Need Helping Deciding Whether Or Not To Keep 4k UHD Movies

[planedrop]

Hey everyone, actually a sorta simple set of a few questions, some of which I am wanting opinions on which is why I am posting a new one and not just referencing older posts. First a small bit of background.

I have a 48TB FreeNAS server that I store all my data on, including movies, and I collect 4K BDs which I rip to the server, but as we all know they are huge and taking up a good 8TB of space on it right now and more to come. I'm starting to wonder if keeping these around is just pointless, especially with how hard DV is to work properly over something like Plex. Keep in mind I have several 4K TVs around the house, only 2 of which have 4K BD players, and one of which is DV (LG OLED) and that thing is glorious with DV enabled. Now for the questions:

-I have done some digging on this but can't find a really straight answer (and the thread about it is like 700 pages long, not going to read all comments), but is it at all possible to get Dolby Vision off a 4K BD and keep the uncompressed Dolby Atmos audio? From my reading the answer is no, but I want to know.

-Second, if it is possible to get DV and DA uncompressed off a disk, how does the playback of this work on non DV TVs? Will it work at all, or just become HDR10?

-Does anyone really find it worth keeping 4K UHD rips around? Or should I really just stick with 1080p? Opinions welcomed.

Put it this way, ideally I would love to have DV and HDR10 options for all movies on Plex, makes picking a movie to watch out of 100+ 4K ones much easier when you can see them all on a interface on the TV, but streaming isn't something I prefer as the compression is trash obviously. So if I could somehow keep a single 4K UHD copy that would playback direct DV, Dolby Atmos, and HDR10 depending on the environment, I would love that. If it's not possible I will stick to 1080p and use discs when necessary for higher quality playback.

[st4evr]

-I have done some digging on this but can't find a really straight answer (and the thread about it is like 700 pages long, not going to read all comments), but is it at all possible to get Dolby Vision off a 4K BD and keep the uncompressed Dolby Atmos audio? From my reading the answer is no, but I want to know.

There are hundreds of discussions on this already, without the need of having to read that long thread. Example:

https://www.makemkv.com/forum/viewtopic ... ppo#p81708

Use the forum search function. Works fairly well and will often provide answers to these very common questions. Google is also another good option as this has not only been discussed to death within the walls of this forum, but in other tech related forums as well.

-Second, if it is possible to get DV and DA uncompressed off a disk, how does the playback of this work on non DV TVs? Will it work at all, or just become HDR10?

Again, shorter conversations regarding this topic have also been discussed. Example:

https://www.makemkv.com/forum/viewtopic ... yer#p70450

And Google is your friend as it will provide plenty of additional helpful information on this topic as well:

https://www.google.com/search?client=fi ... -ml878ulM8

-Does anyone really find it worth keeping 4K UHD rips around? Or should I really just stick with 1080p? Opinions welcomed.

This is always a topic that is subjective. Because in the end, it's entirely up to you as the viewer in your space to decide what best looks for you. Yes, forum members can advise as many here have great experience and opinions, but ultimately we do not have your eyes and/or your home setup.

UHD BDs do have an improvement in visuals when compared to their 1080P BD counterparts. However, do you see a difference and do you prefer that difference over 1080P? Some people do, some people don't. And that is the question you would need to answer for yourself first. It's that "beauty is in the eye of the beholder" idea.

[planedrop]

Hey thanks for the fast response, and for all the links, I do appreciate it. I had some troubles finding simple quick answers to the questions, and from what I understood the MP4 muxing still relied on uncompressed Dolby Atmos which is not something I am willing to sacrifice on. Great to know about the DV/HDR10 fallback though, that helps me a ton, thank you.

To add to that I am wanting this all accessible via Plex, from what I understand, can't be done with the full folder backup method (correct me if I am wrong though).

I definitely prefer UHD content when I can get it, I can for sure see it, especially with an OLED (and my fairly sensitive eyesight). However, I'm fine with putting the BDs into my DV BD player if need be, I just was hoping to do it via Plex for the easy of sitting down, grabbing the remote, and clicking play on something and getting full bitrate DV with uncompressed Atmos. And as far as I am reading this is not doable, at least not yet, but that is kinda what I was looking for a simple answer on. Not HOW to do it, but whether or not it's been successful at all, if it has been, then I can do the digging to find out exactly HOW to go about it. I'll certainly read through more of the info in the links you sent (I did read the specific linked post on all of them though) to get more info for myself.

P.S. I appreciate you not being condescending about there being topics out already, often times people in forums just say "Do a search idiot" or something similar, and you took the time for a detailed post, thanks again.

[Woodstock]

Here is an opinion from the Luddite viewpoint.

Storing 4K content comes down to whether or not you "need" a 4K version of something to like watching it.

For me, DVD content was always rather "meh", fairly nice for the displays available at the time. I didn't bother with Bluray for a couple of years. And I certainly didn't bother with BD for anime, because the subtitles couldn't be played on a lot of stuff. But I decided to move to mainly BD for a couple of reasons - non-interlaced content, and I got players that could display PGS subtitles properly. But I don't keep the original 1080p BD files after I use handbrake to shrink them 50-90%.

Yes, I do notice the difference between DVD and most BD content, but... If the story is boring enough that I'm concentrating on resolution and artifacts, why am I bothering to watch it?

4K is even worse, because I refuse to sit close enough to the screen to differentiate between 2160 and 1080 content (it's in a range that would require me to have a THIRD focal-range pair of glasses cut). Saving a raw 4K rip, to me, is not justifiable. I'd rather just rip the "regular" BD copy for everyday, and pull out the 4K if/when I want to impress someone with "how awesome 4K is".

[planedrop]

Totally get you, personally though I think the cinematography/video quality is just as important as the story to me. I think it's part of the artform that is film making I guess? For example I much prefer watching Dunkirk on my OLED than on some normal 1080p setup or something like that.

I will however, agree with you that the 4K itself isn't what does it, sure the extra fidelity is nice, especially on close up shots of hair or skin and whatnot. But the bigger difference is the amazing HDR that you get from OLED plus Dolby Vision, it's so dramatic and breathtaking IMO.

But yeah, I feel maybe just keeping the UHD BDs around for the purpose of watching those, and the 1080p content can be elsehwere, might be just fine. I guess I was just kinda hoping that it was possible to, in short, Rip 4K UHD BD with Dolby Vision and uncompressed Dolby Atmos and stream it via Plex to both DV and non DV TVs and still get DV or HDR10 depending on the TV with full bitrate 4k. But the more digging I do, it seems that is near impossible and would take a ton of work.