Best DVD and Blu Ray Ripping? .iso or Files?

If you want to have all the content from the original disk in the rip then .iso is probably the best. You are then keeping it all as was originally intended.

When it comes to playing the rip you will need to ensure the applictions you choose can read the .iso or use something like daemon tools to mount the image.

For DVDs I'd go folders, everything supports that.

For BD, well stuff still kinda sucks WRT playing rips, what you use will depend on what works with your player of choice. Support for BD rips is still in it's infancy. I use folders because my Sage extender supports them. I think youre rather SOL on the Mac side. I believe PowerDVD doesn't support playing folders, but TMT did last I knew.

Yup, you're correct on that one - PDVD is ISO only while TMT will play folders.
Frankly, like many things here, there's no consensus "best" solution. Pretty much it boils down to what you get comfortable with and like using. I stopped using folders when PDVD stopped supporting them and haven't looked back - which is a little bit ironic because I also stopped using PDVD and went the TMT route..
For me-ClownBD > ISO is so easy that I could (and sometimes) do it in my sleep - although Stanger has his method that works just as well for him.

To parrot others:

Folders for DVD, ISO for BR and HD-DVD.

I use any-dvd hd from slysoft to rip the BR, then I use VCD from slysoft to mount the ISO.

As a note, TMT3 does not play from folders right now. They are adding that feature eventually. TMT2 played from folders, but it was an unsupported feature.

A mounted ISO appears to the OS as a physical disc, so everything should be able to play it.

I think the PCH and SageTV players/extenders are the only ones that support BDs. I think the SageTV one supports both types (I know it works with "folder" BD rips), don't know about the PCH.

I would definitely lean toward folders for everything, and use players that support that.

I have a similar situation so rather than start a new thread I'll throw my question in here as well.

I also want to put some of my DVDs/HD movies on my WHS for streaming to other pc's but am also looking to reduce the storage space used as well whle retaining the best quality as much as possible since my main viewing system will be full AV components.

With DVD's there are tools to extract just the main movie but anything for HD movies? Is it worth pursuing further conversion to media center compatible files like .wmv and dmr-ms for either format? Thanks.

ClownBD

+1 for ClownBD. Very easy to use...

So I also asked this question and started off with the ISO route but ended up going with the File route (MKV)

Why NOT ISO -
Too large - If your just ripping from the disk to an ISO then you are consuming Gigs of wasted space in my opinion
Special player - No matter what an ISO needs to be played as a bluray/HDDVD structure. I didnt want to buy a special player especially since there were so many issues - I had issues with all the trials in some sort or another
Audio was down converted - there is a HUGE difference between original and down converted audio - yes I hear a difference. Re-encoding to an alternate codec was needed (FLAC)
Slow to start - ISO requires a mount, player to start then the movie starts - Well its not that bad but with a low powered HTPC its enough to annoy me
Lack of Tight integration with WMC - At first I didnt use WMC as it was slow and clunky in Vista - well in Win 7 thats a difference story couple that with MediaBrowser and you have probably the best thing out there - and I have tried them all.
Can not play to extender - PCH does not support Bluray structure and Sage just released this (beta). And forget about PS3 or XBOX360. MKVs can be played just about anywhere (with the proper encoding/structure/software)

All in all, I demux my blurays re-encode the audio to flac and then remux into a MKV with video untouched. Taking this route which is about 45 minutes from start to finish saves me anywhere from 5 - 15 gig of space (depending on the movie). I never purchased any of the players and am even using the out of the box Video codec that comes with Win 7 so I only have installed is Haali and madflac - thats it and plays everything I need.

All my DVDs are re-edited using DVD Shrink to again remove the garbage, created single VOB file keeping the DVD structure - again saving anywhere from 500MB - 2GB.

