Well, I was given a $50 BestBuy gift card. There really isn't much I want there and right now the Sony 8x bluray drive is $119 on sale. With the gift card that puts me right around $70.

I'm running VDPAU on my Mythtv system so I should have the power for the videos. Based on ripping tools in Linux/Wine should I jump? It will give me something new to play with but is this another case of "wait a few months" and better drives and support will be available?

I have no issues with the somewhat unfriendly state of ripping and can hammer through command line issues...

I say "go for it"!! Ripping is easy, and 1080p looks awesome! It makes me want to go out and spend $3-$4K on a projector. :)

Is ripping easy in linux? I though BD+ was giving rippers trouble with the latest disks.

Is ripping easy in linux? I though BD+ was giving rippers trouble with the latest disks.

For your ripping pleasure --> https://help.ubuntu.com/community/RestrictedFormats/BluRayAndHDDVD

See also the link on that page for BD+ --> http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?p=1208974#post1208974

For your ripping pleasure --> https://help.ubuntu.com/community/RestrictedFormats/BluRayAndHDDVD

See also the link on that page for BD+ --> http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?p=1208974#post1208974


I wonder when DVDFab will incorporate the BD+ stuff for automated ripping of current and future BD+ iterations?

Personally, I prefer this link ;)
http://bluraysucks.com/

For your ripping pleasure --> https://help.ubuntu.com/community/RestrictedFormats/BluRayAndHDDVD

Thanks for the links. Somewhat restores my faith in freedom.

When I can put a BR disc into my Linux HTPC and it plays, then it will be 'easy'. Right now...no freakin way is it easy. Waste of money in Linux....debatable waste of money period!

I actually put a BR player in my HTPC - I bought 1 movie disc (30$!) and Planet Earth...Haven't bothered since. And yeah I had to play them in Windows!

I wouldn't bother if I were doing it over
-Trouble

I sure wouldn't bother with a crappy Sony drive. And certainly a burner is a waste of money, with harddisk space as cheap as it is.

An internal drive player maybe, but it's gotta be like Plextor quality, and that's only if you have a Netflix account. And it should be as hackable as possible.

I sure wouldn't bother with a crappy Sony drive. And certainly a burner is a waste of money, with harddisk space as cheap as it is.

An internal drive player maybe, but it's gotta be like Plextor quality, and that's only if you have a Netflix account. And it should be as hackable as possible.

BestBuy has Sony BDU-X10S. Sony really isn't my favorite but it was the only one they had in store. Thinking about it I should have gotten the LG online and had it shipped to me. Grr... The drive is unopened in my car. Maybe I should take it back.

The more I think about it the more annoyed I am. The box says "Sony - 8x Internal Blu-ray Disk/DVD-ROM/CD-ROM Drive". Now that I look a bit closer I see it's only 2x Blu-ray and the 8x is the DVD-ROM.

Argh! I should have ordered the LG drive online. It's 6x Blu-ray.

That's it... I'm heading back there after work.

The BDU-X10S went back. I think I was blinded by blu-ray when I made the stupid decision to pick up a Sony drive. Thankfully I never opened the box so I was not hit with a restocking fee.

I think at that price point the LG is the way to go... Tomorrow I may put in my order.

Thanks for the info. I'm going to be building an HTPC in the future and I'm on the fence about bluray.

Plextor used to be quality, today they just re-brand someone else's drives.

LG does not support Linux. There is no way to update their firmware under Linux.

Plextor used to be quality, today they just re-brand someone else's drives.

LG does not support Linux. There is no way to update their firmware under Linux.
LOL

Now; this is what I love... all criticism, but no suggestions.

LOL

Now; this is what I love... all criticism, but no suggestions.

Hold on... let me head over to the debian forums.... the nvidia linux forums.... the ....

LG does not support Linux. There is no way to update their firmware under Linux.

Does anyone? ;)

But seriously, most motherboards have the firmware update program built into the BIOs, so its OS agnostic. At worst, I've used a FreeDOS (FOSS DOS, not Linux but close enough) boot disk to run DOS firmware update programs, though I haven't flashed an optical drive in many years.

If an optical drive maker only provides a Windows firmware updater and no FreeDOS compatible one, then that's a Bad Thing.

AT this stage of the game, I don't know why hardware makers don't provide bootable FreeDOS images that can be burned to CD or USB stick, or custom Linux micro LiveCD ISO's that simply boot and flash the hardware- whether a mobo, optical drive, PCI card, USB device, etc. The LiveCD could have its own text or graphical menu and wizard-like step-by-step process for flashing.

Does anyone? ;)

But seriously, most motherboards have the firmware update program built into the BIOs, so its OS agnostic. At worst, I've used a FreeDOS (FOSS DOS, not Linux but close enough) boot disk to run DOS firmware update programs, though I haven't flashed an optical drive in many years.

If an optical drive maker only provides a Windows firmware updater and no FreeDOS compatible one, then that's a Bad Thing.

AT this stage of the game, I don't know why hardware makers don't provide bootable FreeDOS images that can be burned to CD or USB stick, or custom Linux micro LiveCD ISO's that simply boot and flash the hardware- whether a mobo, optical drive, PCI card, USB device, etc. The LiveCD could have its own text or graphical menu and wizard-like step-by-step process for flashing.

(Un?)Fortunately I have a system with Vista on it so if necessary I could flash the bios with that. Still, I only boot to that if I want to game.... Funny that I now see a microsoft OS as a "play" OS and everything else is Linux!

I've not had the chance to order the LG drive yet but when I do I'll post my results...

