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I'm hoping someone can help clarify a few things for me before I start backing up all my 4K disks. I've been reading about HDR, Dolby Vision, the difference between ripping an MKV and a full disk backup and am still a little confused. I'm hoping someone can help me so I don't waste a bunch of time doing this incorrectly.

I've been using Emby for Kodi through a NUC to play all my blurays after ripping them as .MKV files. Using Kodi results in really choppy playback, so I thought I'd try Emby for Roku. That plays the disk, but doesn't support TrueHD or Atmos.

So a few questions.

1. Now that .MKV supports Dolby Vision, it sounds like ripping everything as .MKV files is the way to go so I can get rid of any junk on the disk? I'm not even sure if I need Dolby Vision because I don't currently have a display that supports it, but might in the future. Space really isn't an issue. I currently have 45TB with the ability to add about 25 more drives.
2. I was considering a Shield Pro, which appears to play just about anything. Is that still the best way to go?

Thanks for the help!

Dolby Vision has a concept of 'profiles'. You've probably seen this mentioned in your reading. Generally, movies on UHDs with DV are in profile 7. If you watch something streamed with Dolby Vision, that is most likely profile 5. I think I read on this forum that the iPhone 12 seems to be recording Dolby Vision in profile 8.

This is all to illustrate that Dolby Vision is a complicated beast. Now the MakeMKV can save the DV data from a UHD and store it in a standard way, it looks like the rest of the toolchain is working to support that. The newest versions of Plex server will properly recognize MKVs with profile 7 DV. The hard part at the moment seems to be playback. For example, I use an Apple TV 4K as my playback device, but that only supports DV profile 5, so I can't see the DV from my UHDs, which are profile 7.

It has been discovered that certain players (either standalone or built in to a TV) can play DV if things are in a particular format. Much of the discussion is about getting things into the format needed by the various players.

I think it is acceptable to say that folks expect playback of MKVs with profile 7 DV to get easier and more broadly supported over time. I also think it is safe to say if you were going to buy a player now, the Nvidia Shield Pro (2019) is probably the best for this stuff, though it isn't without its problems.

I would also say, since you don't have a display that supports DV, if you can get by without buying a new player now, I would wait. It may be the case that some new player will emerge that is better.

I think making MKVs of your 4K UHDs is a reasonable thing to do now.

Thanks so much for the response! That clears up A LOT of questions and helps tremendously.

I sent my wife to Best Buy to grab a Shield.

I’ll take your advice and rip them as An MKV Is there anything a special I need to look for when choosing tracks to ensure I get DV and HDR?

Thank you dcoke22 for explaining Dolby Vision profiles. I have tried to read many long threads which discuss but not explain this so well.

Spyderturbo007 wrote: ↑

Mon Dec 07, 2020 5:51 pm

I’ll take your advice and rip them as An MKV Is there anything a special I need to look for when choosing tracks to ensure I get DV and HDR?

No. MakeMKV will put whatever HDR stuff is on the disc in the MKV.

dcoke22 wrote: ↑

Tue Dec 08, 2020 7:03 am

No. MakeMKV will put whatever HDR stuff is on the disc in the MKV.

Thanks so much. I appreciate all your help. I started ripping my 4K disks into MKV format. Takes forever though even with a patched drive.

Did you set your drive to unlimited read speed? I can rip a UHD with my Asus drive in about 30 minutes.

bmillham wrote: ↑

Wed Dec 09, 2020 3:09 am

Did you set your drive to unlimited read speed? I can rip a UHD with my Asus drive in about 30 minutes.

Mine took about 1h 20m to do a 60GB rip. It runs right around 3.6x when it gets up to full speed.

It looks like that involves the HKCU\Software\MakeMKV registry value to be added where mine says speed_HL-DT-ST_BD-RE_WH16NS40....?

Controlling the drive speed is covered in this post:
https://www.makemkv.com/forum/viewtopic ... 19&t=22689