After the help from Chuck, I’ve now setup PMS on my Synology NAS and am in the process of converting my Blu-Ray collection. I’ve started with MakeMKV and am only ripping the Title, HD and normal audio channels and forced subtitles, as it’s only for personal viewing. After splashing out on an OLED TV, I’d like to get these as good as possible for viewing on Plex.
I’ve put 4K Amazon Fire TVs around the house and use the Plex app for TV viewing and then use Mobile Sync to create optimized version for the family iPads.
Would be grateful to know what you quality obsessed viewers are then doing with the MKV. Google search throws up significant threads on Handbrake but differing opinions on settings.
My goal is as high quality as possible, forced subtitles and easily handled by Synology when streaming to Plex Player on Fire TV and other Players on internal network and whether you keep in MKV or convert to MP4/M4V.
Any suggested transcoding, or handbrake settings used would be great or alternative methods for final files. I’m a Mac user with no Windows access, so Mac apps please!
For any syno NAS, burn the forced subs into the movie. That’s an unspoken requirement 
When I do transcoding for things, I run HandBrake full manual.
For Apple stuff, I use:
AAC audio (max audio bitrate), (you can include AC-3 2 channel if you want)
Video: Profile High 4.1 bitrate 20 Mbps (the max it offers), fixed rate, 2-pass, CFR (not VFR), web-optimized MP4
Give that a spin, save the job as a profile/template and tweak/update as you pinpoint what you want.
Thanks again Chuck. So do you create your own optimized versions for iPad or is that your master file settings in Handbrake and let PMS chunk across the transcoded version for iPad?
I actually do all my work in MKV files. I never use MP4. I keep the original video and audio (yes, even the insane 25+ Mbps stuff). When I need an audio track for iPad, ffmpeg all the way with libfdk_aac. I have it create the track I need and then merge (mkvtoolnix) back into the original file. I don’t have to do that often since most BR rips have an AC-3 track which the Syno can easily spin to AAC if it has to.
So you basically just rip the file using MakeMKV and put that into Plex? Or am I missing something? Sorry, I feel like I’m being stupid. Not sure how to burn the subtitles in if not using Handbrake?
You’re not missing anything. MakeMKV or Mkvtoolnix (whichever is needed) and drop it right in.
IF you have to burn in the subtitles then you might need the HandBrake pass. The reason is “SRT” subtitles are pure text. Most of the clients handle text subtitles. PGS subtitles are actually bitmap images. Whether you need HandBrake to burn in SRT is unfortunately entirely dependent on the clients you have and unfortunately there is no list yet about which clients support which (a nice project we all could contribute to)
So… If I was ripping a movie with forced subtitles and can’t find .srt files online, rip it through in Handbrake as burned in subs. Otherwise, don’t rip any subtitles and then drop the raw MakeMKV output into Plex?
When you rip the movie from the disc, there will be subtitles in it.
If they’re SRT, leave them in the stream and be certain to set the ‘force’ flag It’s ok to name the track as well for future reference.
If they’re only PGS, then pick the ones you want (usually the PGS forced), again, set the forced flag, and write it out. Now is when you use HandBrake to burn it in. You can do it in ffmpeg directly as well. Remember, PMS uses ffmpeg’s libraries so it’s there to be used. ffmpeg simply requires a little testing to get it to do what you want.
Also, while I’m thinking of it, if you want web-optimized MP4 files from ffmpeg, add flags -movflags faststart in the output section and it will make a second pass automatically for you
Here is the direct link to ffmpeg. It will also help you keep the video quality well above that of HandBrake, burn in the subtitles, and do whatever you want with everything else … all at the command line with ease.
https://trac.ffmpeg.org/wiki/HowToBurnSubtitlesIntoVideo
Thanks Chuck. I’ll give it a go… Have a phobia of command line!
Oh no… Command line is where it’s at!
#!/bin/tcsh
foreach i (*.mkv)
ffmpeg -i "$i" -c:v copy -c:a copy -movflags faststart "/new/mp4/directory/${i:r}.mp4"
end
This converts every MKV file in the current directory into a MP4 of equal quality (copies video and audio) and optimizes for web streaming all at once.
The fancy ${} stuff are shell variables being edited on the fly
