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769K views 12K replies 612 participants last post by  Worf 
#1 ·
A few weeks ago, I started a thread about how I should go about ripping BR. See Ripping Blu Rays .


Anyways, I've setup my NAS and Dune Media Player so now I can share my own experience.


The consensus from the first thread was that I should rip my BR's to an ISO file. So that's what I decided to do.


1.) AnyDVD HD - You absolutely need something to strip the protection so you can rip the BR. As usual, such protections mean little to thieves but prevent those of us who paid for our product from using it in the manner we desire. You just have to pony up for this program. UPDATE: I ran ANYDVD Ripper to rip an ISO and it came out the same as IMGBRN (did not remove the previews, even though that box was checked). It was 42GB in size. And it took longer than IMGBRN.


2.) IMGBRN - Great program. Free. Works with ease. You simply tell the program where to burn your file and then hit one button. Very easy interface and it works quickly. Did I mention it is free? Unfortunately, budget and space prevented me from simply using this program. It burns a 1 to 1 image from your BD, meaning you get all the previews, the ability to choose scene, extra features, etc. This takes up about 40-50 GBs per average BD. That's a measly 25 movies per TB. How many of us can afford 8TB solutions? Yeah, thought the number was low.


3.) Clown_BD - This program requires you to download the other programs with it, including the aforementioned IMGBRN. The program takes forever and a day and sometimes stalls. I've found it best to rip the movies with this program directly to my PC and then to transfer to my NAS. Good news, is this is also free. It also strips out the previews, FBI warning, extra features, etc. This means your movie plays much faster from your content streamer (from start) and cuts down the size by as much as 70%. For example, I ran Disney's Bambi through IMGBRN. It generated an ISO of approximately 43GB. I ran it through Clown_BD and it generated an ISO of only 13GB. That's pretty big savings. You can find out how to use it thanks to dbone1026 dbone's clown_bd user guide .


4.) I haven't yet ripped my box sets. But I think I have it figured out. BD box sets can be ripped into individual episodes using Clown_BD above. Otherwise, you need to use some other software. I'm using handbrake (which nows supports BD). Again, thanks to dbone1026 who wrote a guide. Dbone's guide to ripping box sets


5.) Handbrake - free software. It will rip movies into MKV. It's also useful for converting your ISO files to something compatible with your Iphone/Ipad. It's pretty easy to use as well.


6.) MakeMKV - It is similar to handbrake. It's free. However, I find Handbrake has more options and runs a little faster. That's my opinion, others really like it. I suggest you check both out for yourself and see which you like better.


7.) If you rip to ISO, just know now that your PC software such as Cyberlink PowerDVD Ultra 11 will not read them unless you "mount" them first. I use SlySoft's VirtualCloneDrive for this. It's free and work's great. You simply right click on the file and "mount" it. BTW, if you don't know what it means to "mount" your file it basically means to trick your PC into thinking that it has another media drive. Then your software will read it like it reads an actual BD. You'll see what I mean when you rip your ISO and try to play it.


8.) After ripping the ISOs and getting them onto my NAS, I'm using Zappiti as my video jukebox on my Dune. It's pretty awesome, but you need to have a Dune player.


Anyways, I hope these threads will be useful to others.
 
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#2 ·
How long does it take for all that? That was one reason I decided to just rip full BD ISOs. Plus I like just sticking a disc in and having to do nothing else with it since the WHS with the My Movies Add In does everything for me. But I also have over 100TB of storage available at home between my WHS, unRAID and RAID5 arrays so storage isn't an issue for me.


Although with hundreds of full BD rips, my average full BD ISO size is currently only around 33GB.
 
#3 ·
I guess I should specify better, LOL. I'm not taking each one of those steps. Each one of those is a seperate option.


I make full BR rips for some items...it takes about 45 minutes using IMGBRN. I use clown_BD to make an ISO stripped from all the previews, etc. It leaves all the temp files (the stuff it stripped down plus the H264 file). That seems like it takes 1.5 hours, but I haven't had the time to check the time.
 
#4 ·

Quote:
Originally Posted by agogley /forum/post/20457886


I guess I should specify better, LOL. I'm not taking each one of those steps. Each one of those is a seperate option.


I make full BR rips for some items...it takes about 45 minutes using IMGBRN. I use clown_BD to make an ISO stripped from all the previews, etc. It leaves all the temp files (the stuff it stripped down plus the H264 file). That seems like it takes 1.5 hours, but I haven't had the time to check the time.

