Need some guidance, I have roughly 300+ DVDs and 60 Blu-rays, (anyone guess what I want to do)

[G+_James Mitchell]

Need some guidance, I have roughly 300+ DVDs and 60 Blu-rays, (anyone guess what I want to do)

Video format must be able to do 5.1 or DTS.

I need recommendations on software, work flow and a nas

 

If there was a KH episode that coved this and I missed it let me know so I can download.

 

Thank you ladies and gentlemen

[G+_Black Merc]

You need Patrick Norton. He is now at tekthing on hak5.org - Technolust since 2005 | Trust Your Technolust

[G+_William L. DeRieux IV]

James Mitchell

Episode 22 covered backing up dvds for playback on an Apple TV, but the software and work flow should be universal...

twit.tv - Know How... 22 Back up your DVDs | TWiT.TV

 

They recommend using DVD Decrypter or MakeMKV (MakeMKV is allgededly able to rip blu-rays as well in conjunction with Handbrake).

 

You can also use Slysoft's AnyDVD to rip both (but I believe it will make a duplicate, rather than rip just a part of them).

 

More info:

http://lifehacker.com/5559007/the-hassle-free-guide-to-ripping-your-blu-ray-collection

[G+_todd zimmerman]

James Mitchell? are you planning to rip the full disc (include the "Bonus" content) just the main movie? Just wondering much more disk you need for the full disc, vs saving space just for the movie. Buy on the flip side, just decrypting the discs into ISO may make organizing / content management easier

[G+_Pat Hacker]

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[G+_James Mitchell]

Just the movie and 5.1 / DTS track, and with some of the kids stuff stereo would be fine

[G+_Ben Reese]

Depending on your system and how much time you can devote to it, this project could take a couple years. Vudu (or Ultraviolet) recently announced that you could get a digital version of just about any DVD/Blueray for ~$2. There are some you'll want to do manually just for the quality, but this may be an option for you.

 

https://www.vudu.com/in_mobile_disc_to_digital_mobile.html

[G+_Shooter_FPV (Shooter_FP]

I did the same thing a year or 2 ago, and using my Mac I used MakeMKV to rip the DVD/Blu-Ray, then had Handbrake convert it to AppleTV format. A bit of a long process, but it worked. And if you do use MakeMKV, be aware that when it rips your disc, it takes about as much time as the movie runs... so if it's a 2 hour movie, it will take 2 hours to rip it.

[G+_James Mitchell]

Ripping is figured out, (mix of handbrake and DVD decrypter) hardware is where is the rabbit hole soooo many options...

Do I use a drobo or Synology to store the media and a smart TV to access or do I need something like a Roku?

Everything is ethernet wired.

[G+_Rud Dog]

Ben Reese How does this work sounds interesting?

[G+_Shooter_FPV (Shooter_FP]

James Mitchell I have an external drive connected to my Mac Mini, and pull movies from it using AppleTV's in the living room and bedroom. Works well for me. I assume you're on PC, not Mac, correct?

[G+_Carl Elton]

James Mitchell I use a combination of DVDFab and Handbrake and have them on a server 2012 essential box using Plex as the video server software. Works great and I can stream it anywhere I have internet on my phone, Firestick. Roku, old google TV (Android TV), MAC and PC.

[G+_Ben Reese]

Rud Dog I haven't tried it yet. Several years ago a partnership was formed to convince movie makers that digital was ok. Basically, don't let "Napster" happen to movies the way it did music. The whole thing is kinda a mess because the film industry is behind it, but they basically came up with a way to protect their content with DRM while still allowing streaming and I think downloading.

 

In this case, they just need proof that you own the disk (since that's your "license") then they'll give you the digital version.

 

Most of the movies we buy for the kids now have the digital copy included.

[G+_Robert Hafer]

If you run your Plex server on a fairly beefy computer, it can do format conversion on the fly.

[G+_Rud Dog]

Robert Hafer What does that buy you ? Can you skip a step in the conversion process?

[G+_James Mitchell]

Sense I am talking about many movies, I am thinking terabytes, and the need to upload to a drobo or Synology correct? Then just connect to network and let the smart TV or Roku map it and done right?

Yes I am PC

 

[G+_Robert Hafer]

Rud Dog Conversion on the fly is nice if your smartphone likes one format and your likes another, etc. if all your devices use the same format, converting is s waste.

[G+_Ben Reese]

James Mitchell Drobo makes a NAS, but they're known for attached storage. Synology makes NASs with great user experience. Plex can be run on just about anything (Windows, Linux, Mac, Synology, Qnap, Raspberry Pi...). Robert Hafer? is saying if the hardware under the Plex server is powerful enough (not Raspberry Pi), it can transcode the video on the fly. And Plex is probably what everyone would recommend for this. Windows can server DLNA, but Plex probably does it better.

 

For the receiving end, I believe there is a Plex app for Roku (I don't own one), there are apps for Android iOS, and many "smart" TVs have Plex apps.

 

MakeMKV will rip the movie, but from what I've heard, it will be huge (30+GB?). That's where Handbrake comes in and will transcode it to a more compressed format suitable for streaming, like H.264 MP4.

 

When deciding storage, you'll also want to consider whether you want to keep the raw rip or just the compressed version. If MakeMKV creates a 30 GB file and Handbrake compresses that down to 4 GB, do you want to keep the original?

 

My setup is an internal drive on Windows. CPU/RAM are about 9 years old, so I'm not able to do much live transcoding - but also don't need to. All my movies are small enough to stream across the network.

 

Hope that helps.

[G+_Shooter_FPV (Shooter_FP]

Ben Reese Yea, MakeMKV just does a straight rip, so you're getting files in the 25-30GB range. That's great if you want to actually archive them, or have a big enough drive that you want to store and run them from it. I don't keep the original... I convert it with Handbrake then delete the original. I'll never have a home theater decent enough to take advantage of a file like that anyway. Converting to AppleTV works fine for me. :)

[G+_Joe Jones]

For storage I built a Freenas box. I am using MakeMKV to rip the discs. I am then going to use the scripts from Don Melton (https://github.com/donmelton/video_transcoding) to convert the rips to smaller files. The scripts are using Handbrake in the background but passing in custom settings to Handbrake. The resulting files are a lot smaller but the quality is very good. A bluray rip ~30 GB goes down to ~3 GB.

github.com - donmelton/video_transcoding

[G+_James Mitchell]

So most of you agree:

1) Use MakeMKV for ripping

2) Handbrake to H.264 MP4

3) a Synology with Plex

4) SmarTV use Plex App

 

Did I miss anything?

[G+_Ben Reese]

James Mitchell if you prefer command line or scripting, you can probably use FFMPEG in place of Handbrake. Not as user friendly, but I use FFMPEG for 99% of my video transcoding.

[G+_Jason Brown]

I think you can skip the makemkv step if you get libdvdcss. Then you can just rip with handbrake. Of course that's only if you want to convert/compress it.