I’ve found a lot of topics about settings that are/aren’t ok and what will/won’t degrade your file. I have a fairly large hard drive and it’s only about half full, so I’m not worrying about storage space yet. I’m having a hard time playing some shows and movies and the culprit is usually the audio or video codec.
I’d like to just spend a few days transcoding my whole library into a file that Plex won’t have to transcode. It doesn’t have to make it smaller or anything, just changing them into the standard codecs and container that Plex and most devices will not whine about.
If all you need is an audio conversion, and/or a container swap (Remux) Xmedia Recode is magical:
Copy-Video
Convert-Audio
done in moments/minutes, not hours.
If you need to change the Video Stream… Handbrake is fine, but “A Few Days Transcoding My Whole Library” is to dream the impossible dream. Change that to “A Few Months Transcoding My Whole Library” and you’ll be a little closer to what is probably the truth.
Also, any time you touch the video stream with an encoder the original quality is gone - forever. How much you can tolerate is up to you as are the settings in Handbrake you employ, but here’s a pretty solid starting point - customize as you see fit:
You could also just employ Plex’s Optimizer - if you can tolerate the way it mishandles itself - and your videos. It is pretty fast. That’s about as much of a glowing recommendation I can come up with on short notice.
Perhaps a combination of Xmedia Recode and the Plex Optimizer:
Audio Conversion/Container Swaps - Xmedia Recode for permanent changes to your file - and Plex’s Optimizer to create a ‘Compatible Version’ that you’d select at Playback time.
Note:
You have zero control over that ‘Version’. You can play it. You can’t delete the original in favor of ‘The Version’ <—and in walks some of the issues involved with Plex’s Optimizer. How much of that you can tolerate is also up to you, but as far as Options - I guess it is one.
Thanks for the response! In general I think I ripped the video fine, but I ripped almost everything into .mkv instead of .mp4. I also know h.265 works best and I’m pretty sure most of my stuff is in 264. I don’t know if that would require a total conversion or not.
264 works best
265 fails, often.
If you want Direct Play you’d better plan on 264 and some fairly basic video encodes with compatible audio streams. The page with my settings will create video encodes that will Direct Play on anything.
Unless you’re using some off-the-wall device or client that, for some reason, can’t deal with an MKV file - there is no reason AT ALL to create MP4s. <—some 4K devices may require an MP4 file. Of that, I know nothing. I have some MP4 files, but haven’t actually created one in… a LONG time.
If your Video and Audio streams are well made and compatible with your devices/clients - the container they’re in will make no difference (usually) and MKV is a more versatile container than MP4.
Interesting! I’ll need to remember that. There’s all kinds of advice floating everywhere and every Google search confused me more than the last. Some people say MP4, some people say 265, some say none of it matters…I tried Plex’s optimizer and I actually wouldn’t mind it terribly if it left me an easy way to rename the files. I have no idea why it’s so derpy.
There’s a lot of stuff I’ve tried watching where the audio is super quiet and the action is super loud, is that because I’ve ripped it in 5.1 or higher while not using a 5.1 or higher system to watch it? If so, is there an easy fix for that?
The dialog is lost when a ‘mixdown’ is poorly handled, or not handled at all, by the transcoder, or the Device you’re playing it on. Ideally you want to Pass Thru Audio to the device that’s gonna play it. If the device can’t play it, Plex is gonna try to transcode a compatible audio stream and in that process the center channel can become lost/buried.
The ‘Cure’ is to create compatible audio streams that will Direct Play on the device that’s playing them and if you plan on using 5.1 audio, you’d better have something out on that end that can handle a 5.1 audio track and/or mix it down to 2.0 while maintaining the center dialog track.
XR can do a mixdown, and ‘Normalize’ the track level, to a degree, and that does help a great deal, but is not a Cure-All when the playback device can’t mixdown 5.1 to 2.0. In that case, you’d need to Create a 2.0 track. You can easily create a second track, make that one 2.0 and select it at playback time.
You need to do a bunch of Previews with different audio tracks and configurations - put the Previews in an ‘Other Videos’ Library and start playing them on things to see what happens.
Thank you for the detailed info, I really do appreciate it. This is insane, it almost makes me want to lug my discs around.
I’ll have to experiment on some of the worst files; I’ve had some where playing it upstairs has it buffer and skip like mad, which makes no sense to me.
When that happens - open a Plexweb/Dashboard/Details page and find out what’s transcoding and why… then endeavor to correct that.
Many times the magnum bit rate of a straight rip just can’t be crammed into the available network pipe - and in that case Plex will transcode. If your server doesn’t have the horsepower - trouble soon follows.
There is also a tremendous dependency on which device is used for playback. I use Rokus (mainly ultras) but it does not give me the best video or sound. I am old and my old eyes and ears are so degraded that I find that 720P and Dolby 2.1 stereo is more than great for me. BUT I have also been told by my granddaughters that they see and hear the difference when comparing the lower resolution and sound to higher.
For them I playback my videos on my Shield TV and with no further change they say that the difference can still be seem but unless they actually look for it it becomes unnoticeable. That is the same videos look a little better played through the Shield as they do through my Roku Ultras.
My advice is to play with the audio and video selections in Handbrake and find what produces the picture where you cannot see the difference between that setting and one just a bit better. It takes time but the rewards are well worth it.
Also do not discount saving space no matter how much free space you currently have. Remember the data center adage: “Data grows to fill available space.” That is true, even more so, for media files as well.
I had the 5.1 issue and found it to be an issue with AAC and fixed it by encoding everything in AC3.
I know there is a lot of stuff out there that says AAC is better but honestly that is crap IMO. I found an actual technical analysis done and from my read AC3 is better at high end than AAC as long as you use the high bit streams, given the large bandwidths available and large storage, AC3 again IMO is the better choice both for quality and by far for compatability.
Every low audio output issue I had was with an AAC file, once I recoded to AC3 the sound was great on every device and the audio balance was correct. This was tested on numerous encoders (anyDVD, Handbrake, Acrok, win DVD, and PavTube). Always the same result for me, no noticeable quality difference on a high mid end sound system 5.1 and better audio balance with AC3 along with plex providing a better transcode experience when a device needed AAC.
See the article I attached below, it is hard to find so I kept a copy just for posts like this.
I too use AC3 5.1/2.0 exclusively - and that is due to it being the most widely accepted audio format for every device in my Plexiverse.
If @greycobalt can’t use AC3 - changing all his audio to AC3 would probably be a bad idea.
We’ve established @Elijah_Baley 's grandkids can hear the difference in one format over a converted one ( ), but Elijah, nor myself can, so that too remains in the earhole of beholder.
Ya gotta do what works best for you - whatever that is.
I find that interesting, the paper I posted clearly shows the experts hearing no noticeable difference at high end between the 2 formats and even finding a range where AC3 is better than AAC. Like you said it is in the ear of the beholder.
My grandkids watch almost everything exclusively on hand-me-down cell phones, and usually play it thru the built in speaker. I doubt they hear or see the difference.
Expert - “X-spurt” - “X” is a mathematical term for something unknown. “Spurt” is a drip of water under pressure.
Therefore an “expert” is an unknown drip under pressure.
), but Elijah, nor myself can, so that too remains in the earhole of beholder.
