Ripping Blurays for WDTV Suggestions

[FFactory0x]

So I have 2 WDTV's in my house both hooked upto 1080P Sets (65")

The WDTV'S are both networked via Cat6 to a Gigabit Router in my Office where I have a NAS.

I have about 45 Blurays I want to now rip and store on the NAS for streaming to my TV's.

What is the best way to do this so I do not lose any quality. I have read about MKV files. Would this make them lose quality? Bluray ripping in new to me. Is it anything like DVD's where you can rip to a TS folder or ISO with no loss?

Any idea's would help.

 

[abaez]

MakeMKV is probably your best bet for most blurays. It rips BR's uncompressed into an MKV file.

The only negative is that it does not support any sort of conversion of the bluray subtitle format. Since I last checked, no player supports PGS (BR's subtitle format). I believe VLC had started some support earlier this year. Not sure if it's full support now.

For those BR's with subtitles, I use eac3toGUI (HDBRStreamExtractor) to extract the audio, video and subtitle files separately. I then convert the subtitle file from PGS to idx or srr (DVD's subtitle format). Then use MKVMerge to mux the audio, video and converted subtitle format into one mkv file. Has worked on any bluray I've tried and I actually prefer this method as I know exactly which audio and video stream I'm getting, along with having full control over the subtitle files.

 

[FFactory0x]

MakeMKV is probably your best bet for most blurays. It rips BR's uncompressed into an MKV file.

The only negative is that it does not support any sort of conversion of the bluray subtitle format. Since I last checked, no player supports PGS (BR's subtitle format). I believe VLC had started some support earlier this year. Not sure if it's full support now.

For those BR's with subtitles, I use eac3toGUI (HDBRStreamExtractor) to extract the audio, video and subtitle files separately. I then convert the subtitle file from PGS to idx or srr (DVD's subtitle format). Then use MKVMerge to mux the audio, video and converted subtitle format into one mkv file. Has worked on any bluray I've tried and I actually prefer this method as I know exactly which audio and video stream I'm getting, along with having full control over the subtitle files.

Thanks. How large are most Bluray files? Lets take Transformers Revenge of Fallen for example.....I assume its around 25gb. If that holds true and I wanted to somehow compress it down with minimal loss to around 15gb what would you suggest?

From experience can you tell any noticeable difference difference on a larger tv (65")

Also is MakeMKV able to crack most Bluray encryption.

 

[FFactory0x]

Is there a way to RIP just the movie file uncompressed without the extra content and menu's? This could definitely cut down on Size.

 

[frowertr]

Is there a way to RIP just the movie file uncompressed without the extra content and menu's? This could definitely cut down on Size.

MakeMKV can do just this. You can choose just the movie to be ripped when inside the MakeMKV software. This is how I do it. I don't rip any of the extra features. I rip only the main movie, English subtitles, and the HD audio codecs.

Also, .mkv containers don't support BD menus as far as I know anyway so you wouldn't want to rip the entire disc.

Thanks. How large are most Bluray files? Lets take Transformers Revenge of Fallen for example.....I assume its around 25gb. If that holds true and I wanted to somehow compress it down with minimal loss to around 15gb what would you suggest?

From experience can you tell any noticeable difference difference on a larger tv (65")

Also is MakeMKV able to crack most Bluray encryption.

Most BD rip down to around 25GB with HD audio. Transformers Revenge of the Fallen is a little larger at around ~35GB with HD audio.

As far as transcoding (compressing) goes, the best program to use is Handbrake: http://handbrake.fr/. It works great and I can't tell any appreciable difference when you set up Handbrake properly. Make sure you read over the forums to get an idea of what you are doing. The downsides is it takes a loooong time to work. It takes my rig 6+ hours to transcode a full length BD movie. I gave up on using it. Hard drive space is so cheap that it isn't worth the effort to transcode any longer.

I have never had any issues using Makemkv. I have used it well over 150 times to rip movies and it hasn't failed me yet.

 

[FFactory0x]

MakeMKV can do just this. You can choose just the movie to be ripped when inside the MakeMKV software. This is how I do it. I don't rip any of the extra features. I rip only the main movie, English subtitles, and the HD audio codecs.

Also, .mkv containers don't support BD menus as far as I know anyway so you wouldn't want to rip the entire disc.

Very cool. Sounds just like dvdshrink.

Can you choose the output format or just uncompressed .mkv or compressed .mkv

 

[frowertr]

Very cool. Sounds just like dvdshrink.

Can you choose the output format or just uncompressed .mkv or compressed .mkv

Makemkv won't do any compression. Its a 1:1 copy. It will output only in the .mkv container. Also make sure you re-read my first post as I edited it with additional information.

 

[FFactory0x]

Makemkv won't do any compression. Its a 1:1 copy. It will output only in the .mkv container. Also make sure you re-read my first post as I edited it with additional information.

Ok cool. Now from there if I wanted to compress further what would you use?

Also I have a few 3D movies which I assume have both a 3d stream and a standard stream. Any experience in ripping these as my TV is 3d and i would want that version

 

[smitbret]

MakeMKV simply takes the BR movie, strips the stuff out and spits out an .mkv file that is the exact same quality as the original Blu-Ray. These will play great on your WD Live and should be between 20-30GB.

