Best backup options?

[nepenthe]

I am trying to figure out the best route I need to go with. I have always used AnyDVD to make backups of my movies. I wanted full copies, that way I can keep my lossless audio; since I have a full theater setup, and at anytime I can make converted copies to add to mobile or other devices that doesn't need that without losing my original lossless copy. At some point space became an issue, but any other conversion tool you loss this, so I never did that. Then a few years ago I found you and you did exactly what I wanted, changed containers without conversion. Perfect I had what I want. I would use AnyDVD to make the backup and MakeMKV to change container, and also I don't have to have AnyDvd running to watch the movie. I was originally told that I had to have the complete backup from AnyDVD to do this, because it keeps Cinavia in tact without striping out HD-Master and True-HD. I was under the impression that MakeMKV couldn't do this; probably bad on my part not doing more research, and this is why I used MakeMKV after the backup. Well, then I started getting into having to run Processmon to find the correct playlist or come here and search. After a while this whole process becomes time consuming, and tiring. If I want to watch a movie in the bedroom using Plex for example, it can take sometimes up to an hour and then wife is done and doesn't want to watch any more.

Now that I got my long winded explanation done.

Am I doing this wrong? With the features the MakeMKV that allow you see the main feature from the start and the saves you time, do I need to do all this? I have never had problems with quality or anything else that I can think of, so why not.
Can I just start with MakeMKV and be done with it?
The whole Beta thing scared me in the beginning, but it has been a few years and it doesn't look like you guys are going to stop. I am ready to make a complete jump, but I want to make sure what I am reading does imply I can do it all with MakeMKV
If this is a stupid question, then please do blast me and I am sorry.
Thanks for any help.

[nepenthe]

So is this a question I should just ask Mike?

[preserve]

I'm not really sure I understand your question, sorry. I don't use Plex, so maybe that's why.

I have always only used MakeMKV (registered user) and never had any problems. I rip to MKV, choosing highest quality audio for the rip if there's choices (plus commentaries where they exist) as well as subtitles. For older movies that include an original sound mix, I usually rip that too.

I then simply play the MKV from my PC to watch it, which is connected to either my TV or my projector via HDMI.

I also do encodes with Handbrake for more portable versions that I might take with me on an external drive, my laptop or my iPad if I'm on a trip.

[SamuriHL]

The question seems to be both Cinavia and screen pass protection related. First, Cinavia is irrelevant unless you're playing back on a licensed player, which Plex is not. Screen pass is annoying, but, I believe Mike made strides in that regard if I'm not mistaken. I believe there might be a java requirement there but I'm not up on that because I don't use MakeMKV for protection removal most of the time. In any case, the answer seems to be yes, you can do what you want, but, the best I can tell you is to try the latest release of MakeMKV on a title that's traditionally given you problems. Also, you're wasting a lot of time ripping the disc first. Completely unnecessary. Just run MakeMKV against the original disc and extract an MKV directly.

[nepenthe]

I haven't had problems with any movie I can think of, just was told I had to use AnyDvd to keep the encryption intact and not get the Cinavia warning, also to keep the lossless audio. I used to use Arcsoft and Kodi, now mostly Kodi, both would give me the warning, and would still give me the warning if I didn't have AnyDVD running. Plex is just other devices. The time is one of the biggest issues, a lot of wasted time doing both back to back if MakeMKV will do everything included Lossless and all. I also use MyMovies to catalog my movies, and it is full integrated with AnyDVD. You put the disk in and MyMovies it launches AnyDVD makes a backup and catalogs it then adds all the needs artwork and movie info. This is very handy, but space is what drove me a few years back to change what I do, that is when I found this site. I can still set my software to monitor the location and have it still do the catalog, artwork and movie info, so me manually starting MakeMKV is worth it.
Thanks for the feed back.

[SamuriHL]

Kodi is not a licensed player so Cinavia is a non-issue for that. MKV is a great format to save space. It's what I use for all my backups. I use J River MC for my library so it's very similar to what you're doing. I back everything up to my NAS so while I have everything in J River, I also have plex running on my SHIELD. That allows me to play in full quality 4K HDR through plex. MakeMKV is perfect for this process as it saves a lot of time.

[nepenthe]

Thank you for your help. I would have thought Kodi wouldn't do that, but before I started using MakeMKV and it was XMBC and it did do the warning, I thought it weird then, but maybe I used Arcsoft more often then and that is what I am think. I also was trying to use Windows Media Center then and that had a lot of problems.
How o you like J River? I thought about that, but at the time didn't want to buy it.

[SamuriHL]

Arcsoft would definitely have the Cinavia warning, not Kodi. And even then, if I remember right, it wouldn't trigger on an MKV only a full disc. I could be remembering wrong on that. In any case, Kodi doesn't have Cinavia detection. As for J River, I've been using it for many years and love it. It has LAV filters and madvr built in and make it fairly simple to configure for very high quality with the ability to customize the settings for your system. The ability to import folders and make a nice library is awesome. I definitely like it.