Rip Blue Ray to MP4

[tex4ever]

Sorry guys if this question is annoying, but Please give me a chance to get a simple awnser to this question:

I want to get MP4 versions of Blue Ray discs which I own by myself. I found several threads from people who tried to do this task too, but Using several tools like AnyDVD, Handbrake, tsRemuxeR, etc. is to complicstef for me.

I used DVDx for my DVDs a long time which allowed me to select the main title and the language and it made a great Xvid file for me.

Now I am looking for a tool what does the same thing, but from BD to MP4.
I would pay money for it if you say the tool is good. I found some like from Xilisoft, which from them is the best?

Thanks
Tex

[yoda313]

You really need to use at least two programs for this.

You need anydvdhd or dvdfabdecrypter to rip (ie copy) the disc to the computer. Than you need either handbrake or ripbot264 or another similar program to convert to mp4.

There are plenty of guides for doing this. You need to take time to read through them and then you can do it.

[Kerry56]

DVDFab has the ability to do all of this with one tool. You'll need their poorly named Blu-ray Ripper module. If you download the free trial for DVDFab, this section of the program will be available to you for testing purposes. Not that many people around here recommend it, as the free tools that can use the x264 encoder often give better results. They just aren't all-in-one programs.

[Baldrick]

VidCODER!

https://forum.videohelp.com/threads/343677-How-to-easily-convert-a-Blu-ray-to-MP4-M4V-M...ing-free-tools

[tex4ever]

Hi guys,

ok I tried it with DVDFab and the results are really ugly. This is really annoying, because they charge a lot of money and the results are far away from to be OK!

I tried to do it with AnyDVD HD and Handbrake and YES, this is really great. Ok this is not what I wanted (1-click to file), but the results of DBDFab are too bad that I can live with the 2-way option.

Thanks for you help, I will try the videocoder too, but I think, Handbrake is great too.

[Baldrick]

Vidcoder is based on handbrake so you will get similar results.

[tex4ever]

Ah ok! Well I learned a lot of things last night about the coding. Can you confirm, that following settings are OK? On my TV everything seems fine, but it would be great if you would give me the blessing, before I start over to backup all my discs:

Target container: MP4 (I need this, because I want to have it playable on PS3, Apple TV and IPad)

For standard DVDs:
Video: MPEG-4, Framerate same as source, Variable framerate, Constant Quality: 12 QP
Audio: 1 Track AC3 (faac) Dolby Pro Logic II, 2 Track: AC3-Passthrough

For blue-rays:
Video: h.264, Framerate same as source, Variable framerate, Constant Quality: 20 RF
Audio: 1 Track AC3 (faac) Dolby Pro Logic II, 2 Track: AC3-Passthrough

Thanks!

[tex4ever]

Ok, I decided to create all videos with h.264 compression, because even the DVDs looks much better with h.264 instead of MPEG-4.

I also do not use Passthrough-2. Ok, the sizes of the videos are big then, but the quality is great.

[yoda313]

Just be warned your ipad will require different resolutions than the ps3 or the apple tv. I don't know what those are but 99% of the time any portable device has special resolution requirements. That will mean a specially encoded file just for that device. You should always encode from the original source and not a previously encoded file.

There are plenty of guides for converting to the ipad. I'm assuming the ipad 1 and 2 share the same requirements. I'm also assuming the new ipad has its own requirements or might possibly be less strict than the first two (though doubtful). Needless to say whenever converting to a portable device read what its requirements are and encode to that spec.

A lot of encoding programs have profiles you can select. You should be able to get one with an ipad preset.

Edit - I might be a step out of time here. Do tablets now mostly support at least standard def 480p/576 resolutions? The larger screens and more powerful processors should make that possible. Now that we are in the high def world are any capable of playing hd files of at least 720p?

I still think these newer tablets will still have some wrinkles in encoding. I don't think at the very least they can handle the maximum that a ps3 could handle. And there might be other things that would make it necessary to make a special encoding for a given portable player.