Why ISO?-
If you already own a player
If you want to Bit Stream using special hardware
If you dont care about WMC tight integration and load time
If you dont want to fiddle with demuxing, etc. (I know you can recreate the BD structure so this is a depends)
If you dont care about storage size (I know you can recreate the BD structure so this is a depends)

stranglx - sounds good to me. Can you please list what software you use and in what order? Also, what folder structure you use so that Win7 sees everything? And do you store your content on the same device as the Win7 player or on a connected device/computer?

Hang in there, everyone is new once. :-)

My 2 cents:

If you want DVD and Bluray to be the same format, you are essentially committing to MKV. Folder structures and even ISOs are going to require different players for DVD and BD content. MKVs are playable in any player that supports them. In particular, Windows Media Center can play them without having to go outside of it's interface.

I know this is off topic, but I have the same issue with CD Rips. I ripped them over the last couple of years to MP3s. I'd love to redo them to FLAC lossless, but I have 2500 CDs to rip!! Just curious if you encountered something to "sync up" between your "master FLAC" library and the MP3 library?

Ideally, I would rip all of my CDs to a FLAC library. I'd like some utility to convert all those to a MP3 library, and maintain this library in the event I add a CD to the FLAC library. Anything similar to this exist, or would I need to maintain these two separate libraries?

I think the only real "for sure" way to decide is look at what you want to play them with. TMT, PowerDVD, VMC, etc, etc. This will likely determine which way you go.


Well then that's easy, well easy-er. WMP doesn't support ISOs. You have to use virtual drives, you can sorta get "one click" solution with ISO DVDs, but it's not possible with WMP and Blu-ray.

That means you're down to folders, or remuxing/re-encoding to another container. WMP works with DVD folders giving you menus and all, so you're fine there. BD is trickier, WMP doesn't understand BDs, but with the right codecs installed it can play the m2ts files that BD uses.

So you could do folders, which works great for DVDs, but for BDs you'd have to drill down to the main movie M2TS file.

Remuxing to ts, or mkv might be your best option if you want to use WMP. Personally I'd lean toward ts, just because it's the "native" or "official" container and a bit better supported by hardware devices than MKV.


I think in WMP, you drag (or associate and double click) the video_ts.ifo file into WMP and it starts playing it as a DVD.


I've got all my music in FLAC in J River Media Center, it will transcode on the fly to MP3 for a portable players (even an iPod), so there's no need to keep two copies around.

If you want to keep all special features (including "behind-the-scenes featuretts", "deleted scenes" etc.), the complete disc image is the only way to go because you will need menus to navigage. With MKV or Clown_BD you will lose menus and they are intended for the main movie only (all the other titles including 'special features' are discarded). Then AnyDVD HD is the only ripping utility you will ever need.

ISO vs BD/DVD folders: As for BD, ISO is better because of better compatibility with players. There is no video/audio quality difference between them. You just need an extra step of mounting the image (actually automatic) and a bad choice of virtual optical drive emulator may cause a problem (I mean use VirtualCloneDrive instead of Daemon Tools), however.

I didn't know this about Clown BD, which I was just about to install and start using. So it doesn't work like Clone DVD works on SD DVD's, allowing you to get rid of FBI warnings and other junk while keeping commentaries, interviews, etc? In that case I'll have to wait for Clone BD and sit through the warnings and blu-ray promos for the time being.

As I'm very new to this stuff and have just finished my very first HTPC, the only thing I've tried is the AnyDVD HD thing with Slysoft's Virtual Clone Drive. It works very well and easily with both PowerDVD (the OEM that came with my LG BD/HD-DVD combo drive) and to some point, 7MC. I'm not sure I'm getting the BEST LOOKING video back but on the DVD rip I have, it works flawlessly with the original 5.1 sound as well. Again, the vids DO NOT look as good as a standalone player.

I haven't tried a Blu-ray rip .iso yet but I did try to rip my HD-DVD copy of Transformers and it will not play at all on anything. It looks like it's going to mount but just hangs at that point. I've really only tried it in PowerDVD as I don't think 7MC can even see it.

