I did not understand all the technical jargon you used, but I have over 1000 DVDs I want to put on NAS and be able to stream anywhere. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks!
We did just that. About 1,200 DVDs to a server. I use cucusoft to rip the DVDs to files. Ripping Blu-ray was harder and the software expired and is not produced anymore
Here’s the thing, we tried using Plex as the server for hosting playback of all those files, but it never worked well. Plex is very interesting software as goes online and gets trailers and movie information, but it always had problems, and playback was frustrating. (I’m an engineer, so this is my world, yet, there was little I could do about the frustrations.)
So, we went back to just having the discs in several cabinets. It is kind of fun to say to her to pick a cabinet number, a shelf number and a disc number, and just watch whatever it is. We *think* we remember the movie, and it usually turns out we don’t. It’s like watching them for the first time sometimes. Ironically, she’s an Alzheimer’s expert, so this memory thing is interesting to her.
I use VLC to convert CDs to wav or mp3 files. It’s also good at retrieving audio from DVDs. Free download. Not sure if that will work for you.
EMBY is also well setup so you can do streaming across the internet well. I setup a NAT on my Internet Gateway and now a lot of different devices can play MY stuff.
But again, you know about licenses and DVDs etc, RIght. It's only for your families use. Be aware of license issues in the country etc. that you live.
Next, I would setup folders as EMBY recommends and use the file naming convention that they suggest. I've not seen any VIDEO Server service that allows a hierchichal sub folder scheme. But EMBY can filter on UNPLAYED videos so you can put complete box sets into one folder and it then presents you with the next in line instead of having to select it. EMBY can do this for your family members, so my grandaughter can enjoy Road Runner without having to select it from a list.
As for the files themselves. Handbrakes defaults are great except for quality. You will be surprised at how much quality is on those DVDs. We found out by accident when I lowered the Quality number (increases the quality). I know, it seems backwards. The colors and the sharpness increased.
You will want to get rid of the black bars, but we found out that the quality often gets badly diminished. When you take out the black bars, sometimes the density goes down say from 730P to 480P etc. This is most apparent on old BBC DVDs. Try to avoid playing with the black bars (Handbrake gets rid of those top and bottom ones very well.
And lastly, get yourself a USB 3.0 Powered HUB. You're going to want to put at least 4 DVD readers on it to do the work. Two DVD readers to be active at the same time and two to switch over once a DVD is finished. That way you can keep processing without interruptions. You might want to start with just 2 to see how it goes, but you will find the advantages of 4 per system along the way.
I have 12 Readers and you can figure that I eat box sets for breakfast :) Happy Trails, CO