You can also rip just using Any DVD HD. It will work just the same as IMG Burn. Any DVD HD also has options to disable BD LIve, remove trailers, remove advertisements etc. Although I've never tried out any of those options.


For me I'll typically use IMG Burn when I've ripped a BD to a location other than my WHS. Then I will mount it using a Sly Soft virtual drive. And then rip it again to my WHS. Or I'll mount it with the Slysoft virtual drive as use the My Movies Collection manager to rip it again to my WHS.
 
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#7 ·
I'm very interested in hearing how each of these options work and how long they take. I have only made ISO's with AnyDVD HD because it seems to be the easiest and only takes one click, but I'm always interested in better and easier ways...especially if they can significantly reduce the size of the files.
 
#8 ·
Make mkv is pretty quick as it doesn't transcode anything and makes a 1:1 rip.


Dead easy to use. Scan disc, tick boxes for titles to keep (it's normally obvious which is the main movie based on length), expand the tree for each title and select audio/subs tracks with tick boxes, hit go. About 40 minutes later you have a finished movie-only mkv.


The final mkv will probably be 20-25GB for most movies at least 1GB smaller than a movie-only iso/BDMV folder rip of the same movie.


The main draw back is that the Blu-ray PGS subtitles (particularly forced ones) in a mkv container aren't supported very well on a lot of streamers. For example, my PCH C200 does do PGS subs in mkv but a firmware bug means they are slightly out-of-whack timing wise.


I've also had issues with multi-segment Blu-rays (particularly the Pixar movies) where the audio drifts out of sync over the length of the movie.
 
#9 ·
I rip using AnyDVD + Clown_BD, grabbing only the main movie. I rip to my PC and then when done I di a quick check of the rip before copying over to my WHS. It takes about 35 minutes to rip the movie to my PC and then another 10-15 minutes to finally transfer the movie over to my WHS. The reason why I use Clown_BD over other methods:


- Main Movie only, I have no need for all the extras, features, etc... on a disc and by only doing the main movie it can save anywhere from 10-35% in HDD space. Even with HDDs getting cheaper this is still a substantial savings given the average BluRay disc can be anywhere from 20-45GB.


- No longer need to worry about forced subtitles, something that was a little more problematic using alternative methods (mkv)


- Lossless quality, I have no desire to encode my BluRay movies


Separately, if I want to create a mobile version I will use Handbrake (for SD DVDs) and Ripbot264 (for BluRays). Since this is CPU intensive this will take much longer, depending on your PC. I encode tv shows and for movies I only encode if I plan on putting on a mobile device (iPxxx/Android)
 
#10 ·
Quote:
Originally Posted by aaronwt
You can also rip just using Any DVD HD. It will work just the same as IMG Burn. Any DVD HD also has options to disable BD LIve, remove trailers, remove advertisements etc. Although I've never tried out any of those options.


For me I'll typically use IMG Burn when I've ripped a BD to a location other than my WHS. Then I will mount it using a Sly Soft virtual drive. And then rip it again to my WHS. Or I'll mount it with the Slysoft virtual drive as use the My Movies Collection manager to rip it again to my WHS.
Having had anydvd for a few years now I am mortified that I did not know about this until yesterday. I recently changed my setting in anydvd to disable bdlive and "remove annoying adverts and trailers" and that is my default preference..
 
#12 ·
Quote:
Originally Posted by streamerlover
Having had anydvd for a few years now I am mortified that I did not know about this until yesterday. I recently changed my setting in anydvd to disable bdlive and "remove annoying adverts and trailers" and that is my default preference..
Have you tried a rip with those settings yet? How well did it work?
 
#13 ·
aaron,

ripped a bunch of stuff last night with the new settings. will try in the c200, dune base (if my bro brings his over as mine bit the dust recently), neotv550 and patriot box tonight after work and see how it went. The weird thing was that on some discs I got a pop up asking for the region which I don't EVER recall seeing before. I just clicked on "region free".
 
#14 ·
Quote:
Originally Posted by En Sabur Nur
I'm very interested in hearing how each of these options work and how long they take. I have only made ISO's with AnyDVD HD because it seems to be the easiest and only takes one click, but I'm always interested in better and easier ways...especially if they can significantly reduce the size of the files.
Use Clown_bd with Anydvd and rip just movie, HD audio and subs. This is the best way if you do not care about extras. Movies load in seconds on my Dunes with no issues and and no delays loading Menus etc...
 
#15 ·
DVD Fab works very well also for BR rips. I rip the movie only, HD audio and subtitles. Most rips take about 20 mins or so but Disney rips can take an hour.


