Play movies as if playing from a DVD player

[christopher1775 1]

Hello, 

 

I have a dumb question (I am "new" to this), I am looking for suggestions on the "best" format for building my library. Currently I am doing a "copy full disk" resulting in a folder that contains either the BDMV folder or the VIDEO_TS folder, but not sure if this is the best way to do things. I guess ultimately I would like for my server to act as a DVD player, so that when I browse my library and I pick the movie or show that the "splash" page is loaded and I can then pick the version of the movie or special features etc (as if I was operating from my DVD player). Thank you in advance for any comments on your favorite way to copy your movies and any direction as to helping me find if it can operate as my player.

 

Christopher

Edited January 7, 2017 by christopher1775

[Koleckai Silvestri 1154]

Ripping your movies to MKV containers with either h.264 or h.265 video, audio and subtitle tracks is the best supported format. You can pull special features into their own files.

 

Store each movie in a folder named "moviename (year)". Emby will pull in cast, crew and other metadata. This includes images. Put your extras in a subfolder called extras. If one of those is the trailer, put it in a subfolder named backdrops. Emby will do the rest.

 

You won't get the same Java menu but you can build a media rich library this way.

[funwithmedia 373]

Hello @@christopher1775, while ripping your DVD's to individual files (eg, MKV containers) is what many folks do, there are some of us (such as myself) who do like to keep some content (mostly movies) the original DVD style format. There are ways of making that work fairly well with Emby, though there are certain limitations too (eg, streaming the DVD format doesn't work well, and you definitely won't be able to have DVD menu support when streaming). But for local access (ie, your home network) you can set things up to mimic that DVD Player experience you're looking for. Have a look at my recent thread where I was sorting out if Emby could do some of what I was wanting (which is similar to your own interests/goals):

https://emby.media/community/index.php?/topic/43054-considering-emby/?p=402646

 

Another relevant thread:
https://emby.media/community/index.php?/topic/43235-idea-vlc-plugin-for-easier-resume-when-using-vlc-as-external-player-in-emby-theater/

 

Also, welcome to Emby -- it's a great piece of software! 

[Spaceboy 2573]

But also note the repeated warnings that support for dvd folders is likely to diminish over time, most people have moved on as per the 2nd post

[Luke 42079]

They are supported in htpc style apps but for broad support we suggest converting

[christopher1775 1]

Thank you all. Funwithmedia I am with you, would love for it to act as a vehicle for running the disks as if I was standing at the player. Koleckai, I will experiment with the makemkv (does this do any compression? I would like to not loose any video quality if at all possible, I can live with large files - space is cheap). Luke when you suggest converting, is MKV the file that you feel is the best to maintain the integrity of the movies?

 

Thank you again

 

Christopher

[Koleckai Silvestri 1154]

With the default settings, MakeMKV does not compress your video or audio. It creates a 1:1 copy of the playlist.

[pir8radio 1312]

@@christopher1775  I was the same way when starting with emby, but now I do as previous posters said..  Having a specials folder with your goodies inside makes a nice looking emby movie page, I don't think I would go back now..  No FBI warnings, no previews that are out dated. lol   you can pick your special features or other versions and play them or get right to the movie..    As others said MakeMKV does not compress your movies. Most of my movies lately average 20-40 Gigs each.

 

[christopher1775 1]

Thank you all for the continued support. I have decided to redo all of my movies in the .mkv container and am using the "makemkv" program to do this. (I lost 16tb of movies when I tried to add a new HDD to my storage pool, so I get to start fresh so to speak) I am however having some issues with the "makemkv" program and am wondering if anyone else is experiencing the same. Some of the copies (I think most have been bluray?) either convert with no sound or with just an annoying commentary. So I guess I am wondering if anyone else has seen this and if so have you been able to get this fixed?

 

 

Thank you again for dealing with these dumb questions

 

Christopher

[funwithmedia 373]

Thank you all for the continued support. I have decided to redo all of my movies in the .mkv container and am using the "makemkv" program to do this. (I lost 16tb of movies when I tried to add a new HDD to my storage pool, so I get to start fresh so to speak) I am however having some issues with the "makemkv" program and am wondering if anyone else is experiencing the same. Some of the copies (I think most have been bluray?) either convert with no sound or with just an annoying commentary. So I guess I am wondering if anyone else has seen this and if so have you been able to get this fixed?

 

 

Thank you again for dealing with these dumb questions

 

Christopher

Check as to what audio channels are getting selected in MakeMKV. In my (limited) experience MakeMKV will make some guesses about which channels to include, so perhaps it defaulted to not including the channels you needed?

