Is ripping 4K Blu Rays Practical?

[leosantare]

Hello,

I have been using MakeMKV and VLC Player for many years. I use them to rip and watch the small collection of Blu Ray movies I have. As of now, I just have 57 movies. However, this takes up 1.3TB of space. I have a 5TB internal drive just for my Blu Ray movies. This will allow me to have about 200 titles which I never plan on exceeding.

Now with 4K Blu Rays, I believe the amount of space would triple! That would mean you would need about a 15TB drive for a collection of 200 titles. I don't even think a single drive comes that big.

So, I wanted to ask how people do it and why. I would not be interested any compression since that would defeat the purpose and I would only want to use 1 hard drive for my collection.

Currently, I store my regular Blu Ray movies on 1 drive. All the mkv files are named after the movie and displayed in alphabetical order. Keeping this the same way would be a nightmare with multiple drives. For example, I would constantly have to rearrange the files on the multiple drives to keep them in alphabetical order. Plus, I don't like the idea of having 1 drive being movies from A-M and a second drive being N-Z. I guess that leaves the only option of using a RAID configuration for multiple drives. Although, I don't think I would want to do that.

Thanks in advance.

[Woodstock]

Single drives are going to be a limiting factor. You can compress the video somewhat, but UHD offers higher color definition (HDR, HDR+, and DolbyVision) which not all compressor tools handle well yet (they're getting better).

I'm not doing UHD at this time, but I'm getting ready to update my 70TB network attached server, because it's filling up.

[exitguy]

I guess that leaves the only option of using a RAID configuration for multiple drives. Although, I don't think I would want to do that.

Thanks in advance.

Get a NAS, 2 bay or 4 bay, it does the RAID for you and once set up you can save & stream to your hearts content.

[gworrel]

If you are in the U.S., a single 14TB external drive is available right now for $199 at Best Buy and also at the Western Digital store directly. You can remove it from the enclosure to install in inside a PC. Single drives as large as 18TB are available. As far as keeping titles in alphabetical order, you may want to look into software like jriver that will do that for you without regard to where the data is stored. An added benefit is their new tone mapping renderer that improves picture quality.

[niteflyr]

That would mean you would need about a 15TB drive for a collection of 200 titles. I don't even think a single drive comes that big.

Here's an 18TB drive on sale for you.

https://www.bestbuy.com/site/wd-easysto ... Id=6427995

[leosantare]

Thanks for all the suggestions, everyone!

Like I said, I would only be interested in internal drives for my PC. I have a true, full size PC tower that has plenty of hard drive bays inside it. I don't want to use an external have drive when I can utilize the space inside my PC. I have the Phantek Enthoo Pro, Tempered Glass case.

Also, I would not be interested in any streaming since I would only watch the mkv files on my PC.

With that being said, is my only option getting 2 internal drives configured as RAID if I want a 12TB+ single drive?

If so, what RAID configuration do you recommend for this and is it easy to setup?

Thanks again,

[midnighwatcher]

I have 5 x 8TB HDDs. All of my blurays are re-encoded with Handbrake (I'm now re-encoding w/ H265 @ 10-bit which provides superior quality with reduced banding, and re-encode all non-Atmos and non-DTS:X audio tracks using AAC at high quality), so my average file is between 5GB - 8GB per movie. I also rip all of my 4K blurays, most are 1:1 copies, but sometimes I use Handbrake to re-encode titles to get them down from 50-80GB to 15-25 GB without any perceptual difference in video quality.

I have about 1300 movies (350+ are 4K) and still room for more.

https://forum.handbrake.fr/viewtopic.php?t=41960

[liamtoh1]

Like I said, I would only be interested in internal drives for my PC. I have a true, full size PC tower that has plenty of hard drive bays inside it. I don't want to use an external have drive when I can utilize the space inside my PC. I have the Phantek Enthoo Pro, Tempered Glass case.

If you are not aware, the price per TB of external drives in many instances is cheaper as compared to drives sold as internal drives. The sweet spot (during sale prices) for many is approx $15/TB (in USA). Many folks purchase an external drive and URL remove the 3.5" drive from the enclosure and use it in their NAS/Server/PC.

[bobbymkV]

Like I said, I would only be interested in internal drives for my PC. I have a true, full size PC tower that has plenty of hard drive bays inside it. I don't want to use an external have drive when I can utilize the space inside my PC. I have the Phantek Enthoo Pro, Tempered Glass case.

If you are not aware, the price per TB of external drives in many instances is cheaper as compared to drives sold as internal drives. The sweet spot (during sale prices) for many is approx $15/TB (in USA). Many folks purchase an external drive and URL remove the 3.5" drive from the enclosure and use it in their NAS/Server/PC.

I'm up to 18 hard drives now (I duplicate everything) and I think only 4 of them weren't shucked.

[dcoke22]

A RAID makes it easy to have a volume that's larger than a single drive and makes it easy to have some tolerance for a failed drive. But that isn't strictly necessary for storing your movies.