Greg
 
#16 ·
My ripping scenario is a two fold plan, mainly for a very safe backup option


I rip all new media to an ISO using AnyDVD HD and send/store these ISOs on 2Tb ext HDDs (I'll start using 3Tb HDDs when the price per Gb gets down to the same as 2Tb models) - when each HDD is full, it goes in a very safe place for storage - in case of fire, flood, theft, etc. -- this way I'll always have an original copy just in case...


Then I'll take that same media and rip it to an MKV using MakeMKV - since I'm concerned with the 'movie' only, I'll use MakeMKV to strip out all but the main movie - and this MKV/container is what is sent to my Windows Home Server for streaming over my wired Gb network to 4 different locations for viewing the content


I also have the WHS set to 'duplicate' all media - so with this set up it's pretty much impossible to ever loose my media library


If it weren't for the very infrequent hick-up/rebuffering when streaming BD ISOs over my network once in a while, I'd rip and stream only BD ISOs -- but BD MKVs are virtually 100% issue free for me, so I use MKVs for streaming/viewing my media


Some may think this is unnecessary redundantcy - but given today's low price per Gb for HDD storage, it works for me
 
#17 ·
Quote:
Originally Posted by gmd024
My ripping scenario is a two fold plan, mainly for a very safe backup option


I rip all new media to an ISO using AnyDVD HD and send/store these ISOs on 2Tb ext HDDs (I'll start using 3Tb HDDs when the price per Gb gets down to the same as 2Tb models) - when each HDD is full, it goes in a very safe place for storage - in case of fire, flood, theft, etc. -- this way I'll always have an original copy just in case...


Then I'll take that same media and rip it to an MKV using MakeMKV - since I'm concerned with the 'movie' only, I'll use MakeMKV to strip out all but the main movie - and this MKV/container is what is sent to my Windows Home Server for streaming over my wired Gb network to 4 different locations for viewing the content


I also have the WHS set to 'duplicate' all media - so with this set up it's pretty much impossible to ever loose my media library


If it weren't for the very infrequent hick-up/rebuffering when streaming BD ISOs over my network once in a while, I'd rip and stream only BD ISOs -- but BD MKVs are virtually 100% issue free for me, so I use MKVs for streaming/viewing my media


Some may think this is unnecessary redundantcy - but given today's low price per Gb for HDD storage, it works for me
Why not just store the originals in a safe place instead of making a copy of the originals to store?
 
#18 ·
Quote:
Originally Posted by dbone1026
Why not just store the originals in a safe place instead of making a copy of the originals to store?
That's definately another scenario, and the originals are safely stored also - but this way I always have a decrypted copy for the occasional burning to physical media - and I have a couple of friends who don't have a BD player and not much of a media library and once in a while I'll take one of the HDDs and a Box Office media player to their place to watch a BD (or DVD) movie
 
#19 ·
Quote:
Originally Posted by dbone1026
I rip using AnyDVD + Clown_BD, grabbing only the main movie. I rip to my PC and then when done I di a quick check of the rip before copying over to my WHS. It takes about 35 minutes to rip the movie to my PC and then another 10-15 minutes to finally transfer the movie over to my WHS.
Ripping workflow is such a personal and situational choice. I don't think there is a single best way. One reads what others do then picks and chooses to suit one's hardware situation. After many iterations of my ripping workflow I have settled on Clown_BD myself as a preferred tool. In my case I use DVD Fab to rip the full BD to my HDD, then use Clown_BD to extract the main title, HD audio and English subtitle track to a native BD.m2ts file. I just transfer the BD.m2ts file to my NAS for playback -- absolute minimum space. I use DVD Fab because that is what I have. I do a full disk rip because my 8+ yr old PC can do that the quickest and I prefer using Clown_BD for the rest -- DVD Fab can't do what Clown_BD does. The things I like about the Clown_BD approach:
  • It makes main_title selection much simpler than using main_title mode of DVD Fab.
  • It assembles seamless branching titles into a single BD.m2ts file and does so without the audio getting out of synch as the movie plays. That overcomes the limitations of players that don't support playback of seamless branching titles.
  • It extracts and creates a separate forced subtitle track from the full subtitle track and muxes it first in line. That makes it easy to enable display of forced subtitles with players that don't provide automatic support.
  • For titles with multiple English subtitle tracks, it is very fast and simple to just demux those sub tracks so I can quickly identify which one I want in the final rip.
  • It supports a batch mode for overnight unattended operation.

