Handbrake/Plex

[BiotechBen]

So Linus says that he rips Blu-rays to his Plex server, anyone know how he does that? I just get error messages everywhere as soon as I put the disc in the drive. I also can't even play them because I'm missing some library for decoding?

Anyone able to offer some wisdom/knowledge?

[Donut417]

1 minute ago, BiotechBen said:

So Linus says that he rips Blu-rays to his Plex server, anyone know how he does that? I just get error messages everywhere as soon as I put the disc in the drive. I also can't even play them because I'm missing some library for decoding?

Anyone able to offer some wisdom/knowledge?

I used Make MKV for DVD's. It worked well. I think you can get a free trail and after that you will need to pay. But Id download the trial and give it a go. 

[Justin_]

///somewhere/// on the internet there are extra files you can throw into the handbreak directory that will allow it to copy off DVDs, I imagine its the same with BluRay.

 

Its easy to find, but don't know if I would get in trouble if I linked to it. Its technically a pirating technique.

[dalekphalm]

1 minute ago, BiotechBen said:

So Linus says that he rips Blu-rays to his Plex server, anyone know how he does that? I just get error messages everywhere as soon as I put the disc in the drive. I also can't even play them because I'm missing some library for decoding?

Anyone able to offer some wisdom/knowledge?

So first things first, this is way easier with standard 1080p Blu-Rays (4K UHD Blu-Rays require specific optical drives and firmware).

 

There are a number of ways to accomplish the task. The easiest way is this:

 

1. Use MakeMKV to rip the movie track to an MKV file (this does not transcode the video, just extracts it). The software allows you to choose which subtitle/audio tracks you wish to extract with it. Note: These files can be very large and will vary pretty wildly per disc. Could be as small as 8GB or as large as 30GB+.

 

2. If you cannot accommodate the filesize of raw rips from MakeMKV, use Handbrake to transcode them to a smaller size. I recommend using the RF setting. Lower number = higher quality. RF = 18, is nearly lossless (not actually, but damn near impossible to tell the difference). RF = 20 has negligible loss and will give you better savings. RF = 22 is often a good compromise and even smaller sizes.

 

Play with the RF figure and see how small you can go before you think the quality loss is unacceptable.

 

Make sure to pass through the audio tracks (Handbrake wants to transcode them to AAC by default usually) - same with the subtitles.

 

Handbrake will allow you to batch encode as well.

[BiotechBen]

55 minutes ago, dalekphalm said:

So first things first, this is way easier with standard 1080p Blu-Rays (4K UHD Blu-Rays require specific optical drives and firmware).

 

There are a number of ways to accomplish the task. The easiest way is this:

 

1. Use MakeMKV to rip the movie track to an MKV file (this does not transcode the video, just extracts it). The software allows you to choose which subtitle/audio tracks you wish to extract with it. Note: These files can be very large and will vary pretty wildly per disc. Could be as small as 8GB or as large as 30GB+.

 

2. If you cannot accommodate the filesize of raw rips from MakeMKV, use Handbrake to transcode them to a smaller size. I recommend using the RF setting. Lower number = higher quality. RF = 18, is nearly lossless (not actually, but damn near impossible to tell the difference). RF = 20 has negligible loss and will give you better savings. RF = 22 is often a good compromise and even smaller sizes.

 

Play with the RF figure and see how small you can go before you think the quality loss is unacceptable.

 

Make sure to pass through the audio tracks (Handbrake wants to transcode them to AAC by default usually) - same with the subtitles.

 

Handbrake will allow you to batch encode as well.

Awesome! Thanks my dude, these are standard 1080p Blu-ray as far as I know, never really got the appeal of the UHD 4K for anything but like super cinematic stuff like a Planet Earth or like wildlife documentaries.

[dalekphalm]

2 hours ago, BiotechBen said:

Awesome! Thanks my dude, these are standard 1080p Blu-ray as far as I know,

If the cases are blue, they're generally 1080p - red is usually 4K UHD. This is good for you, as the encryption keys for 1080p BD discs are way easier to get, and the optical drives themselves are more plentiful as you don't need to be as picky.

 

Please let us know how you get along!

2 hours ago, BiotechBen said:

never really got the appeal of the UHD 4K for anything but like super cinematic stuff like a Planet Earth or like wildlife documentaries.

When I owned a 1080p Plasma TV, I had the same opinion that you did. 1080p BD movies look goddamn amazing on my Plasma TV.

 

But I recently got a 50" OLED (Sony A80J) and since then, I've bought a few 4K UHD Blu-Rays and man... there is a difference. Mostly the HDR is going to be the biggest improvement, but the resolution boost is noticeable in some movies.

