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Copying my Blu-Ray discs to my mac, playing back

post #1 of 10
1/30/12 at 5:18pm
Thread Starter 
Hi everyone,

I work in the animation business and want to copy my library of animated Blu-Ray discs to a Thunderbolt hard drive connected to an OSX computer.

These are my own legally purchased discs. I want to have them on a hard drive so I can quickly access multiple scenes from a variety of films simultaneously, without the need to switch discs.

I've read about MakeMKV, but I don't think it will suit my needs. I want to copy the full discs, so they are uncompressed and I can also access any bonus features. (I realized that discs are normally 25 or 50GB, but storage space is not an issue, I only have about 50 films I want easy access to.)

What program should I use to rip the discs, and what program should I use for playback?

I don't own a Blu-Ray drive that will connect to the Mac, so I'd appreciate any recommendations on the best external drive to purchase.

Thanks!

Bob
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post #2 of 10
1/30/12 at 11:51pm
AFAIK, what you want to do cannot be done in full on OS X at this time.
The biggest hurdle is the lack of a proper native Blu-ray player.
What currently comes closest to it is MacGo Blu-ray Player for Mac. But it does not allow easy access to BD menus and balks on some disks.
Note that MakeMKV does not degrade the video quality of what it stores, just changes the format. And you can access the bonuses, but have to know their "number".
I would suggest you download the demo versions of MakeMKV and Blu-ray Player for Mac, and see if you can live with their present limitations.

Regarding Blu-ray players, I have an LG BP06LU10 burner, and am quite happy with it (it can also be made region free for DVDs using MCSE).
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post #3 of 10
1/31/12 at 10:54am
You will not be able to archive to .iso or BDMV folder format in OS X at this time. And, even if you could, playback w/ menus will be a problem. I haven't tried w/ XBMC for OS X, and I don't follow XBMC's development closely, but the latest builds MAY be able to deal w/ Blu-ray file formats (though I think it's unlikely).

You can do it in Windows. If you were to make a VM (using VMWare or Parallels) with a Windows build (7, Vista, or XP), or use Bootcamp to make it able to dual boot into Windows, you can do it quite easily.
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post #4 of 10
1/31/12 at 3:20pm
Thread Starter 
Hi guys, thanks for your replies. I'm going to test out both of those programs - it looks like the MacGo Blu-Ray player will play back full disc ISOs, so I will experiment with that.

I'll also try ripping the main features to MKV, that might be the easiest workaround given the limits of the technology. Thanks for your help!

Bob
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post #5 of 10
1/31/12 at 3:40pm
Quote:


I want to have them on a hard drive so I can quickly access multiple scenes from a variety of films simultaneously, without the need to switch discs.

Then your best bet is MakeMKV, but I think the real issue for you will be locating and accessing those scenes...and whether you'll be viewing them on a small screen sitting at a desktop or from a distance, like on a couch across the room, so you'll want to experiment with a front end like XBMC and also from within an app, like VLC. You'll need a relatively recent Mac to handle playback of a MakeMKV bluray rip.
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post #6 of 10
2/28/12 at 9:58pm
I believe you can use DVD Fab BD Copy to get the unprotected BD folder structure on your Mac. I believe VLC can now play this structure back. Not sure about the features. I do this in Windows 7 bootcamp for my HTPC for backup. The playback files are 720p m4v encoded in Handbrake Apple TV 2 preset. Why? Because the extenders, Apple TV 2, iPad 2 and iPhone 4S devices in the household like these the best. I get all the meta data through Media Center Master and encode into the m4v container using MetaX.
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post #7 of 10
12/28/12 at 9:51am
You can also use DvdFab media player to playback BD's though it too will have problems with some menu's.
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post #8 of 10
1/1/13 at 3:40am
I downloaded the free trial version of DVDFab Mac Blu-ray Player, and I can confirm that it reads SOME Blu-ray disks menus : tried 2, 1 OK, 1 failed.
But it is a definite improvement over MacGo Blu-ray player, which has a 100% failure rate, since it cannot read any BD menu at all ! smile.gif

EDIT: contrary to some players (like Movist), DVDFab Mac Blu-ray Player does not seem able to use hardware acceleration on my Mac Mini Late 2009 (10.6.8).
So the playback fluidity on HiDef mkv or Blu-rays is so-so...
Too bad...
Edited by geeji - 1/4/13 at 10:05pm
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post #9 of 10
1/20/13 at 9:49pm
I got around to testing MakeMKV & playback via VLC, which seems fine. Does Plex improve playback over VLC in any way?
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post #10 of 10
1/22/13 at 2:16pm
For pure playback VLC is probably just a little bit better.

What Plex brings to the table is a media server concept. You have your stuff recognized by the server and then you can play it back on, well, pretty much anything. The local client, remote clients, iOS devices, Android is supported I think.

Plex also offers a navigation interface and some search functionality as well. For a huge library it is nice to have such organization.
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