Media Server

Media Server

Idea

I read an article on the internet it was about DVD rot. That is where disks (CDs and DVDs), because of their age, start breaking down. Like maybe the disk layers are starting to separate. And when that happens, i am sure, the discs become unplayable.

At the same time I read about dvdrot, I also read about Media Servers. This is like setting up your own netflix channel (or prime … whatever) for your own personal use.

I decided to setup a media server.

This page is the start of the notes towards that project.

Here is a picture of my DVD collection. (Actually I have enough disks to fill another shelf in different bedrooms)

Here are my initial plans.

I have a windows box which I purchased at the time windows 11 came out. I have an 8tb drive I can use to start making videos. I would like to spend as little money as possible, so I will start with free programs. I would like to keep my subtitles. I do not have experience with doing this, so I’m bound to make mistakes. Disks that are converted will go into a box.

I Read someplace that I will need a media server (like Plex, Ebly, Jellyfin, etc) installed on my computer. I need a ripper to rip my DVDs to files.

Here is picture of my dvd collection.

I will start with free software and then use paid software as nessesary.

Reference Material:

Step 1 - First rip DVDs to HardDisk

I used a tool called MakeMKV - this would read a dvd and transfer it to hard drive. The problem is the MKV will turn a standard DVD into a 4gb file. I think this is a file that contains all the contents of the DVD.

So I will use other tools to pull data out of the MKV.

So far

  • MakeMKV - free and easy to use - creates mkv files
  • HandBrake - free and easy to use - creates mp4 files
  • Subtitle Edit - free and easy to use - creates srt files

Step 2 - Preparing Media

Several styles or strategies

  • Strategy 1 - Extract the videos, subtitles from the MKV
  • Strategy 2 - Shrink the MKV to a smaller size

Strategy 1 - Extract the videos, subtitles from the MKV

For me a typical DVD is 4gb. It’s pretty big, so shrinking it down to a smaller size will be a good idea. The problem is you lose quality. But I’m able to shrink a DVD down to around 1gb.

Steps:

Extract out the videos from the MKV

I use a tool called HandBrake to extract the videos from the MKV.

Some DVD’s contain multiple MK4 files.

  • Mad Max contained 2 mkv files each 4gb. I am assuming one is wide screen, the other is not. So I’m just using one.
  • Payback contained 3 mkv files, one 4gb, the other 2 where a few hundred mb. I am assuming the large one is the movie and the other 2 are features, previews, etc. I am concerned my 8gb is not big enough to hold the collection, so I will skip those.
    Signs contained 12 mkv files. One 5gb, another 1.7gb, others were in the few hundred mb range. HMM…

Extract out the subtitles from the MKV

I use a tool called Subtitle Edit to extract the subtitles from the MKV.

(drag the mkv file into the program)

I found most movies have subtitles. Subtitles are put in under 2 formats (VobSub and S_Text/UTF8)

It looks like the VobSub is a graphics file and the S_Text/UTF8 is a text file. This program at least 4.0.11 uses an OCR to read the graphics, that doesn’t do that good a job.

Name the videos

Naming the videos is important because media servers tend to use the filename (or parts of the filename) as the name shown in the media players.

Unfortunately the naming convention is not consistent between media servers.

Here’s my notes on naming conventions.

Strategy 2 - Shrink the MKV to a smaller size

After reading for awhile I find that MKV and MP4 are actually containers for other files.

The reason why my mp4 files are so much smaller, is because when I used HandBrake to pull the video out of the MKV, it compressed it and put that video into the MK4. Good idea but shrinking the video will result in loss of quality. I already have this problem with watching old DVD’s on my big TV.

So I’m going to try to shrink the MKV files to a smaller size by removing unnecessary files, maybe changing the video subtitles to text subtitles.

Advantages of this strategy:

  • certain movies like ‘Signs’ have a lot of mkv files.
  • I suspect there is no need to worry about subtitles, since they are generally in the MKV file.

Steps

Extract out needed items from the MKV using MKVToolNixGui

I use a tool called MKVToolNix to extract the videos from the MKV.

  • Load the MKVToolNexGui application
  • Drag the MKV file into the application
  • Remove the tracks that are not needed.
  • If you have multiple Subtitles, prefer the kind that is a SubRip/SRT text

What I found ws on the Signs DVD, the MKV was 4.8 gb. I was able to reduce it to 4.5gb by removing 2 VocSub while and an Audio track (french).

Step 3 - Selecting a Media Server

My criteria for a media server is:

  • Free or Cheap
  • It must work on my TV’s (2 Samsung and 1 LG)

Since I’m starting with free software, these are the players I tried. (And actually, I’m still trying)

JiffyFin

This is the most free of the lot. It’s actually a branch from Emby maintained by a group of people who want to keep it free..

Impressions

  • It was fairly easy to setup. I setup the application, went to the website setup a few folders. Then I went to the TV and downloaded the JiffyFin client. and it worked.
  • The setup instructed me to install additional components for safety (for example a reverse proxy) and it had fairly good instructions on how to do that, but I abandoned the project before i got that far.
  • I installed it on the LG TV. It worked well.
  • I tried to install it on the Samsung TV. I could not find the application, and this was considered a show stopper - so I stopped.

Emby

This is fairly popular. It’s free, but there is a premium version.
Impressions

  • This was incredibly easy to setup. You download the program, and then execute it. It does the rest automatically.
  • I installed it on the LG TV. It worked well.
  • I installed it on the Samsung TV. It works OK but many films are coming up with ‘no compatible streams found’. This is almost a show stopper, but it’s what I’m working on now.
  • The samsung TV doesn’t treat the program like a full fledged channel. Rather I have to navigate to applications, and pick it from the application list.
  • It seems like when I try to watch a movie, it will pause and give me an add to upgrade to the Emby Premium. The features of the premium version are not clear to me, I see no advantages.

Plex

This is the most popular. It’s free, but there is a premium version.

I downloaded plex from
https://www.plex.tv/

The install was easy. The setup was easy, basically the same way as Emby and JellyFin.