PLEX Guru's Please Advise

[BigDaddyKong]

When I got my Synology DS716++, one of the things it can do is PLEX server. I installed it, and started putting DVD rips on there. Worked great, but I have a large BR collection I wanted to add also. So I use MakeMKV to rip the BR movie track. Those files can be 35GB's in size.

I looked at using Handbrake to convert those over to MP4 for a smaller file size. The problem is it did not look good for a BR rip. So I started playing around with the formats. I found I could use Handbrake to make an MKV container using an H.265 format. This left me with a file size of about 5.5GB and a BR quality rip, and I do mean perfect.

I move the converted file over to my Synology, and try to play it. I get a message saying it's not powerful enough to play this file. The movie buffers. So I look in the Plex settings and there is an option to optimize it for TV. I let it do it's process, and the file size coming out that takes it from 5.5GB up to about 7.25GB MP4 file. But it plays, and still is a perfect BR quality movie. No degradation of quality that I can see what so ever.

The problem is time. To rip and do the conversions, I have almost 7 hours in each movie. I am running a 3770K @ 4.5GHZ. It takes about 20 minutes to rip the MKV, then about 4 hours of Handbrake to make the H.265. Even with 100% CPU usage, it only converts at 15-18fps using the H.265 format. If I choose an MP4, it will convert at 120fps. I am using an SSD as a scratch drive for the conversions. Between all three processes, it takes about 6 hours per movie.

Is there a faster way to get perfect quality rips in a reasonable file size? I found ripping 3 MKV files when I get home, I can put them in a Handbrake queue and let them encode over night. Then in the morning when I am getting ready for work, I can transfer those over to my NAS, and set it up to do the optimize cycle while I am at work. Then when I get home, I can pull 3 more movies and start the process over again. Do newer CPU's handle H.265 better than a 3770K? Am I missing something?

Even though it takes along time, I will admit I love being able to fire up a movie on my 30" monitor from Plex and it looks just as good as playing it straight from the disk. No problem with action scenes, and no quality loss that I can see.

 

[SuB]

Encoding/transmuting takes time dude, unfortunately you just have to suck it up with Bluray stuff. OR get a CPU with more cores

You could torrent it and cut out the middle man (but that would be illegal, don't do that)

 

[Warchild]

Encoding/transmuting takes time dude, unfortunately you just have to suck it up with Bluray stuff. OR get a CPU with more cores

You could torrent it and cut out the middle man (but that would be illegal, don't do that)

Isnt it legal providing you own a legal copy of the original? Which Im hoping that is what he is trying to rip from

 

[WYP]

Isnt it legal providing you own a legal copy of the original? Which Im hoping that is what he is trying to rip from

Technically no, you are allowed to make backups of content that you own, so only you can make the backup.

At least that is the rule as far as I am aware.

 

[BigDaddyKong]

yes, these are my own disks. I have about 600 dvd's and 200BR movies. When my house burnt down 6 years ago, I had to start from scratch on my collection. I really don't want to torrent. I am paranoid about what some less scrupulous people pack in with the downloads. I would rather use my physical copies, and that also keeps me from being tempted not to download something I don't own. Also that keeps me off my ISP radar and I would not have to show them my disks if I got a letter for downloading movies. I certainly don't have receipts for all of them now.

My ultimate goal is to be able to hook up an external HD to my NAS and back all of this up and take that to my office for offsite backup safety. Plex is an added bonus. I want something usable, but useful in the files I backup. If I had a fire, and all I could get is a netbook, or a dinky laptop to hold me over until I got back on my feet. I need a file that I could play on low end hardware that still looks as good as the original. I learned my lesson once, and will not repeat that mistake.

 

[SPS]

Technically no, you are allowed to make backups of content that you own, so only you can make the backup.

At least that is the rule as far as I am aware.

Technically in the EU I don't even think you're allowed to do this. If you make a copy you can get done under the illegal distribution of copyrighted material thing. This is why streaming is not technically illegal as you don't have the ability to redistribute from a stream.

