD 6950
8GB G.Skill 1600 ram
OCZ Vertex 3 120GB

I used the auto-tune overclocking function of the Asus software today and found a not yet to be determined stable overclock of 4900mhz. That's roughly a 48% OC over stock speeds. CPU temp is 71 degrees with a water cooler. Hmm that's a bit toasty. I tried it with the default thermal paste. May need to remove it and try some Arctic Silver.

Anyway, ran Handbrake to once again compress a decrypted BR. With the old rig it was 8-9 hours on average. The new one finished in roughly 1.5 hours. Haven't tried yet at stock speed. Will do so later. Certainly can't run at 70 degrees+ for a prolonged time. Also have not tried Quicksync. Will also give that a go once I have some time.

I've been playing around with some transcodes on my new SandyBridge i5-2405S machine (Quad core, low power).

Original Video - 1:50 minutes 1080p, 25GB

Convert to iPad using the built-in iPad profile for each app:
Cyberlink Mediaespresso (uses QuickSync) - 15 minutes
Arcsoft Mediaconverter (uses QuickSync) - 20 minutes
Freemake (uses DXVA) - 105 minutes
Handbrake (software transcode) - 155 minutes

I'm impressed by QuickSync. Most of the negative reviews are done by purists looking for pristine video quality. Personally, the video quality difference from QuickSync is not something that I'm likely to notice, especially given that my main use case is to convert video I own for use on a mobile device.

@pnear - have you tried DVRMS Toolbox which is written by babgvant. The latest version supports Quick Sync and it is free. I wonder why more software encoders haven't begun supporting QuickSync as the Sandy Bridge CPUs have been out for over six months now. When you Google "Quick Sync" the bulk of the review are from the first few days of January 2011. It seems that this technology is being ignored and/or forgotten.

Any advice on whether you prefer Mediaespresso or Mediaconverter? Do any (or both) of them support a Command Line Interface so that you can kcik off encodes from a batch file.

I prefer Mediaconverter.

Mediaespresso doesn't do DTS audio (just drops it and you get an audio-free converted file).

Mediaconverter can be set to monitor a folder and kick off a conversion. I think it has a CLI but I haven't tested that.

I tried downloading them both last night. To be honest I am not crazy about either of them as they really seem to be "dumbed down" and try to make everything as easy as possible but this makes it hard to change the settings.

Although both applications said that they were using Quick Sync I got wildly varying times. For a file that took 37 minutes on Handbrake I was able to do the same encode in 16 minutes on Mediaconverter but it took over 40 minutes on Mediespresso which makes no sense. I was using the iPad profile for both.

hey guys,

I am new to blu ray ripping. I have all my dvd's ripped and converted to m4v so I can play all on iphone, ipad, ps3 and wmc. I now want to start ripping all my blu rays.

I have always used dvdfad to decrypt, then handbrake to convert.

with clownbd do I still need to decrypt? clownbd is not opening the blu ray from the drive, but is working with a already decrypted file.

I convert with clownbd to a ts file and then use handbrake?

anyway to cut down on the process?

I also tried dvdfab and handbrake but the m4v would not play.

Thanks

You need to have Anydvd running in the background to decrypt. Then run Clown and rip it (I use TS folders and leave the audio untouched). Then you can use Handbrake. Using the "High Profile" preset I get anywhere from a 2GB MKV for some animated titles right up to 12GB. Personally in Handbrake if I leave the audio default codec of AAC FAAC I just end up with stereo. I have to choose AC3 passthrough. Not lossless but am getting 5.1.

thanks for the help, it is working. guess i need to purchase anydvd.

thanks

well the clownbd part went well, the handbrake not so.

i am ripping avatar, and started last night. i opened the ts file, and selected high profile as I have done with all my dvd's. still has 9 hours to go, 2.1 frames per second.

i will post my settings later, pc is new as of november.

My old PC was doing just 2-3 frames per second as well. Is your new PC an i7?

Amd athlon II x2 250 processor 3.0ghz
4gb of ram

the finished file does not play. the ts file plays but with the narratar, not sure how to turn that off.

http://www.guru3d.com/article/athlon-ii-x2-250-and-phenom-ii-x2-550-be-review/9

Your processor is pretty much on par with the PC I just replaced.

If you're getting commentary then you have the wrong soundtrack. Did you check to see if you have more than 1?

Dezzpayne- what are your settings in handbrake?

I am using makemkv and handbrake, couldn't get clownbd to work.

On makemkv when the blu ray opens there is two to three versions, deepening on the movie. How do you know which one to pick? For example prince of Persia I got the narrated version.

On handbrake when transcoding blu ray I lose all captions, and there are not any to add. Difficult for movies like kill bill.

I now have a quad core phenom in the same system. Upgrade later this year.

Thanks