Looking for an app that will backup HDDVDs or Blurays with minimal effort

[AndyD]

If it means pay, then that's fine. I'm hoping to avoid downloading multiple freeware apps to get to what I want because a lot of the time it doesn't work as well as I would like. Anyway, I'm willing to pay if it means I save myself from the headaches.

And I'm not sure if this is possible, but is there a way to keep menus intact but strip some stuff like audio streams etc to minimize disc space required?

I'm most concerned about about my HD DVDs. I've double dipped and took advantage of the Warner trade in deal, but I do not want to double dip for the rest of the movies. For Bluray, I have two players for that but still would like to be able to backup that as well

[freebird73717]

If you are just wanting to backup to your hard drive AnyDVD HD is probably the most reliable for ripping HD DVD and Blu-Ray.

[AndyD]

For some reason I thought it just removed encryption. Ok I'll give that a look. Thanks!

[freebird73717]

Well that's pretty much what it does. Removes encryptions and allows you to rip it to your hard drive.

What exactly is your end goal? Backup to what? Hard drive? Disc?

If you want to backup to disc it's going to take more software. BDrebuilder would be great for blu-ray backup to disc. I'm unsure about HD dvd. Possibly ripbot264?

In any event AnyDVD HD is still the most reliable way of getting the video off the disc to the hard drive in the first place. You'll have to use other software after that if you want to go farther.

[coody]

Is there freeware apps to back up bluray DVD to the hard drive?

[AndyD]

My goal is to have all my dvds / blurays / hd dvds backed up to TB drives to stream a HTPC.

I'm not sure if I'm making the right move of trying to back up the entire disc. Are there are apps that will do both? Backup full or select specific content? With the latter, is it possible to still have menus working (along with bd live) if some of the content is stripped?

[coody]

My goal is to have all my dvds / blurays / hd dvds backed up to TB drives to stream a HTPC.

What freeware apps tools can back up the bluray dvd to the TB drive? Do you know it?

[fritzi93]

For freeware Blu-Ray decrypters, the choice is nearly nothing. MakeMKV will rip movie only to *.mkv, but supposedly can't cope with BD+. DumpHD is free, good luck getting it to work, I gave up. :P Judging from various comments here and there, I'd pass on DvdFab and go straight to AnyDVDHD for decrypting Blu-Ray and HD-DVD, it's the only reliable choice. Never failed me yet.

BDRebuilder (free) is what I use on already decrypted files. You can do full disc or movie only. Target size can be BD-25, BD-5, BD-9, or custom size. (BD 5/9 means Blu-Ray content re-encoded to fit on a single-layer or dual-layer DVD recordable.) I think BDRB is your best bet.

To strip 'some' content while keeping menus intact is not something you can do with freeware...yet. You'd need the Blu-Ray equivalent of VobBlanker or PgcEdit. Although there are probably pro-$umer tools that can do it. It means demuxing all the assets, re-muxing and authoring. We're still early in the game with Blu-Ray, with a limited tool-box.

Good luck.

[EDIT] Yes, you can keep just *one* audio track with BDRB, or re-encode it to AC3 448kbps. And in setup, you can specify one sub stream. But delete some extras and still keep the menu...no. You can however select 'quicker' encode for extras.

[spaz2.3]

All - I've been messing around with a number of different apps to back up BDs...DVDFAB, etc. I'm just working with BDRebuilder to see how that works.

I'm running into various issues (but that's the fun of it, I guess)...DTSHD Audio, Subtitles, etc...so I'm learning as I go.

The one wall I just can't seem to get around is a subtitle problem I'm having. For example - on both 30 Days of Night and Bram Stoker's Dracula...I cannot get the blasted subtitles to show. I'm ripping the BD direct to my harddisk with AnyDVDHD, and then using a WDTV to stream them into my tv. I've tried both the entire Rip, as well as just the movie file itself (using ClownBD, etc to pull it out). It doesn't seem to matter - I cannot get the subtittles to show.

Suggestions, guys? I've spent hours screwing around with this now...ack!

Thanks!

Spaz2.3

[fritzi93]

In settings in BDRB, do you have any subtitle streams selected?

Never mind, I misread. :P

How about opening the rip in tsMuxer, choose the largest *.m2ts. Does a subtitle stream appear in the list? Or use BDinfo to see what's in there.

[spaz2.3]

I'm just finishing my first run with BDRebuilder now...movie only...and it did auto-select a number of the sub-titles. It also crossed out a number of them. Is there a way to select which ones you can keep?

At this point, I just want to see if the subtitles show up...and worry about details later. I'll post here in a few minutes how it comes out...

I'm using PowerDVD to play them on the PC. Weird thing is that Waterworld actually had the subtitles show up...can't figure out why and how to make it happen on the others...

Stay tuned...

Spaz2.3

[spaz2.3]

I was too quick on the trigger - just saw your second post. Yeah - I've used TSMuxer and have kept all the Subtitles, but still no luck. I've done it a about a dozen different ways now...