 

[jimma47]

Can you find the transcoding setting for the optimised conversion PLEX is using? Then use Handbrake to just perform one conversion to that format? Or was that the one that looked rubbish?

You can also change the way it plays the file direct play, transcode etc. Then there's the quality settings in the media server for local and remote play as well so try a few different formats and settings to get one that looks great.

I personally found it easier to torrent copies of discs I own instead of converting as a: my bluray drive packed it in and b: just quicker.

Of course this is copyright infringement as you automatically upload and therefore distribute parts of the torrent as you're downloading so you're enabling the distribution of protected material.

 

[SuB]

I am paranoid about what some less scrupulous people pack in with the downloads.

This is a bit of a misnomer these days, it's been a hella long time since I've seen anything of that sort.

(Totally because I don't do that, ever.)

 

[WYP]

Technically in the EU I don't even think you're allowed to do this. If you make a copy you can get done under the illegal distribution of copyrighted material thing. This is why streaming is not technically illegal as you don't have the ability to redistribute from a stream.

Gotta love how finicky these laws are, they are constantly changing. I remember the UK making it legal to backup CDs etc so you could have an extra copy for the car, but then the music industry got angry.

I would assume that DVDs would work in the same way as emulation, as in the ROMs are legal if you made the ROMs with your own copy of the game.

As with everything it is different by region and just a massive legal grey area in general. I doubt anyone would go after me if I produce the DVDs for everything I have backed up to my PC.

 

[SPS]

Gotta love how finicky these laws are, they are constantly changing. I remember the UK making it legal to backup CDs etc so you could have an extra copy for the car, but then the music industry got angry.

I would assume that DVDs would work in the same way as emulation, as in the ROMs are legal if you made the ROMs with your own copy of the game.

As with everything it is different by region and just a massive legal grey area in general. I doubt anyone would go after me if I produce the DVDs for everything I have backed up to my PC.

Yeah you used to be able to do it but then it was reversed last year.

Ha I'm sure they wouldn't either.

 

[Kilbane]

Remember, the illegal part of "backing up" anything you own is actually the removal of any encryption. As far as the law is concerned, removal or any workaround of any encryption designed to stop copying is illegal.

The reason Handbrake is so much faster using x264 over x265 is down to the fact it will leverage the power of the x264 hardware acceleration in GPU's. Unfortunately this isnt available for HEVC encoding yet. So if your looking for speed as well as size, stick to standard x264 in either .mp4 or .MKV containers (plus the added bonus of 99% of devices will play x264 as a direct stream over having the server encode first).

There are a few things you can do to get better quality conversions. Use a constant RF quality to reduce the amount of reduced quality areas in places such as dark parts of a scene. Blu-ray quality i believe is a rule of thumb around RF22-18, so anything lower than that will actually just add a higher bitrate with no real detectable quality difference. I personally do Films at 18, but play with the slider between those values to find the file size you need for the quality you are going for.

Set x264 preset to medium (about the best time/quality ratio), this is the setting that often leaves people with lower quality than expected during encoding as the faster you encode, the less quality and detail is kept during compression.

As you are converting from direct Blu ray rips, use constant framerate, same as source. Films are sold at a constant framerate, it's there for a reason.

Give those few suggestions a try and see how you get on.

 

[BigDaddyKong]

Thanks, I will give those settings a shot. I just know using CFR, and the rest on high profile default settings the picture looked more like a standard DVD. I was not particularly happy with that. I did have the constant quality on 20 though and x264 preset on medium. I bet if I set that on slow, that might fix the issues I am having. I will start again tomorrow night making more backups. Thanks for the tips.

 

[SPS]

Remember, the illegal part of "backing up" anything you own is actually the removal of any encryption. As far as the law is concerned, removal or any workaround of any encryption designed to stop copying is illegal.

Remove encryption?