Best format to convert blu-rays to

[snooze091]

Hi,

I currently have a pretty large collection of blu-ray .iso rips that I have been streaming to my media centers. However I have found them to be a pain in the ass to use in terms of sometimes they don't work, mounting them and I have to use powerDVD to play them outside of XBMC. So I am looking to convert them into another format and my question is what is the best format to use while keeping quality and HD audio? Also I don't care about keeping menus/extras but if there is a nice way to do that I'm all for it.

Thanks a bunch

[redwudz]

I use RipBot and convert my BDs to 8GB MKVs with AC3 surround sound, two pass mode. You can play them with VLC, Zoom, or even Windows Media Center (After some adjustments.)

The downside is that processing them to MKV takes a fair amount of computer power, though you can run the encodes overnight. The quality is quite good, IMO. I have a large video projector screen and they look great on that. If you want more quality, just go with a larger output size.

This will just give you the main movie, no extras. But I have the BDs, so I can watch the extras there if needed. I chose the 8GB output size so they would be easy to back up to DL DVD in case of hard drive failures.

EDIT: If you want to keep the original quality, you can just dump the extras, including language and subs and get them down a bit smaller than the BD. This shoudn't require any re-encoding, but you may still end up with 25GB - 30GB video files. tsMuxeR is one method. Or maybe BD Rebuilder.

[montevo]

of ourse x264.if u have licance to h264 it would be better.i use ripbot too.so easy and fast.

[fritzi93]

As an alternative to what Redwudz suggested, you could use BDRB. The difference is mostly in the presets offered and the GUI style, since both use the x264 encoder.

BDRB can output to MKV with intact audio, AC3 5.1 audio at 640 kbps, (or 448 kbps) and full resolution. Also it can preserve chapter marks (new in the latest version). Or for more space saving, you can encode to 720p with stereo AC3, for instance. Constant quality encode, average bitrate encode, or encode to target size, take your pick.

Again, you can accomplish much the same with RipBot. Haven't used RipBot in awhile, can it preserve chapter marks?

Anyway, good luck.

[EDIT] Yeah, PowerDVD stinks. You could use a different player like Arcsoft's TMT. Much much better. Or go with your MKV strategy. I use MPCHC to play MKVs. That and VLC are perfectly satisfactory players for MKV.

[montevo]

yes ripbot can take chapters form dvd,automaticly, and bluray ,by using plalist file which is gets automaticly if there is file.