Leave BluRay as MKV or convert to MP4

lone wolf

Gawd
Joined
Feb 4, 2003
Messages
705
I have all of my BluRays ripped with MakeMKV and was wondering if leaving them in this format is good with Plex Media Server, or should I just use handbrake and transcode them to MP4 as the same as my SD Movies.

Which is the Best way to have them?
 
I would leave them as mkv for quality and let your plex server transcode on the fly if needed. Assuming you have plenty of storage space, of course.
 
MKV and MP4 are strictly container formats. You can have .mkv and .mp4 files that have the exact same video and audio. Asking if you want to switch between the two is like saying, should I wrap my sandwich in a ziplock or foil? Either way it's the same sandwich.

If you're using plex on a device that doesn't support mkv, plex should be able to unwrap the container and let the device play the video directly...if it supports playing that video.

If it doesn't, the important part is transcoding the video format contained within, not changing the container format.
 
You are correct of course. :)

When I think of mkv, I always think of the default output of makeMKV which is uncompressed and unaltered. That's why I like it, simple with identical quality. Every time I think of mp4, my brain says "hey, that's the crap on your iPad", even though technically I know better. My god, if plex would just natively support all the ISOs I've ripped over the years, I would be in heaven.


MKV and MP4 are strictly container formats. You can have .mkv and .mp4 files that have the exact same video and audio. Asking if you want to switch between the two is like saying, should I wrap my sandwich in a ziplock or foil? Either way it's the same sandwich.

If you're using plex on a device that doesn't support mkv, plex should be able to unwrap the container and let the device play the video directly...if it supports playing that video.

If it doesn't, the important part is transcoding the video format contained within, not changing the container format.
 
Personally, I leave them as the uncompressed MKV from MakeMKV and play them on my Roku 3 devices at home via Plex. My Plex server also doesn't have any issues transcoding them to my iPad over the Internet when I'm away from the house, if I want to watch something. However, movies to me are watch and delete.. I don't have a need to keep a large collection of them.

The only exception for this are the Disney movies and such for the kids, who seem to be able to re-watch things over and over and over. For those I'll run through handbrake to compress the size, but I still leave them as MKV (not really sure why.. just habit I guess).
 
Personally, I leave them as the uncompressed MKV from MakeMKV

This, let PLEX transcode it for you for the destination device, unless of course you dont have enough cpu on your plex server. then things get a bit complicated.
 
Keep MKV. All my rips are perfect MKV files (my disclaimer - I own the discs that I have ripped). MKV has plenty of support these days, no use messing with it if you have the storage space.
 
I have all of my BluRays ripped with MakeMKV and was wondering if leaving them in this format is good with Plex Media Server, or should I just use handbrake and transcode them to MP4 as the same as my SD Movies.

Which is the Best way to have them?

MP4 and MKV are both container formats, as said before, and both use H264. MKV, IMHO, is better for multiple language and subtitle support. I've not had issues with MKV for years. But once you have one, there's no point in transcoding to the other as you'll just lower the quality.
 
Thank you everyone, I just put in another 3TB HDD so i will just leave them in the MKV format as suggested. most of the BluRays are the action / animated films that I want to keep, my cpu is long in the tooth however still a good one (i7 3770) with 32gb ram, I don't have the desire right now to build a new system so life is good!
 
Nope, very much so nope. Both CAN use h.264 sure but both aren't stuck with h.264. I've got quite a few h.265(/HEVC) videos in MKV that say otherwise.

You're admittedly splitting hairs by this point. By default, the majority of the encoders have used H264 when an Mp4 or MKV container was selected.
 
You're admittedly splitting hairs by this point. By default, the majority of the encoders have used H264 when an Mp4 or MKV container was selected.

x264 encoders for sure, but H.265, VP9, and others do not.
 
OP, you will have to look at what your needs are and make a decision based on that. Storage is cheap, but only at first. 3TB seems like a lot, but when you start throwing movies at it that are 20-40GB each, that space goes away fast. 2700GB (3TB formatted) divided by 30GB, is only 90 movies. 40GB only gives you 67 movies. I have 1200 movies so far and several hundred TV show episodes.

When I started looking that the storage requirements, I decided to see if I could really tell the difference in "pure" rips versus transcodes. Once I got down the settings on Handbrake I now get movies that are usually less then 10GB for 1080p and I can't tell the difference between original source or rip on a 82" TV. I do not need the extra's. I rip all the movies to have the same audio tracks (stereo and surround). And I if there are <forced> subtitles present I want them displayed anyways, so I just burn them in because it's much more compatible that way.

Think about how you will deal with storage down the line and what THAT cost will be.

