I’m well aware that I can rip most Blu-rays with MakeMKV and then convert to mp4 with Handbrake; however, the former just rips everything raw from the disk so the file size is humongous and the conversion via Handbrake for just a single file is terribly long and puts a lot of strain on my computer.
I’ve heard that EaseFab LosslessCopy is decent, but they only have a Windows and a Mac version, and I’m unsure how well it’d run under Wine.
I am willing to pay for it, but only as long as it’s not a subscription thing. Has to be a one-time payment.
Does anyone know any decent Blu-ray ripping software that fits these conditions and run well on Linux? Specifically, it would be either Pop!_OS or Linux Mint. (I’m still using Windows because I want to figure out some software alternatives before I do so I’m not caught with my pants down, so to speak.)
There are multiple VERY inadvisable things you’re doing here. Darkcalling has good points, but in addition:
You are using a CRF of 0, which will create an insanely huge result video size for no perceptual benefit. There is no reason to do this. You may as well just use makemkv to create mkv files directly and use those. The underlying video encoding is AVC in both cases, just placed into differing containers. This is kind of a misuse of Handbrake. You use handbrake to reencode videos either from one encoding to another, or for satisfactory file size reductions from source materials.
You are also using an encode speed preset of placebo, which if you have ever done a comparison you will find offers basically exceedingly minimal file size reduction advantages over slow or very slow, but for a MUCH longer encode time.
I recommend trying to encode samples of quality RF 20-24 and determine which looks best to you (if they end up looking very different). Lower numbers are higher picture quality. I recommend an encode speed of as slow as you can bear, but not slower than Very Slow. I recommend the Encoder Profile being set to High (from Main). Basically the spec for h264 has changed slightly and while Main is super compatible, High has some potential for file savings/quality improvements and is compatible with basically any player since… God knows when, maybe 15 years ago?
One thing I don’t recommend is using nvenc, the gpu encoder, for non real time contexts. x264, the software renderer, will produce higher quality results. Higher quality means either the videos will look the same but the size will be smaller, or the sizes will be the same but the picture looks better.
Also, even though you don’t have it set, I also do not recommend the Fast Decode checkbox. Maybe useful for a device from the year 2002, but at the cost of a noticeably larger file size.
Finally, you should state what your actual goal is. Yes you are ripping your blu rays, but what are you trying to really achieve with this? Further advice can be dispensed with that info.
I really appreciate you taking the time to write all this out. I will definitely take these tips to heart and try again! Thank you! :D
I figure I should use 2-Pass Encoding if I want a more accurate output, but what about Turbo First Pass? What’s that all about?
2-pass and turbo first pass is only valid if you use average bit rate, but you should just stick with the constant rate factor. CRF will actually use a higher bitrate in more complex scenes, anyway.
Some additional thoughts: Since you are encoding animation you can try to change the Encoder Tune option to Animation. It will increase the amount of deblocking (smooths out blocks that become visually apparent at low bit rates) which works well in animation where there are lots of flat colors.
You could change the output container from MKV to mp4. This will increase compatibility for playback and will have no effect on the result, because mp4 is designed to contain AVC video and AAC audio, and I think even a subtitle, too. HOWEVER I do not think mp4 can support DTS audio. In your current audio settings your audio streams are being converted to 160kbps AAC, which is decent. If you do switch to mp4 you can check the “web optimized” option, too, if your plan is to internet stream these videos. It just moves some metadata to the start of the file so your browser can play back immediately without having to download all the contents. There really isn’t any downside that I am aware of for choosing this setting. I am also not sure if it makes any difference in a Jellyfin/Plex setup to have those checked.
You don’t have to worry about the subtitle being burned in because in the settings in your screen shot that will only burn in “foreign” subs – seems like English is the only match and English won’t be burned in. For peace of mind you can remove the foreign audio scan anyway.
On both the audio and subtitle screens there’s a button which says “Selection Behavior.” You can click it and change what languages handbrake will automatically include when you load files for encoding. It’s very useful to do that instead of selecting/deselecting each time you load something to encode. You can consider only choosing English if that’s your desired language.
