I just got into usenet and some of the files downloaded are ISOs. I’m trying to figure out the best way to convert them to mp4s so that I can play them through plex. I’m running on a headless arch server (Manjaro), and I’d prefer to keep the conversion there if possible.

Anyone have experience with this?

  • dishpanman@lemmy.caEnglish
    221·
    1 year ago

    Handbrake reads and converts DVD movie and video ISOs. If they are encrypted, MakMKV and DVDDecrypter can be used to get them ready for Handbrake.

    • body_by_make@lemmy.dbzer0.comOPEnglish
      2·
      1 year ago

      I’ve tried HandBrakeCLI and for some reason it detects all tracks as 5 seconds and outputs a 2.4mb file from a 29gb ISO. Does this mean they’re encrypted?

      • dishpanman@lemmy.caEnglish
        3·
        1 year ago

        If it’s a 29GB ISO it’s definitely not a DVD but likely a BluRay. It may be encrypted/corrupted/not a video. Try MakeMKV next to see if it can decrypt and recognize the chapters.

  • m-p{3}@lemmy.caEnglish
    8·
    1 year ago

    Handbrake is able to “mount” ISOs, should be pretty straightforward from there.

    • body_by_make@lemmy.dbzer0.comOPEnglish
      1·
      1 year ago

      I’ve tried HandBrakeCLI and for some reason it detects all tracks as 5 seconds and outputs a 2.4mb file from a 29gb ISO

  • sebinspace@lemmy.worldEnglish
    7·
    1 year ago

    ISOs are disc images. You’d have to mount them with something like Daemon Tools. To be honest, it’s been awhile since I pirated anything but movies, so there’s probably a better way to do it now. ISOs are also what we use in emulation when the console in question used discs, so I have a bunch of ISOs of discs I backed up to use in emu.

  • TwilightKiddy@programming.devEnglish
    6·
    1 year ago

    If there is no encryption involved, you should be able to unpack them with 7zip without any mounting and then convert with ffmpeg to a format of your liking. IIRC, DVDs usually consist of a bunch of VOB files. You can just cat them all together and then send directly to ffmpeg.

    • Eris@lemmy.worldEnglish
      3·
      1 year ago

      My god yes. The download speeds are so fast and I have never had issues with quality while using it. No more waiting 3 weeks to download a movie with 1 seeder.

      If you have any questions, I can answer to the best of my ability.

      • esmazer@lemmy.worldEnglish
        1·
        1 year ago

        How much is it? And do you use a VPN while connecting to it? Is it like a private torrent tracker?

        • Eris@lemmy.worldEnglish
          3·
          1 year ago

          I pay ~$10/mo for eweka(usenet provider) and nzbfinder.ws(usenet indexer). You do not need a VPN while connecting as long as you are using TLS when downloading. It’s not really like a private tracker because it’s not even torrenting. You’re downloading direct from the usenet provider.

        • thisusernameistaken@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
          2·
          1 year ago

          there are plenty of usenet services out there that are cheap in cost. frugal usenet is well regarded since it is, well, cheap and you get access to two usenet backbones with one sub. once you start down this rabbit hole most will have one main server and a backup for missing posts at times which is why frugal is a good value.

        • S0berage@mstdn.ca
          1·
          1 year ago

          @esmazer @Eris http://old.reddit.com/r/usenet/wiki/providers and https://old.reddit.com/r/usenet/wiki/providerdeals is your friend.

          Most use block deals from NewsgroupDirect or annually with frugal/newsdemon. NewsgroupDirect with Frugal will give you 5 backbones worth of access for not too much. Then you need an indexer like one here:

          http://old.reddit.com/r/usenet/wiki/indexers

          with sabnzbd, sonarr, radarr, lidarr, prowlarr, mylarr, readarr, overseerr, Plex media server and unRAID and you’re set.

    • body_by_make@lemmy.dbzer0.comOPEnglish
      1·
      1 year ago

      It seems pretty nice so far. I was in a few private trackers for movies and TV and they were fine but I stopped using them when my VPN apparently failed me and I got called out by my ISP, so I’m really digging not having to worry about seeding. Also, some private trackers have a weird amount of drama and it’s kind of off-putting.

      I still use MAM though, it’s by far the best tracker around and I love the community and books it provides.

      Any, part of the improvements I’m seeing I think is just because I’m finally using radarr and sonarr, I think you can technically use these with torrents too, so this quality of life improvement could probably have been achieved without Usenet. But not having to worry about seeding is very nice.

  • H_Interlinked@kbin.social
    4·
    1 year ago

    I’ve always used Free ver. of PowerISO to “mount” the disc image to a virtual drive like others mentioned. Anyone who’s emulated PlayStation 1/2 games would be very familiar with this format. Otherwise any old software released on CD format you’ll probably find as an ISO.

  • crossover@lemmy.worldEnglish
    2·
    1 year ago

    Assuming the .iso file is a DVD/Bluray image: Open the file in MakeMKV. Select the tracks you want, and it will…make a MKV file out of it. That should be fine for Plex.

  • Katya@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
    2·
    3 months ago

    I’d like to recommend using DVDFab for converting your ISO files to MP4 format. It’s available on Linux, including your Manjaro setup. If you encounter any issues with encrypted DVDs, you might also need to consider tools like MakeMKV for decryption. Just keep in mind that MakeMKV is typically used to extract the video without compression, so you can then use DVDFab HD Decrypter afterward to convert to MP4 if needed.