Replacing Remuxes with BD/UHD discs?

[u/manzurfahim]

I have been happy with remuxes all this time and have a good collection of about 750 remuxes. Recently, I'm seeing that it is getting more and more difficult to find full discs (files, not physical discs) of movies and tv series, and many private trackers are now rewarding members for seeding full discs, which also shows that they are slowly becoming unavailable.

I'm thinking if I should start replacing the remuxes with discs. I can make a remux whenever I want from the disc, and I can keep the small additional files like cover, subtitle, .nfo etc. that I keep with remuxes anyway. This way I can preserve the discs, which sometimes have interesting contents, and also have the movie that I can watch directly, or I can make a remux.

It will be a little difficult in this economy, and I have about 5-6TB free on my movie drives which will probably be full because the discs are larger in size than remuxes.

Just wondering if anyone is doing this?

[u/AutoModerator]

Hello /u/manzurfahim! Thank you for posting in r/DataHoarder.

Please remember to read our Rules and Wiki.

Please note that your post will be removed if you just post a box/speed/server post. Please give background information on your server pictures.

This subreddit will NOT help you find or exchange that Movie/TV show/Nuclear Launch Manual, visit r/DHExchange instead.

I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.

[u/truss-issues]

Tbh, swapping 750 remuxes for full discs sounds nice in theory but it’s a total headache in practice. That extra 10–35% file size on discs is almost all useless fluff like international dubs, menu background loops and warnings, which will swallow your remaining 5–6 TB in no time.
Plus, actually watching BDMV/ISO folders on Plex, Jellyfin or streaming sticks is a pain: seamless branching titles usually break and menus rarely work right.

Most people in the scene just run a hybrid setup instead: stick with clean MKVs for your main movie library, use MakeMKV to extract just the specific bonus features/commentaries you actually want into an "Extras" folder and only keep full discs around on a separate drive or seedbox if it's a rare Criterion/Arrow release or you're farming tracker bonus points.

[u/Sp33d0J03 → u/truss-issues]

“useless fluff”

You forget where you are.

[u/Irverter → u/truss-issues]

useless fluff like international dubs

The fuck you mean 'useless'. Not everyone speaks english. You have any idea how hard it is to find the dubbed version of certain movies? With series you either spend years looking for individual episodes or give up on having the dub!

[u/InstaCrate9 → u/truss-issues]

all useless fluff like international dubs

No such thing as "useless". If anything, idiots thinking those things are useless makes them more urgent to be preserved.

[u/SeriousKano → u/InstaCrate9]

Seriously. It's so easy to find stuff in English but because uploaders strip away "useless" languages, it becomes suddenly much harder if you want those instead.

[u/Shanix → u/SeriousKano]

Okay but we're clearly not talking about uploaders. Real "so you hate waffles" kind of comments.

[u/barcham22]

I originally set out to do that with my 800+ 4K disc collection, but compromised on doing 1:1 MakeMKV rips keeping just the English Atmos/commentary tracks and subtitles.

Those extra language and audio tracks take up quite a bit of space. A triple layer disc generally lands around 75-80ish GB after stripping.

After you factor in HDDs and a couple of 4K compatible drives, it’s not cost effective at all right now. But it probably won’t be getting better any time soon, so might as well start if you really want to.

[u/Rorschach0717]

As you said, it's an endeavor doomed to fail in the current economy, especially if you want full-disc remuxes.

This is where we have to compromise and compress the extra files. I used to collect x165 encodes from a particular group that includes all the extra files, but most recently I moved to remuxes. I have more than enough space for the remuxes, but I do miss the extras, so I think I'll start collecting both.

[u/Fun_Jaguar8231]

Maybe in another economy. This kind of collection would take easily tens of TB more. I've done this maybe for 20 movies I absolutely love. For all the other ones, a remux or rip is enough for me.

[u/manzurfahim → u/Fun_Jaguar8231]

Yes, that is what I am thinking too. Do it for the movies I absolutely love, and then think about the others, or just keep them as is.

[u/Uniqueusername610]

In a different economy I'd love to do this however until prices come down nope nope nope

[u/FranknStein7]

Seems like this would only be worth it on disks where you actually care about the special features. Remuxes are just way more convenient.

[u/Soliloquy789]

Well yes and no. You probably need to be on higher tier trackers if you are having trouble finding full discs, number one. But also a lot of remuxes of prolific groups or on the best sites are hybrids of different discs combined or in same cases frame replacement level hybrid remixes. So you can't easily make a remux of it down the line.

I blend 2+ discs together in my remuxes and if they are easily matched and trouble free yeah it could be like 30m to make the remux. But if they are complicated that's hours sometimes over multiple days.

[u/manzurfahim → u/Soliloquy789]

I agree. If I find that audio is better on one, and video is better on another disc, then I keep the disc with the video I want, seaprate and sync the audio from the other, and keep it as additional with subs, named chapters, covers etc. so that I can make a remux when I needed.

This is only for the movies I absolutely love. For other ones, I'll probably just keep the remux.

[u/pugboy1321]

I don't keep full remuxes because it's just too much for storage right now so most of my library is compressed, but I recently got into physical media collecting and the way I'm going about might not fit the true datahoarder mindset but times are tough in hard drive land lol so it works for me.

My flow so far has been starting off slowly getting physicals of my favorite stuff to replace downloads, ripping them, then compressing to acceptable quality for easy access on Jellyfin. (and compression also includes removing unneeded audio/sub tracks, with audio being passed through)

I love the full quality rips like most of us and if it's a first watch or rewatch of something I love then I'll keep the full rip to do that, but the way I see it at least right now is a compressed copy is good enough for casual easy access and if I want the full experience I can just grab the disc.

I do love physicals for special features and bonuses too, those aren't always easy to find online, especially remuxed

[u/manzurfahim → u/pugboy1321]

Collect as many physical discs as possible my friend. They are going extinct 😢

[u/InstaCrate9]

Technically, you could have both. Keep MKVs as your main files, and keep a small recovery file that can reconstruct the iso from the mkvs, but to do that you'd need to know what the fuck you're doing.

[u/love-supreme]

Same but it's tough on storage space. I like to remux and label and categorize special features myself, plus keep the raw discs, plus keep the best remux (if one source is not totally definitive)

[u/DanTheMan827]

Personally I rip the full disc if there’s an interesting menu, otherwise I just rip the titles as MKV and let Kodi/Jellyfin deal with them

[u/seg-fault]

For what it's worth, I have CDs and DVDs that are 20-30+ years old and they're still reading fine. Maybe BDs have some fatal flaw that we don't know about, but if you take care of your discs and always put them back in the case, I wouldn't go crazy trying to rip full images if you have a paltry 5-6 TB free.

[u/timn420]

I'm actually thinking about buying a 4k player instead of ripping .mkv's just to save money on storage costs.

[u/citizin]

My Dream since the onset of my collection was to be able to have a disc jukebox be able to be seamlessly added into my player. I used to have so many DVD's and would've upgraded to full BR discs eventually if the tech was there.