[fritzi93]

Sure, in BDRB settings, clear ALL subtitle streams, then add back just one language, e.g. English.

[AndyD]

Would I be able to use BDRebuilder with HD DVDs as well? That's my main concern for now. Definitely going to check out BDRebuilder though so I can extract Band of Brother episodes from my blurays

[spaz2.3]

Swing and a miss...I just checked out the BDRebuilder copy of 30 Days of Night...and still no subtitles. Everything else looks good but...

Any ideas on what I might be missing?

Thanks...

Spaz2.3

[fritzi93]

Would I be able to use BDRebuilder with HD DVDs as well? That's my main concern for now. Definitely going to check out BDRebuilder though so I can extract Band of Brother episodes from my blurays

I believe ClownBD can extract main movie from HD-DVD on the fly (with AnyDVDHD enabled) and output to Blu-Ray disc. You could then input the clownBD files into BDRB if you want to re-encode. AFAIK, BDRB won't accept HD-DVD as input.

A word to the wise: Band of Brothers has VC-1. If you have trouble encoding it in BDRB or if the result is glitchy, try the WMP11 VC-1 codec instead, and disable VC-1 decoding in ffdshow.

[fritzi93]

Swing and a miss...I just checked out the BDRebuilder copy of 30 Days of Night...and still no subtitles. Everything else looks good but...

Any ideas on what I might be missing?

Thanks...

Spaz2.3

Maybe the problem is in PowerDVD? I got it with my BD-ROM, but uninstalled the damn thing. I now use TME instead.

I don't have it installed for a reference. Have you double-checked all settings? I forget, isn't there a right-click context menu in which you can choose subs?

[AndyD]

About to try ClownBD now on my Hot Fuzz hd dvd. Guys - if I select 5.1 audio, I will still get audio if I just have the speakers from my TV (2.0) right? Just that I see separate options for 5.1 and 2.0

[AndyD]

Would I be able to use BDRebuilder with HD DVDs as well? That's my main concern for now. Definitely going to check out BDRebuilder though so I can extract Band of Brother episodes from my blurays

I believe ClownBD can extract main movie from HD-DVD on the fly (with AnyDVDHD enabled) and output to Blu-Ray disc. You could then input the clownBD files into BDRB if you want to re-encode. AFAIK, BDRB won't accept HD-DVD as input.

A word to the wise: Band of Brothers has VC-1. If you have trouble encoding it in BDRB or if the result is glitchy, try the WMP11 VC-1 codec instead, and disable VC-1 decoding in ffdshow.

Can I do the same later if I convert to m2ts instead of an iso? And will I have problems with VC-1 if I just convert to m2ts? I'm not looking to re-encode anything.

Does it have to be WMP 11? It can't be 12?

[spaz2.3]

Fritzi93 - thanks for mentioning the right-click capability...didn't know anything about that! But...when I do that I can see in the list of options where it has a "Primary" and "Secondary" Subtitle that you should be able to click...but they are both greyed out. So something in the m2ts file is not registering a subtitle with the player(s). My WDTV has the same issue...acts like there is no subtitle in the file to choose.

I'm going to download TME, so how that works. Same deal as you - PowerDVD came with my BDROM so that's why I'm using it (since WMP doesn't work with these files). I'll see if that makes a difference...but it still doesn't explain why the WDTV isn't recognizing the subs.

Like I mentioned before, my BD rip of Waterworld actually pulled the subs through fine...they just pop up on their own without me messing with it during playback.

I'll let you know how TME works out. Any other ideas?

Thanks!

Spaz2.3

[spaz2.3]

All - I finally figured out the problem with the Subtitles not showing. Why it works this way is beyond me, but I thought I would post back in case anybody else has the same issue.

Recap - I was ripping BD ISOs to my HD using AnyDVD, then using various programs (DVDFAB, TSMuxer, etc) to slice out the excess garbage to leave just the movie. I was leaving them as M2TS files, and transferring them to an external HD for use with a WDTV. I was having various problems...DTS-HD Audio is not liked so I had to downgrade the audio stream to AC3, etc. But the main problem I was having was no subtitles were showing. I messed around with different programs, different players, etc...nothing seemed to work. I was using PowerDVD and after fritzi93 gave me a heads up on an Options right-click which I didn't know about...I discovered that the player was not seeing any of the sub streams. So something wasn't clicking with the M2TS files.

I stumbled across an old thread regarding DTS-HD Audio, where the moderator indicated that PowerDVD and many other Players had issues with starting a movie from an M2TS file. The main subject was the Audio - that the player would automatically look for another audio stream because it didn't like DTS-HD...which is why folks would end up with Spanish audio on movies (I did too) and it appeared they couldn't get English. The moderator suggested that using an ISO of the movie "tricked" the player into thinking the movie was coming right from the disk itself and would then allow for the other audio streams.

It dawned on me that maybe the sub streams had the same problems…so I took my end-product M2TS file and converted it to an ISO. WAMMO! PowerDVD played it fine with sub streams, as well as the forced subs that will pop up in movie on their own (i.e. in 30 Days Of Night, the vampires screech at other in some bat-language and the subs will automatically come up without you playing with it).

