Creating a media library - file quality??

JustAnotherSaver

End result - I will have all of my movies - blu ray & DVD as well as all my CDs stored digitally on a hard drive. Well, probably multiple hard drives but you get the idea. Whether this then leads to me getting rid (be it selling or simply getting rid) of the physical media to create room, I don't yet know. If they DO end up going then this thread is even more important.

Right now I have only started with a number of blu rays & came to a stop due to storage. I've not even started with the music side of things yet.

Now it's all well & good me starting out saying to myself I'm going to do XYZ but I'm well aware that in X-months/years time I could end up looking back saying "if only I'd....." and "now I've got to re-do.....".

Which is why I'm here to try and get advice from those further down the line than I am.

Now obviously, the ideal situation is you hold everything in absolutely perfect quality with totally zero loss in any kind of quality from the physical media it came from - but sooner or later you run in to an issue which is storage. You could just continue with zero loss and keep buying hard drives to store that - but then we're turning a costly hobby in to an even more costly one.

So for me I have 2 things I want to ask about....

VIDEO / MOVIES

My Plex folder & drives mostly contain blu-ray versions. I think sooner or later I'll need to compress these using something like Handbrake. Probably better to do when I have a PC that doesn't take an eternity to do it.

My issue is as mentioned - I don't want to take a hit on quality, or at least noticeable quality. I don't want to make the audio sound tinny or the image look grainy. I want someone who doesn't know what I've done to watch it & just assume it's blu-ray quality .... while taking up a fraction of the hard disk space the original did.

Right now I have a Sonos Beam soundbar which while a great piece of kit & my first soundbar, has its limitations on the sound output.

So I am weary about chopping out sound properties.

Maybe in 1, 5, 10, 20 years time I'll go to a 5.1 or a 7.1 setup and want to be able to use that.

Maybe I'll never ever have a surround sound setup. Who knows.

I'd rather have the option of something and never use it than later on wish I hadn't done XYZ which removed the option.

What video format? .mp4? .mkv? (All mine are currently in .mkv)

So when compressing your movies, what do you do exactly to kind of future proof the file while taking minimal quality loss?

MUSIC

Now here's one I'm really curious about.

MP3? FLAC? (something else entirely)?

Once you decide the format, then what quality and settings in that format?

For example, I'm not sure (note: not sure is different to can't) I can tell the difference between say 192bit mp3 and 256bit or above ..... but then I mostly listen to music in my car via my iPod which is plugged in to my stereo. Or at the gym via my earphones which are plugged in to my iPod (yes, not wireless - yet).

But what if I have another situation down the line where I DO notice the difference & wish I'd opted for different settings when starting out - then I'd be majorly annoyed.

Plus I would also like for the library to be open to family - so I am thinking of them also.

As I probably have some 200+ movies and no doubt easily twice that in CDs, I don't really want to be looking back saying "I wish....."

gefnew

Some light reading on quality when ripping DVD.
How to Enhance DVD Video Quality? [Problem Solved!] (bestvideoconverter.org)

Olinda99

Rip CDs to flac approx 300mb per CD x 400 ie 120gb. It you want mp3 as well use 320kbps but also keep.the lossless flac files

Films to mp4 about 2gb per film x 200 ie 400gb

So total  520gb so a 1 or 2 TB drive should do you with loads of room for expansion

Apologies if I have made a mistake with any of the maths

k_man

While I know it wasn't specifically part of your OP, but there are copyright implications if you sell the original media.

But back to the OP.
First thing to try is do a few different RIPs, and see if you see/hear any difference on current equipment.

For audio I used to use FLAC, because it is lossless, and I thought it sounded better than MP3.
I then realised (after months) that I had changed source folders to the MP3 versions (used to copy to portable players) and hadn't notice the difference/degradation.
I would probably though, still use FLAC when ripping. That way you can convert to the latest best codec.
Disk space for audio pales compared to video.

I find video less forgiving, and the slightest colour banding (obvious impact of lower nitrate) annoying.
I don't think you can avoid the potential for wrong format regret! And there is also the risk of spending as long ripping and converting etc, as actually watching.

For completeness, I now stream everything online and while the quality is not as good as local full rate media, a lot of it is very good, and if it isn't I have the comfort of knowing it is not my fault for the wrong format of source!

k_man

Just realised my long post doesn't really help you choose what format ☹️

JustAnotherSaver

Olinda - something omitted from your post is a why.

"Do this do that" ... that's all fine, but why? Why this instead of that or that instead of this?

Example - you say use FLAC. Why and not high bitrate mp3? You say use mp4 - why, and not .mkv?

About 2GB per film. That's fairly generalising is it not? What does that even apply to? I'll give you 2 examples - Avengers Infinity War blu ray rip I have at 33.1GB, Jackie Chan's Dragons Forever DVD rip I have at 4.75GB. One only needs compressing approx half to get to the 2GB, the other much more. Little bit of a difference.

