Download and install

Steps to rip DVDs or Blu-rays with Handbrake

Dealing with the Linux filesystem

Linux, like UNIX, tolerates colons, hyphens, slashes, spaces, etc. in filenames, but it's not always the easiest thing to manage.

Here are sample commands I use to move ripped DVDs from my development host (workstation) to my Plex Media server (hostname, taliesin), and clean up afterwards. Following that is a filesystem snapshot from my server illustrating this point taken in the middle of ripping this series.

~/Videos $ scp "Foyle's War - s02e02 - Among the Few.mkv" taliesin.site:/plex-server/TV/Foyle\\\'s\\\ War/Season\\\ 2
~/Videos $ rm "Foyle's War - s02e02 - Among the Few.mkv"
russ@taliesin:/plex-server/TV$ tree "Foyle's War"
Foyle's War/
+-- Season 0
|   +-- Foyle's War - s00e01 - Writer, Anthony Horowitz.mkv
|   +-- Foyle's War - s00e02 - Writer, Anthony Horowitz.mkv
|   `-- Foyle's War - s00e03 - Recap of Seasons 1-6.mkv
+-- Season 1
|   +-- Foyle's War - s01e01 - The German Woman.mkv
|   +-- Foyle's War - s01e02 - The White Feather.mkv
|   +-- Foyle's War - s01e03 - A Lesson in Murder.mkv
|   `-- Foyle's War - s01e04 - Eagle Day.mkv
+-- Season 2
|   +-- Foyle's War - s02e01 - Fifty Ships.mkv
|   `-- Foyle's War - s02e02 - Among the Few.mkv
+-- Season 3
+-- Season 4
+-- Season 5
+-- Season 6
+-- Season 7
`-- Season 8
    +-- Foyle's War - s08e01 - The Eternity Ring.mkv
    +-- Foyle's War - s08e02 - The Cage.mkv
    `-- Foyle's War - s08e03 - Sunflower.mkv

In the previous example, there is a bewildering string of backslash (escape) characters. Some command-line tools will auto-complete when the Tab key is pressed with only part of the name specified. That's helpful: let the shell figure out how best to render. This strategy works also in the case of quoting the name.

If I have a particularly nasty character such as a colon, I cannot copy it. Even on Windows, it's impossible to use a colon in a file name since it indicates a volume. On Linux, you can use it in a filename, but it's devilishly hard to get command-line tools to be okay with it.

~/Videos $ scp "Jack the Ripper: My Story.mkv" taliesin.site:/plex-server/Movies
ssh: Could not resolve hostname Jack the Ripper: Name or service not known

And, it is similarly impossible to specify a subdirectory as scp's target with a colon too. So, I change it thus and it works very well:

~/Videos $ mv "Jack the Ripper: My Story"  "Jack the Ripper--My Story"
~/Videos $ scp "Jack the Ripper--My Story" taliesin.site:/plex-server/Movies
Jack the Ripper--My Story                                       100%    0     0.0KB/s   00:00
~/Videos $ rm Jack\ the\ Ripper--My\ Story

My last observation is that if you're fastidious with the backslash, you can avoid the double quotes. This is useful if your filename makes use of double quotes.

Last, it is possible to entitle movies and television series filenames using dots (periods) in place of spaces and otherwise simplify filenames making them easier to manage. I did not know this when I started, and have not experimented with it, though I've seen it done on other Plex servers, and I do not plan to for sake of a) clarity and b) uniformity.

The Plex server

Matroska (MKV) format

Plex can transcode just about any file type. Matroska is nice because the multiple audio streams, subtitles, etc. are all in one file.

This is not the case for all formats. For example, .mp4. If you look at .mp4 movies with subtitles, they'll have a separate .srt file for subtitles.

So far as the Plex clients can tell, these formats are exactly the same. Performance is identical.

Finessing Handbrake

It's best to use Matroska format, this produces a .mkv instead of a .m4v file.

Subtitles

Using Handbrake on Microsoft Windoz

Download and install Handbrake as you would another Windows application. (This is here for completeness; Windoz interests me not at all.)

