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Mac Mini/Plex/Blu Ray Rips

B

bbadalucco

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Jan 4, 2009
459
0
I want to get a mac mini with the sole purpose of playing my blu ray rips on it via plex.

I was thinking of getting the following config:
2ghz CPU
2gb memory
9400m with 128 mb

Will this struggle playing blu ray rips? If so, what specs should I bump?

Thanks
 
S

spank2223

macrumors member
Aug 8, 2007
81
0
i would bump the ram to 4gb. Its an easy upgrade that you can do yourself. You could also upgrade the hard drive while you are at it.

I have the same config but with 4gig ram and it does not miss a beat with the blu-ray rips on plex. 720p or 1080.

Also remember to get the mini optical to optical cable for dolby digital.
 
Cave Man

Cave Man

macrumors 604
Feb 12, 2007
7,112
316
Neander Valley, Germany; just outside Duesseldorf
bbadalucco said:
I want to get a mac mini with the sole purpose of playing my blu ray rips on it via plex.

I was thinking of getting the following config:
2ghz CPU
2gb memory
9400m with 128 mb

Will this struggle playing blu ray rips? If so, what specs should I bump?
Click to expand...

It will play most Blu-ray rips just fine, so long as you extract the AC3 or DTS cores in the final ripped file. You will find that some Blu-ray rips will have stuttering in some scenes, but these will be in the minority. What would be even better would be to transcode the Blu-rays with Handbrake svn2592 down to 1080p, 61% constant quality 24 fps H.264 with AC3/DTS passthrough in an MKV container. If you do that, then you'll have no perceptible degradation of video quality and the files will be about 60-75% of the original m2ts file size.

Also, with 2 gb of RAM you'll have 256 mb of vRAM for the 9400m gpu. That's more than plenty.
 
B

bbadalucco

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Jan 4, 2009
459
0
Would the stuttering be due to the low specs? Could I get the faster processor or better GPU to prevent the stuttering?

Thanks for the heads up on HandBrake, I'd rather not transcode if at all possible though.
 
B

bbadalucco

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Jan 4, 2009
459
0
One more thing...the mini I was looking at was the low end one, it actually only has 128mb or vram (i was going to upgrade 2gb ram)...do you think I should get the 256?
 
B

bbadalucco

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Jan 4, 2009
459
0
Cave Man said:
It will play most Blu-ray rips just fine, so long as you extract the AC3 or DTS cores in the final ripped file. You will find that some Blu-ray rips will have stuttering in some scenes, but these will be in the minority. What would be even better would be to transcode the Blu-rays with Handbrake svn2592 down to 1080p, 61% constant quality 24 fps H.264 with AC3/DTS passthrough in an MKV container. If you do that, then you'll have no perceptible degradation of video quality and the files will be about 60-75% of the original m2ts file size.

Also, with 2 gb of RAM you'll have 256 mb of vRAM for the 9400m gpu. That's more than plenty.
Click to expand...

I was looking into transcoding the blu ray rips via handbrake as you suggested and I can't get handbrake to work. The majority of my rips are in a m2ts format??

Any ideas?
 
B

bbadalucco

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Jan 4, 2009
459
0
Ok, I've downloaded the build of Handbrake you mentioned. I've selected H.264, 24 FPS and constant quality of 60.78%. The input is 1920x1088 and output 720x304....do I need to change the output format to match the original resolution?
 
Cave Man

Cave Man

macrumors 604
Feb 12, 2007
7,112
316
Neander Valley, Germany; just outside Duesseldorf
bbadalucco said:
Ok, I've downloaded the build of Handbrake you mentioned. I've selected H.264, 24 FPS and constant quality of 60.78%. The input is 1920x1088 and output 720x304....do I need to change the output format to match the original resolution?
Click to expand...

If you're only going to use Plex for playback, then I'd do this:

1. Select the Apple TV Preset.
2. Change the video to MKV file, output to 1920 by xxx, leave CQ at 60.78 (or bump a couple more percent if you like), 24 fps, and ensure it's set for h.264.
3. In the Audio tab deactivate track 2 and ensure track 1 is either AC3 passthrough or DTS passthrough (which is why you should run it through tsmuxer first; to get these audio tracks).
 
B

bbadalucco

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Jan 4, 2009
459
0
Ok, I did everything you metioned and it looks great...but WOW, after 9 hours I just stopped it (it was around 70%). Should it be taking that long with my MBP?

SPECS
June 2009 MBP
3.06 Intel Core 2 Duo
8gb Ram

Thanks
 
zmttoxics

zmttoxics

macrumors 65816
May 20, 2008
1,020
1
bbadalucco said:
Ok, I did everything you metioned and it looks great...but WOW, after 9 hours I just stopped it (it was around 70%). Should it be taking that long with my MBP?

SPECS
June 2009 MBP
3.06 Intel Core 2 Duo
8gb Ram

Thanks
Click to expand...

Its a lot of video to go through. If you lowered the output resolution to the 720x, it will probably go a lot faster.
 
B

bbadalucco

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Jan 4, 2009
459
0
So if I were to get a Mac Pro would I want a 2.26 Octo or a 2.93 Quad...strictly for Handbrake encoding of blu ray rips?

Sorry to keep this thread going, but you guys have been a huge help so I'm tyring to squeeze a bit more out.

BTW, I've mroogled this topic and found some answers....a lot of back and forth though.

Thanks
 
Shake 'n' Bake

Shake 'n' Bake

macrumors 68020
Mar 2, 2009
2,186
2
Albany
I say just live with it.

It is silly to get a Mac Pro, which costs $2499, just to rip Blu-Rays. Your investment would never be recouped.
 
B

bbadalucco

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Jan 4, 2009
459
0
Shake 'n' Bake said:
I say just live with it.

It is silly to get a Mac Pro, which costs $2499, just to rip Blu-Rays. Your investment would never be recouped.
Click to expand...

But I could sell the MBP that sits on my desk 24/7??? Just running the options through my head.

I appreciate the inputs
 
Shake 'n' Bake

Shake 'n' Bake

macrumors 68020
Mar 2, 2009
2,186
2
Albany
bbadalucco said:
But I could sell the MBP that sits on my desk 24/7??? Just running the options through my head.

I appreciate the inputs
Click to expand...

Sorry if you mentioned that before. I just skimmed through.

If you don't move it around a bunch, the I'd get the Mac Pro. Not with an Apple monitor, unless you already have one.
 
B

bbadalucco

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Jan 4, 2009
459
0
Cave Man said:
It will play most Blu-ray rips just fine, so long as you extract the AC3 or DTS cores in the final ripped file. You will find that some Blu-ray rips will have stuttering in some scenes, but these will be in the minority. What would be even better would be to transcode the Blu-rays with Handbrake svn2592 down to 1080p, 61% constant quality 24 fps H.264 with AC3/DTS passthrough in an MKV container. If you do that, then you'll have no perceptible degradation of video quality and the files will be about 60-75% of the original m2ts file size.

Also, with 2 gb of RAM you'll have 256 mb of vRAM for the 9400m gpu. That's more than plenty.
Click to expand...

Cave Man, one final question for you: I've been using your suggestions for blu ray rips. I'm loving it...it appears to be the same quality and using only 37% of the space (on average)...this will save some space on HDD and money.

I'm trying to do this for my DVD rips as well but the settings I'm using look bad. Can you tell me settings to use in Handbrake for DVDs or point me in the right direction.

Again, you've been a huge help and I appreciate it.
 
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