You could easily get a large drive, put it in your computer and put movies on it until it fills up which might take a couple of years.

Something like Plex provides a nice interface to movies, keeps them in order, and can hide the complexity of multiple drives storing movies. People often use Plex in a client/server setup with the server in a closet and the client plugged into their TV, but you can easily just use it all on your PC.

[roflmaonowhow]

I have 5 x 8TB HDDs. All of my blurays are re-encoded with Handbrake (I'm now re-encoding w/ H265 @ 10-bit which provides superior quality with reduced banding, and re-encode all non-Atmos and non-DTS:X audio tracks using AAC at high quality), so my average file is between 5GB - 8GB per movie. I also rip all of my 4K blurays, most are 1:1 copies, but sometimes I use Handbrake to re-encode titles to get them down from 50-80GB to 15-25 GB without any perceptual difference in video quality.

I have about 1300 movies (350+ are 4K) and still room for more.

https://forum.handbrake.fr/viewtopic.php?t=41960

Holy crap, that must take a seriously long time to encode! Curious what your PC setup is like, you'd need something like the Threadripper CPU to crush through those 4k files. I have a 5950X and am able to get a 4k file done in Handbrake anywhere between 1 to 4 hours. I wouldn't be doing it if it took any longer.

[MartyMcNuts]

I have 5 x 8TB HDDs. All of my blurays are re-encoded with Handbrake (I'm now re-encoding w/ H265 @ 10-bit which provides superior quality with reduced banding, and re-encode all non-Atmos and non-DTS:X audio tracks using AAC at high quality), so my average file is between 5GB - 8GB per movie. I also rip all of my 4K blurays, most are 1:1 copies, but sometimes I use Handbrake to re-encode titles to get them down from 50-80GB to 15-25 GB without any perceptual difference in video quality.

I have about 1300 movies (350+ are 4K) and still room for more.

https://forum.handbrake.fr/viewtopic.php?t=41960

Holy crap, that must take a seriously long time to encode! Curious what your PC setup is like, you'd need something like the Threadripper CPU to crush through those 4k files. I have a 5950X and am able to get a 4k file done in Handbrake anywhere between 1 to 4 hours. I wouldn't be doing it if it took any longer.

Nvidia GPU encoding is the way to go. A UHD of around 80-90GB in size takes me about 90 minutes to encode the video @25Mb/s, which drops the size down to around 20-25GB with no noticeable quality difference. I use the untouched audio as I have an Atmos surround system setup.

[midnighwatcher]

I tried nVidia GPU encoding, but didn't like the quality it was giving me. It also doesn't do 10bit, only 8bit iirc.

[midnighwatcher]

I have 5 x 8TB HDDs. All of my blurays are re-encoded with Handbrake (I'm now re-encoding w/ H265 @ 10-bit which provides superior quality with reduced banding, and re-encode all non-Atmos and non-DTS:X audio tracks using AAC at high quality), so my average file is between 5GB - 8GB per movie. I also rip all of my 4K blurays, most are 1:1 copies, but sometimes I use Handbrake to re-encode titles to get them down from 50-80GB to 15-25 GB without any perceptual difference in video quality.

I have about 1300 movies (350+ are 4K) and still room for more.

https://forum.handbrake.fr/viewtopic.php?t=41960

Holy crap, that must take a seriously long time to encode! Curious what your PC setup is like, you'd need something like the Threadripper CPU to crush through those 4k files. I have a 5950X and am able to get a 4k file done in Handbrake anywhere between 1 to 4 hours. I wouldn't be doing it if it took any longer.

I only have a 3900X, so it's slightly longer. I bet a 5950X cuts through it like butter!

[roflmaonowhow]

I have 5 x 8TB HDDs. All of my blurays are re-encoded with Handbrake (I'm now re-encoding w/ H265 @ 10-bit which provides superior quality with reduced banding, and re-encode all non-Atmos and non-DTS:X audio tracks using AAC at high quality), so my average file is between 5GB - 8GB per movie. I also rip all of my 4K blurays, most are 1:1 copies, but sometimes I use Handbrake to re-encode titles to get them down from 50-80GB to 15-25 GB without any perceptual difference in video quality.

I have about 1300 movies (350+ are 4K) and still room for more.

https://forum.handbrake.fr/viewtopic.php?t=41960

Holy crap, that must take a seriously long time to encode! Curious what your PC setup is like, you'd need something like the Threadripper CPU to crush through those 4k files. I have a 5950X and am able to get a 4k file done in Handbrake anywhere between 1 to 4 hours. I wouldn't be doing it if it took any longer.

Nvidia GPU encoding is the way to go. A UHD of around 80-90GB in size takes me about 90 minutes to encode the video @25Mb/s, which drops the size down to around 20-25GB with no noticeable quality difference. I use the untouched audio as I have an Atmos surround system setup.

Ah I forgot about NVENC, I did use it and it is really fast compared to CPU encoding but I think I prefer the quality from the CPU encodes though. Sizes are also much smaller too, not sure I personally like that large size for files.