Basically if they can't handle "full" hd and you only want to encode one file and copy that to every device you have then pick the lowest resolution you can play. That will be the target. Assuming all your devices can play this minimum resolution and codec than it should be able to be copied to each device and play without a problem.

I don't have any tablet so my thinking on portable players is dated to the original sony psp and the 30gb zune (each at 320x240 resolution). So I'm a bit outdated in the portable world.

[jman98]

Ok, I decided to create all videos with h.264 compression, because even the DVDs looks much better with h.264 instead of MPEG-4.

I also do not use Passthrough-2. Ok, the sizes of the videos are big then, but the quality is great.

Since you are encoding from one lossy codec (MPEG-2 on DVD) to another (H.264) it actually can't be any better. But if you do it properly you should get good results, just strictly speaking not "better" ones.

[yoda313]

@jman98 - I think tex4ever is stating that h264 looked better than mpeg4 during the tests. Of course the poster isn't stating if its divx/xvid mpeg 4 or that one that is actually mpeg4 (confusing I know but there is a mpeg4 that I've used from format factory for my psp that just says "mpeg4" - go figure).

But otherwise yes they are all lossy.

[tex4ever]

Hi guys,

of couse did I convert always from the original source -> from the DVD source which I copied with AnyDVD to my harddrive.

After studying a lot of threads I thought, the best approach would be, to convert DVDs to MPEG-4 and Blue-Rays to h.264. But then I read a thread where someone suggested to convert always to h.264. I just gave this a try and made a conversion from a DVD to MPEG-4 and directly after that a new conversion of the same DVD to h.264. I kept the other settings given by Handbrake and I always used the "High Quality" profie.

Then I put both files over to the PS3 and I told my wife to choose the better quality one, she didn't know which one was better. And the h.264 version was much better: more clear fonts, everyhing more smooth and more clear. I don't know what the reasons are, maybe the default settings of MPEG-4 and h.264 differs a lot.

@Yoda: No, every movie which is playable in Itunes, is playable on IPad too. I have the IPad 3 and it's able to play Full HD cause of Retina Display which is able to display those resolutions.

But to make it absolutely sure, I just copy a DVD (which is not Full HD) and a Blue Ray movie 1080p to the IPad and I will let you know.

[yoda313]

But to make it absolutely sure, I just copy a DVD (which is not Full HD) and a Blue Ray movie 1080p to the IPad and I will let you know.

I don't know about the bluray. Since its the new ipad that seems like you are right it should take the dvd at its original resolution (converted to h264 of course).

You may not be able to do the bluray at 1080p. I don't have the ipad3 specs in front of me though. You might end up having to downconvert to 720p. Though I don't know that for sure.

Good luck. Let us know how it goes.

edit

No, every movie which is playable in Itunes, is playable on IPad too.

I don't know if all high def itunes movies are 1080p or not. I honestly don't know. I know it offers hd movies but is it 720p or 1080p? if its 1080p than there shouldn't be an issue doing 1080p on the newest ipad. But you'll just have to test it to find out.

[hello_hello]

Edit - I might be a step out of time here. Do tablets now mostly support at least standard def 480p/576 resolutions? The larger screens and more powerful processors should make that possible. Now that we are in the high def world are any capable of playing hd files of at least 720p?

Many newer devices have quite capable hardware decoders. I've tested the one in my new smartphone (Motorola Razr) and it seems to happily decode anything the video card in my PC can decode. The requirements for the ipad3 are fairly straightforward:

http://www.apple.com/ipad/specs/
"H.264 video up to 1080p, 30 frames per second, High Profile level 4.1 with AAC-LC audio up to 160 Kbps, 48kHz, stereo audio in .m4v, .mp4, and .mov file formats"

I'm pretty sure the ipad2 was the same, while the original ipad required High profile, level 3.1.

When it comes to the ipad I'm not sure how it works.... whether third partly players can use the hardware decoder for other container formats (ie MKV) but in Android-land that doesn't seem to be a problem with a clever enough player. Although even my smartphone has enough CPU grunt to play 720p video without a problem.

