blu ray mkv.. what compression software & % with no apparent quality loss?

413x

413x

413x

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Looking to get some views on a safe general rule for compressing blu ray mkv rips.

Atm all I'm doing is using make mkv to rip the main movie
I used to use hand brake but I don't think that's updated anymore?

So I'm looking for advice on ..
Free software
A compression % that will not cause quality loss with any film ..one size fits all
 
al4x said:
Looking to get some views on a safe general rule for compressing blu ray mkv rips.

Atm all I'm doing is using make mkv to rip the main movie
I used to use hand brake but I don't think that's updated anymore?

So I'm looking for advice on ..
Free software
A compression % that will not cause quality loss with any film ..one size fits all
Click to expand...

Make mkv to rip the film
Ripbot264 to shrink it

The lower number the higher the quality and obviously the bigger the file size. I use x-stream setting on the audio to keep it lossless. And don't forget to auto crop the black bars if there are any.

Average film is around 5-8gb. Quality is great.
 
Handbrake is still being supported. I use it and it's great.

Reset all settings.
Video quality RF17-19 depending on how big you want the filesize (I use 17).
Cuts the movie but about 50% but I can see almost no loss in IQ.
 
I don't bother compressing, just rip with make mkv and that's it. Fast, simple, and no issues with quality or playback.

After you cut out the extras, most movies are only about 30gb anyway...
 
+1 to Handbrake. An upcoming version will also be OpenCL accelerated, so if you have an AMD or Nvidia GPU encoding times will fly.
 
R4z0r said:
I don't bother compressing, just rip with make mkv and that's it. Fast, simple, and no issues with quality or playback.

After you cut out the extras, most movies are only about 30gb anyway...
Click to expand...

I agree, I don't see the point in compressing, you might as well not bother. Or just shove the DVD/BR in the drive.

Though I guess if you wanted to transfer it to a mobile device then that's a little different. In which case you can get away with fairly high compression.
 
Orcvader said:
+1 to Handbrake. An upcoming version will also be OpenCL accelerated, so if you have an AMD or Nvidia GPU encoding times will fly.
Click to expand...

That's cool, have a 6950 in a Htpc that has a fairly weak CPU. I3 2120. Will wait for this!
 
Freefaller said:
I agree, I don't see the point in compressing, you might as well not bother. Or just shove the DVD/BR in the drive.

Though I guess if you wanted to transfer it to a mobile device then that's a little different. In which case you can get away with fairly high compression.
Click to expand...

I personally convert as iTunes / ATV doesn't support MKV and by re-enoding as h264, I save boat loads of space with minor apparent loss in quality.
 
I use MakeMKV, and leave it at that. No point compressing it and losing quality/sound performance.
Storage is cheap enough these days :)
 
have 5TB so far. full. my htpc only has room for 3 HDDs,

ok ill put it another way.

would a 30% reduction in size affect the quality? if not what levels would be acceptable? .. more? less?

also what container is best for both sound and video? WOuld like to keep things in MKV really as media center doesnt seem to have a problem with it!
 
al4x said:
have 5TB so far. full. my htpc only has room for 3 HDDs,

ok ill put it another way.

would a 30% reduction in size affect the quality? if not what levels would be acceptable? .. more? less?

also what container is best for both sound and video? WOuld like to keep things in MKV really as media center doesnt seem to have a problem with it!
Click to expand...

NAS ... ? Great thread in the server forum about using an HP Micro server.

I really wouldn't bother compressing, you never know what you might end up doing in the future. What if you buy an AV receiver but can't take advantage of lossless audio because you compressed it to save on a new HDD.

Remember, there's no going back once you've done it. Well, not unless you want to rip your entire library again!
 
Agreed. NAS is the answer or get a proliant with Freenas running or whs2011 with drive bender and you've got yourself a nice bit of storage.
 
R4z0r said:
NAS ... ? Great thread in the server forum about using an HP Micro server.

I really wouldn't bother compressing, you never know what you might end up doing in the future. What if you buy an AV receiver but can't take advantage of lossless audio because you compressed it to save on a new HDD.

Remember, there's no going back once you've done it. Well, not unless you want to rip your entire library again!
Click to expand...

Yeah I don't really want to compress the sound, i do run it to a 3d av receiver.

Don't really want to go NAS yet, i haven't done much looking but isn't a decent one fairly pricey? Plus hdds which annoyingly aren't falling back to pre flood levels
 
5TB... what does that consist of? Surely not just films (i.e. Cinema), TV and music? (That's a horrendous amount)...

By converting at an appropriate level, any quality loss is simply not noticeable unless you compare a static screenshot side-by-side.

Also, various blind studies have shown that the vast majority of people cannot discern between lossless audio (such as True HD) and Dolby 5.1 at 640kbps...

Maybe i'm mad, but my media is effectively retaining 90% of the quality and is completely compatible with my devices (admittedly Apple based; iPad, iPhone, ATV), but takes up far less storage space (e.g. i'm currently sitting with 713 films at 1,434 GB according to iTunes right now - a mix of DVD and Bluray titles... so that's pretty economic space-wise).

The additional benefit is that all my media can be stored on my PC rather than a server because of this space saving and due to not requiring a dedicated media library such as XBMC.


P.s. I HAVE actually saved MKV's of my High-Def content incase I ever change my mind... (I currently have the spare space), so maybe someone can convince me to go the MKV route... I just don't see it working as well as my current setup considering my devices.
 
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al4x said:
Yeah I don't really want to compress the sound, i do run it to a 3d av receiver.

Don't really want to go NAS yet, i haven't done much looking but isn't a decent one fairly pricey? Plus hdds which annoyingly aren't falling back to pre flood levels
Click to expand...

Not really, you can pick up an HP Microserver pretty cheap (See the thread in server forum). Stick 8GB RAM in there and FreeNAS and you've got the base. That can hold 5 drives if you also use the ODD bay.

You could probably re-use your existing HDD's as well. If you've got 5TB and 3 drives then you're probably not using a redundant disk setup such as RAID5. Moving to FreeNAS (Or similar) would be a good opportunity to go RAIDZ1 (If you use FreeNAS) or maybe RAID5 with something else.

Anyway, I know I'm not answering your original question so I'll shut up now. Just wanted to share my experiences :)
 
pioneer2000 said:
Maybe i'm mad, but my media is effectively retaining 90% of the quality and is completely compatible with my devices (admittedly Apple based; iPad, iPhone, ATV), but takes up far less storage space (e.g. i'm currently sitting with 713 films at 1,434 GB according to iTunes right now - a mix of DVD and Bluray titles... so that's pretty economic space-wise).

The additional benefit is that all my media can be stored on my PC rather than a server because of this space saving and due to not requiring a dedicated media library such as XBMC.


P.s. I HAVE actually saved MKV's of my High-Def content incase I ever change my mind... (I currently have the spare space), so maybe someone can convince me to go the MKV route... I just don't see it working as well as my current setup considering my devices.
Click to expand...

Yes, I can definitely see the point of converting for devices, you certainly don't want to copy an uncompressed BluRay to your iPod!

I do the same when I want to put something on my iPhone or iPad but for my media PC that streams to my main TV I use the uncompressed file.

TBH, most of the benefit is simply not having to bother with encoding. Just stick a disc in, point the output to a folder on my NAS and it's done in like 20 mins.
 
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