In the end, I'm mystified it's still so hard to buy older movies so I can watch them on my networked devices. TV shows are a different beast-you have to rip in each episode, transcode them in a batch, edit the metadata in a batch, then ideally stick the episodes into a folder for each season so Jellyfin picks them up correctly.

Copy the file to my NAS's Media directory.Īfter that last step, Jellyfin automatically scans the new movie and adds it to my library.

mp4 using Handbrake's 1080p or 4K presets. (I bought a license years ago, since I use it so darn much, but it's also shareware that can be used for free.)

Rip the physical disc's main title (usually the longest) to an MKV file using MakeMKV.

akin to how YouTube and other online platforms set up their files! Heck, some people who are deeper into the r/datahoarder rabbit hole even have dedicated transcoding servers so they can generate optimal archival copies in 4K, 1080p, etc. Thus, I'm writing a fresh guide to how I rip DVDs and Blu-Ray discs into my Mac, then transcode them with Handbrake. And in many cases, older movies can only be found as used and/or pirated DVDs on eBay! In a surprising twist of fate, we went from a somewhat more centralized online media situation back then (basically, Netflix) to a hellscape of dozens of streaming services today. Heck, back then I didn't write everything as a 'blog post'-that was labeled as an 'article' :P It's been more than a decade since I wrote Ripping Movies from Blu-Ray, HD-DVD and DVD, Getting them onto Apple TV, iPad, iPhone, etc.

Fab blu ray ripper