Transcoding and streaming DVDs with VLC media player

If you have the VLC media player (VLC) installed on your computer, you probably already know how versatile this tool is: it can handle virtually any media file, it can play network streams like Internet radio stations, and it can stream media contents across the network. But that’s not all; VLC can also stream the contents to a file in a user-defined format, which makes it a rather handy transcoding tool. The most obvious use of this feature is to backup your film DVDs, and VLC makes the entire conversion process rather straightforward. While VLC doesn’t support so-called DVD shrinking (fitting a film onto a single-layer DVD or even CD), it’s perfectly capable of converting the entire film into a single file that you can play in any media player, including VLC itself. The following description guides you through the process of transcoding a DVD film into a single MPEG-1, which offers quite a few advantages:

• You can play MPEG files on an older machine without a DVD drive.
• Instead of using original DVDs, you can burn a low-resolution backup copy on a CD.
• When on the move, you can copy the films you want onto your laptop instead of lugging DVDs. This will not only make your luggage lighter, but also improve the laptops battery life (the hard disk consumes much less power than the DVD drive).
• If you have a server in your household, you can move your films to it and stream them using VLC around the house (more about that later).

To transcode a DVD, insert it into the DVD drive and launch VLC. Choose File → Open disk and select the DVD option in the Disk type section. Next, you have to select the DVD title and the desired subtitle language. Most DVDs contain multiple titles, and it’s not always obvious which one contains the film. The same is true for subtitles - there is no way of telling what channel number corresponds to which language. This means the you have to try different combinations and preview the result in VLC to find the right title and subtitle language.

Figure 1: Selecting title and subtitles tracks

With this information in hand, return to VLC and enter the proper values in the appropriate fields. The next step is to configure the streaming options. Tick the Stream output check box and press the Settings button. If you want to see the film during transcoding, tick the Play locally check box. Tick the File check box, and specify the file and its path in the Filename field using the Browse button. You need to enter the file name and its extension manually; for example, Rashomon.mpeg. Set Encapsulation Method to MPEG 1, then tick the Video codec check box and select mp1v. This enables the Bitrate list, and the default bitrate there is 1024kb/s, which offers a good balance between file size and video quality. For example, using this bitrate, VLC converts Akira Kurosawa’s 1 hour and 24 minutes black and white film Rashomon into a 700MB something mpeg file, which fits nicely onto a standard CD-ROM. Obviously, reducing the bitrate results in a smaller file with lower video quality. Next, tick the Audio codec check box and select mp3 from the list. As with the video codec, you can also select different audio bitrates. The default is 192kb/s, but you can set it to 128kb/s without any noticeable loss in quality. To add subtitles, tick the Subtitles overlay check box. Press OK twice to close the windows, and VLC starts transcoding. If you ticked the Play locally check box, you can also see the film while waiting for the transcoding to finish.

Figure 2: Setting transcoding options

VLC also allows you to stream the transcoded films on the local network, so you can move the transcoded films onto the server and watch them on any computer in the house. Choose File → Open File, press the Browse button to select the file you want to stream, then press Open. Tick the Stream output check box and press the Settings button. Tick the UDP check box and type in the IP address of the computer you want to stream the film to. Leave the Port field at the default value 1234. Press OK twice, and VLC starts to play the film. If you want to be able to control VLC via the browser, enable its web interface by choosing Settings → Add Interface → Web Interface. To view the film on the target machine, launch VLC, choose File → Open Network Stream, make sure the UDP option is selected, and press OK. To control VLC remotely, point your browser to http://vlcserver:8080 and use VLC’s web interface to manage the player.

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