Blur rays to media centre PC?
Discussion
I've got a media centre PC with 2tb storage that I've copied all of my standard DVD's too. I've copied these film only (no compression) and cut out the menus, non needed subtitles/ soundtracks etc. I have left in the English surround sound tracks though. I used the good old DVD Shrink to cut them up and back them up.
Now these DVD's have gone up into the loft as I could do with the space (I have a loft of DVD's!). I am now starting a bit of a Blu Ray collection and would like to back these up if I could. Now I don't really want to back these up at 40GB plus or what ever they will end up as sans the menus. I'd like them film only and hopefully to keep the stunning quality of the Blu Ray, but at a smaller file size...
Am I barking up the wrong tree here or can it be done? I don't want to compress them and loose the quality as that would spoil the point. If that is the case, I'd keep the Blu Ray's on a shelf down here and play straight from the disc.
So, I can break the encryption just fine. But what format to back up to and what program to use to cut them up?
I hope this post won't get removed but I can only ask. I'm not asking how, or what program to break the encryption. Just a program that can detect the separate aspects of the disc and a good format to backup to.
Now these DVD's have gone up into the loft as I could do with the space (I have a loft of DVD's!). I am now starting a bit of a Blu Ray collection and would like to back these up if I could. Now I don't really want to back these up at 40GB plus or what ever they will end up as sans the menus. I'd like them film only and hopefully to keep the stunning quality of the Blu Ray, but at a smaller file size...
Am I barking up the wrong tree here or can it be done? I don't want to compress them and loose the quality as that would spoil the point. If that is the case, I'd keep the Blu Ray's on a shelf down here and play straight from the disc.
So, I can break the encryption just fine. But what format to back up to and what program to use to cut them up?
I hope this post won't get removed but I can only ask. I'm not asking how, or what program to break the encryption. Just a program that can detect the separate aspects of the disc and a good format to backup to.
MakeMKV will take the bits of the Blu-Ray you want (e.g. film itself, audio track, English subtitles, etc) and put it all into one MKV file. The quality will be identical to the Blu-Ray itself. However, each file will take up around 30GB, so not the most practical solution when you've only got 2TB to play with.
However, once you have the 30GB MKV file, you can compress it down with Handbrake to around 10GB (depending on settings - Google for the recommended Blu-Ray quality settings). There is technically a loss in quality, but it is very, very slight. Watching on a 60" screen from around 10' away I can't tell the difference between the original Blu-Ray disc and the compressed file.
Both programs are very easy to use, but the re-encoding using Handbrake is very processor intensive, so will take a good few hours for each film even if you have a pretty powerful machine working on it.
However, once you have the 30GB MKV file, you can compress it down with Handbrake to around 10GB (depending on settings - Google for the recommended Blu-Ray quality settings). There is technically a loss in quality, but it is very, very slight. Watching on a 60" screen from around 10' away I can't tell the difference between the original Blu-Ray disc and the compressed file.
Both programs are very easy to use, but the re-encoding using Handbrake is very processor intensive, so will take a good few hours for each film even if you have a pretty powerful machine working on it.
Gingerbread Man said:
No decent all in one program then?
Not that I've found, and I've tried a few. But with Handbrake, you can create a 'queue' of files so that it does one after the other and you don't really have to supervise...which is good when you consider how long each file takes to re-encode.MKV is my preferred format due to the fact that it preserves chapters, can contain multiple audio tracks, multiple subtitles, etc.
Let me know if you decide to go down this route and I'll look up my Blu-Ray encoding settings from Handbrake and post them up.
Gingerbread Man said:
Your settings would be ace, I'll get downloading.
Handbrake Settings:Make sure the 'Container' is set as 'MKV File', then...
'Picture' Tab:
'Anamophic' = Strict
'Cropping' = Automatic
Don't worry about the fact that the height aspect appears reduced - Handbrake is just getting rid of the black bars at the top and bottom of the film. The file it outputs will look identical to the original Blu-Ray disc and all original aspect ratios are maintained.
'Video Filters' Tab:
Leave as defaults
'Video' Tab:
'Video Codec' = H.264 (x264)
'Framerate (FPS)' = Same as Source and 'Variable Framerate'
'Quality' = Constant Quality RF:18 (you can experiment here, I've found no perceivable loss of quality at RF 18 - the lower the number, the higher the quality and the bigger the file)
'Audio' Tab:
Depends on what the film originally contained. Being Blu-Rays, there is normally a DTS/DTS-HD passthrough option that this will preserve the original sound 100%
'Subtitles' Tab:
Don't worry about this - you already included the subtitles when you created the original file in MakeMKV
'Chapters' Tab:
Don't worry about this
'Advanced' Tab:
Don't worry about this
All of that probably makes it sound more complex than it actually is! Let me know if you have any more questions or get stuck.
