Piping MakeMKV output through ffmpeg?

MKV playback, recompression, remuxing, codec packs, players, howtos, etc.
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MarcNBarrett
Posts: 8
Joined: Mon Oct 26, 2020 5:30 am

Piping MakeMKV output through ffmpeg?

#1 Post by MarcNBarrett » Mon Oct 26, 2020 3:15 pm

I have been using MakeMKV on a system running Ubuntu 20.04, and I like it a LOT. I have been using it to rip my DVD and Blu-Ray collection to a private Plex media server. My only beef with MakeMKV is that the files it produces are very, very big. A Blu-Ray disc can typically produce a 40-50GB file, and a DVD can produce a 4-7GB file. To reduce the file sizes, I have been putting the files produced by MakeMKV though ffmpeg to transcode and recompact the files. It would be nice if this extra step wasn't needed, though. Is there any to do this automatically? Ideally, it would be even nicer if this could be done "on the fly", so that one wouldn't have to wait until the MakeMKV ripping session was completely done before putting the result through ffmpeg. Maybe consider this a feature request? Thank you.

Woodstock
Posts: 10312
Joined: Sun Jul 24, 2011 11:21 pm

Re: Piping MakeMKV output through ffmpeg?

#2 Post by Woodstock » Mon Oct 26, 2020 4:06 pm

Making MakeMKV slow down to what ffmpeg can do will extend your ripping time significantly. Plus, if you mess up the settings on ffmpeg, you get to rip the disk again.

The work flow I've found that minimizes MY time is to rip the NAS as fast as MakeMKV can process the disks (which can be accelerated by using multiple drives), then batch process the results to another area of the NAS. After I'm satisfied with the results, the "raw" files are removed.

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