Steps to rip a DVD or Blu-ray movie:

1. Put disk in drive.
2. Dismiss VLC Media Player (or other player as comes up).
3. Click Source button.
   1. Choose Open Folder.
   2. Choose This PC.
   3. Select DVD/Blu-ray volume that has the movie.
   4. Select either the movie by name of "VIDEO_TS."
   5. Click Select Folder to dismiss the find-file dialog.

   Handbrake now analyses the movie. It automatically chooses the biggest file on the disk because, for movies, that's almost always the movie itself.

   However, you may find that's not correct.

   If the disk you're ripping happens to be a television series with two or more episodes, frequently there will be a concatenation of all those episodes into one file (the "View All" option). This is probably not what you want.

4. Select Output Setting, MKV.
5. Name the movie: Destination: (edit field)
   1. Put in extension .mkv.
   2. Setting the name is actually a browsing or find-file operation, a "Save as" exercise to pick where the output file is to go.

   Warning

   Windows desperately wants to name the file with a .mp4 extension. Be careful to change it at the bottom of the "Save as" dialog to mkv.

6. Click Video tab.
7. Adjust the slider to 18.
8. Click Subtitles tab.
   1. Click Add
   2. Ignore voice-over setting (Vob), choose captions or English subtitles.
9. Click Picture tab.
10. Click Start (the green button).

Random notes to integrate properly as time goes

• The Advanced tab makes it so you can change from "Unknown" to the actual language name if that's a problem. Put Sample Rate on 48 (the highest).

• Summary tab: If adjustable, never turn on Autocrop. This might be under the top tab, Picture Settings.

• Picture Settings. Dimensions to change, Filters, normally not touched.

• While ripping multiple files, while one is ripping, you can get ready for the next by choosing the next Title: and File: name and being ready to click Start before the current one has finished ripping.

Handbrake custom settings

This used to be inserted surgically into a presets file (XML), but in the last couple of versions of HandBrake, this has no longer been possible (but then, in later versions, it began to be possible again; see next section). Instead, I offer these (Linux version) screen dumps for adjusting the settings tediously by hand. The first thing to do is to create a yify-mkv in the presets list by doing Presets → New Folder. I have had some trouble getting this work cleanly (I think it's simpler in the Windows version).

These settings were originally done using similar screen dumps from my nephew's Windows version. Not all the settings matched, but when I finished, I was nevertheless getting the smashing 10%-sized Matroska files with great video.

Warning: these setting are not guaranteed to be the best treatment of a film in every case. I've found if you've got a movie with nasty visual stuff going on inside, like the sandstorm at the end of American Sniper, the result is pretty botched and you'll see precious little of what's going on in any detail. (I sacrifice excellent quality at rare moments to the overall effort to minimize impact on my disks.)

HandBrake main page

XML-surgery way of specifying presets...

Here are the custom settings I got from my nephew, who's been ripping Blu-rays for years for use with Handbrake. If you know how to import- or otherwise integrate them into Handbrake, they'll serve you well.