I always set the output framerate as “Same as source”, and when I do that the only options change from CBR & this other one I can’t remember to CBR & VBR. When it does this, it defaults to VBR. Should I change it to CBR instead?
I will try this! Thank you!
I would prefer to keep it in mkv format, mainly for consistency’s sake, but also because
I’m no expert, so please feel free to correct me if I’m wrong on any of this.
Well I do have some non-English content in my library. Also, as I said: archiving first, streaming second. So I like to have all the languages available in the container file.
Do you mean Constant Framerate and Variable Framerate? Because CBR and VBR mean Constant/Variable Bitrate. Anyway, I always set my stuff to same as source as well, with a constant frame rate. I don’t think this really matters because the video you are feeding to Handbrake is itself probably constant framerate, and therefore the result ends up being constant frame rate even with the variable frame rate option.
This is not correct. MKV and MP4 are just container formats. The stuff that actually makes up the size is what goes into those containers (the video stream, audio stream, and to a much lesser extent the subtitle files, chapter markers, and any other metadata).
MKV is an unbounded container. You can pretty much stuff anything into it, which is why it’s used for archiving. MP4 technically isn’t limited to its normal expected codecs through some clever use of metadata, but it is basically unexpected and mostly unsupported. It’s certainly unconventional to use it like how you would use an MKV.
This is true, but not realistically relevant. Mp4 is old. I don’t know if it still has patents but judging by the date it was defined I would have to believe most if not all of its patents are expired. Though I am just guessing at that. But even then, that’s not important because basically everything plays mp4s because its open format is implementable by anyone. Given everything you’ve said, though, I agree that MKV is probably the better format to use.
Then you should not use Handbrake, unless you plan to keep two copies of your media. MakeMKV should remux the blu ray discs directly into MKVs (I’ve never used it to do blu rays, but I have used it with DVDs to do this job). If you do anything to your media with Handbrake, it’s not really an archive anymore, it’s just a good copy. For many people this tradeoff is worthwhile because if you encode it at high enough settings you won’t get any visual loss but you will get a much smaller and more easily manageable file. But I would only call it an archive if it’s untouched from the source. That’s what the term “remux” implies: Taking the original video/audio stream contents and putting them into a new container such as MKV.
As an aside comment, I don’t understand how the term remux came into use, since a multiplexer selects a single signal among multiple…
Sorry, what I meant is under the Video tab in Handbrake, there’s the Framerate (FPS) setting and below that are 2 bubble options. Due to the profile Handbrake starts up to (I haven’t gotten around to setting up my own preferred profile just yet), the framerate is set to “30”, and the two bubble options are “Constant Framerate” and “Peak Framerate”.
However, when I change the framerate from “30” to “Same as source”, the two bubble options change to “Constant Framerate” and “Variable Framerate”.
What I wanna know is if you know why that changes? And if so, what does it mean?
facepalm Holy bicycles, I knew that. Seriously, I did. I don’t know what the fuck was going through my head to make me forget that. Lol. Sorry!
This is all true. I think rather “archiving” may have been a poor choice of word on my part, though it is partly accurate. I do think of this as an archive, but not so much that it needs to be an exact 1:1 ripping. As long as it is perceptually the same audibly & visually, it is largely good enough. I guess by “archive”, I mostly meant as a backup; I didn’t necessarily mean it as archival-level quality. Sorry about the confusion! That was on me!
Edit: a word
Honestly I’m not sure about the frame rate part. Just my observation from my own encodes is that as long as you set the frame rate to same as source your result will have the same frame rate as the source, regardless of the radio options beneath it. I have never encountered a video with a variable frame rate, nor have I ever seen Handbrake produce one, regardless of setting choices.
That makes sense! Thanks for your perspective! :D
IIRC, you only need 2 pass if you need to fit a size target. So you can safely deactivate both options.
I see. Thanks!
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