It's fun Jim, but not as we know it

The above screenshot shows a menu I am designing in HTML that allows me to list my movies as a collection. My collection includes DVDs, Blu rays, 4k Blu rays, and Music.

I had customised the older W10 start menu originally to list my collection, utilizing a utility called MyTile to create the tiles, but there was no backup option in Windows 10 Pro. Overall it looked a little egregious with hundreds of tiles. After a reinstallation of windows, I sought a solution that would be easy to backup & be isolated, etc. With this design, everything can be hidden files - source - menus - icons. Accessing media is just as case of opening the browser (any browser) and with as little as two-three clicks I can a watch any movie.

Presently I encode using MKV H265 2160p60, I use AR in VLC to suit my different formats. It depends on the movie and how I see it. Handbrake automatically crops so as not to waste space in the end file, removing black bars without prompting or you can override this. Matroska isn't compatible with most browsers (That download thing that one gets), so I use Firefox which automatically opens MKVs in VLC (and allows MP4 to play as right click option for VLC). MP4 & MP3s play in the browser like anything else. I prefer MKVs as they can store multiple subtitles as well as audio. They can also play different files simultaneously, like a Swedish soundtrack with Chinese subtitles. I have found that most people are often intrigued by the dual language thing which most TVs can't do. It is also a good way to practice other languages as you can listen in Arabic and watch in English for example.

I know purists say that you shouldn't condense video, however I study Pixels and have a 2xQHD(49")@5120x1440 display to see things on. Some converted widescreen 4k is debatable to detect in my view (no pun intended). Some purists seem to think that monitor manufacturers and game/movie makers use a perfect algorithm that transposes across all mediums perfectly, but that is not the case of course. The main thing is to be happy with what you're doing and I have studied Blu-ray against 4K and on some older films (say pre 2005) the difference is mostly indistinguishable.

I use good editing software for editing, splitting, & recompiling. Handbrake can also be used for basic editing & cropping through the use of their settings. Make MKV (free software (initially)) is one of the best for 4K & Blu-ray decryption. It did, however, take a while to find a player that worked. I have the Asus BC-12D2HT (which had FW3.04) I then had to downgrade to FW3.0. MakeMKV uses Libre, and they have keys to pretty much everything. It is also automatic, so all you have to do is load a disc and let the software figure it all out.

Occasional problems with unreadable disks are a concern. Sometimes I find if a decrypt fails, I re-decrypt to overwrite the "broke" file and normally that works. Occasionally every effort fails, as it would seem some manufacturers are deliberately putting in disc errors to confound computer drives, which have a lower tolerance for errors than a dedicated player - generally, to stop people copying. In the process though some discs are so "damaged" that right out of the box, even dedicated players can't read them! I adhere to the argument that if you buy the rights to watch something, it shouldn't be limited to the fragility of the storage medium. Ergo, the reason why we generally backup important or valuable data.

MakeMKV can decrypt a 4k BR in around 1-3hrs. Handbrake can then recompile the files to a single compressed file in whatever format in about 3-8 hours. Handbrake is intense, and in the past I have blown up a CPU using it, so I try to keep the temperatures as low as I can. My system has water cooling, but I had to change the fans for faster quieter ones and the 240mm rad cools to around the mid 70s.

This program generally thrashes most computers and will use as many cores as you have and 90+% CPU power (it is inadvisable to limit the cores which can be done of course). My power goes from 200W to 350W when encoding (I do not use graphic acceleration as although it was faster and less CPU intensive, colours were washed out). It would appear that my 3900X is using its' 142W max - no wonder it gets hot! On the plus side, you can turn the radiator off, and 150w/hour is an efficient heater. At +/-10p/KW, that means I'm heating the room for around 1p/hr!