I’ve been messing with this issue for days and just stumbled across this. Not sure if it’s just something specific to my rig, or if other folks have the same problems…but wanted to share it.

I feel like my wife just gave birth, I’m so happy to get this #$^#&# thing figured out!

Good luck, guys…
Spaz2.3

[AndyD]

Congrats on figuring it out! Converting my first video now. We'll see how it goes.

I do have another question - how long should clownbd take? Seems like it will at least be an hour

[spaz2.3]

Andy - I just happened to check back in the forum and noticed you didn't get response to your question about clownbd...it varies for me when I use it...but generally about an 1 hour.

I wanted to broach another issue here and see if anybody else has been noticing it. I've been using a couple of different programs...Anydvdhd to scrub the BD and rip it to ISO on my HD, then I've been using BDRebuilder to slice out everything but the movie itself and to down-convert any DTS-HD streams since my players don't seem to like it. Then lastly, I'm using DVDFab6 to reconvert the BD File into an ISO. Yeah - I know there are plenty of other programs to convert it to ISO, but I have DVDFab handy.

Here's the issue - it's been somewhat hit-n-miss on the stripped down BDs...the pictures quality is perfect but I'm noticing a weird little tick in some movies (Bram Stoker's Dracula, 30 Days Of Night, Hellboy) where the audio will cut out or the video seems to start fast forwarding (2x...so it's not very fast) on it's own. Strange. I can't tell if it's something quirky with the muxing software causing it, or maybe my media streamer (WDTV) is just not that good a product. I've gone back and remuxed the files, but still end up with the same issue. Maybe it's the original disk itself...

Another thought I had was that I was possibly doing too much at one time...ripping an ISO on a BD, and using BD Rebuilder on another file at the same time. It causes my PC to slow down when I do that of course, but maybe I shouldn't be using but one tool at a time? Possibly they're interfering with each other....thoughts?

Thanks, guys!

Spaz2.3

[ocgw]

Andy - I just happened to check back in the forum and noticed you didn't get response to your question about clownbd...it varies for me when I use it...but generally about an 1 hour.

I wanted to broach another issue here and see if anybody else has been noticing it. I've been using a couple of different programs...Anydvdhd to scrub the BD and rip it to ISO on my HD, then I've been using BDRebuilder to slice out everything but the movie itself and to down-convert any DTS-HD streams since my players don't seem to like it. Then lastly, I'm using DVDFab6 to reconvert the BD File into an ISO. Yeah - I know there are plenty of other programs to convert it to ISO, but I have DVDFab handy.

Here's the issue - it's been somewhat hit-n-miss on the stripped down BDs...the pictures quality is perfect but I'm noticing a weird little tick in some movies (Bram Stoker's Dracula, 30 Days Of Night, Hellboy) where the audio will cut out or the video seems to start fast forwarding (2x...so it's not very fast) on it's own. Strange. I can't tell if it's something quirky with the muxing software causing it, or maybe my media streamer (WDTV) is just not that good a product. I've gone back and remuxed the files, but still end up with the same issue. Maybe it's the original disk itself...

Another thought I had was that I was possibly doing too much at one time...ripping an ISO on a BD, and using BD Rebuilder on another file at the same time. It causes my PC to slow down when I do that of course, but maybe I shouldn't be using but one tool at a time? Possibly they're interfering with each other....thoughts?

Thanks, guys!

Spaz2.3

ermmmm.....you can rip main movie to folder w/ TsMuxeR (and decrypt w/ AnyDVD HD running in the background) in 1 step and make iso w/ imgburn, both fast and both free

You save time on ripping because you are not ripping the entire disc, just what you need

Additionally if you perform these 2 steps going from 1 fast drive or array to another it goes phenomally fast

I personally create my isos in a folder ready for metadata from MyMovies3 to play w/ PDVD8 in MC7

easy, peasy japaneasy

ocgw

peace

[spaz2.3]

Hi, guys...new problem...and I'm about done with running into this brick wall.

Here's the issue - ripping BDs via AnyDVDHD to my HD, using TsMuxer/BDRebuilder/DVDFab to slice out everything but the main movie/subs, and downconverting the HD Audio. Then I'm converting the file to an ISO and placing it on an external HD for use with a WDTV.

The problem is that for most of the movies, I'm getting this glitch with the video at certain points where it suddenly goes into slo-mo and the audio cuts out. I've swapped WDTV units, and external HD units...and the same problem keeps happening. It's like there's a bitrate problem or something...but I don't want to screw around with that since I believe it will impact the quality?

I do not have the issue when playing the movies on my PC...they play perfectly. So - it's something with the WDTV itself, I'm assuming. Any ideas? I'm hoping somebody else may have run into this previously.

And...can anybody make suggestions about a Media Player besides the WDTV that they'd recommend? If the problem is the WDTV, then I'll have to bite the bullet and look at a different make.

Thanks!

Spaz2.3