At some point, I'm going to have to figure out why the video looks so bad and get everything working properly but these are small steps I'm taking and I have time. Currently, I'm looking at the FFDShow stuff to see if there is anything in there that I can do to help.

If anyone has any tips on what I've done wrong with the HD-DVD rip of Transformers...let me know.

If you want all the special features, which I do, then .iso's is the way to go for Blu-Ray. I also am using .iso's for DVD. They're easy to use with PDVD9 which has excellent upscaling and a far better picture quality IMO than VMC. Plus I get the extras that way too. All in all AnyDVD HD is a must and it takes care of almost everything for me. I also use DVDFab to rip DVDs to iTunes format for my iPhone.

Ultimately I figure disk space is cheap and it's worth the cost for the special features and extras for me.

Clown_BD removes all the extra titles and menus, just like a couple of free DVD ripping utilities. But it keeps video/audio intact so that you will get perfect video/audio quality when SlyPlayer is released. You can also select audio tracks and subtitles contained in the main movie in demux/remux process.

If you want the same flexibility as DVDFab "DVD to DVD" and SlySoft CloneDVD in DVD ripping in regard to menus and multiple titles, you will have to wait for SlySoft CloneDVD HD (CloneBD?).

The main movie is the largest M2TS file inside the folder BDMV/STREAM in your BD-ROM drive. This file includes all the tracks of the movie (video tracks, audio tracks, subtitles, chapters). People usually want to keep only necessary video/audio/subtitles tracks, whence demux/remux process. Remuxing does not necessarily mean M2TS; you can use another container such as MKV.

In demux/remux, you will treat only the main movie (or only one title at a time). You will lose menus in the final MKV file (MKV does not support menus [yet]) or the final BD ISO/structure in the case of Clown_BD, but you don't need menus because you don't have 'special features'. The final MKV is smaller than the original BD and playable with many media players including Media Center's internal player (you don't need an expensive AACS-compliant player [TMT, PDVD, WinDVD etc.]) and some extenders (e.g. Popcorn Hour) with full video/audio quality.

But if you want menus and extra titles, the complete image is the only way, including FBI warnings (another extra title; removing it requires the upcoming CloneBD).

There are several reasons. Blu-ray, as you've probably noticed is very incompatible. Almost nothing can play a BD as is (it's getting better, but it's not there yet), and the things that can have all sorts of annoying limitations, like downconverting audio, requiring protected outputs, special drivers etc. Comparatively, lots and lots of players and devices can play m2ts or mkv files with BD audio/video, and with none of the annoying limitations of BD players.

For example PowerDVD has about the most horrible interface I've ever seen for an HTPC, getting a remote to work is like pulling teeth.... But remux to m2ts or mkv and something like SageTV (with a nice 10ft/remote inter face) or even Theatertek can play the movie.

Also, many of us couldn't care less about extras, menus, special features. For us, eliminating those, as well as saving the associated space, is the whole point of remuxing. For example, I remux/rebuild all my BDs with TSMuxer (selecting the main movie, I still need to try Clown_BD). This leaves me with a "Blu-ray" that starts immediately with the main movie, no trailers, or menus or anything. SageTV imports all these and I can pick one from my HD200 with the remote and it starts playing. Just that, no waiting for the ISO to mount, or PowerDVD to start, or having to switch remote configs to control PowerDVD or getting out the mouse or keyboard. It's 100% seamless, from selecting the movie to watching it.

Nothing to do with the rips themselves as when you copy with AnyDVD HD you're getting a bit-perfect copy of what's on the disc. There is no re-encoding/down conversion of anything going on - it's EXACTLY as if you popped the disc into your HPTC and played it there.
If the picture quality is not the same as a stand-alone player, that's a HTPC issue-NOT a rip issue...

Technically there is no player supporting the file extension ISO. You must mount it. Then the player sees it as an optical disc in a (virtual) DVD/BD-ROM drive. So basically every player that can play DVD (resp. BD) movies from a DVD-ROM (resp. BD-ROM) drive can play DVD (resp. BD) ISOs.

