www.makemkv.com

Hi, I used this software to start transitioning my disc collection to a personal digital collection. After ripping around 70 DVDs I started to experiment with playback on my Plex server running on a Synology DSM. Well, it works, but it transcodes it as it streams. I see in the file details that the codec(?) is MP2. I tried a different software to rip a disc and it set the codec to H.264. When I try streaming the file with H.264 it plays without transcoding. I'd rather not put a heavy load on my DSM everytime I stream a movie.

So, is there a way to make MakeMKV output a file using H.264?

Doing the encode while ripping will slow the rip down. It is also a much more complex process, with hundreds of configuration possibilities.

The only time "encode while ripping" makes sense is if you're only doing a disk or two. Get beyond that, and you'll spend more of YOUR time by the computer, feeding disks at irregular intervals.

I'm currently running a batch encode of BD files in handbrake; the ripping of 12 BDs resulted in 140 episode files. Ripping in MakeMKV took about 5 hours. The encode is in hour 30 right now, just over half way done.

Oh, and the handbrake batch job was started soon after the first disk finished ripping, so yes, it is possible to "encode while ripping".

Thank you! I will just do that. Rip from Disc then transcode to H.264.

Another option is re-encoding to H.264 during the rip itself. I just validated the process with HandBrake and it took no more time than it did by ripping a DVD with MakeMKV and then using HandBrake to re-encode it. However, as Woodstock said, with a sufficiently powerful PC, you can rip with MakeMKV and re-encode with HandBrake at the sametime.

You need something like HandBrake to do the re-encode anyway. So just rip a bunch of discs to a folder and let HandBrake batch process them. After the 2nd disc starts ripping, use HandBrake's Add To Queue feature to start the 1st rip re-encoding. As each successive rip finishes, use HandBrake to add it to the queue. After your last disc is ripped, HandBrake will keep chugging along, all night if it has to; the important thing is that it does so w/o any more intervention by you.

Also note that your PC has to be powerful enough to rip & re-encode simultaneously; some PCs aren't. I just rebuilt my PC with an AMD Ryzen 7 3800X, a 1TB M.2 Samsung EVO 970, and 64GB of fast RAM; I can do simultaneous ripping & re-encoding while Plex streams and I play Star Wars online, and the PC doesn't even break 60% CPU. (The gob of fast RAM helps, of course.)

(In case you're wondering why I went with a mega-PC instead of 2 rigs, add up the electricity cost of 2 rigs and it exceeded the cost of 1 mega-PC. And I even live in Seattle with the country's cheapest electricity.)

Oh, if you don't mind the time sink, you can go crazy with your HandBrake preset and shoot for really high quality. The re-encodes take longer, but it retains really high quality. It's not a big deal with DVDs, but I bet it'd be a much bigger issue with Blu-Rays.