If you want to save space, you'll need to recompress the whole thing. With an h264 encoder and good settings, there is negligible difference if you shrink them down to 13GB, give or take. I still, however, do get some blocking in dark scenes and shadows when I re-encode them, so I tend to just repackage the raw streams for the special movies in my life. Most people won't notice it, though. As frowertr mentioned, this takes some time. Using Handbrake or RipBot264, it takes me about 8 hours on an AMD Phenom II 955. If you are running an I7, you'll be able to shave 25% or so off that time, but it's still gonna be six hours or so.

Are you looking for a free or paid solution?

 

[FFactory0x]

MakeMKV simply takes the BR movie, strips the stuff out and spits out an .mkv file that is the exact same quality as the original Blu-Ray. These will play great on your WD Live and should be between 20-30GB.

If you want to save space, you'll need to recompress the whole thing. With an h264 encoder and good settings, there is negligible difference if you shrink them down to 13GB, give or take. I still, however, do get some blocking in dark scenes and shadows when I re-encode them, so I tend to just repackage the raw streams for the special movies in my life. Most people won't notice it, though. As frowertr mentioned, this takes some time. Using Handbrake or RipBot264, it takes me about 8 hours on an AMD Phenom II 955. If you are running an I7, you'll be able to shave 25% or so off that time, but it's still gonna be six hours or so.

Are you looking for a free or paid solution?

I would look for a free solution. I do have an I7 as well.

 

[abaez]

Not all movies are 25gigs. Some are lower and some are higher. What's 10 gigs in the larger scheme of things when 2tb drives are like $70 now? Eventually we'll have like 5tb drives and you'll regret ever compressing when size is inconsequential.

FWIW here are my own uncompressed rip sizes from my hd/br discs with the best available audio:

 

[smitbret]

I would look for a free solution. I do have an I7 as well.

Have you ripped any, yet? I ask because the first part of the process is defeating the copy protection on the discs. You can pay $100 and get AnyDVD HD or use DVDFab for free. If you're just doing a handful of films, then DVDFab will probably be fine. If you're planning on doing more than a dozen or so, AnyDVD HD may be a worthwhile investment.

 

[Patranus]

Just use Handbreak setting for HQ after the ripping them to MKV.
The quality difference will be negligible while the storage savings will be MAJOR.

 

[FFactory0x]

Have you ripped any, yet? I ask because the first part of the process is defeating the copy protection on the discs. You can pay $100 and get AnyDVD HD or use DVDFab for free. If you're just doing a handful of films, then DVDFab will probably be fine. If you're planning on doing more than a dozen or so, AnyDVD HD may be a worthwhile investment.

Alot have mentioned MakeMKV. Will this decrypt

 

[Modelworks]

The live can play ISO files that have been made from the source disk without any need to convert them and lose quality. All the menus and things still work.

For conversion the program I like best is from Imtoo. It uses the gpu and cpu to reduce the conversion times quite a bit. Takes about 15 minutes for me to do 1.5 hours of video with it using a Q6600@3.2ghz and GTX275 gpu.
http://www.imtoo.com/hd-video-converter.html

 

[frowertr]

Alot have mentioned MakeMKV. Will this decrypt

Yes, this is all you need to rip. I have a subscription to AnyDVD HD, but honestly, I haven't used it in months since I purchased Makemkv. Also, AnyDVD won't let you pick and choose what tracks to rip. It simply rips everything...

 

[smitbret]

Yes, this is all you need to rip. I have a subscription to AnyDVD HD, but honestly, I haven't used it in months since I purchased Makemkv. Also, AnyDVD won't let you pick and choose what tracks to rip. It simply rips everything...

I was unaware that MakeMKV decrypted BR discs. I had always run it with AnyDVD in the background and assumed that was doing all of the decryption.

I don't actually use AnyDVD to rip anything. I just use it for decryption and then rip with TsMuxer or maybe Handbrake if I want compression but don't want to burn in the subs.

 

[velillen]

Yes, this is all you need to rip. I have a subscription to AnyDVD HD, but honestly, I haven't used it in months since I purchased Makemkv. Also, AnyDVD won't let you pick and choose what tracks to rip. It simply rips everything...

have you by chance tried Thor? i believe that was the on ei got from a friend and went to use makemkv and it wouldn't see/read the disc. I only had the "free" version at the time of makemkv though. I did have anydvdhd so after i updated it (which i only do every 2-3 versions) and removed the protection then makemkv was able to read the disc.

as for anydvd i got it one sale so it was the 100 bucks or whatever it is currently. But i do use it every now and then. like for Thor. or when i want to copy a whole disc to HDD. I've found it nice as well when doing tv series to just rip the whole disc (personal preference) and also if makemkv gives 2-3 different formats you want to rip (like 2d vs 3d). Definitely not totally needed but i do use it even with makemkv

 

[frowertr]

I was unaware that MakeMKV decrypted BR discs. I had always run it with AnyDVD in the background and assumed that was doing all of the decryption.