One problem when converting DVDs may be whether the device supports non-square pixels so you can use anamorphic encoding or whether you're forced to use square pixels. Once again though, it may be up to the player you're using as to whether MKV/MP4 aspect ratios are supported properly.

While there's no doubt cheaper devices out there with more limited hardware decoding abilities, the days of having to encode specifically for a portable device do finally seem to be coming to an end. Which is good because I've resisted portable devices purely for that reason. Once a device can play the video I already have then it might be worth buying.

[yoda313]

Many newer devices have quite capable hardware decoders. I've tested the one in my new smartphone (Motorola Razr) and it seems to happily decode anything the video card in my PC can decode.

That is good to here.

http://www.apple.com/ipad/specs/
"H.264 video up to 1080p, 30 frames per second, High Profile level 4.1 with AAC-LC audio up to 160 Kbps, 48kHz, stereo audio in .m4v, .mp4, and .mov file formats"

Ah there is one potential issue for mass encoding. The aac and stereo limitations. So you couldn't do a straight audio passthrough. At least for the files intended for the ipad you would have to demux and reencode the audio. though fortunately even on older computers encoding audio is usually pretty quick.

Ideally with those specs you could readily do a h264 encode for the ps3 and the ipad at 1080p at that profile level and simply remux the audio in a separate file and label it ipad so you know which is which. Of course it should be slightly smaller at aac since you are donwconverting the surround to stereo and losing the hd audio.

While there's no doubt cheaper devices out there with more limited hardware decoding abilities, the days of having to encode specifically for a portable device do finally seem to be coming to an end.

That is what I wasn't sure about in my earlier posts. My reasoning was based on small 3" screens with specialized resolution requirements and strict file formats. But it seems like the horsepower and overall compatibility are improving quite a bit.

Even with apples more "limited" archeticture support the mp4 opening will let you make files for multiple devices. Though as I mentioned it seems the audio will need to be reencoded specifically for the ipad. But At least the video should be a one and done deal across multiple platforms.

[hello_hello]

Ah there is one potential issue for mass encoding. The aac and stereo limitations. So you couldn't do a straight audio passthrough. At least for the files intended for the ipad you would have to demux and reencode the audio. though fortunately even on older computers encoding audio is usually pretty quick.

Ideally with those specs you could readily do a h264 encode for the ps3 and the ipad at 1080p at that profile level and simply remux the audio in a separate file and label it ipad so you know which is which. Of course it should be slightly smaller at aac since you are donwconverting the surround to stereo and losing the hd audio.

I guess it depends how clever third party programs can be, or how clever Apple lets them be. I've never owned an iDevice so I've no idea.
When it comes to audio as an example, my Android smartphone's hardware decoder seems not to support AC3 (probably not DTS either) while AAC multichannel and MP3 are fine. However with the right player (and various players have various levels of cleverness) I can still use hardware decoding for video while using software decoding for audio, so the audio type doesn't force me to keep two copies of the video.
As I've never owned an iDevice I don't know if the right player can do something similar, or whether it can use hardware decoding for containers which aren't officially supported (such as MKV) but I'd hope so. Even an ipad is basically a computer after-all. It'd be a pity if having a non-supported audio type forced an ipad player to use software decoding for both audio and video (although having said that even my smartphone has enough CPU grunt for at least 720p). My other half owns the original ipad and is currently threatening to buy an ipad3, but because she doesn't use it for playing video much I've never got around to experimenting with it. One day soon I probably will, if for no other reason so I can post in ipad3 video playing threads to make myself feel clever.

That is what I wasn't sure about in my earlier posts. My reasoning was based on small 3" screens with specialized resolution requirements and strict file formats. But it seems like the horsepower and overall compatibility are improving quite a bit.

