Brand New to MakeMKV and Ripping UHD

[Twest]

Hi Everyone,

I'm sorry if this has been addressed somewhere, but I was hoping I could get an easy step-by-step guide on the best way to playback my collection? I just got my UHD-friendly drive, and it works perfectly. I've ripped my DVD and Blu-ray collection (the easy part ), and now I'm trying to work on my 4K collection. This part has seemed a little daunting. I've read that MakeMKV will keep the Dolby layer, but playback is my issue. No matter what I do, I can't seem to get my TV to recognize Dolby Vision. I've read many people say that they had to go the NAS route with a Shield Pro and set up a Plex server, is this the only way to get Dolby Vision to recognize? If I have to get Plex that is fine, but since my collection isn't huge, I just wanted to keep it on my 12 TB WD My Book External Drive for now. I watch everything on one TV, so I was hoping to use my computer or even a 4 year old gaming laptop that's collecting dust as a server if I have to go the Plex, Emby, or Jellyfin route. There doesn't seem to be a way to plug the drive into the TV (Sony 65" X90J) and get it to play with Dolby Vision. Kodi on the Sony TV plays the file either as a rip or ISO but doesn't trigger DV on the TV. I've also read a lot of people mentioning TS Muxer. I have 0 knowledge of it, and if I need that to process the UHD and keep DV. I'd love to rip my 4K disc and playback without spending too much more money.

[dcoke22]

Dolby Vision playback is highly dependent on your playback setup.

Dolby Vision has this concept of profiles. Without going into a lot of detail, the DV on a UHD is profile 7. The DV you get with streamed content is profile 5. Most things people use for playback (an Apple TV, Roku, Fire stick, etc.) can do profile 5 DV but can not do profile 7. Different playback devices have different capabilities and need things in different formats to work. This is why getting DV to work is highly dependent on the playback setup.

Converting between formats and profiles is way beyond the scope of MakeMKV. There is a GIANT discussion of this topic on this forum however: Dolby Vision now possible through MP4 Mux. I recommend going the end and reading backwards. The user RESET_9999 has a set of scripts (linked in his signature) that can help you.

It is also worth noting that not all UHDs have Dolby Vision. Some have no HDR and some only have HDR10.

[Twest]

Thanks for the reply. Yeah, I came across the post on Dolby Vision via MP4 container after searching for answers. I think I'm going to take your advice and just work backward on that post on an off day. After looking through my 4K collection again, I think I greatly overestimated how many movies I have with Dolby Vision, so that eased my concern a lot. I'm new to a lot of this and some places I researched said MKV is better than MP4, so I didn't want to go that route, but now that I think about it MP4 is better than absolutely nothing at all. I'm making backups of all my 4K movies so if something better comes up down the road I will still have the originals to play with.

[knilch]

I think HDR is very much overestimated due to the limitations of todays TVs. The moment a TV can reproduce the 1000 nits most movies max out there will be no need for static or dynamic adaption of the frame/movie brightness/contrast anymore. The only sense in DV then will be the FEL upgrading an image to 12 bit, but it is questionable whether TVs will do that any time soon from a todays point of view.

[Jango8]

Is there a media player that will play media files in DV Profile 7 (via a NAS)?

[Twest]

Is there a media player that will play media files in DV Profile 7 (via a NAS)?

Hi. I haven't been on here in a while and saw no one ever chimed in on this one. I'm sure other have their opinions on what's "true" DV playback and all that stuff, but I've found a way to trigger dolby vision through my Android TV using the regular MKV file that you get from ripping on MakeMKV. I've done this 2 ways. I don't know a lot about the different DV profiles, so IDK if this will help. I just ripped 4K disc through MakeMKV and nothing else. If you're using anything other than a TV or player that can work on Android I have no idea how to do it. I also don't use an external player like a shield, so I don't know if this will translate to that either.

Method 1: I installed Just Video Player and File X-Plore (So far the only file manager I found to do what I needed). I used a spare very old and cheap M.2 SATA SSD for this test. I copied the ripped MKV. I didn't make it into a MP4 or remux or anything. I just put the disc in MAKEMKV and let it produce the MKV with the DV layer. Once I have the MKV file on my SSD, I connected it to my Sony X90J via a 3.0 USB hard drive enclosure. I go to X-Plore and use that to select "open with" and open the movie in Just Video Player. This method triggers dolby vision every time. The only hiccup I have is this method WILL NOT play DOLBY DTS Master (or whatever it's called). You will have to stick with the regular 5.1 or stereo mix. I don't use an external receiver or anything like that either.

Method 2: Same as method one but instead of attaching the USB directly to the TV and moving back and forward between TV and PC, I attached it to my mesh router'S 3.0 USB port to simulate a very cheap version of a NAS (granted it's not the NAS people think of or usually setup). This method works well, I had to enable options to use as a media device and enable SAMBA on the router PC app. Doing this method I can now copy the movie directly to the drive over my network and never have to take the drive out to connect it to the PC to move files. You will have to use the DLNA option in X-Plore on the TV to select media to playback and still open with -> Just Video Player. Since I have no experience setting up a NAS server like most do with Plex I can't help much on that end. If you can connect the NAS to a router directly it does work. There is an option to enter the IP address like I see people do in videos when setting up a Plex server, so maybe it's just as easy to do it in X-Plore.

Just knowing how most forums work I'm sure people will say this is wrong or I'm dumb for doing it this way. I didn't spend any money buying extra equipment, don't have to worry about converting to MP4 and other software, and the TV triggers dolby vision. I can't tell a difference between this method and when I play movies via a 4K player, so I'm happy with it.