Also QuickSync has gotten much better over the years. Handbrake QuickSync takes about 30-40 minutes for a 1080p movie and the quality (if set to ~18) is indistinguishable from source. I usually won't use it animation (because of hard contrast boundaries), but for live action it is really good.
 
OP, you will have to look at what your needs are and make a decision based on that. Storage is cheap, but only at first. 3TB seems like a lot, but when you start throwing movies at it that are 20-40GB each, that space goes away fast.

Not to mention that unless you're the kind that likes to live on the edge, you need 2x3Tb drives for a basic raid 1 level on a storage server. Imagine losing 3Tb worth of movies due to a single hard drive failure.
 
I get my movies down to around 8-12 gb d pending on the movie typically. For kid stuff that's sub 5gb.

Trying to keep my collection on 6tb while maintaining quality.

I have 2 3tb drives mirrored to 2x3tb REDs, that's just for media stuff.
 
I currently have my movies on a 6TB drive and my TV Shows on a 3TB drive and my music on its own 3TB drive. I have the same size external drives that I keep up to date backups on. I do like the idea of have mirrored drives, and I do believe that my LSI 9211 card can do that with no worries. I am still using an older version of anydvd and makemkv. I think I am going to start using makemkv exclusively.
 
I have all of my BluRays ripped with MakeMKV and was wondering if leaving them in this format is good with Plex Media Server, or should I just use handbrake and transcode them to MP4 as the same as my SD Movies.

Which is the Best way to have them?

you don't "convert" mkv to mp4

you can re-mux them from mkv to mp4, but that is pointless.
 
Plex Media Server supports all common media files:

  • Movies, TV Shows, and Home Video: MP4, MKV, AVI, MOV, DIVX, and more
  • Music: MP3, M4A, FLAC, WMA, and more
  • Photos: JPG, PNG, RAW, TBN, and more
It depends on which device you plan to stream the movies to. If the MKV files are not compatible with that devices, then Plex will transcode it for you.
 
Plex Media Server supports all common media files:

  • Movies, TV Shows, and Home Video: MP4, MKV, AVI, MOV, DIVX, and more
  • Music: MP3, M4A, FLAC, WMA, and more
  • Photos: JPG, PNG, RAW, TBN, and more
It depends on which device you plan to stream the movies to. If the MKV files are not compatible with that devices, then Plex will transcode it for you.
Nope, sortof. "Transcode" means it's re-encoding the video. Plex won't do this if the target device supports the video and audio inside the mkv container. In that scenario it'll just pass along the two streams untouched, just changing the container format (if that even, it may just pass along the raw streams if you're running an app and not the browser)
 
Nope, sortof. "Transcode" means it's re-encoding the video. Plex won't do this if the target device supports the video and audio inside the mkv container. In that scenario it'll just pass along the two streams untouched, just changing the container format (if that even, it may just pass along the raw streams if you're running an app and not the browser)

Which can be "really fun" if people do this on high bit rate over wireless. =P
 
leave it in mkv, no real reason to switch containers unless you like burning time

Intel QuickSync will save you a lot of space and only cost you about 30-45 minutes on a Bluray. Your going to spend 10 minutes just copying the raw data anyways.
 
I ended up keeping them in the mkv format, I get all of the sound a good picture quality I built a new server just for this so life is good now. I have a bit of space to grow

upload_2017-4-25_18-25-30.png
 
Following are the best settings for Plex playback:

Format: MP4

Video Codec: x264

Framerate: Same as source

Constant quality: 50-70% depending on how much loss you are willing to take for size. 62% is my sweet spot.

Anamorphic: Strict (Loose is also ok, maybe better for space concerns)

Keep aspect ratio: Off

Crop: Auto

Audio Settings

Track 1: AC3 passthrough (This setting maintains compatibility with other devices like AppleTV/PS3.)

Track 2: AAC with Stereo mixdown 96 bitrate (again compatibility for when the file is played in not Plex- not needed if file is only for Plex!)

Advanced Settings

Reference Frames: 5

Mixed References: On

B-Frames: 5 if live action, 15 if animation

Direct Prediction: Spatial

Weighted B Frames: On Pyramidal B Frames: On (if things don't work turn this off first)

Motion Estimation Method: Uneven Multi-Hexagon

Motion Estimation Range: 16-32 (more towards 16 when its live action drama, more towards 32 on actiony animation)

Subpixel Motion Estimation: 2-9 (more towards 2 when its live action drama, more towards 9 on actiony animation)

Analysis: All

8x8 DCT: On

Deblocking: Do that in main settings if needed

Trellis: 2 (might be most important settings I have found for quality)

No DCT Decimate: Off

CABAC Entropy: On
 
Following are the best settings for Plex playback:

Format: MP4

Plex doesn't care at all about the container provided it can read it fine. I would personally run it out as MKV that way you could include subtitles should one need them in the future.
 
Back
Top