EDIT: Thank you so much everyone! There’s so much help for me here, and I’ll recommend anyone with similar question as me to read the comments

Basically title.

I have the DVDs and I have the hardware to burn them to my PC.

But the file size is too much. What software would be ideal to get the best quality with the lowest file size?

I’m going for file sizes per movie at around 2-3gb max.

    • TheMurphy@lemmy.worldOP
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      10 months ago

      Thanks, I’ll try handbreak!

      The problem is the DVDs is in a language I couldn’t find reliably to download. I once had access to a private tracker that had these things, but they got shut down, and I was on a long vacation while they migrated.

      So I missed the window and I haven’t been able to get in since.

      • Turing spider@lemm.ee
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        10 months ago

        Jellyfin supports external audio tracks (see here). It works pretty well, so you could rip the audio tracks from the DVDs with Handbrake and download higher definition video files

  • m-p{3}@lemmy.ca
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    10 months ago

    Handbrake would be the easiest. For commercial DVDs, you just need to add libdvdcss-2.dll n your Handbrake install directory and it will bypass the copy protection.

    For the container I’d suggest going with MKV. For the video codec you can go with x265 (HEVC) with a CRF/RF of 22, which should give you a good balance between quality and size. For the audio you can copy it as-is.

  • guitars are real@sh.itjust.works
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    10 months ago

    Since CRF settings aren’t that useful for hitting a specified filesize, you can use the following equation to calculate the bitrate needed to encode a video of a given runtime at a given file size

    • s = length of video file in seconds
    • t = target size in gigabytes
    • b = target bitrate in kilobit/s
    b = (t*8*10^6)/s
    

    ie, my copy of Serenity is 01:58:55 long, which is 7135 seconds (see https://www.calculateme.com/time/hours-minutes-seconds/to-seconds), I want it to be 2.5gb, my equation is

    b = (2.5*8*10^6)/7135 = 2803 kbit/s
    

    You can use any tool, handbrake, ffmpeg, whatever, any codec, and this equation will tell you the average bitrate needed to hit that file size. You would use “vbr” encoding mode instead of crf. I’d recommend enabling 2-pass for x264, not sure if this would be needed/is available for x265 as I’m a bit of a stick in the mud re: video codecs.

    Couple notes, I’m using SI units (powers of 10 instead of powers of 2) for the conversion, and am converting from bytes to bits as this is a more common unit to represent bitrates. If your software uses different units for the bitrate for some reason, or you prefer representing file sizes using gibibytes/etc then you’ll need to rewrite the equation accordingly

  • 0x4E4F@sh.itjust.works
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    10 months ago

    If you don’t know anything about ripping video content, Handbrake is a good place to start. Regarding video codecs and best compression (filesize wise), I’d recommend x265 with HE-AAC (fdk-aac in particular). It will take longer to recode than x264, but it is worth it.

    And 2 to 3GB is a lot more than what I had in mind. With x265, you can downsize it all to 700MB easy and get approximately the same quality as the DVD. If your target size is 2, 3GB, you could recode to x264, no need for x265.

    • Red@reddthat.com
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      10 months ago

      Size wise if you are already taking the hit for time, you are now better off using AV1 instead of h265. Combine it with 120k OPUS for the best size-quality.

      Assuming your planning for the future as av1 support is mostly software decoding rather than hardware.

    • notfromhere@lemmy.ml
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      10 months ago

      I would advise Handbrake over ffmpeg. I have spent months in both and Handbrake yields the best results with the least hassle. Crop, anamorphic pixels, quality, etc.

      H265 nvenc is supported on Handbrake now and works great. Very fast.

      • yessikg@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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        10 months ago

        I actually had problems using Handbrake a few years back, ffmpeg has really good documentation and almost every software uses it under the hood

  • CCMan1701A@startrek.website
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    10 months ago

    makeMkv first and handbrake to compress. When using handbrake make sure to pick video and audio formats that work for your clients. I recommend h265 and eAC3 audio.

  • retro@infosec.pub
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    10 months ago

    Start by using MakeMKV to rip the dvds onto your pc and then use Handbrake to decrease the size even further.

  • CCMan1701A@startrek.website
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    10 months ago

    I noticed you are having an issue finding a partial language of content, you could extract the audio track from the DVD and add it to the copy you find on the seas.

  • db2@lemmy.world
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    10 months ago

    Far more work than just acquiring a ready made one. It’s not worth your time to do all of them. Some so you can say you did it and know how, sure, but not all.

    Exceptions are for anything you can’t find, of course.

      • Scrollone@feddit.it
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        10 months ago

        If it’s rare content, it would be nice if you uploaded it to the Internet Archive

      • onlinepersona@programming.dev
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        10 months ago

        Do contribute them to I2P. That can’t be taken down. You can even use biglybt or qtorrent to seed to I2P and non-anonymous trackers.

  • Omega_Jimes@lemmy.ca
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    10 months ago

    My really nice blurays that are new, I use Make-MKV and I don’t compress them. My normal movies/etc, I just download high quality rips.