www.makemkv.com

I used MakeMKV to rip 5 of my old 480p DVDs using the default MakeMKV settings. I did not transcode them with Handbrake or other software. When I play the digitized copies on my LG C4 4K TV the movies are of significantly lower quality than playing the movies on the DVD directly from my Panasonic Blu-ray player (DP-UB820-K). I am using a Jellyfin media server and Ethernet (1gb) to play the copies. There is no stuttering or lag going on. I can’t figure out why the copies are so much worse. MakeMKV is saving them at about 6000-6200 bitrate. I am using and old internal DVD RW to read the DVD for conversion. Is this the problem? Should I buy a Blu-ray player to rip even the older DVDs? Maybe Jellyfin is reducing the quality or maybe the Panasonic just upscales to 4K much better than my LG TV.

The MKV is a copy of what is on the disk. It isn't transcoded or anything similar.

Playing a DVD involves other software, which may change the video. If you play the MKV file through that software, at the same resolution, do you get the same quality?

Looks like Jellyfin has transcode settings, did you confirm you aren't transcoding?

https://jellyfin.org/docs/general/server/transcoding/

I played them with VLC player on the PC monitor and they still looked worse than when playing the dvd itself with Panasonic

I know MakeMKV makes a 1-1 copy. What I am not clear on is whether some DVD players provide a lower quality input to the software than others resulting in a lower quality movie.

Smarmygrc, you were right. Jellyfin was transcoding the movies when it wasn’t necessary. I turned that off and now the videos are much better. Thank you!

Montag451 wrote: ↑

Tue Aug 20, 2024 2:49 am

Smarmygrc, you were right. Jellyfin was transcoding the movies when it wasn’t necessary. I turned that off and now the videos are much better. Thank you!

Glad that helped!