1. Insert from file all between plist (exclusive) at a good point, which you'll have to analyze by looking at successful one.
2. Play with importing preset.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist>
  <array>
    <dict>
      <key>AudioList</key>
      <array>
        <dict>
          <key>AudioBitrate</key>
          <string>160</string>
          <key>AudioEncoder</key>
          <string>AAC (faac)</string>
          <key>AudioMixdown</key>
          <string>Dolby Pro Logic II</string>
          <key>AudioSamplerate</key>
          <string>Auto</string>
          <key>AudioTrack</key>
          <integer>1</integer>
          <key>AudioTrackDRCSlider</key>
          <real>0</real>
          <key>AudioTrackDescription</key>
          <string>Unknown</string>
          <key>AudioTrackGainSlider</key>
          <real>0</real>
        </dict>
      </array>
      <key>AudioAllowAACPass</key>
      <integer>1</integer>
      <key>AudioAllowAC3Pass</key>
      <integer>1</integer>
      <key>AudioAllowDTSHDPass</key>
      <integer>1</integer>
      <key>AudioAllowDTSPass</key>
      <integer>1</integer>
      <key>AudioAllowMP3Pass</key>
      <integer>1</integer>
      <key>AudioEncoderFallback</key>
      <string>AC3 (ffmpeg)</string>
      <key>ChapterMarkers</key>
      <integer>1</integer>
      <key>Default</key>
      <integer>0</integer>
      <key>FileFormat</key>
      <string>MKV file</string>
      <key>Folder</key>
      <false />
      <key>Mp4HttpOptimize</key>
      <integer>0</integer>
      <key>Mp4LargeFile</key>
      <integer>0</integer>
      <key>Mp4iPodCompatible</key>
      <integer>0</integer>
      <key>PictureAutoCrop</key>
      <integer>1</integer>
      <key>PictureBottomCrop</key>
      <integer>0</integer>
      <key>PictureDeblock</key>
      <integer>4</integer>
      <key>PictureDecomb</key>
      <integer>0</integer>
      <key>PictureDecombCustom</key>
      <string />
      <key>PictureDecombDeinterlace</key>
      <integer>1</integer>
      <key>PictureDeinterlace</key>
      <integer>0</integer>
      <key>PictureDeinterlaceCustom</key>
      <string />
      <key>PictureDenoise</key>
      <integer>3</integer>
      <key>PictureDenoiseCustom</key>
      <string />
      <key>PictureDetelecine</key>
      <integer>0</integer>
      <key>PictureDetelecineCustom</key>
      <string />
      <key>PictureHeight</key>
      <integer>0</integer>
      <key>PictureKeepRatio</key>
      <integer>1</integer>
      <key>PictureLeftCrop</key>
      <integer>0</integer>
      <key>PictureModulus</key>
      <integer>2</integer>
      <key>PicturePAR</key>
      <integer>2</integer>
      <key>PictureRightCrop</key>
      <integer>0</integer>
      <key>PictureTopCrop</key>
      <integer>0</integer>
      <key>PictureWidth</key>
      <integer>720</integer>
      <key>PresetBuildNumber</key>
      <string>2013052900</string>
      <key>PresetDescription</key>
      <string>No Description</string>
      <key>PresetName</key>
      <string>YIFY-MKV</string>
      <key>Type</key>
      <integer>1</integer>
      <key>UsesMaxPictureSettings</key>
      <integer>1</integer>
      <key>UsesPictureFilters</key>
      <integer>1</integer>
      <key>UsesPictureSettings</key>
      <integer>2</integer>
      <key>VideoAvgBitrate</key>
      <string />
      <key>VideoEncoder</key>
      <string>H.264 (x264)</string>
      <key>VideoFramerate</key>
      <string>Same as source</string>
      <key>VideoFramerateMode</key>
      <string>cfr</string>
      <key>VideoGrayScale</key>
      <integer>0</integer>
      <key>VideoQualitySlider</key>
      <real>20</real>
      <key>h264Level</key>
      <string>Auto</string>
      <key>x264OptionExtra</key>
      <string>ref=16:bframes=16:b-adapt=2:direct=auto:me=tesa:merange=24:subq=11:rc-lookahead=60:analyse=all:trellis=2:no-fast-pskip=1</string>
      <key>x264Preset</key>
      <string>medium</string>
      <key>h264Profile</key>
      <string>none</string>
      <key>x264Tune</key>
      <string>none</string>
      <key>x264UseAdvancedOptions</key>
      <integer>1</integer>
      <key>VideoQualityType</key>
      <integer>2</integer>
      <key>VideoTargetSize</key>
      <string />
      <key>VideoTurboTwoPass</key>
      <integer>0</integer>
      <key>VideoTwoPass</key>
      <integer>0</integer>
      <key>x264Option</key>
      <string>ref=16:bframes=16:b-adapt=2:direct=auto:me=tesa:merange=24:subq=11:rc-lookahead=60:analyse=all:trellis=2:no-fast-pskip=1</string>
    </dict>
  </array>
</plist>

Update, 30 August 2016

Having had to reinstall my present (i7) host from scratch, which I did using Linux Mint 18 LTS, I'm trying to use the above presets this way:

1. Copy the presets above to a new file; I named mine, ~/Downloads/yify-presets.plist.
2. Launch HandBrake.
3. Do menu Presets → Imports, (see below) then navigate to Open this new file.
4. You should see, in the Presets List, YIFY-MKV appear.
5. From now on, when launching HandBrake, just select this new set of presets before transcoding.