 

With that in mind, I think it comes down to the TV and whether it can shine - 1080p Blu-Rays still look kickass on my OLED too.

[BiotechBen]

2 hours ago, dalekphalm said:

If the cases are blue, they're generally 1080p - red is usually 4K UHD. This is good for you, as the encryption keys for 1080p BD discs are way easier to get, and the optical drives themselves are more plentiful as you don't need to be as picky.

 

Please let us know how you get along!

When I owned a 1080p Plasma TV, I had the same opinion that you did. 1080p BD movies look goddamn amazing on my Plasma TV.

 

But I recently got a 50" OLED (Sony A80J) and since then, I've bought a few 4K UHD Blu-Rays and man... there is a difference. Mostly the HDR is going to be the biggest improvement, but the resolution boost is noticeable in some movies.

 

With that in mind, I think it comes down to the TV and whether it can shine - 1080p Blu-Rays still look kickass on my OLED too.

I'm going to be watching them on a 32in 720p display primarily, maybe from a nice projector for a movie night type of deal

[dalekphalm]

10 hours ago, BiotechBen said:

I'm going to be watching them on a 32in 720p display primarily, maybe from a nice projector for a movie night type of deal

Ahh - in that case, you have the option to heavily compress the files, if data storage capacity is a factor.

 

With a 720p TV, you could compress a 30GB Blu-Ray movie down to 1GB and it would still be fine.

[BiotechBen]

1 hour ago, dalekphalm said:

Ahh - in that case, you have the option to heavily compress the files, if data storage capacity is a factor.

 

With a 720p TV, you could compress a 30GB Blu-Ray movie down to 1GB and it would still be fine.

I've got a 2TB WD Blue for "mass storage". I've generally been doing HQ720 very slow for standard widescreen DVDs and they end up in the 2-3GB range for longer movies with an R value of 16-17.

[dalekphalm]

59 minutes ago, BiotechBen said:

I've got a 2TB WD Blue for "mass storage". I've generally been doing HQ720 very slow for standard widescreen DVDs and they end up in the 2-3GB range for longer movies with an R value of 16-17.

For DVDs there is absolutely no reason to encode them with RF lower than 20. A well encoded DVD shouldn’t be larger than 1GB tops and even then you can go lower. 
 

Also remember that DVD’s are less than HD, so don’t bother to upscale the resolution. 

[BiotechBen]

29 minutes ago, dalekphalm said:

For DVDs there is absolutely no reason to encode them with RF lower than 20. A well encoded DVD shouldn’t be larger than 1GB tops and even then you can go lower. 
 

Also remember that DVD’s are less than HD, so don’t bother to upscale the resolution. 

I only use 16 because most of the DVDs I have are older and get real grainy sometimes, 16 is the lowest I've ever gone

[dalekphalm]

1 hour ago, BiotechBen said:

I only use 16 because most of the DVDs I have are older and get real grainy sometimes, 16 is the lowest I've ever gone

Have you done blind testing on that? RF 16 is ridiculously inefficient most of the time. You don't even use RF 16 on Blu-Rays (RF 18 is the lowest anyone recommends for 1080p BD).

 

With that in mind, if it works for you, then it works for you.

[Velcade]

21 hours ago, Donut417 said:

I think you can get a free trail and after that you will need to pay. But Id download the trial and give it a go.

perpetual free trails can be had via the subreddit.  He posts a new key every month.

[Donut417]

2 hours ago, Velcade said:

perpetual free trails can be had via the subreddit.  He posts a new key every month.

At a certain point you need to pay to support the dev team. Its a very useful tool. 

[Velcade]

49 minutes ago, Donut417 said:

At a certain point you need to pay to support the dev team. Its a very useful tool. 

may choose 

[Donut417]

13 minutes ago, Velcade said:

may choose 

Or the Dev's get a lawyer and shut down the reddit threads. MakeMKV is protected under copy right law. Keep stealing shit and eventually Devs might give up on the product or implement DRM that makes the product less useful. 

 

You can do what you want. But if your going to steal MakeMKV, why not just download all your movies and shows off the internet? 

[dalekphalm]

1 hour ago, Donut417 said:

Or the Dev's get a lawyer and shut down the reddit threads. MakeMKV is protected under copy right law. Keep stealing shit and eventually Devs might give up on the product or implement DRM that makes the product less useful. 

 

You can do what you want. But if your going to steal MakeMKV, why not just download all your movies and shows off the internet? 

Speaking of which, that reminds me that I should buy a license. 
 

Last time I used it, it was under the free beta. 

[Velcade]

1 hour ago, Donut417 said:

Or the Dev's get a lawyer and shut down the reddit threads. MakeMKV is protected under copy right law. Keep stealing shit and eventually Devs might give up on the product or implement DRM that makes the product less useful. 

