General Questions Not in FAQ

[isd503]

In MakeMKV, after the app scans a blu-ray disc it sometimes shows me several selections. I have been unchecking the top level box hoping the app knows not to try to burn anything which may remain checked beneath it. Is the app smart enough to understand that or do I have to uncheck every single box I don't want burned into the file? If it is the latter, is there any fix forthcoming which will auto-uncheck all subordinate boxes when the top level box is unchecked?

I frequently have questions about how to burn a certain blu-ray and this forum has been very helpful.

A couple other things which are not necessarily related to this application but would be helpful to know:

1. Where are the best places online to buy discount blu-ray discs? I am finding I cannot watch DVDs anymore because I am used to the blu-ray quality and much of my current collection is DVD.
2. Where can I download reliable blu-ray .mkv files. It would be faster for me to be able to download these files instead of having to burn each one of my blu-rays and then Handbrake it to .mp4. By 'reliable', I mean copies someone has already burned directly from a blu-ray disc.
3. I have noticed some .mp4 files I create play flawlessly from a USB stick inserted into the side of my Samsung TV while others have to be screen mirrored from my laptop. Both examples are within the parameters outlined by Samsung for my TV. What causes some files to play perfectly fine from a USB stick while others have major audio and video problems but play perfectly via screen mirror?
4. Is there any application which can help me identify audio and video files? I need something that works on a Mac. I am talking about one application which can scan a file and give me a list of all the important components of that file. I have used many to try to do this including VLC, but nothing seems to be able to identify every aspect of all files.

Any help you can provide is much appreciated.

[Billycar11]

you can right click and uncheck all
if you use java and have your preferred language set makemkv will try to find the best playlist
1. no idea don't recommend used discs most people don't take care of them.
2.no idea
3.give up on a dumb tv and get a real player like an nvidia shield or something. dont reencode your discs its waste of time and energy, storage is cheap you can get 20TB HDDS for $300 on sale.
4.i think MediaInfo has a mac version

[dcoke22]

To uncheck everything, right-click (or control click on the Mac) to uncheck everything.

I like to scan the deals section of blu-ray.com for decent prices on discs: https://www.blu-ray.com/deals/?category=bluray

Something like a Plex server to host your files for playback across the network to the Plex app on your TV or streaming box is good way to avoid the annoyance of putting a movie onto a USB stick to watch it (maybe) on your TV.

MediaInfo is a handy way to look at the details of your media files. On my Mac, I installed it via HomeBrew, but I'm more of a command-line person.

[isd503]

Thank you for the information.

I purchased a Synology NAS and it has Plex and nearly 86TB of storage space. However, streaming to the TV can still be a challenge. WiFi (even the best home access points) are still fairly slow. I have been meaning to run some CAT6 cable between the access points to speed things up but just haven't got around to it yet.

I picked up MediaInfo and it looks like a very good utility.

I find most of the movies I currently try to stream from this NAS have audio and video problems, largely due to WiFi latency in my home network. Copying large amounts of data to the NAS can be very time consuming.

Really looking for a bullet proof method of creating a digital file I can then get to the TV for flawless video and audio. Seems this should be much easier and a lot less expensive.

[dcoke22]

My NAS is connected via 10Gb ethernet. I don't like to wait.

Often times, getting at least one thing in the chain of Plex to TV on ethernet makes a tremendous improvement in reliability.

The downside of spending time trying to find the magic incantation to get movie files to play reliably on your TV via a USB stick is, when that TV is replaced, the old files might not work on your new TV.

It is my understanding that recent Samsung TVs can't decode DTS audio. For highest compatibility, transcoding the audio from your rip into a Dolby Digital AC-3, 5.1 format is the way to go. Almost everything can deal with AC-3.
From a video perspective, 8-bit h264 is probably the most commonly supported format. For my setup, I like 10-bit h265 video because it lets me have smaller file sizes with still high quality video and the 10-bit helps reduce color banding. But I know that format works in my home theater. If I need a file to be highly compatible, I stick with 8-bit h264 files. Lately I've been making those using a 2-pass process with Handbrake.

