I try to rip a few of my dvd’s and blurays for my plex server.
I found out that they all have less crisp colours and seem a bit blurred.
Wondering why that is, and how to prevent that.
As a main tool I use MAKEMKV (free version) and I have bought WINXdvd and dvdfab.
I heard so many good things about makemkv that I thought to use it too. But now that the result is the same, I wonder why that is.
Are there hidden settings? Or am I simply to critical?
Thanks ahead,
RobB
MakeMKV makes an exact copy of the dvd or bluray, and I have to say I have never seen a quality difference.
Perhaps you are converting the resulting files to a format more suitable for Plex, and that process is causing the lower quality. Or you are trying to play the files on an app that cannot direct play the file that MakeMKV creates forcing the Plex server to transcode.
Give us a little more info - which app you are using, any conversion process, etc and someone can probably give you a better answer.
I am not using anything extra.
Just put the dvd in the bluray player, start MakeMKV and start the process.
And then I did play them parallel afterwards on powerdvd for the dvd and vlc for the .mkv file. Because playing the dvd in vlc ends up in completely discoloured and blocks you cannot see anything.
I have added an image of both.
Left is original in powerdvd, right is in vlc after creating.
You’re almost comparing apples to oranges, because you are using two different programs and comparing results.
Play the DVD on VLC and then the ripped video and compare results. Do the same with Power DVD (I think it plays mkv files, not sure, don’t have it) The two apps may have (probably have) different methods of deinterlacing, etc so I wouldn’t expect the same result. In any event, you are probably going to have to change the format for use in most Plex apps for DVD files, because most do not natively support the mpeg2 video. If you don’t do that, Plex will transcode on the fly, and the results will not likely be as good as a file prepared properly before hand.
I know its not a lot of help, but most people use something like Handbrake to convert DVD files before they add them to their Plex server.
I did write this:
And then I did play them parallel afterwards on powerdvd for the dvd and vlc for the .mkv file. Because playing the dvd in vlc ends up in completely discoloured and blocks you cannot see anything.
Not for nothing.
And it is constantly stuttering.
What does Handbrake do? I thought it was there to make files smaller and compress more.
Perhaps I am wrong.
Thanks for your help.
BTW I can play the mkv file iin Plex. They even less crisp.
Still not sure why you’re concerned about the playback in VLC, and I’m going to leave it at that.
As I said before, most apps won’t play the original DVD file. So either you or the Plex server will have to convert them. Your Plex server is going to do a fast conversion, so that there isn’t any buffering, etc. It will most likely be poorer quality.
Handrake will convert the mpeg 2 video stream to h264 video. It does a good job at maintaining the quality, and because it’s a more efficient way to encode video the file size will likely be smaller. Most apps will only play h264 or x264 video, and have requirement for audio as well.
You’re going to have to do a little homework to get everything Plex playable. Here’s one on converting Blurays, the same principle apply:
@JuiceWSA has created a guideline for converting DVD’s here. I seldom (actually never) use handbrake, but I would start here and tweak his suggestions to your liking.
Finally, I think the Plex Media Player will play your ripped mkv DVD’s natively without any conversion necessay. Download that, and give it a shot. 
