Question on BR Media - What do you do with original MKV ?

[wildcat1]

All

I like many have my BR media using makemkv and then encoded using HB for use on ATV etc. My question is what do all of you do with the original MKV ? Specifically do you keep the lower encode like me (10gb etc) and then also the 30gb or so MKV ? Similarly do you tag and 'prepare' the mkv (even if storing) with Subler so its converted into an MP4 formate albeit with full quality ?

Just interested in what people do with their original MKV BR media.

Thanks all

 

[brentsg]

It would seem to be a waste of storage. You could always rip it again.

Personally I find it too much trouble to encode for the Apple ecosystem, so I just keep the raw m2ts containers. Lately though, I'm considering ditching most of them since it's so easy to stream files if I want to watch in this manner. The quality is good enough to offset the lack of time and storage.

 

[mic j]

It would seem to be a waste of storage. You could always rip it again.

Personally I find it too much trouble to encode for the Apple ecosystem, so I just keep the raw m2ts containers. Lately though, I'm considering ditching most of them since it's so easy to stream files if I want to watch in this manner. The quality is good enough to offset the lack of time and storage.

I came around to your way of thinking. I converted about 300 dvd/BR's to mp4. Archived the mkv's and got rid of the discs (I don't have a player anymore). I have found over several years now that I rarely go back and re-watch an old movie. There just always seems to be something newer out and I am not just going to sit and watch movies day and night 7 days a week.

There are a handful of movies I revisit regularly and for those few, I think it's worth storing locally. But mostly I stream movies and have been satisfied with the trade off in quality (which I find very negligible). This approach has also eliminated my constant search for reasonably priced drives to house all the stuff. If there is something new I want to store locally...something old has to go.

 

[wildcat1]

Do you keep the MKVs strictly as ripped or do you tag them and everything. If the latter do you use this in subler and therefore end up with MP4 regardless or do you use something else.

Yes I hear the storage piece 🙂

Thanks all

I came around to your way of thinking. I converted about 300 dvd/BR's to mp4. Archived the mkv's and got rid of the discs (I don't have a player anymore). I have found over several years now that I rarely go back and re-watch an old movie. There just always seems to be something newer out and I am not just going to sit and watch movies day and night 7 days a week.

There are a handful of movies I revisit regularly and for those few, I think it's worth storing locally. But mostly I stream movies and have been satisfied with the trade off in quality (which I find very negligible). This approach has also eliminated my constant search for reasonably priced drives to house all the stuff. If there is something new I want to store locally...something old has to go.

 

[westrock2000]

Assuming you have the original physical media, I would see not any reason to keep the full blown rip. You can always re-rip it if needed. And since it's not a "re-encode", it doesn't take long to do so.

If you are using something like the Netflix/redbox/library, then you can still get the disc if needed.

The only reason I would think of keeping the original MKV is if you are downloading them and do not want to loose them.

Also it may be worth your time to set up Windows and use AnyDVD HD and Handbrake to rip the M4V video straight from the Bluray disc.

You could even set up Windows inside a virtual machine in OSX (I use Virtualbox for VM's). Windows 7 will fully function for 30 days or so without a serial number. The demo of AnyDVD HD is free (look into novakiller 1.9). And Handbrake is free. You might loose some efficiency due to the virtual machine, but you would free up the time and space of ripping the image from the disc.

I have a dedicated Windows machine that I use mostly just for ripping movies. I have the paid version of AnyDVD HD and the whole operation is painless. The only real advantage to the paid version of AnyDVD is that when a Bluray first comes out you can access their server for decryption, and not have to wait for a new "demo" to be released. I do not have to keep reinstalling the software to keep up with new blurays.

 

[mic j]

Do you keep the MKVs strictly as ripped or do you tag them and everything. If the latter do you use this in subler and therefore end up with MP4 regardless or do you use something else.

Yes I hear the storage piece 🙂

Thanks all

I do nothing with the mkv, just store it as an archive. But as I said, I don't keep discs. If you maintain access to the original source, there is little reason to keep the mkv as it only re-ripping to mkv is fairly fast (compared to transcoding to mp4).

Westrock makes a lot of good points. I used to do all my ripping from a Boot Camp partition using Windows 7, AnyDVDHD, and ClownBD. AnyDVDHD is a great program but I had some issues with ClownBD and it was very slow. But at that point, there was not many good applications for ripping BR's on the Mac side of the world. That changed with improvements to MakeMKV.