 

You can do what you want. But if your going to steal MakeMKV, why not just download all your movies and shows off the internet? 

I'm not sure you know what you're talking about.  It's not stealing when the site says 

Quote

All features are free during BETA

 

It's been in BETA for 11 yrs.

[Donut417]

17 minutes ago, Velcade said:

I'm not sure you know what you're talking about.  It's not stealing when the site says 

 

It's been in BETA for 11 yrs.

MakeMKV contains both freeware and shareware functionality. You may use MakeMKV to convert or stream DVD and AVCHD discs for free, as much as you want. Converting or streaming Blu-ray discs is shareware functionality. You can use shareware functionality for free during 30-days trial period. If you like MakeMKV and you want to use it after your 30-days trial version expires, you need to purchase a registration key.

Registration key is valid for all MakeMKV versions on all platforms. There is no expiration time or any subscriptions.

MakeMKV is sold as "try-before-you-buy" software. You can try it for 30 days for free, so you have enough time to verify the program's functionality. GuinpinSoft inc doesn't refund your money if you are not satisfied with our products. The only shareware limitation is the expiration date. If shareware version does not work for you, registration will not change much. We urge you to test it out before you buy it and hope you will want to join our satisfied users!

 

In order to purchase MakeMKV please visit a following order page.

 

https://www.makemkv.com/buy/

 

 

[Velcade]

1 hour ago, Donut417 said:

MakeMKV contains both freeware and shareware functionality. You may use MakeMKV to convert or stream DVD and AVCHD discs for free, as much as you want. Converting or streaming Blu-ray discs is shareware functionality. You can use shareware functionality for free during 30-days trial period. If you like MakeMKV and you want to use it after your 30-days trial version expires, you need to purchase a registration key.

Registration key is valid for all MakeMKV versions on all platforms. There is no expiration time or any subscriptions.

MakeMKV is sold as "try-before-you-buy" software. You can try it for 30 days for free, so you have enough time to verify the program's functionality. GuinpinSoft inc doesn't refund your money if you are not satisfied with our products. The only shareware limitation is the expiration date. If shareware version does not work for you, registration will not change much. We urge you to test it out before you buy it and hope you will want to join our satisfied users!

 

In order to purchase MakeMKV please visit a following order page.

 

https://www.makemkv.com/buy/

 

 

I can quote the site as well...

 

Quote

• All features (including Blu-ray decryption and processing) are free during BETA.

 

[dalekphalm]

13 hours ago, Donut417 said:

MakeMKV contains both freeware and shareware functionality. You may use MakeMKV to convert or stream DVD and AVCHD discs for free, as much as you want. Converting or streaming Blu-ray discs is shareware functionality. You can use shareware functionality for free during 30-days trial period. If you like MakeMKV and you want to use it after your 30-days trial version expires, you need to purchase a registration key.

Registration key is valid for all MakeMKV versions on all platforms. There is no expiration time or any subscriptions.

MakeMKV is sold as "try-before-you-buy" software. You can try it for 30 days for free, so you have enough time to verify the program's functionality. GuinpinSoft inc doesn't refund your money if you are not satisfied with our products. The only shareware limitation is the expiration date. If shareware version does not work for you, registration will not change much. We urge you to test it out before you buy it and hope you will want to join our satisfied users!

 

In order to purchase MakeMKV please visit a following order page.

 

https://www.makemkv.com/buy/

 

 

I had a look at the site yesterday - while you can buy licenses anytime you want, the Software is still in beta, it seems like the 30-day trial doesn't apply while it remains in beta.

 

That essentially makes the paid license voluntary at least until the beta ends.

 

With that in mind, if the OP really likes the software and he's in the position to afford it, he should buy a license.

[BiotechBen]

1 minute ago, dalekphalm said:

I had a look at the site yesterday - while you can buy licenses anytime you want, the Software is still in beta, it seems like the 30-day trial doesn't apply while it remains in beta.

 

That essentially makes the paid license voluntary at least until the beta ends.

 

With that in mind, if the OP really likes the software and he's in the position to afford it, he should buy a license.

Im going to give it a try and if I really like it, I'll get a license, support the devs.

[dalekphalm]

1 minute ago, BiotechBen said:

Im going to give it a try and if I really like it, I'll get a license, support the devs.

Give us an update with how things are going once you're able to try it out.

[BiotechBen]

2 minutes ago, dalekphalm said:

Give us an update with how things are going once you're able to try it out.

Will do, have a busy honestly few weeks with organic chemistry, Histology, and exams.

[Velcade]

Just now, BiotechBen said:

organic chemistry