New to Plex and currently burning my collection. Can’t seem to find support on how to correct burn a 2-sided DVD so that it might play continuously.
For example, Casablanca is 3hrs 53min long and has side A and side B. What’s the best way to burn this so that I might create either 1 playable file, or 2 files that will automatically play in succession (if at all possible).
Thank you, in advance, for your help.
You can use apps like MKVToolNix to merge the individual files you get from ripping both sides of that DVD.
Edit: Alternatively there’s a mechanism within Plex that allows handling of “stacked files” (1 movie spread across multiple files). Merging the files will however give you a more stable user experience – e.g. because not all apps support stacked files.
This is what I do and works perfectly. Example: Band of Brothers 5 hrs 36 min Documentary
/stuff/movies/moviename (year)/ movie folder
moviename (year)-part1.mkv movie file 1
moviename (year)-part2.mkv movie file 2
note there is no space between the part and the number.
To my knowledge, Casablanca is only 1 hr 42 minutes long. Is it possible your DVD has multiple version of the movie, or a bunch of extras? If so, I would look into whether the movie itself is split across the sides (unlikely). You could rip the movie by itself, then the alternate versions/extras as individual tracks.
And to think, I’ve been turning my Plex Server upside down halfway through long shows …
A note about the MKVToolNix method. As you’re ripping and encoding the movies, make sure they are coming out with the same dimensions.
Sometimes the automatic crop built into Handbrake, for instance, can be a few pixels different on Side A and Side B.
It’s probably not an issue for Casablanca or anything else old enough to be “Academy” aspect ratio - those usually take up the entire 4:3 area of a DVD and don’t need to be cropped at all. It can be an issue on some letterboxed movies.
Hence why you should rip without re-encoding first.
Then merge.
Then re-encode, if wanted.
It’s obvious when you put it that way. Good advice.
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