[gerard143]

Plex is fine so you can stick with that. I can stream all day long over wifi to multiple tv's with no issues. I had no issues when I was on my older 802.11n networks and no issues when I went to wifi 6 and most recently 6e. Also, my server isn't even on hardwired ethernet! Only one Apple TV is hardwired but when it was also on wifi, no issues.

I use Apple TV's at every TV and it has become my only video source at each TV. Love them.

I highly recommend a good streaming box like an Apple TV with Plex loaded on it. You should be able to direct play the rips with no transcoding of the video required so a very low CPU load on the synology. The audio usually is the only thing that might transcode. A network that is setup decent should be able to hand the traffic no issues, even over wifi.


1.Hitup all your local libraries for blurays. Check fb marketplace for tons of bluray listings.
2. Can try bitlord but you better be running downloads over a VPN.

[isd503]

Very good information, thank you.

I found at times the backup button in MakeMKV is disabled. How can I re-enable it? I purchased MakeMKV so that is not the problem.

[Woodstock]

It's disabled for DVDs, because it doesn't work. Should be available for BDs and UHDs when you first open them.

[gerard143]

? I backup DVD's all the time. Haven't seen it greyed out at all yet for any dvd i've tried to backup.

And no problem for the information. If you need more help feel free to ask. The networking stuff is my forte too. So can help there as well.

[dcoke22]

The backup button works only on the first screen. As soon as you click on the icon of the disc and you get to the screen that shows all the titles you can rip on the disc, you've gone too far.

And recent versions have enabled making a backup of DVDs (to an .iso file). This was not always the case.

[gerard143]

To bring it back after ripping an mkv, you can hit file| then close | then you can backup.

[isd503]

Understand about the backup button. I just wish it was available for blu-ray after the disc had been scanned. I think this would eliminate some of the problems experienced with other follow on apps like Handbrake.

For instance, I burned a backup copy of my Start Wars - The Empire Strikes Back blu-ray. Then, I used Handbrake to create an .mp4 file. However, 11 seconds into the film I see text popping up on the screen: George Lucas Write/Executive Producer. At other points in the film other text arbitrarily pops up. How can I avoid this?

None of this happened with Start Wars - A New Hope, another blu-ray in the same pack.

[dcoke22]

I'm not sure if I entirely understand what you're describing. If I had to guess I'd say your rip of The Empire Stakes Back probably includes some subtitle tracks. It is possible Handbrake was set to 'burn-in' one of those subtitle tracks.

The backup process offered by MakeMKV is intended to make a complete copy of a disc to your hard drive, often with the copy protection on the disc removed. Some playback systems can use this backup directly. Or you can open the backup with MakeMKV and rip the movie into a .mkv file from the backup. The upside to making rips from a backup is the process of creating the .mkv goes as fast as your storage can go. It makes it easy to also rip the extras on the disc. Also, if one of the rips has something incorrect, like an unnecessary audio track included when it shouldn't be, it is fairly easy to fix the problem and create a new .mkv file. Once you've verified your rips are correct, you can move on to transcoding via Handbrake (or whatever) if that's your thing.

[isd503]

Tried to upload a screenshot, but the board quota has been reached. This does not appear to be a subtitle. Not sure what it is. The text appears at the top of the screen.

I did burn a copy of the blu-ray to disk first, so I can try again to create the .mp4 file. The other Star Wars blu-ray discs in this pack did not give me any trouble. What utility is the best to open a BDMV file and be able to play different titles within it?

This is Star Wars - The Empire Strikes Back. The file I burned is 02:07:21 00800.MPLS. There is another one; 02:04:55 00501.MPLS. This second file matches TheDiscDB time of 2h04m but the first file matches the name; 00800.MPLS.

I'll try this second one and see what happens.

[isd503]

I figured out how to open a backup blu-ray from disk using VLC and found the text was not showing up in the MakeMKV backup copy. Disabled subtitles in Handbrake and burned another .mp4; worked great.