I'm sure there's probably still "budget" devices with smaller screens which require specific encoder/resolution restrictions, and maybe at the moment it's mostly the more expensive devices which have decent hardware decoders, but I'd certainly hope in the very near future any video device capable of playing video will be able to play standard 1080p h264 MP4/MKVs etc. Given even the more expensive smartphones can (if a device can record 702p/1080p video I guess it's got to be able to play it), a decent hardware decoder must be getting fairly cheap to implement.

Even with apples more "limited" archeticture support the mp4 opening will let you make files for multiple devices. Though as I mentioned it seems the audio will need to be reencoded specifically for the ipad. But at least the video should be a one and done deal across multiple platforms.

Yeah, I spend enough time encoding without having to encode for particular devices too. I've always resisted doing so, although admittedly I've spent a lot of time encoding video using x264/MKV for myself and also to Xvid/AVI for others in the house, but I've always drawn the line at pandering to portable devices. Each to their own though, I guess.

[hello_hello]

Then I put both files over to the PS3 and I told my wife to choose the better quality one, she didn't know which one was better. And the h.264 version was much better: more clear fonts, everyhing more smooth and more clear. I don't know what the reasons are, maybe the default settings of MPEG-4 and h.264 differs a lot.

The x264 decoder is better at retaining detail than the Xvid (mpeg4) encoder. You mightn't be comparing Apples with Apples though. Were they resized the same way (was each encoded using the same resolution)?

[tex4ever]

Hi guys,

ok I tested it on the IPad and yeah, with following settings the movies will be playable on the IPad and on the PS3:

1. Start Handbrake
2. Select Hight Profile
3. Click Source and select folder where you copied the DVD or Blue-Ray with AnyDVD to harddrive.
4. On Tab "Picture" select Anamorphic "Strict"
5. Keep settings on tabs "Video Filters" and "Video"
6. On tab "Audio" select your prefered language and add it twice. Then select for the first track AAC (faac) Dolby Prologic II and for the second trac AC3 (passthrough) -> this is needed because IPad will select Dolby Digital Prologic and PS3 and Apple TV the AC3 sound.
7. Click start for conversion.

The quality is wonderful on the IPad and on PS3. BUT! There is an black space on the top and bottom. I didn't find out how to solve this yet, but I let you know or does anybody have an idea? Maybe it has something to with the cropping?

[yoda313]

There is an black space on the top and bottom.

Is this a 1.78:1 or 2.35:1 video? If its 1.78:1 or 1.85:1 it should nearly or completely fill your widescreen tv. If its a 2.35:1 or 2.40:1 there will be black bars. This is normal.

There is a chance its a letterbox video and these are fixed borders. They could be cropped. But I don't do that very often and can't assist you there.

[tex4ever]

Ok thanks, it's 2.35.
I tested it on some other DVDs and some of them do not have black bars. It is dependent on the movie.

The only thing I do not understand is the anamorphic-setting. It doesn't matter if I use Loose. Strict or None with Keep Aspect Ratio switched on.

I found these links:
https://trac.handbrake.fr/wiki/AnamorphicGuide
http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=446102

But I still do not understand. Maybe it's because I do not understand whats "anamorphic" does mean. Does it mean, the movie has black bars?

[yoda313]

Here is some information on the whole widescreen deal:

https://www.videohelp.com/glossary?L#Letterbox

https://www.videohelp.com/glossary?A#Anamorphic

https://www.videohelp.com/glossary?W#Widescreen

Basically if you keep the aspect ratio it should be preserved as the original video was. 16:9 in and 16:9 out. That would keep it the original dimensions.

The trick would be if its fixed in a letterbox matte. These are much more rare these days. Most movies are released 16:9 these days. If its an older release on dvd it may be letterbox. First generation releases may have been letterbox. Any subsequent rereleases would almost certainly be 16:9. If its bluray I think they are nearly 100% 16:9.

You have to look at the movie detail on the original packaging. It would say if its 16:9 or not or if its letterbox. It also almost always has the aspect ratio detail.

It is dependent on the movie.

