Video Transcoding VS automatic-ripping-machine

I use this project by Don Melton to get a Blu-ray video down to an 8 - 10 GB file size: https://github.com/donmelton/video_transcoding

It uses HandBrake, FFmpeg, MKVToolNix, and MP4v2 with some custom tuned settings and has really good results from my experience.

I have primarily used Plex and pretty much everything you said is accurate for Plex as well. Limited transcoding based on the machine it is running on. As disc has become cheaper, I have pretty much stopped doing batch transcodes, which is great for the most part. But there are definitely negatives when you want to watch something offline, or remotely. Biggest pain point is subtitles though. Since they aren't ripped as text and then sent to a client, they have to be burned in to the video itself and transcoded on the fly. Which means losing out on 'forced' ones if it can't transcode fast enough.

Plex has definitely started to try and commercialize itself more and offer other stuff, when all I want is access to my own media. So I may look into Jellyfin more soon.

As for batch transcode jobs, I had a system that I was able to set up as essentially a black box. Drop a rip into a folder and out the other side comes a smaller one at a reasonable quality. With forced subs burned right into the actual video. Mostly based on https://github.com/donmelton/video_transcoding

I use Don Melton’s tools to transcode videos to mp4 files. His tools makes use of Handbrake but he has it tuned to produce very small video files of very high quality. You are unlikely to notice the difference when watching the videos.

Checkout https://github.com/donmelton/video_transcoding. In my experience produces higher quality and smaller files than handbrake alone.

When I was ripping my disc collection, I used Don Melton’s library. Don originally started the Safari and Webkit project at Apple but after he retired, he spent some significant time trying to create an easy way of compressing video but resting quality. Great collection of tools in my opinion that leverage handbrake for encoding. Good luck!

Check out https://github.com/donmelton/video_transcoding

I've been using Don Melton's Video Transcoding tool for my whole library. I upgraded my NAS to a Synology DS1019+ a few months ago, so now I have the space to store the untranscoded MakeMKV files. I've had issues with playback in my system, so I don't mind manually transcoding.

Check out https://github.com/donmelton/video_transcoding – I use it to turn raw Blu-ray tips from 30+ gigs down to 5-7 with no noticeable loss of quality.

This project still seems alive to my pleasant surprise.

https://github.com/automatic-ripping-machine/automatic-rippi...

I never had it fully working because the last time I tried, I was too focused on using VMs or Docker and not just dedicating a small, older computer to it, but I think about it often and may finally just take the time to set up a station to properly rip all the Columbia House CDs I bought when I was a teen and held on to.

Ok. It was actually software as well: https://github.com/automatic-ripping-machine/automatic-ripping-machine

I really like ARM (automatic ripping machine)

https://github.com/automatic-ripping-machine/automatic-rippi...

Put a DVD/blu ray in a drive and it automatically determines the title, starts ripping, then pops the disc out when it's done.

There's options for post-ripping transcoding also.

It's a pain to get set up initially, but the Automatic Ripping Machine[1] plus Jellyfin/Plex/etc[2] makes for a great combination.

[1] https://github.com/automatic-ripping-machine/automatic-rippi...

[2] https://jellyfin.org/

I have a lot of DVDs that I would like to rip and then convert into mkv files. Many of these are small productions that aren't likely to be on "Linux ISO" trackers, so "just download them instead!" is not a valid option. I just recently came across posts like this one and this one and even this one here on DataHoarder (which sadly didn't get any responses) and this one from this past week about this awesome GitHub project called Automatic Ripping Machine that is based on this original post from 2016, but I'm happy to see that it has been getting updates even within the last few weeks.

To lump on to abcde, its used to great effect within ARM.

GitHub - automatic-ripping-machine/automatic-ripping-machine: Automatic Ripping Machine (ARM) Scripts

I beg to differ Automated Ripingp Machine