Why BD.m2ts? A situational necessity. It works the best (and flawlessly) with my hardware. BD.m2ts is supported by DLNA. Using DLNA I can perfectly stream the highest full bitrate titles (Startrek, Transformers, Avatar, etc.) to my player through a pair of AV200 powerline adapters. That makes it the best (only) format for me. The only thing I lose using BD.m2ts vs. a main_title BD.iso is the chapter skip points in the playlist. I've always found them to be arbitrary, anyway and prefer my players predictable 10 min skip instead.
 
#20 ·

Quote:
Originally Posted by Kelson /forum/post/20459366


Ripping workflow is such a personal and situational choice. I don't think there is a single best way. One reads what others do then picks and chooses to suit one's hardware situation.

I agree, which is why I created this thread. When I inquired for myself, I felt there was a real need to have a single thread that encapsulated various methods.
 
#21 ·

Quote:
Originally Posted by aaronwt /forum/post/20458804


Have you tried a rip with those settings yet? How well did it work?

I did a RIP with AnyDVD Ripper (downloads with AnyDVD) and it didn't do any of the stripping (maybe the FBI warning but definately not the previews). The size of the ISO was the same as with IMGBRN and it took longer. When the screen popped up, it said 90 minutes. IMGBRN takes about 40 minutes in my estimation (granted, I've never sat at the computer timing it).


I don't know if I'm doing something wrong with AnyDVD. I have the options set to remove that stuff, but it just didn't.
 
#22 ·

Quote:
Originally Posted by agogley /forum/post/20459424


I did a RIP with AnyDVD Ripper (downloads with AnyDVD) and it didn't do any of the stripping. The size of the ISO was the same as with IMGBRN and it took longer. When the screen popped up, it said 90 minutes. IMGBRN takes about 40 minutes in my estimation (granted, I've never sat at the computer timing it).


I don't know if I'm doing something wrong with AnyDVD. I have the options set to remove that stuff, but it just didn't.

I don't know if the AnyDVD advert/trailer is supposed to work 100% of the time. Also, you do know that one of the requirements to get it to work is that you are supposed to strip at the same time, otherwise AnyDVD will not strip
 
#23 ·
Sorry for the very specific question, but here goes...


What solution would be best for me if I wanted to be able to select any or all of the following, and play them on a boxee box:

main feature versions (theatrical release, extended release)

soundtracks (HD, 5.1, various commentaries)

bonus features

remove trailers, and FBI


I care about rip time more then storage size b/c i dont intend to store more then about 200 movies or 8GB. Finially, with Boxee's "BDLite menu" how hard will it be to actually select what I want to watch?


I have the boxee, but no NAS or BD drive yet. I played a DVD iso with full menu fine. I wish it could do that for BD.


Sorry if this is too off topic. I am trying to get into ripping and streaming, but I have to get started somewhere.
 
#25 ·

Quote:
Originally Posted by FlipTheBits /forum/post/20459504


Sorry for the very specific question, but here goes...


What solution would be best for me if I wanted to be able to select any or all of the following, and play them on a boxee box:

main feature versions (theatrical release, extended release)

soundtracks (HD, 5.1, various commentaries)

bonus features

remove trailers, and FBI


I care about rip time more then storage size b/c i dont intend to store more then about 200 movies or 8GB. Finially, with Boxee's "BDLite menu" how hard will it be to actually select what I want to watch?


I have the boxee, but no NAS or BD drive yet. I played a DVD iso with full menu fine. I wish it could do that for BD.


Sorry if this is too off topic. I am trying to get into ripping and streaming, but I have to get started somewhere.

Rip time is hardware dependent. I run a Intel Wolfdale which is pretty fast, but not as fast as today's top of the line processors. DVD's shouldn't take long to rip...BR's are going to take at least 30 minutes for a full rip.


You should care very much about storage. If you have a 1TB drive, you can store about 25 movies if you go with a full rip without eliminating the previews, etc. Even if you do eliminate them, you're still looking at maybe 50.


I'd look at Dbone's Boxee review here . dbone1026 is the Master of content streaming.


You might also check out my other thread which talks about the NAS, streamers, etc. and what decisions I made to acquire them. Here .
 
#26 ·

Quote:
Originally Posted by agogley /forum/post/20459543


You should care very much about storage. If you have a 1TB drive, you can store about 25 movies if you go with a full rip without eliminating the previews, etc. Even if you do eliminate them, you're still looking at maybe 50.

I think 50 is a bit optimistic. I get about 60-70 main_title BD.m2ts rips on a 2TB drive. I find most of the titles I have are in the 20-30GB range (uncompressed with a single HD audio track).
 
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