 

You can find some great comments about audio channels and MakeMKV in the following thread, including details on how to write a custom config that will select the audio channels you prefer:

https://emby.media/community/index.php?/topic/44095-opinions-on-audio-to-retaindiscard-when-converting-to-mkv/

[Spaceboy 2573]

what are you using to play back your rips? is this in Emby or something like vlc?

 

normally i just rip the disc without removing any audio tracks and in emby it auto selects according to user preferences

[christopher1775 1]

Spaceboy,

 

Right now I am using makemkv and selecting every checkbox that says English. Then I am checking the "main" movie and it is opening with the default windows player (it looks like). Based on your question I opened with VLC and looks like the ones I have been having issues with work fine there. About half of the MKV's that I had done had either the no sound at all or just the commentary issue when checked through the windows player.

 

Thank you, you have saved me a lot of re-work. It already sucks that I am having to redo all the 800+ that I had lost. I was unchecking everything but the English (and checking every English box), but now I have entered the above mentioned profile and it has sped up the process greatly. Now on some of the disc's it put the movie down 20-30 times but it is a lot easier to uncheck those and not have to go back in and select/de-select all of the language and subtitle boxes.

 

Again, thank you all very much for your continued help and patience.

[Koleckai Silvestri 1154]

Go to View -> Preferences. Click "Expert Mode" on this tab. Apply and restart MakeMKV. Go to View -> Preferences. You should now have an "Advanced" tab. Make sure the "Default Selection Rule" is set to this:

 

-sel:all,+sel:(favlang|nolang|single),-sel:(havemulti|havecore),-sel:mvcvideo,=100:all,-10:favlang

Click Apply.

 

Go to the Language Tab.

Set your Preferred Language to "eng: English".

 

If the Commentary or Descriptive Audio are default, you can uncheck them by clicking on the arrow to the left of the video track in the main window. If you want these tracks but don't want them to be the default, you can change this using the MKVToolNix. It allows you to rearrange tracks and change the defaults.

[ShoutingMan 101]

If you have, or plan to upgrade to, a surround-sound receiver you should not use "-sel:(havemulti|havecore). If I recall right, that will not bring in DTS-HD and Dolby True HD tracks, but only the step-down DTS and DD tracks. This will also eliminate Dolby Atmos from any movies, like Mad Max Fury Road or John Wick.

[ShoutingMan 101]

I use these MakeMKV settings. Gets all English language tracks (regardless of format) and includes 3D video. Excludes unlabeled language tracks and foreign language tracks. Get subtitles too.

-sel:all,+sel:(favlang|single),+sel:mvcvideo,=100:all,+10:favlang

For anime, I use this variant to include Japanese language tracks

-sel:all,+sel:(favlang|nolang|single|jpn),+sel:mvcvideo,=100:all,-10:favlang

[Luke 42079]

 

I use these MakeMKV settings. Gets all English language tracks (regardless of format) and includes 3D video. Excludes unlabeled language tracks and foreign language tracks. Get subtitles too.

-sel:all,+sel:(favlang|single),+sel:mvcvideo,=100:all,+10:favlang

For anime, I use this variant to include Japanese language tracks

-sel:all,+sel:(favlang|nolang|single|jpn),+sel:mvcvideo,=100:all,-10:favlang

 

 

Thanks for the info !

[howard@jandhlevin.com 0]

I have a similar issue with the equipment above:

DVD

Mac retina pro 

MDRP3

Make MKV

Macbook pro servier

 

 

I can look at the ripped DVD menus which function on my mac

but when I upload to EMBY it does nor work or it gives me a series of chapters which have no name when I use MKVMaker

 

I would like it to work like I loaded a DVD.

 

Any suggestions?

 

I usually play the 

[Deathsquirrel 745]

I have a similar issue with the equipment above:

DVD

Mac retina pro 

MDRP3

Make MKV

Macbook pro servier

 

 

I can look at the ripped DVD menus which function on my mac

but when I upload to EMBY it does nor work or it gives me a series of chapters which have no name when I use MKVMaker

 

I would like it to work like I loaded a DVD.

 

Any suggestions?

 

I usually play the 

 

Unless you're using one of the HTPC clients, on the Mac that means KODI, you need to convert these to MKV.  I'd STRONGLY suggest converting to MKV anyway but there is only experimental support for these formats in other clients.

[howard@jandhlevin.com 0]

I have tried to convert using MKVMaker and his is when I obtained the chapter list with no names. 

The final complication is that I am using ROKU (2 or 4) on my TV and this is where I want to use the DVD menus. How to I ascertain wether I am using KODI?

[Luke 42079]

Hi @@howard@jandhlevin.com, Roku does not support dvd menus, so that is just not possible. I would strongly suggest converting to MKV and using the menus within Emby. I think you will enjoy. Let us know if this helps. Thanks !