Update, 16 February 2021

Imports —in the latest version much of the interface has changed. It looks nicer, but it's harder to use. Also, it appears that the preferred language of presets now is JSON. Fortunately, XML is supported by legacy. The instructions above work.

My preliminary assessment is that this works. I did this for The Gypsy Warriors and for a new copy of Ferris Buellar's Day Off from a Blu-ray I just bought.

What movie/television file is HandBrake currently transcoding?

This might arise if I happen to be at work and wonder what's going on at home where I'm running HandBrake. In other words, I'm at the command line not in the GUI.

~/Videos $ ps -ef | grep [g]hb
russ     24753  2086 99 Mar09 ?        4-18:17:51 /usr/bin/ghb
~/Videos $ ll /proc/24753/fd
total 0
dr-x------ 2 russ russ  0 Mar  9 21:03 .
dr-xr-xr-x 9 russ russ  0 Mar  9 21:03 ..
lr-x------ 1 russ russ 64 Mar  9 21:03 0 -> /dev/null
l-wx------ 1 russ russ 64 Mar  9 21:03 1 -> /dev/null
lrwx------ 1 russ russ 64 Mar  9 21:03 10 -> socket:[30394220]
lrwx------ 1 russ russ 64 Mar  9 21:03 11 -> /home/russ/.config/ghb/ghb.pid.24753
lr-x------ 1 russ russ 64 Mar  9 21:03 12 -> anon_inode:inotify
lrwx------ 1 russ russ 64 Mar  9 21:03 13 -> socket:[30375777]
lrwx------ 1 russ russ 64 Mar  9 21:03 14 -> socket:[30394763]
lrwx------ 1 russ russ 64 Mar  9 21:03 15 -> anon_inode:[eventfd]
lrwx------ 1 russ russ 64 Mar  9 21:03 16 -> socket:[30394224]
lrwx------ 1 russ russ 64 Mar  9 21:03 17 -> socket:[30394225]
lr-x------ 1 russ russ 64 Mar  9 21:03 18 -> pipe:[30394226]
l-wx------ 1 russ russ 64 Mar  9 21:03 19 -> pipe:[30394226]
l-wx------ 1 russ russ 64 Mar  9 21:03 2 -> pipe:[30394226]
l-wx------ 1 russ russ 64 Mar  9 21:03 20 -> /home/russ/.config/ghb/Activity.log.24753
lrwx------ 1 russ russ 64 Mar  9 21:03 21 -> socket:[30394779]
lrwx------ 1 russ russ 64 Mar  9 21:03 22 -> socket:[30392179]
lrwx------ 1 russ russ 64 Mar  9 21:03 23 -> socket:[30407764]
l-wx------ 1 russ russ 64 Mar  9 21:03 24 -> /home/russ/.config/ghb/EncodeLogs/Madea Goes to Jail 2017-03-09 21-05-53.log
lr-x------ 1 russ russ 64 Mar  9 21:03 25 -> /home/russ/Videos/MADEA/Madea_Goes_to_Jail_t00.mkv
l-wx------ 1 russ russ 64 Mar  9 21:03 26 -> /home/russ/Videos/Madea Goes to Jail.mkv
lrwx------ 1 russ russ 64 Mar  9 21:03 3 -> socket:[30394216]
lrwx------ 1 russ russ 64 Mar  9 21:03 4 -> anon_inode:[eventfd]
lrwx------ 1 russ russ 64 Mar  9 21:03 5 -> socket:[30394218]
lrwx------ 1 russ russ 64 Mar  9 21:03 6 -> anon_inode:[eventfd]
lrwx------ 1 russ russ 64 Mar  9 21:03 7 -> socket:[30394219]
lrwx------ 1 russ russ 64 Mar  9 21:03 8 -> anon_inode:[eventfd]
lrwx------ 1 russ russ 64 Mar  9 21:03 9 -> anon_inode:[eventfd]