makemkvcon and headless operation

[MakOwner]

I have been digging around and can't find any good information on building or moving makemkvcon on a headless, CLI only system for scripted only operation.

I'm looking to use makemkvcon an a minimal server installation of Ubuntu LTS (currently 14 but it will eventually move to 16, whcih means a kernel difference).

I can probably figure out the CLI just by messing with it, and what I can find, however a nice manpage or something would be nice.

Moving makemkvcon from a Mint workstation to an Ubuntu server even work? What else needs to be on the server?

[technojunkie]

I think I've just completed exactly what you're trying to do. I was trying to package makeMKV into a docker container for headless use. It's still a work in progress but if you use docker it might save you a bit of a headache. Otherwise you can look at my dockerfile and maybe figure out how to get setup for yourself:

https://hub.docker.com/r/technojunkie/riputil-docker/
https://github.com/technojunkie/riputil-docker

Note that this container only integrates Handbrake for transcoding and makeMKV for ripping. None of my ripping scripts are included you're on your own for that.

[TroyWolf]

THANKS, @technojunkie!

Your docker config in github was the only "documentation" I found for how to install MakeMKV without GUI. For others, here is what I had to do on my Ubuntu Server 16.04 LTS.

I created a tmp directory and moved into it. Then I did this:

Code: Select all

wget http://www.makemkv.com/download/makemkv-bin-1.10.4.tar.gz
wget http://www.makemkv.com/download/makemkv-oss-1.10.4.tar.gz

apt-get install -y \
    zlib1g-dev \
    libssl-dev \
    pkg-config \
    libexpat1-dev \
    libssl-dev \
    libavcodec-dev \
    libc6-dev \
    libdvdnav4 \
    libdvdread4 \
    libudev-dev;

tar xzf makemkv-oss-1.10.4.tar.gz; \
    cd makemkv-oss-1.10.4; \
    ./configure --disable-gui; \
    make; \
    make install;

cd ..

tar xzf makemkv-bin-1.10.4.tar.gz; \
    cd makemkv-bin-1.10.4; \
    mkdir tmp; \
    echo "accepted" > tmp/eula_accepted; \
    make install;

Some of those packages were already installed for me, but does not hurt to have them in there. If you are missing any additional dependencies, you'll find out when you try to configure. Just read the last few lines of output to see what you are missing, then apt-get install it.

I was then able to copy an entire DVD of the movie Elf using this:

Code: Select all

makemkvcon mkv disc:0 all /plex/movies/Elf

I'm definitely no expert (yet), but since I had such a hard time finding this, figured good to share. Most of the kudos here go to @technojunkie.

[TroyWolf]

Some good folks on the Internets have been telling me "Don't use HandBrake to rip your movies for Plex. Use MakeMKV to get a full quality copy then let Plex transcode as necessary. Disk space is cheap."

I use my DVD of the movie Elf as a test. First I ripped with HandBrake set at Constant Quality 18 to produce an H.264 encoded MP4. The resulting file size was 1.2GB. Then I used MakeMKV to copy the DVD and ended up with a 3.5GB file of the main movie track. Then I and 3 friends watched both on a 46" TV using Plex via a FireTV Stick. Both streams were using Direct Play (no on-the-fly transcoding). None of us could tell a difference in quality.

So for now I figure to continue using HandBrake for the space savings. Also note that although I did not actually time it, I don't think MakeMKV was able to copy the movie any faster than HandBrake can rip it. I have a relatively powerful CPU. I can rip with Handbrake above 200 fps.

It's definitely confusing out there--all the advice to do it this way or that way.

[Transporter]

Yes, hard drive space keeps getting cheaper and as long as the movie isn't going on a mobile device with limited space, I find its best to rip to MKV because it has the most advantages. MKV plays on a PC, Smart Phone, Table, PLEX, Roku, and on and on and on. So why rip with HandBrake and then have to convert to another format if the device doesn't support MP-4. With MKV, its one and done with all my movies backed up in one format that can be played on ALL my devices. Just my thinking on the File Type.

I have a HUGE CD collection that was ripped to MP3, then again to 320Kbps when drives got larger, now my whole collection is ripped to FLAC and I can convert it to whatever format my devices need or have room for. So having everything in one format can be handy and you only have to do it once now that TB HD are cheap! FLAC for audio files and MKV for video files.

[NullNix]

Yes, hard drive space keeps getting cheaper and as long as the movie isn't going on a mobile device with limited space, I find its best to rip to MKV because it has the most advantages. MKV plays on a PC, Smart Phone, Table, PLEX, Roku, and on and on and on. So why rip with HandBrake and then have to convert to another format if the device doesn't support MP-4. With MKV, its one and done with all my movies backed up in one format that can be played on ALL my devices. Just my thinking on the File Type.

I do it because of wifi bandwidth. This stuff usually/often goes over wifi these days, whether to a mobile device or to a home cinema driven by an embedded board without much storage, and both DVD and BluRay encodes can often be reduced in size by an order of magnitude by transcoding. That means you need ten times less wifi bandwidth, and wifi's actually-attainable bandwidth is often so much lower than the advertised maximum that the difference between 10MiB/s and 1MiB/s is, for me, very frequently the difference between a useless stuttering playback and smooth playback. (I certainly don't do it because of hard drive space -- spending 50p or so of power on saving about 5p worth of disk space is a foolish economy: but spending it to get your film that cost ten times as much into a form you can actually watch without stuttering is sensible.)

[ember1205]

Some good folks on the Internets have been telling me "Don't use HandBrake to rip your movies for Plex. Use MakeMKV to get a full quality copy then let Plex transcode as necessary. Disk space is cheap."

I use my DVD of the movie Elf as a test. First I ripped with HandBrake set at Constant Quality 18 to produce an H.264 encoded MP4. The resulting file size was 1.2GB. Then I used MakeMKV to copy the DVD and ended up with a 3.5GB file of the main movie track. Then I and 3 friends watched both on a 46" TV using Plex via a FireTV Stick. Both streams were using Direct Play (no on-the-fly transcoding). None of us could tell a difference in quality.

So for now I figure to continue using HandBrake for the space savings. Also note that although I did not actually time it, I don't think MakeMKV was able to copy the movie any faster than HandBrake can rip it. I have a relatively powerful CPU. I can rip with Handbrake above 200 fps.

It's definitely confusing out there--all the advice to do it this way or that way.

Plex has more issues than I can count when it comes to connectivity, transcoding, FF, REW, etc. I transcode EVERYTHING with HandBrake before storing it in Plex and not only save 75% of my disk space overall with ZERO noticeable change in PQ (75" Sony Bravia 940D), but I also drastically reduce the number of issues I have with Plex throwing up all over itself trying to play the content. I use the "HQ 1080p30 Surround" preset for everything that comes from BluRay.