The main purpose of Plex is to have my Movie collection always available.
I usually RIP the DVD I own and save the movies on my server in order to stream my content when I want, without the need to play disk jokey with tons of DVD.
But ... what about Blu Ray ?
I do have few movies ONLY on Blu Ray.
I did look for them in other formats but no really luck so far.
So in the end I decided to try to RIP the Blu Ray directly.
First of all I did look for the cheapest Blu Ray reader and for less than 40$ I did buy a Yaeonku.
Connected to the Linux machine (Ubuntu 22.04 LTS) did work immediately, recognized without problems.
Then I did try to run HandBrake on a Blu Ray inserted in the driver, it started to read chapters but in the end reported "No Title Found".
Some research did show the need for a specific library and key, so I did add them and after that, HandBrake was able to read the Blu Ray !
However there is a problem.
RIPping a Blu Ray measn ending up by default with a file quite big, up to 30 or more GB !!!
Some settings are needed to reduce the dimension of the file while keeping the a decent quality.
Compromise is the key here.
Adding libraries
As mentioned before, in order to have the Blu Ray reader working, is necessary to install some libraries and a "key" file.
For Linux (Ubuntu 22.04) I simply add the libraries with :
sudo apt install libaacs-dev libbluray2
Then is necessary to retrieve and manually install a "key" file.
The library and key file are used mainly by VLC but I suspect they are used by other programs as well.
To install the key file (assuming VLC is already installed) :
- download a keydb.cfg file
- rename the downloaded file as KEYDB.cfg
- copy in the directory ~/.config/aacs the file
- if the directory doesn't exist, created it
HandBrake settings
If left as default, a Blu Ray can end up with a ripped file in mp4 (m4v format) from 15 to 30 GB !!
Clearly too big ! Sure, the quality is awesome but in the end undetectable when watching on a normal TV.
To reduce the size, these some settings I did experimented with.
After selecting the the disc (Open Source) click on the Preset tab, then select Web and then choose Vimeo YouTube 720p30.
The result quality is great, for about 2 hours movie is possible to end up with a 2 GB file.
Still little bit bigger for my needs, so after ripped the Blu Ray, another passage is needed using the program Avidemux.
Avidemux settings
The input for Avidemux is the m4v file generated by HandBrake.
So once opened the program, load the generated file.
Then in the Video Output section, select the Mpeg4 AVC (x264), then hit the button below, Configure.
In the Rate control section of the pop up, in the Encoding Mode, select Video Size and in the Target Video Video Size box, enter the dimension you would like to have.
Note that the code will TRY to reach that dimension but not necessarily will be able to do so.
There are many other parameters to play with, but for now this is the only modifications.
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