Re-encode RF18-passthru to RF20-Stereo

[s10010001]

Hello, Im looking for some advice here. I have a handful (~30) BD rips that I encoded with HD to MKV. I used R18, 1080p, and included pass thru and DPLII audio. I end up with 8-11gb files

I do not have surround sound, just a real nice 2.1 (more of an audio guy) and over the years I have realize I have no intent on going surround sound. I am also finding some of these files hard and less reliable to transcode with Plex. I have recently make new encodes with R20 and only 320bit Stereo and I really like them a lot and they are nice and small (~5gb) and play real nice.

So my question: Unfortunately I cannot find the drive with my BD originals on it and I don't want to re-rip (time, and they are in the attic) Is there a solid way to compress my 11gb R16-18 files without making them crappy? Or would I be best served re-riping and then encoding?

[rollin_eng]

You always want the best possible source, thus re-ripping will be your best bet.

[BradleyS]

Agreed, best to find that HDD. There are some file size losses with re-encoding, also. Takes more bits to achieve the same perceived quality with each generation of loss.

[nhyone]

I think it should re-encode with minimal (and non-visible) loss.

You can do this if you have time. Pick one video that you think is challenging to encode, and
1. re-encode it at CRF 20 and see if you can see a difference compared to CRF 18
2. encode directly at CRF 20 from the Blu-ray source and see if you can see a difference compared to (1)

320 kbps stereo audio sounds excessive too. Is it MP3 or AAC?

[s10010001]

Yea, I'm ok with my server spending some time encoding for sure. I am using AAC 320, I figured the same rules apply as they do to audio. My 2.1 is higher end so I don't normally like audio lower than 320, I prefer lossless. So I figured 320 in the movie made sense, no?

I will try what you said on just one chapter of a BD. I looked all over the place and cannot find that drive... At the time of ripping them I didn't have my NAS. I just re-riped my Avengers BD, I will do the compare.

Thanks for the tip.

[s10010001]

So I did try the re-encode my R18 files. Turns out it wasn't that bad. I really can tell the difference unless I'm pixel peeping. The files were not as small as my R20 right from the BD rip. Star Trek was like 13gb, and after R20, Ac3-256 Stereo it was 7... but it play much nicer for me in M4v with web enabled.