In this sense the complete ISO image is identical with the original DVD/BD disc (up to protection/encryption).

Here is what you will need. I will keep it short and sweet:

Players -
1. In Windows 7 32 bit use Media Center OR Media Player OR MPC-HT - all work well with my setup - Media Player / Media Center looks a little better in my opinion.

2. If your using Media Center get MediaBrowswer (www.mediabrowser.tv) and install the 2.x.x.x beta. Works amazingly. Setup is real straight forward. Make sure each file is located in a folder unto its own and make sure the name of the folder AND name of the file for the movie matches IDMB name (IDMB.COM)

CODECS-
1. Download Sharks001 CODECS - it comes with Haali, Madflac and FFDSHOW
OR
2. Haali Media Splitter, and madflac AND TMT2 trial version (TMT2 trial version will be used for the other audio codecs)

The first option the easiest route and what I recommend for you. I prefer to use the out of the box microsoft video codecs (with Win 7they support all the HD Video codecs) they are amazing and support DXVA hardware acceleration.



RIPPING-
1. Need to purchase AnyDVDHD - you need this to rip the movies from disk while its encrypted - used for Bluray and DVDs
2. Download DVDShrink - used to edit DVD structure
3. Download eac3to latest version - used to remaster Blurays into MKV
4. Download HdBrStreamExtractor - GUI for eac3to
5. MKVToolnix - used to merge the 3 files created from eac3to/HdBrStreamExtractor (mkv,flac,txt) into a single MKV.
6. GraphStudio - used to validate files that proper codecs are being used

- SlySoft to get AnyDVD HD
- Doom9 to get eac3to AND HdBrStreamExtractor
- AfterDawn to get DVDShrink
- Do a search for MKVToolnix its the first site
- http://blog.monogram.sk/janos/ for GraphStudio

Key points:

AnyDVDHD has to be running when ever your ripping to your hard drive - not necessary when watching the movie from the file

DVDShrink - use this to remove all the warnings, all other sound tracks that you don't want, subititles,etc. Recommend keeping DVD structure and having a single VOB (single file rather then many VOB files). Again AnyDVDHD has to be running or you will get an error as DVDShrink is not kept updated and there could be a protection that it can not handle out of the box. PLUS its much faster then the internal DVDShrink decrypting mechanism. ALSO>>> Make sure you remove any compression. Dont use Auto. Turn it off... 0 compression to ensure 100% quality

HdBrStreamExtractor To install copy all the install files into the eac3to directory. thats it. Dont bother copying the bluray to the HD first. Just use HdBrStreamExtractor and point to the bluray disk and rip right from there. Its very self intuitive to use. Again AnyDVDHD has to be running or you will get an error. Also use the latest beta version (SVN copy). Make sure you extract 3 things. Video to MKV, Audio to FLAC and Chapters to TXT. Use only the HiDef streams 1080p, TrueHD, etc.

MKVToolNix (MKV Merge known as) select video first, audio next. On the second tab add the chapters. Thats it and let it run. It will merge the 3 files created into a single MKV file where you defined (change the name and riectory of course ).

I use Windows Home Server for all my movies on a second machine with Gigabit network. Gigabit is not necessary to stream movies but I do all the above work on my quad core and move the files over to the server 100MB doesnt cut unless you like waiting 20 minutes to copy a file over. And wireless sucks.. net net..


I purchased Windows Home Server and AnyDVDHD thats it...

I have the Gigabyte 9400 Nvidia MB and I have no issues following the above.

If dont care for the work above then you just need the codecs, anyDVD HD, Virtual Clone Drive (Free from SlySoft) and TMT3/PowerDVD9. Just use AnyDVD HD and rip to ISO. And your done... Simple but massive storage needs. Disk is cheap so the cheaper disk becomes the more this option becomes palatable.

Hope this helped!!!