Sorry to trouble you, but I’m trying to put my DVD collection on PLEX. Handbrake seemed difficult. Any recommendations?
I moved this post in a separate thread as it wasn’t all that much related to the thread you posted it into.
Generally there’s different approaches depending on (a) availability/limitation of storage and (b) expected quality:
- if storage is limited and you can live with (some/minor) quality restrictions… use an app like Handbrake to “optimize” the videos
- if storage isn’t a problem and you’re shooting for the best possible quality… use an app like MakeMKV to rip the videos in their original quality from the disc
Files created with MakeMKV will usually be significantly bigger but they’ll keep the video and audio as-is without transcoding/optimizing it. Most of the time it’s about finding a balance that’s right for you.
I’m not exactly sure what about Handbrake was complex for you. Usually it’s “dumping” a file/disc into the app, select an adequate preset for your purpose/liking and then let it do its job (optionally preparing an entire queue of files to be converted. Depending on how powerful your CPU is, this can take some time.
They’ve got some documentation to go along. Many users will go with the available setting presets… though I know some that tailor settings individually for different movies.
What I do is use MakeMKV to generate the video files, and then run them thru Handbrake to optimize them/get them to a reasonable size.
It’s been some time since I’ve done that. IIRC you can directly use a DVD as a source but for Blu-Rays you need the media to be ripped first – not 100% if that’s still accurate.
I’m currently considering running some older tv-shows through handbrake next winter… those were based on DVDs and the original mpeg2 encoding certainly deserves some squeezing 
I use Vidcoder.
It still uses Handbrake but its really simple.
I run it at night whilst I sleep as it can consume resources and takes the length of the movie to complete.
tom870H - Thank you so much for taking the time to move my question to a separate thread and give your feedback. Both are greatly appreciated.
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