I don't actually use AnyDVD to rip anything. I just use it for decryption and then rip with TsMuxer or maybe Handbrake if I want compression but don't want to burn in the subs.

Yeah, MakeMKV decrypts and rips. One stop solution! You actually should be getting an error message if MakeMKV detects AnyDVD HD upon startup as the two conflict with each other. Weird you aren't...

I use to use just AnyDVD HD but it didn't make sense (for me) to rip the entire disc so I started using MakeMKV and haven't looked back.

have you by chance tried Thor? i believe that was the on ei got from a friend and went to use makemkv and it wouldn't see/read the disc. I only had the "free" version at the time of makemkv though. I did have anydvdhd so after i updated it (which i only do every 2-3 versions) and removed the protection then makemkv was able to read the disc.

as for anydvd i got it one sale so it was the 100 bucks or whatever it is currently. But i do use it every now and then. like for Thor. or when i want to copy a whole disc to HDD. I've found it nice as well when doing tv series to just rip the whole disc (personal preference) and also if makemkv gives 2-3 different formats you want to rip (like 2d vs 3d). Definitely not totally needed but i do use it even with makemkv

I do not have Thor. Been meaning to pick it up!

/knocks on wood
MakeMKV hasn't failed me yet. The studio's are getting smarter though. Try and use MakeMKV on the Blu-ray of Source Code and you will see what I mean. There appears to be ~50 40GB movie tracks on the Source Code Blu-ray. The idea here is to make it difficult to detect which is the correct movie (track) and which isnt. If you don't pick the right track you get a "mixed up" version of the movie that won't play properly and then you will have to start all over again.

AnyDVD HD is what I consider the gold standard of DVD/Blu-Ray ripping. However, MakeMKV is "up there" too. Especially since the developer is very active with the project. I don't think you can go wrong with either. If you want full disc rips, use AnyDVD HD. If you want partial disc rips, use MakeMKV.

 

[velillen]

Yeah, MakeMKV decrypts and rips. One stop solution! You actually should be getting an error message if MakeMKV detects AnyDVD HD upon startup as the two conflict with each other. Weird you aren't...

i get the "error" but its more of a warning though. out of ~50 movies so far i've had no give an issue due to both running.

I use to use just AnyDVD HD but it didn't make sense (for me) to rip the entire disc so I started using MakeMKV and haven't looked back.

Same with me. i like just having the movie and not having to go through previews/warning. just start the movie.

I do not have Thor. Been meaning to pick it up!

/knocks on wood
MakeMKV hasn't failed me yet. The studio's are getting smarter though. Try and use MakeMKV on the Blu-ray of Source Code and you will see what I mean. There appears to be ~50 40GB movie tracks on the Source Code Blu-ray. The idea here is to make it difficult to detect which is the correct movie (track) and which isnt. If you don't pick the right track you get a "mixed up" version of the movie that won't play properly and then you will have to start all over again.

Hmm haven ttried source code yet (need to pick it up). Thor was the only one i had issues with (as previously mentioned) but an update to anydvd easily fixed it. As for the multiple tracks i'll see it happen but usually just 2-3 tracks. I usualy just pick the first one and thats usually it or ill just rip the hwole disc as a "just in case" rip. (its quicker to rip the disc and then extract if i know itll be 2-3 times vs doing it off the disc each time)

 

[smitbret]

It's just been awhile since I'd used MakeMKV. I prefer to run AnyDVD in the background, scan the disc with BDinfo and then rip it from the correct playlist with TsMuxer. Just gives a nice clean, uncompressed that plays back on pretty much anything as well as leaving a file that is great to run through Ripbot or Handbrake. Works everytime.

 

[FFactory0x]

So I just tried Star Trek ripping using MakeMKV and it was 2x speed

I tried Anydvd and got 12mb/s

This seems really slow. Any suggestions?

I have a MATSHITA BD-RE UJ240AF

 

[Aharami]

I also use makemkv and handbrake. Maybe it's my network (although I doubt it since I have cat6 cables and gigabit router/switch) but I cant play uncompressed mkv's over the network via my WDTV Live. After 5-10 mins, it starts stuttering and audio/video will lose sync. So I've been using handbrake to compress them down to 12MBps or so

 

[Aharami]

So I just tried Star Trek ripping using MakeMKV and it was 2x speed

I tried Anydvd and got 12mb/s

This seems really slow. Any suggestions?

I have a MATSHITA BD-RE UJ240AF

I hardly ever go above 2.5x with makemkv...but I thought that's because of my BD reader. Well Anydvd costs money, makemkv is free....so cant complain much

 

[smitbret]

So I just tried Star Trek ripping using MakeMKV and it was 2x speed

I tried Anydvd and got 12mb/s

This seems really slow. Any suggestions?

I have a MATSHITA BD-RE UJ240AF

I have never used AnyDVD's ripper. Like I mentioned, I rip movies only with TsMuxer and it usually takes about 35-45 minutes. I have also ripped a couple of Blu-Rays with DVDFabHD just for fun and couldn't find any significant difference.

Riplocked burners are gonna be a bigger challenge than the software itself. What was the actual amount of time for each method?