Yep each one will be different. Generally though if its a recent release it should be 16:9 as I already mentioned. Any conversion should be done as keep aspect ratio and you should be all set. If not the next thing to do would be to look for a 16:9 flag option in the conversion software. I don't think they should fight each other if they are both selected.

Edit - I kind of mentioned in the earlier post - if its 16:9 and the aspect ratio is 1.78:1 or 1.85:1 it will completely or nearly completely fill your tv. If its 16:9 and the aspect ratio is 2.35:1 or larger it will still have black bars. If its letterbox you will have a postage stamp effect. There will be vertical "pillar bars" on the left and right of the screen in addition to the normal horizontal bars.

Letterbox videos can be cropped in realtime on most if not all hdtvs. If your tv has a zoom button it should have two to three modes. An "overscan" mode should zoom in proportionally and properly display the letterbox movie without distortion. There might not be a 100% coverage and there might still be some pillar bars depending on your tvs zoom capabilities.

[hello_hello]

The only thing I do not understand is the anamorphic-setting. It doesn't matter if I use Loose. Strict or None with Keep Aspect Ratio switched on.

I found these links:
https://trac.handbrake.fr/wiki/AnamorphicGuide
http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=446102

But I still do not understand. Maybe it's because I do not understand whats "anamorphic" does mean. Does it mean, the movie has black bars?

Think of anamorphic as using non-square pixels. If you take a 16:9 DVD (720x480) and stretch it out to the correct display aspect ratio, it's equivalent dimensions in square pixels would be around 854x480 pixels. Rather than re-encode it using square pixels though which would increase the file size without increasing the effective resolution, anamorphic encoding uses the same number of pixels as the original DVD (720x480) and just like the DVD, the encode should be stretched out to the correct aspect ratio on playback. DVDs only have two display aspect ratios. 16:9 or 4:3.

The shape of the pixels doesn't change. Even if you remove some of the picture, or crop the black bars, the remaining pixels still have the same shape. However if you do remove some of the picture, the display aspect ratio changes. For example a 720x480 DVD will have a display aspect ratio of 16:9, but if you were to cut 160 pixels off the height you'd have 720x320 and the display aspect ratio would be 16:6 (or 2.66). That's how you end up with wider aspect ratios after you've cropped the black bars from DVDs.

I don't use Handbrake as we've never got along (I'm an MeGUI user) but the way I understand it from looking at one of your links:

Strict Anamorphic: Handbrake will encode the video "as-is" after (or if) you've cropped the black bars and without changing the pixel shape (ie. the pixel aspect ratio). It won't change the dimensions of the video either, so if you take a 720x480 DVD and crop 8 pixels from both the height and width, your encode will have dimensions of 712x472. You're basically encoding "pixel for pixel".

Loose Anamorphic: It encodes while resizing the video to mod16 dimensions (The video height and width will always be a multiple of 16). With earlier encoders it was pretty much mandatory to encode that way but with x264 it doesn't matter, however if you crop 8 pixels from the width and height as before, your encode will probably be resized to 720x480 again. In order to do this Handbrake adjusts the pixel aspect ratio a little so the shape of objects in the video aren't distorted.

None: I'm guessing.... but I assume this is the anamorphic encoding method which lets you do whatever you want in terms of resizing. I guess "keep aspect ratio" gets Handbrake to automatically adjust the pixel aspect ratio so you can't distort the picture as you re-size and crop.

The differences:
Strict anamorphic: You're encoding "pixel for pixel". Most of the time it'd be the method I'd use. Despite what your link says compression virtually doesn't suffer at all if the dimensions aren't evenly divisible by 16. At least not using the x264 encoder. You can't re-size the video.

Loose Anamorphic: If you want to crop a little off the video without altering the dimensions (or while maintaining mod16 dimensions) this is the method you'd use.

None: If this is the "do what you want" method it's probably the method to use if you want to reduce the resolution to keep the file size down etc. It's probably the only method which allows you to manually re-size the video. However while you're still encoding using non-square pixels, the more you re-size the video, the less benefit there is to anamorphic encoding in terms of quality.