Comment on Asking for suggestions on managing media
edent@lemmy.world 3 days ago
The question is why do you want to convert them?
If you use something like JellyFin as your media server and client, it will transcode them as you watch them. If you’re on your phone using crappy WiFi, it will adapt the bitrate down automatically. If you’re at home using a projector connected by Ethernet, you’ll get the original file.
If you think you’re running out of space, it’s often easier and cheaper to buy more HDDs. H265 and modern audio codec will save you a maximum of 50%. For about £200 you can get a 15TB HDD.
Hell, I’ve found ripping a DVD to MKV results in a 3-5gb file.
Then converting that MKV using handbrake, I can bring the size down as much as 75%. When you’re talking about a thousand videos, that adds up.
TV series (especially older stuff) I can consistently reduce 80%+. This makes a real difference for shows that were on for 10 years.
And these all look fine on a 65" TV from 6’ away. Why store more if I don’t have to?
Ripping straight from physical to media is just the remuxing process.
What you are doing is called an encode.
It can be good. But not as original as the original.
It’s like saying an MP3 is as good as a FLAC…
jhdeval@lemmy.world 3 days ago
It is not necessarily about saving space so much as it is about uniformity. And yes my server is beefy but you get 3 or 4 people all transcoding at the sane time and that beefy server will choke. As I have said I have been collecting for many years with a very large mixed bag of codecs I am just trying to clean up the mess that is my media.
edent@lemmy.world 2 days ago
OK, but why do you care about uniformity? If it’s just some OCD-adjacent urge - that’s fine; do what makes you happy.
But from a technical point of view, VLC will play back no matter what the codec and compression level.