I’m well aware that I can rip most Blu-rays with MakeMKV and then convert to mp4 with Handbrake; however, the former just rips everything raw from the disk so the file size is humongous and the conversion via Handbrake for just a single file is terribly long and puts a lot of strain on my computer.
I’ve heard that EaseFab LosslessCopy is decent, but they only have a Windows and a Mac version, and I’m unsure how well it’d run under Wine.
I am willing to pay for it, but only as long as it’s not a subscription thing. Has to be a one-time payment.
Does anyone know any decent Blu-ray ripping software that fits these conditions and run well on Linux? Specifically, it would be either Pop!_OS or Linux Mint. (I’m still using Windows because I want to figure out some software alternatives before I do so I’m not caught with my pants down, so to speak.)
There are multiple VERY inadvisable things you’re doing here. Darkcalling has good points, but in addition:
You are using a CRF of 0, which will create an insanely huge result video size for no perceptual benefit. There is no reason to do this. You may as well just use makemkv to create mkv files directly and use those. The underlying video encoding is AVC in both cases, just placed into differing containers. This is kind of a misuse of Handbrake. You use handbrake to reencode videos either from one encoding to another, or for satisfactory file size reductions from source materials.
You are also using an encode speed preset of placebo, which if you have ever done a comparison you will find offers basically exceedingly minimal file size reduction advantages over slow or very slow, but for a MUCH longer encode time.
I recommend trying to encode samples of quality RF 20-24 and determine which looks best to you (if they end up looking very different). Lower numbers are higher picture quality. I recommend an encode speed of as slow as you can bear, but not slower than Very Slow. I recommend the Encoder Profile being set to High (from Main). Basically the spec for h264 has changed slightly and while Main is super compatible, High has some potential for file savings/quality improvements and is compatible with basically any player since… God knows when, maybe 15 years ago?
One thing I don’t recommend is using nvenc, the gpu encoder, for non real time contexts. x264, the software renderer, will produce higher quality results. Higher quality means either the videos will look the same but the size will be smaller, or the sizes will be the same but the picture looks better.
Also, even though you don’t have it set, I also do not recommend the Fast Decode checkbox. Maybe useful for a device from the year 2002, but at the cost of a noticeably larger file size.
Finally, you should state what your actual goal is. Yes you are ripping your blu rays, but what are you trying to really achieve with this? Further advice can be dispensed with that info.
I figure I should use 2-Pass Encoding if I want a more accurate output, but what about Turbo First Pass? What’s that all about?
IIRC, you only need 2 pass if you need to fit a size target. So you can safely deactivate both options.
2-pass and turbo first pass is only valid if you use average bit rate, but you should just stick with the constant rate factor. CRF will actually use a higher bitrate in more complex scenes, anyway.
Some additional thoughts: Since you are encoding animation you can try to change the Encoder Tune option to Animation. It will increase the amount of deblocking (smooths out blocks that become visually apparent at low bit rates) which works well in animation where there are lots of flat colors.
You could change the output container from MKV to mp4. This will increase compatibility for playback and will have no effect on the result, because mp4 is designed to contain AVC video and AAC audio, and I think even a subtitle, too. HOWEVER I do not think mp4 can support DTS audio. In your current audio settings your audio streams are being converted to 160kbps AAC, which is decent. If you do switch to mp4 you can check the “web optimized” option, too, if your plan is to internet stream these videos. It just moves some metadata to the start of the file so your browser can play back immediately without having to download all the contents. There really isn’t any downside that I am aware of for choosing this setting. I am also not sure if it makes any difference in a Jellyfin/Plex setup to have those checked.
You don’t have to worry about the subtitle being burned in because in the settings in your screen shot that will only burn in “foreign” subs – seems like English is the only match and English won’t be burned in. For peace of mind you can remove the foreign audio scan anyway.
On both the audio and subtitle screens there’s a button which says “Selection Behavior.” You can click it and change what languages handbrake will automatically include when you load files for encoding. It’s very useful to do that instead of selecting/deselecting each time you load something to encode. You can consider only choosing English if that’s your desired language.
2-pass and turbo first pass is only valid if you use average bit rate, but you should just stick with the constant rate factor. CRF will actually use a higher bitrate in more complex scenes, anyway.
I always set the output framerate as “Same as source”, and when I do that the only options change from CBR & this other one I can’t remember to CBR & VBR. When it does this, it defaults to VBR. Should I change it to CBR instead?
Some additional thoughts: Since you are encoding animation you can try to change the Encoder Tune option to Animation. It will increase the amount of deblocking (smooths out blocks that become visually apparent at low bit rates) which works well in animation where there are lots of flat colors.
I will try this! Thank you!
You could change the output container from MKV to mp4 …
I would prefer to keep it in mkv format, mainly for consistency’s sake, but also because
- as far as I know MKVs tend to have smaller file sizes typically than MP4s for the same media
- I’ve read that mkv is more tuned for backups of TV shows & movies, and mp4 is more tuned for backups of web content (due to the streaming thing you mentioned)
- mkv is both an open format and libre, unlike mp4 which is only the former
- I’ve never had any issues with compatibility vs mp4
- Aside from the content being encoded with lossy codecs, I mainly see my backups first and foremost in an archival light and streaming material as second. So as long as it works in the latter context, I’m satisfied even if it’s not perfect. (And, yes, I do realize I should have mentioned this before when I said what my goal is. Whoops.)
I’m no expert, so please feel free to correct me if I’m wrong on any of this.
You don’t have to worry about the subtitle being burned in because in the settings in your screen shot that will only burn in “foreign” subs – seems like English is the only match and English won’t be burned in. For peace of mind you can remove the foreign audio scan anyway.
On both the audio and subtitle screens there’s a button which says “Selection Behavior.” You can click it and change what languages handbrake will automatically include when you load files for encoding. It’s very useful to do that instead of selecting/deselecting each time you load something to encode. You can consider only choosing English if that’s your desired language.
Well I do have some non-English content in my library. Also, as I said: archiving first, streaming second. So I like to have all the languages available in the container file.
