Chapter Thumbnails

Hey guys

I am ripping my DVDs to MKVs and later I watch these movies / tv-shows with Plex.

In the beginning I used MakeMKV to rip my DVDs and later in the Plex, I had always for each chapter a thumbnail. See the follow picture

Unfortunately, I had to change from MakeMKV to Handbrake and there now these chapter thumbnails are missing. See the next picture

Are these thumbnails saved directly in the mkv file? Or from where exactly get Plex this chapter thumbnails? Can I add my self chapter thumbnails?

Thank you very much and best regards

Buhli

Hey JuiceWSA

Thanks for your quick reply.

Unfortunately it didn’t work.

I’m not sure this is really a Plex issue. It started after I am using HandBrake to create the mkv files.

But I don’t know from where exactly Plex get these chapter thumbnails. It comes frome the mkv file? Or Plex generates the chapter thumbnails itself?

Thanks and best regards

Buhli

Hey JuiceWSA

Thanks for the explination.

I’m not quite sure what do you mean with ā€œdisabled the Transcoderā€.

Here is a Printscreen from my Transcoder settings. Maybe you can quick have a look there and tell me if there is something wrong

Printscreen from my Library settings:

Thank you for your support

Best regards Buhli

Yea, that looks normal to me.

@anon18523487

…should take it from here…

Hey JucieWSA

I’m sorry, what that means: …should take it from here…

Do you have another idea?

Which is also a bit strange for me. I have created a mkv file by makemkv and there I see the thumbnails. I created the same episode from the same ISO with handbrake and there I have no thumbnails. Even when I change the view in the windows explorer from ā€œDetailsā€ to ā€œLarge Iconsā€, this files which I created by Handbrake I just see the VLC icon.

Because of this, I thought there might be a problem with the mkv files.

Thanks and best regards Buhli

Verify you can play them in other player software than VLC.
A good test is to use MPC-HC, because it uses a software stack similar to Plex.

Using mediainfo is also recommended, to see what is actually inside those mkv files.

Hey OttoKerner

Thanks for your quick reply.

Mediainfo Export:

handbrake.txt (12.9 KB)

makemkv.txt (16.1 KB)

I checked it already with Mediainfo but I could nothing see. Maybe you will see something?

I will test it later with MPC-HC too.

By Plex and also by VLC I can play the episode without any problems. All the tracks, chapters, audio, subtitles etc.

Thanks and best regards Buhli

You’ve somehow managed to re-encode the file with the MPEG2 video codec, instead of H.264

(At least your mediainfo info from Handbrake still shows MPEG2 as video codec)

Hey OttoKerner

Yes that is correctly. I analyse first the disc or the ISO file and from there I take over the codecs.

But both mkv files (makvemkv and handbrake) are MPGE2. So I don’t think so that is the problem. Or why you think I have to use H.264?

Thanks and best regards Buhli

Don’t do that. MPEG2 is a very old codec and inefficient and also incompatible with a lot of Plex client types.
If you do re-encoding, use H.264 as target.

(Because otherwise, why re-encoding at all – when you don’t save any storage space and the quality is still getting worse due to the re-encoding.)

The storage space is no problem for me. More important for me is to get the highest quality. But if you say with H.264 I get a better video and sound quality than MPEG2 I can do this. But I think my common problem with the thumbnails will be not sloved when I changed the codec right?

I can’t tell with certainty, but it’s worth a test with 1 – 2 files.

Okay I will test it and give you a feedback.

If this is not the problem, do you have any other ideas?

Hey JuiceWSA

Thanks for your post I will try it.

You had never problems with the chapter thumbnails when you created mkv files by handbrake?

Why do you recommend to use the ā€œAvg Bitrateā€ with 3750kbps instead of ā€œConstant Qualityā€? What will happend if I set for example the ā€œAvg Bitrateā€ to 5000 or 10000kbps?

Thanks and best regards Buhli

Hey JuiceWSA

I tried yesterday with your HB settngs.

Frankly, this with your eyeballs I didn’t quite understand. How do you find out which is the best bitrate for you? Just by watching on the TV? Or is there a way how I can determine which is the best Bitrate (for video and sound quality)? I notice the same as you has written. If I set a too high bitrate value, the files is going bigger and bigger, but the quality will not more better.

Unfortunately the chapter thumbnails are still black. Is it possible, Plex generate the thumbnails, but unfortunately it’s always black pictures? When you have a look to my first post, (Printscreen number 2 the 3 picture), there we can see, the thumbnail is not 100% black. We can see there is something like bridge.

Can I ask you something else? Do you have experience to avoid ripping the same episode/track? I notice this somtimes when I wan to rip a DVD. The DVD contains 5 episodes, but HB shows me 12 epiosdes. If this here is there wrong place, I can also but this question somwhere else.

Thanks and best regards Buhli

That’s the only way I know.
Make some 240 Second Previews, put them in an Other Videos Library, watch them.

Go to MakeMKV forums - get the correct Playlist.
Everything that matters, I’ve always found there.

Sometimes the DVD will contain several versions - Widescreen/Full Screen.
Always rip out the files with MakeMKV first - so you can see what they are.
I used to guess - then I got tired of guessing wrong.
(that actually didn’t happen more than about once)

Thanks for your advice.

I used a long time MakeMKV to rip my movies and tv-shows. But I had the problem, MakeMKV ripped the episodes in the wrong order. Then I saw, many tv shows they have one big track which contains all episodes. But unfortunately, this track was sometimes skipped by MakeMKV.

But back to my real question :slight_smile:

Can I do something else for my black thumbnails? Or I have to live with that?

Thanks and best regards Buhli

Is it possible that the chapter breaks coincide with a black screen in the video file? The chapter previews could have been picked at this exact moment.
They can be quite precisely placed, as this example illustrates:

1 Like

The Multi-Episode-Files I can easy split in multiple files. so i can be sure that the episode order is correct.

@JuiceWSA, @OttoKerner, I think you guys are right, I could check it quickly by one episode and there is really when the chapter change for one second a black screen. I think its not possible I can add own thumbnails? Or change timestamp from Plex to take this thumbnails?

Tnaks and best regards Buhli