Older Noob Seeking Basic Advice

[dcoke22]

I've never tried this before, but what about running the hard drive off another PC in my home network? Once I get it setup, could I play movies through my local wifi or would the access be slow to start and then possibly not smooth? I've never tried to access different hardware via my home network, but just curious if you know if this would work. The only purpose would be to eliminate the HDD noise (buy having it located in another room). My projector is already a little noisy when I'm not actually playing any audio through it.

Sure. At the most basic level, this is how Plex works, sending movies across your local network. The general rule of thumb is the more parts of your network that can be hardwired the better off you'll be.

I'm having a little trouble with getting the right subtitles to display in English ONLY for the non-English parts, but I think I figured it out with help from a "Movie Subtitles" spreadsheet I found online which tells which audio tracks to use, when to enable disable "forced", etc. If you're aware of this spreadsheet, can you tell me if there's an updated version of it? I got mine indirectly through someone else's post.

Is there a similar type spreadsheet to identify which video tracks to use for specific movies? I think you said I can find posts of people discussing specific movies, but one spreadsheet with a database would sure be nice for quick reference, if it exists.

I'm not aware of a spreadsheet for forced subtitles. I am aware of https://thediscdb.com, although I don't know if forced subtitle tracks are called out as such. I use a tool called MediaInfo that shows a bunch of details about .mkv files, including a count of elements in a subtitle track. A movie might have a couple thousand elements in a subtitle track. A TV show is probably many hundreds. A forced subtitle track probably has less than 100. I always try to verify it by watching a relevant clip in the movie, but once I do, I name the track 'Forced' and set the 'default' and 'forced' flags to true in the .mkv file. The MKVToolNix tools are good for this. Setting the flags that way means my Plex plays those forced subtitle tracks by default. I don't have as much experience with VLC, but there's undoubtedly a way you can set the flags in a file so VLC does the right thing by default. If you figure out which track is which in MakeMKV, you can set a subtitle track's default or forced flag to true by highlighting the track and selecting MKV Flags in the properties section. Include a 'd' for setting default to true and/or an 'f' for setting forced to true.

[RobertMoo]

At the most basic level, this is how Plex works, sending movies across your local network. The general rule of thumb is the more parts of your network that can be hardwired the better off you'll be.

huh. Interesting. I think I'll look into Plex more as I thought this was an online server. It would be tough to use ethernet connection in my situation so I might be stuck with wifi.

I'm not aware of a spreadsheet for forced subtitles. I am aware of https://thediscdb.com, although I don't know if forced subtitle tracks are called out as such. I use a tool called MediaInfo that shows a bunch of details about .mkv files, including a count of elements in a subtitle track. A movie might have a couple thousand elements in a subtitle track. A TV show is probably many hundreds. A forced subtitle track probably has less than 100. I always try to verify it by watching a relevant clip in the movie, but once I do, I name the track 'Forced' and set the 'default' and 'forced' flags to true in the .mkv file. The MKVToolNix tools are good for this. Setting the flags that way means my Plex plays those forced subtitle tracks by default. I don't have as much experience with VLC, but there's undoubtedly a way you can set the flags in a file so VLC does the right thing by default. If you figure out which track is which in MakeMKV, you can set a subtitle track's default or forced flag to true by highlighting the track and selecting MKV Flags in the properties section. Include a 'd' for setting default to true and/or an 'f' for setting forced to true.

Again, thanks for your time and offering such detailed feedback. I've read and re-read your posts a few times. I have been experimenting more and getting used to the software, including MKVToolNix, so I have a better idea what you're talking about in real world use. Your advice was spot on.

I don't have as much experience with VLC

If not VLC, what player do you typically use?

Generally speaking, for a regular blu-ray, I compress it to a 10-bit, h.265, 4000 kbps average bit rate file using a two-pass encode using the x265 encoder. I do the audio conversions I spoke about earlier and in general I end up with about a 5GB file from a 30GB rip.

I finally got around to using Handbrake with your settings to reduce video down to about 11% of its original size. 2 hour movie took 2 hours (to the minute) to transcode, so at those settings it seems to be a 1:1 ratio for conversion time. I'm still experimenting to see what looks good on the big screen. One setting you didn't mention was framerate. Do you generally just leave framerate at default settings? (30, with "peak framerate" box checked) Other sources I read suggested matching the framerate to the framerate of the original video. Is there a reason to use "peak framerate" over "Constant framerate"?

I'm mostly using handbrake on MKV formated videos, but handbrake defaults to mp4. Does it matter? Should I keep them as MKVs or does mp4 offer advantages?

Also, you recommended 2 passes, but I only noticed the box for "Mult-pass Encoding." I watched it do 3. Is there a setting for only 2?

Those small file sizes are great, but any recommendations on what handbrake settings to use convert a video to about half it's original size? I'm running a few different scenarios so I can test and compare on the big screen. (hard drive is filling up faster than I expected!)

Can 3D blurays be ripped with MakeMKV? I researched a little, but it didn't seem like VLC could play them.

I know, I keep shamelessly asking more questions! If it's too much, don't feel obligated and just know I appreciate all the help you've already given.