I was wondering what, if any, policies do you have for your media. I store everything in mkv containers with HEVC video with preferably 2 audio streams, one AAC mixed to 160kbps preferring Dolby surround as the mix-down and one that is a pass-thru for whatever is the best audio stream offered usually AC-3 5.1or DTS-HD 7.1.
No matter the source: DVD, BD, or Other; it all goes through handbrake. I have no 4k content but most of the players support HEVC / AAC in MKV containers.
Plex will direct play to your player if it supports what you’re presenting it.
If it needs to change the ‘container’ (e.g. MKV -> MP4) for the player, it does it automatically without touching either stream.
If it can transcode (audio or video) to fit any limitations of the player.
This is simply my policy for storing the media. This is my pre-processing policy. Before I feed it into my Plex folders it gets formatted like I described.
I love that Plex will transcode for any client, at any bitrate. I love the remote stream capabilities. It is the one feature Plex has that I will not live without.
This question is more directed at the inner collector in each of us. “How do you like your collection formatted”
I rip my media raw off the disk into an MKV, removing only those audio and subtitle tracks I know I will not need, writing to the MKV. I keep all the video bits as-encoded. mkv-toolnix and makemkv are my tools of the trade. Handbrake is not used. Handbrake always discards quality.
When going to 4K, keep every piece of quality you can. You’ll be grateful when it plays.
Since any alteration of the stream reduces quality and since transcoding by Plex or Handbrake are both altering the stream the decision for me is what reduces the quality the least and what is acceptable for the content involved.
I have many newer movies or TV shows that the original was high quality so I use Handbrake settings that places the stream in an mkv or mp4 container and keeps the quality at the best my old eyes and ears can appreciate. This generally means 1080p and Dolby 2.1 stereo audio.
There are advantages to being old as my eyes and ears have deteriorated to the point where all the fancy audio and video settings are simply lost on me. So my policy is to get streams in the just an average format that will direct play on my primary client, a Roku Ultra.
I also have a number of old movies and TV shows in avi format (originally encoded by an uncle that remembered my love of video in his will) and I do not bother to reencode most of those and just let my Plex server transcode them. It is simply not worth the effort for me to get those old shows in another format. Both my Plex servers (A Shield and a computer) are plenty powerful to handle the transcoding required.
Earlier I mentioned advantages of age and there are two related to this thread:
As mentioned earlier, I do not have the ability to see or hear the advantages of the high end video or audio so I save money on equipment and space in my file system.
I NEVER have to watch a rerun, everything is brand new every day. Just the other day I saw a freshly new “I Love Lucy” episode (I did not know those were still being made) I really want some of that “Vitameatavegamin” to help with my aches and pains.