Gingerbread Man said:
So .MKV is the format of choice. I've heard of it so that's a start. I'll get googling the settings for Handbrake. No decent all in one program then?
Yes there is but it's gonna cost you. DVDfab does blurays too if you pay the extra and it works just great. I usually rip mine to Divx in an avi which gives me a file size of between 9-12GB and the picture looks great. Road2Ruin said:
Yes there is but it's gonna cost you. DVDfab does blurays too if you pay the extra and it works just great. I usually rip mine to Divx in an avi which gives me a file size of between 9-12GB and the picture looks great.
In layman's terms, you can use DVDfab to make a straight forward copy of a disc, eg, when you load up the file it pops up the original menu from the disc to allow you to choose chapters etc?I've used Handbrake a number of times and all I end up with is a single chapter and nothing else. This is ok for a lot of discs, but it would be handy to have a menu etc etc when it loads up like a DVD/BD does!
98elise said:
GhostDriver said:
I know I may well get a b
king but, Im sure you are now allowed to keep digital copies of media you own, law changed recently.
Why dont you just download them off the bay?
What is the difference?
You will win a long holiday in the US king but, Im sure you are now allowed to keep digital copies of media you own, law changed recently. Why dont you just download them off the bay?
What is the difference?
Right to rip BluRay to disk, you will need a copy of ANYDVDHD. Then goto MyMovies
http://www.mymovies.dk/products.aspx
and download and install the relevent package. I have 75 BlueRays and 20 DVD's currently loaded onto my Media server. It does not compress them, it rips them bit for bit.
I have tried all the different compression methods, but they cause artifacts, tearing and other anomalies which are visible when projected on a 16 foot screen. They are hardly noticeable on a 50" plasma by comparison, so it depends on what size screen you want to view it on. My Movies was the only big screen solution that offered seamless integration with Windows Media Centre and it allows you to flick through all your movies with ease. I have bought 1500 points, which enables my Server to copy any Disc by just putting it into the drawer and closing it. It then rips it and spits it out when its finished. Ontop of this, my Windows Home Server allows me to watch any film on any device that has enough bandwidth to view it. You can download the basic version for free and it comes with a Movies Database which allows you to edit the info stored. It took a bit of playing around with, and the earlier versions were somewhat buggy but the system has been totally stable for a year now.
The only problem is that unripped Blue Rays are anywhere between 25 and 50GB each.. my current server has 10TB, although half of that is a copy incase I lose a RAID partition. I'm currently about to upgrade by replacing the four 2TB drives with four 3TB drives, as the 4TB drives are silly prices and you can buy a 3TB on special from ebuyer for £115.. It will take me a couple of months to fill this then I will be looking to upgrade again
I would like to be able to store 100 Blue Rays plus my mp3 collection. I envisage I'm going to need 20TB to do that but that is with a 1 for 1 copy of all data!
Warning - Media Servers are complicated, expensive and addictive!
http://www.mymovies.dk/products.aspx
and download and install the relevent package. I have 75 BlueRays and 20 DVD's currently loaded onto my Media server. It does not compress them, it rips them bit for bit.
I have tried all the different compression methods, but they cause artifacts, tearing and other anomalies which are visible when projected on a 16 foot screen. They are hardly noticeable on a 50" plasma by comparison, so it depends on what size screen you want to view it on. My Movies was the only big screen solution that offered seamless integration with Windows Media Centre and it allows you to flick through all your movies with ease. I have bought 1500 points, which enables my Server to copy any Disc by just putting it into the drawer and closing it. It then rips it and spits it out when its finished. Ontop of this, my Windows Home Server allows me to watch any film on any device that has enough bandwidth to view it. You can download the basic version for free and it comes with a Movies Database which allows you to edit the info stored. It took a bit of playing around with, and the earlier versions were somewhat buggy but the system has been totally stable for a year now.
The only problem is that unripped Blue Rays are anywhere between 25 and 50GB each.. my current server has 10TB, although half of that is a copy incase I lose a RAID partition. I'm currently about to upgrade by replacing the four 2TB drives with four 3TB drives, as the 4TB drives are silly prices and you can buy a 3TB on special from ebuyer for £115.. It will take me a couple of months to fill this then I will be looking to upgrade again
I would like to be able to store 100 Blue Rays plus my mp3 collection. I envisage I'm going to need 20TB to do that but that is with a 1 for 1 copy of all data!
Warning - Media Servers are complicated, expensive and addictive!
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