Does anyone? ;)

But seriously, most motherboards have the firmware update program built into the BIOs, so its OS agnostic. At worst, I've used a FreeDOS (FOSS DOS, not Linux but close enough) boot disk to run DOS firmware update programs, though I haven't flashed an optical drive in many years.

If an optical drive maker only provides a Windows firmware updater and no FreeDOS compatible one, then that's a Bad Thing.

AT this stage of the game, I don't know why hardware makers don't provide bootable FreeDOS images that can be burned to CD or USB stick, or custom Linux micro LiveCD ISO's that simply boot and flash the hardware- whether a mobo, optical drive, PCI card, USB device, etc. The LiveCD could have its own text or graphical menu and wizard-like step-by-step process for flashing.

Go to their web site and check. For the drive I bought it was windows only, no dos boot disk, nothing else.

Go to their web site and check. For the drive I bought it was windows only, no dos boot disk, nothing else.

...strike that drive from the list...

Go to their web site and check. For the drive I bought it was windows only, no dos boot disk, nothing else.

What about third party flash utilities like from the Dangerous Brothers?

What about third party flash utilities like from the Dangerous Brothers?

While that might be a workaround, do we really want to give money to companies not supporting us?

I'm not going to be switching over to BluRay any time soon. All of my movies are standard DVD format (over 500), and I'm not going out and buying all of them over again. I've already done that when VHS was made obsolete by DVD's. At least at that time I only had about 100 VHS movies.

It just seems like a big cash grab to get you to spend more money.......besides, DVD's are cheaper than BluRay discs. Plus, there are way more titles on DVD.

If BluRay made an offer that you could trade in all of your DVD's to BluRay free of charge, then maybe I would consider it. But then I would have to re-rip all of them again in the new format, taking up a lot of my time.

Plus watching regular DVD next to BluRay, I don't see enough of a difference to entice me to switch over.

Just as the OP I had $75 in gift cards, and when I had visited my local Best Buy last month I decided to buy the LG drive they had in stock. Having no idea whether I could rip or play bluray under Linux or not, I viewed it as a "fun" task to find out if it was possible.

Not to go into all the boring details but I was able to do so. Unfortunately not without resorting to non-free software. But I guess running a Linux media server with NVIDIA hardware I had already crossed that line.

I don't see myself replacing many of my ripped DVDs. Perhaps a few favorites over time but new movie purchases I'd rather get the bluray because 1080p is nicer than 480p to my eyeballs. Especially letterboxed (2.35:1 for example) because the 480p rips go to something much less.

So I guess my point is that if you want to go to the bluray world you can but you may need to use non-free software to get you there.

So I guess my point is that if you want to go to the bluray world you can but you may need to use non-free software to get you there.

Exactly what software did you use?

Just as the OP I had $75 in gift cards, and when I had visited my local Best Buy last month I decided to buy the LG drive they had in stock. Having no idea whether I could rip or play bluray under Linux or not, I viewed it as a "fun" task to find out if it was possible.

Not to go into all the boring details but I was able to do so. Unfortunately not without resorting to non-free software. But I guess running a Linux media server with NVIDIA hardware I had already crossed that line.

I don't see myself replacing many of my ripped DVDs. Perhaps a few favorites over time but new movie purchases I'd rather get the bluray because 1080p is nicer than 480p to my eyeballs. Especially letterboxed (2.35:1 for example) because the 480p rips go to something much less.

So I guess my point is that if you want to go to the bluray world you can but you may need to use non-free software to get you there.

Good to hear. I'll be heading down to Best Buy today to see if they have an LG on the shelf before I go ordering it. The bestbuy.com says no one has them in stock but they said that about the Sony as well and there were some on the shelf.

Exactly what software did you use?

I tried getting DumpHD working with my "test" Saw V bluray disk that I bought at the same time as the drive. The install all went well by following directions at doom9 (which I think an earlier post had the link). But that particular movie wasn't in the key database at the time. I think it was around Feb 1st when I started playing with this stuff, so that could be different now.

So the non-free route:

1) Installed my licensed copy of XP in a VirtualBox on my Ubuntu desktop. Ironic that it's the only time it's run on this Dell box since I bought it a few years ago as usually the first thing I do is delete windows :)

2) Installed the trial Slysoft anydvd hd.

3) After using #2, I make mkv files using eac3to. Here is a HOWTO Guide (http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?t=137128).

Thats the end of the windoze stuff. I've reencoded a few of the rips with Handbrake (http://handbrake.fr/). Still seem to get really nice quality to my eyeballs with the movie being 30-40% smaller in file size. I've had to reencode a few movies because they were VC-1 and my hardware can't handle them. So reencoded to H.264.

Oh yeah, one more piece of non-free software is CoreAVC. Here is a Ubuntu Howto to use it with mplayer (http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1034075&highlight=CoreAVC). But I actually followed that guide to get it to work on my ancient (R5E50) knoppmyth setup I'm running.

My hardware frontends are AMD duo core 2.9 with Nvidia 6200 on the mobo. Sadly VDPAU not for me unless I upgrade the video.

So far 7 for 7 blurays ripped onto the MythTV server. :D

Thanks for the info.

However, I wouldn't count your method as a "Linux" method because it requires Windows and Win only software- Windows in a VM doesn't "count"

I agree. At some point I'll re-visit the DumpHD and other other projects that run natively on Linux.

Argh!

I went to Best Buy today only to find the last LG drive in the store in the hands of another customer. Sure enough, he walked off with it. There were no more in back and none of the other stores in the area have it in stock.

I guess there is no blu-ray love for me this weekend.