K-Man - I don't know whether it's the same as comparing original to compressed but when I've been watching a movie through Plex and it's been having a bit of a hard time playing (buffering) then I'll drop the image quality from original to say 12Mbps. I don't know at what point I start seeing a difference but I know I can go down 1 or 2 options and not see a difference in terms of image quality.

Now whether that's my eyes or whether that's the TV perhaps, I don't know. Maybe if I had a new TV (or just different TV) then dropping down to 12Mbps or thereabouts I would see a difference ... or maybe not. Like I said, it could be my eyes, I've no idea (and also no spare TV).

The actual ripping of the discs doesn't take that long. I've had a play with compressing using Handbrake and that's a different story. IIRC it was about 5-8 hours.

Regards streaming - I appreciate everything is going that way but I'm not a fan of it. I'm quite happy being old fashioned and wanting to have possession. If i want to watch any movie I own then it's not a problem. If I go streaming only then does the streaming service have it? Maybe, maybe not. Is it to be paid for or is it free as part of my subs?

Not only that but I have quite a lot of Asian made martial arts movies for example. Now if I want to watch Titanic (stream) then I'd be fairly confident that the streaming service would have it - it's a big name movie. The martial arts movies though? Not quite so confident. Enter the Dragon with Bruce Lee yes, but Armour of God by Jackie Chan? Maybe, maybe not. I remember about 15 years ago it was hard enough to get Wheels on Meals (Jackie Chan) on DVD, nevermind a streaming service. I don't think it's as hard to get now as it was but I'm sure you appreciate the point I'm making.

There are advantages to streaming, yes. There was a movie I wanted to watch through Plex & it was buffering like mad. I found it on Netflix and watched it fine.

But still, I'd prefer to have a media library of everything I own.

k_man

What TV do you currently have?

I know people with big TVs happy to watch in SD.
Whereas I will check if the source is available in HD or 4k, ideally with HDR before settling for HD, the SD (urgh).
Oh, and then make sure the soundtrack is the ATMOS version, or at least 5.1, before settling on stereo (again urgh 😉)

As you state, a new TV/sound system may flush out your bad choices!

JustAnotherSaver

k_man said:

What TV do you currently have?

I know people with big TVs happy to watch in SD.
Whereas I will check if the source is available in HD or 4k, ideally with HDR before settling for HD, the SD (urgh).
Oh, and then make sure the soundtrack is the ATMOS version, or at least 5.1, before settling on stereo (again urgh 😉)

As you state, a new TV/sound system may flush out your bad choices!

This is my TV.

Bought it in 2015 I think. While I wouldn't say no to a new one with new features, really for what it'd bring vs what I've got I can't justify the spend.

I don't think I could go much smaller although with the TV stand I also couldn't go a whole lot bigger either so I'm in and about that size give or take a bit.

I can't stand SD. It's horrible. If we're watching BBC1 say then it'll be on 101, not 1 or 001 or whatever it is (on BT). We don't watch a lot of 'normal TV'. It's 99% Netflix or if one of us has Prime then that. My wife watched 'normal TV' for the first time in ages at the weekend & asked if something was wrong with the TV because of the poor image quality.

Yeah you wally you've got it on channel 1. You want to put it on 101. I grab the remote to check because of course she'd picked the SD version.

Nope, it was on 101.

She sits there smug lol

So yeah, if I can make use of better image and better sound then of course I want to. It's finding a balance while also leaving your options open down the line.

k_man

Was just worried you had a 32" TV, and so would be in for a big shock when you did upgrade, a low bitrate (or codec) choice would be found out!

pmartin86

Personally I've found it quite hard to see the difference between "1080p HD" and "4k" - that might just be my aging eyes though! I tend to rip my Stuff to 1080p with about 20fps - moves come out between 10 and 20gb and ive honestly never watched one and thought "Wish that was better" - I've got 4 x 8TB Drives on a Raid5 on a Dell R720xd server (I use the server for homelab stuff) and I'm using about 14tb at the moment.

I think the biggest thing you need to consider is how much it matters to YOU. Personally I rip at 1080 and stick the Blu-rays in a box in the loft. I'd love to rip it all at lossless quality, but at 50+ GB a film, i quote you:

"we're turning a costly hobby in to an even more costly one"

Withbellson

My advice would be to rip as little as possible. meaning that you should find a source that already has the titles that you own and download them from there. 
It will take you ages with EAC to rip and convert your CD collection to a lossless format. Then there is the visual media.

Anyone who suggests that they cannot detect the difference between lossy MP3 and a lossless format, has very poor listening equipment; that including their ears and brain.

Always lossless. If you need MP3 copies for the car, then you can convert from the lossless format.

Visual media can be dealt with similarly. Choose the quality you want from what is already out there, unless you have a relatively small collection and want to treat it as a hobby.

Look here for some pointers as to Blu-ray Disc Bitrates: https://jell.yfish.us