New Plex user - compression settings

I am just starting to get into Plex server software for distributing my movie collection throughout the house. Essentially I need to do a few things, like rip my movies, then compress them, but not reduce the resolution. Then I need to have Plex serve these, (which is seems to be doing) to a few different devices.

First, I will be streaming movies to the bedrooms which have chromecasts.

Second, I will be streaming to some Samsung BD-F5900 players using the Samsung Plex application. I think I can control this from Android phones maybe, not really sure.

Third, every once in a while I will want to put a few movies on my Virgin Mobile Supreme for when I travel for work.

OK, so I have Any DVD and handbrake. I guess my questions would be what handbrake settings to use? Also, is it even going to be possible to create one movie file to play on both the Samsung devices and the chromecast devices, or are they going to need separate movie files with different encoding/audio options? That brings up another question, one of my main BD units is connected to my HT receiver, so will I need a third movie file to playback on that unit to get surround sound, like DTS or DD?

You only need one file. You rip it in the best quality and compression you can afford before you lose fidelity when viewing it as local content. You let plex handle the transcoding for streaming devices.

I do MakeMKV then use handbrake using mp4.

It works extremely well and the movies come out smaller in file size then they are on the disc but the quality remains the same.

I could try a different format or leave the movie files at standard sizes but you would be hard pressed to notice the difference. I also use an 8 core in my server and have zero issues with transcoding on the fly so the smaller file size is just an added benefit.

Just an update.

I got the Plex server running, ripping movies constantly with makemkv and encoding with handbrake. I have ~80 movies now and just realized I need to go buy some disks. I am using the "high" profile in handbrake because I just don't know the difference really. If someone has a decent profile let me know.

I gave up on getting DTS/DD surround from these, and figure if I want to get that sound, I will just put in the original disk and run it like normal. Otherwise it is chromecast or BD-F5900 players throughout the house.

Thanks for the help you guys.

In MakeMKV,when you get a list that drops down. Select the down arrow then it will give you options for DD, DTS, and subtitles. Select what you what and then run it.

If it isn't on the disk then there is nothing you can do to get it.

Tag along question since I'm trying to do the same thing with Plex. I already ripped my DVD's to .ISO format, so I really don't need MakeMKV, I should just convert them to mp4 via Handbrake correct?

I dont use iso so I am not 100% sure.

You should have no issues using handbrake with an iso file, my concern is the content that is on that iso. Will it have all the subtitles, languages, extra features, etc that you dont need that will basically just take up additional hard drive space for no gain in fidelity.

Edit: What I would do is still use MakeMKV. Mount the .ISO, open MakeMKV, and point it to the VIDEO_TS folder, then the .ifo file, and it will make the .mkv file.

Try both ways and see if there is any quality differences and the file size difference.

That is what I have been doing. I have found a handful of movies that won't play for some reason, so I am re-encoding those with the web optimized box checked and that seems to fix the issue with Plex.

The only thing I was hoping to get was the ability to get DTS/DD from the stream through my BD player to my home theater receiver and get the correct sound. I haven't been successful yet, but I'm sure it is something I am doing wrong. I figure that for those movies, I can just pop in the actual disc and watch like normal.

For everything else, like chromecasts, the setup seems to be working fine. The voices are a little low compared to the rest of the audio, but nothing too bothersome. I am ripping/encoding like mad right now...

ob1 said:

That is what I have been doing. I have found a handful of movies that won't play for some reason, so I am re-encoding those with the web optimized box checked and that seems to fix the issue with Plex.

The only thing I was hoping to get was the ability to get DTS/DD from the stream through my BD player to my home theater receiver and get the correct sound. I haven't been successful yet, but I'm sure it is something I am doing wrong. I figure that for those movies, I can just pop in the actual disc and watch like normal.

For everything else, like chromecasts, the setup seems to be working fine. The voices are a little low compared to the rest of the audio, but nothing too bothersome. I am ripping/encoding like mad right now...

Click to expand...

Open the movie before using MakeMKV. Sometimes that helps.

You dont need to use web optimized.

Can you explain what it is doing when it wont play?

