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Advice for Linux media center (sh.itjust.works)
submitted 7 months ago by to c/linux@lemmy.ml
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Hi everyone!

In the next year or so, my project is to rip all my blurays and put them on a 4tb external USB hard drive. I've already done it for all my DVDs, but I still have to buy an external bluray player in order to finish the job. My budget for the bluray player is CHF 75.- used, so around 75$. All this is done through MakeMKV.

Then, I'd want to have a small Linux PC that I'd use as a media center. My budget is under CHF 100.-, so around 100$. I've noticed that you can get 2014 MacMinis with i5 or i7 for that budget, but I'm open to any other brand.

What I'd want the PC to do: -Play all my movies stored on my external USB drive. I don't think I have 4k movies, but I can't exclude that some of my Blurays will be 4k in the future -Display my family pictures and videos stored on kDrive (a cloud by Infomaniak) through Firefox and WebDav -Play my music on my Yamaha Amplifier through Firefox and Tidal -Use the wifi for updates, browser based stuff, etc..

The PC would probably not be used for anything else for now, but it needs to be able to become a desktop PC again in the future if needed.

I'd want to operate the PC with a bluetooth mouse and only have to use a keyboard from time to time.

I've heard about Jellyfin, Libelec, Kodi and other stuff but I don't really know what they are.

Thanks in advance for your advice!

Edit: In the end I got an Intel NUC7i3DNK2E mini pc for CHF 90.- (around 90 dollars) with 8gb of ram/120gb SSD and an Asus BW-12D1S-U for CHF 84.- (around 84 dollars). This combo works great for now and I'm pleasantly surprised.

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[–] 8 points 7 months ago* (12 children)

One thing you might consider is skipping buying the Blu-ray player and obtaining your movie rips alternatively. Only you know your appetite for risk, but so long as you’re only getting copies of the movies you own, I’d guess the risk is small. Besides, simply ripping your physical discs isn’t strictly legal everywhere, so that itself may have a small risk.

Put the money you save into a better machine.

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  • [–] 6 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) (3 children)

    edit: jfc, typos. I hate typing on phone keyboards.

    Secondary to that is that getting bluray to work on a computer is a pain. It's not impossible, but its not natively supported on macos or Linux (I dont know about windows, haven't used it in ages now).

    Whereas if you do use the alternative methods, you don't have to fight with trying to get the os you're using to work with bluray

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  • [–] 2 points 7 months ago (2 children)

    Thirdly, the rips you’ll get from the alternative methods will likely be a better quality and/or smaller file size than a personal rip.

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  • [–] 1 point 7 months ago (1 child)

    How so? From blu-ray, I can use handbrake or ffmpeg to pick the exact quality and options I want. And I can use av1, which most torrent groups still aren't using.

    I also find many of the downloads strive for smaller file size over quality. I want the opposite, as I don't ever want to have to rip again, and I want them to look perfect.

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  • [–] 1 point 7 months ago

    I also find many of the downloads strive for smaller file size over quality. I want the opposite, as I don't ever want to have to rip again, and I want them to look perfect.

    Then why transcode them? Rip the remux direct from MakeMKV. As long as you're transcoding them, it's been my experience that there are much much much more knowledgable people than I when balancing quality/size.

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  • [–] [S] 3 points 7 months ago (7 children)

    The external Bluray poayer is a necessary for me as I really want to make copies of my own movies.

    Some of them could also be difficult to find on torrent sites and a Blu ray player can also be useful to backup my videogames at one point.

    In my country, it is legal to make copies of something you own. Even downloading movies is legal to make, but it ain’t what I want 😇

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  • [–] 2 points 7 months ago (6 children)

    I hear you on those concerns. You may find that ripping blu-rays, even if legal, has technical decrypting hurdles too high to clear. Just keep your option open is my suggestion.

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  • [–] [S] 1 point 7 months ago (5 children)

    What kind of technical hurdles do you mean? Apparently makeMKV makes it quite easy but I’d be happy to have feedback

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  • [–] 1 point 7 months ago

    Apparently, it seems my information might be outdated so I apologize. I've MakeMKV ripped from disc images before, but was under the mistaken impression that physical BD disks were unable to be easily ripped from.

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  • [–] 1 point 7 months ago (1 child)

    I don't have trouble with most blu-rays, but there are a few I have not been able to get to rip. This includes, brand new, out of the box blu-rays. I have not tried any ultra-hd blu-rays yet, even though my external blu-ray drive should support it.

    I do recommend looking at the makemkv forums for blu-ray drives. Some of the cheaper external drives do not last very long! A higher quality internal drive with an external case works much better. There are some people on the makemkv forums you can buy from. They have specific drives they like and they'll pre-flash libredrive firmware on them.

    I also prefer ripping to downloading. I am quite specific about how I like my movies ripped, and like to keep embedded subtitles, extra languages, full DTS surround, and commentary tracks, which are often missing in downloads. It does take a bit more time, but I also find I am way more careful about curating my collection and keeping it high quality.

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  • [–] [S] 1 point 7 months ago

    Agreed. When you download, you don’t really know what you’re getting. Also you don’t get consistency between all of your movies. That’s the difference when you rip your own stuff.

    With the bluray drive, there isn’t much choice on the used market in Switzerland so I’m just trying to go with a good brand and check reviews if I find some.

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