Well, I did a search on their forums and got the web optimized answer, because I think they broke some movies in their latest patch. At any rate, here are the symptoms:

When browsing using Plex app on phone or on Samsung BD-F5900, you will see a few movies that don't have the "box art" stuffs, just like a black box with a title. If you try to play that movie, it goes to the play screen and on the android it just says can't play movie. On the BD player or chromecast, it just sits there like it is buffering or transcoding, but it will never play. I have over 100 movies on the PMS now and only5 so far have this issue. I rip them all and encode them all with the same settings. Now I am re-encoding those 5 using the web optimized setting and it seems to be working now. Another solution from their forums was to not add chapters or something, but I didn't try that one since this is working.

ob1 said:

Well, I did a search on their forums and got the web optimized answer, because I think they broke some movies in their latest patch. At any rate, here are the symptoms:

When browsing using Plex app on phone or on Samsung BD-F5900, you will see a few movies that don't have the "box art" stuffs, just like a black box with a title. If you try to play that movie, it goes to the play screen and on the android it just says can't play movie. On the BD player or chromecast, it just sits there like it is buffering or transcoding, but it will never play. I have over 100 movies on the PMS now and only5 so far have this issue. I rip them all and encode them all with the same settings. Now I am re-encoding those 5 using the web optimized setting and it seems to be working now. Another solution from their forums was to not add chapters or something, but I didn't try that one since this is working.

Click to expand...

Its likely that those videos have the time index at the end of the file instead of the beginning, you should just be able to remux it to mp4 to fix it.

Why remux to MP4 when Plex will direct stream or remux an MKV on the fly?

ob1 said:

Just an update.

I gave up on getting DTS/DD surround from these, and figure if I want to get that sound, I will just put in the original disk and run it like normal. Otherwise it is chromecast or BD-F5900 players throughout the house.

Click to expand...

I get DTS/DD from my Roku 3 on its Plex App... though, that'll cost you a few bucks more to deploy than will chromecasts...

I've been ripping and re-encoding my blurays for years. I've tried a variety of methods before settling on something.
I've run HTPC's for over a decade and have now abandoned them in favor of Roku 3's and plex.
I do keep one HTPC for those few blurays that I must have DTS-MA HD/TrueHD on.

Doesn't really matter what you rip with. I've used makemkv and eac3to.

I prefer to re-encode with ripbot as it handles cropping better than handbrake as well as burning the subs into the image(forced only). You can use a profile of 4.0 or 4.1, no need to go higher. With a setting of CQ20 there will be a quality difference between the original and the rip but that's fine for kids movies or comedies I find. I do CQ16 for the movies I really want high quality on. CQ18 works as a compromise.

I process the subs with bdsup2sub and ONLY export the forced if there are any and burn in the video image. I hate messing with subtitle files and if you speak english and it's an english speaking movie you only need the forced subtitles.

The resulting video and the HD audio from the rip get merged with mkvmerge. Then placed in a folder and copied to my server. Plex handles the serving to the roku's and mobile devices.
On my one HTPC I use windows 7 media center with the media browser plugin and the MPC-HC player.

A chromecast is going to limit you on the wireless bandwidth which will affect quality and it has more limited file support than the roku so plex will have to do more transcoding on that.

On the Roku 3 it can direct play MKV with h.264 video without transcoding so no quality loss and very little processing power used on the sever. It will transcode my HD audio and give me DTS usually. I have seen my receiver light up with DTS-ES 6.1 from lord of the rings. Transcoding the audio uses hardly any power.

Also you can "cast" to the roku 3 the same as you would a chromecast from youtube, netflix and plex.

I'm using MakeMKV to pull in the video and 5.1 or 7.1 DTS/DD track along with english subtitles (subs can be a pain with some movies so better to pull all english subs in with MakeMKV). I then use Handbrake with AppleTV 3 setting but I change the RF to 19 (default is 20). This gives me video quality that's pretty much identical to the source along with a 5.1 Dolby Digital track and an 2.0 AAC track as backup for devices without DD support. Some movies with subtitles require testing to find the right subtitle track but I always hardcode the subs if applicable.

I have 200 movies now and they're working great with 3 Roku 2 XS (wired 10/100 LAN), Apple TV (also wired), and I use Plex Sync to transcode copies to the iPad. Everything looks great, even on a 96" projector screen. No complaints yet.