How easy is it to rip a blu-ray down to dvd size?

[justinrye]

Is it free?
Is it time consuming?
How good will a blu-ray look at around 4gb? (can I keep DD5.1 sound?)

I have a fast i5 pc, and don't plan to do any burning.

Just want to rip and reduce file size (from previous experience, ripping the bluray took about an hour iirc). My TV size is a 50 inch, will 4gb be ok for that? The films I plan to do are not big blockbusters with fast moving cameras etc.

Thanks for any help.

[jman98]

We don't mean what you do when you say "rip". To us, you mean "rip AND convert". When WE say "rip" we mean just that ripping ONLY. Ripping is the process of getting data copied and unencrypted if necessary from CD, DVD or BD discs. That's it. Converting is NOT ripping to us. Recording from VHS tapes or laserdiscs is NOT ripping to us, for example because VHS and laserdiscs are not CDs, DVD or BDs.

True ripping itself can take me up to about 45 minutes. It depends on the disc. Conversion time is longer. Depends on what you use for converting and what format you want. Yes, you can keep DD 5.1 if you really mean that. If you actually mean Dolby Lossless or DTS-MA, you can keep it, but it will take up a lot more of your target 4 GB. Best guess is that your conversion will take at least an hour, possibly longer depending on a variety of factors. As to how good this kind of shrinking is, well, that all depends on your taste. With good programs to use your final output will probably look OK, but some people are more sensitive than others to defects and at the 4GB size, there will be some defects. Whether you can tell or notice is something only you can answer.

[justinrye]

Rip and convert is definitely what I want to do, i'll be very happy if it only takes an hour to convert, was expecting a lot longer.

I'm actually quite flexible to file size, I have no problem going as large as 8gb or more on some, especially if i feel like keeping the lossless audio (interestingly I don't think my blu-ray player supports DTS-MA, but the amp I run it through does)

No idea which program to use, output would be either .avi or .mp4 (though am I right in saying they are just containers, is divx/xvid still the most used?).

What about extras and menus, not too fussed about menus though. For example, I took out my "Classic Movie" blu-ray to rip and convert, could I expect to see at the end of it:

-classic_movie.avi (maybe dual audio if it has commentary track)
-deleted_scenes.avi
-maybe some subs

[imhh1]

rip your BD to your HDD, then encode with AVStoDVD. It is free and you can keep the 5.1 channel . At 4gb the quality should be very good. (2 pass encoding). it should takes approximatively 60 to 120 min depending of the source length.

If you want avi, mp4, mkv etc... a lot of free software can achieve that too

[Kerry56]

I've had issues with DTS HD MA audio when trying to convert from Blu-ray to DVD-video format using AVStoDVD. Normally, it is the tool I would use to convert to DVD-video, but this particular type of audio has been problematic, and to make matters worse, DTS HD MA audio is becoming the most common audio for Blu-ray.

When doing this particular conversion, I switched to BD Rebuilder, using the Alternate output.

If converting to mkv or mp4, I would use VidCoder. This will use H264 and AAC or AC3 audio. Don't use Xvid in an avi container unless your particular player absolutely needs them. H264 will output to smaller files with the same visual quality.

You will lose menus and extras when converting to DVD-video or mkv/mp4 files. The only way to keep them is to output to a smaller sized Blu-ray/AVCHD movie using BD Rebuilder in Full backup mode. 8gb output size is feasible, but I'd convert the HD audio to AC3. The DTS HD MA audio just takes too much room.

[_MrC_]

I've had issues with DTS HD MA audio when trying to convert from Blu-ray to DVD-video format using AVStoDVD. Normally, it is the tool I would use to convert to DVD-video, but this particular type of audio has been problematic, and to make matters worse, DTS HD MA audio is becoming the most common audio for Blu-ray.

Relatively OT, but, Kerry, do you have any DTS HD MA problematic sample to test? Thanks!



Bye

[Kerry56]

Sorry _MrC_, but Blu-ray to DVD-video is not something I do very frequently. After three failures trying to do it in AVStoDVD (using different audio encoding modes), I gave up and went to BD Rebuilder and never looked back. But I don't know how long it has been since I last used AVStoDVD for it...a year and a half perhaps? In any case, I couldn't tell you which movies they were, as I was making them for a family member who didn't have a Blu-ray player.

Edit: After calling and finding which ones I did, Alice in Wonderland is the earliest, and I think is one that gave me trouble. I'll try getting a clip of it for you.

2nd Edit: Here is the clip: Alice in Wonderland Clip.dts

If I am incorrect about this being one of the movies giving problems, I have a short list of all of them I did. There were only five others.

[justinrye]

You will lose menus and extras when converting to DVD-video or mkv/mp4 files. The only way to keep them is to output to a smaller sized Blu-ray/AVCHD movie using BD Rebuilder in Full backup mode. 8gb output size is feasible, but I'd convert the HD audio to AC3. The DTS HD MA audio just takes too much room.

Does that take longer than 60-120 mins? Is there no other way of getting the extras converted, I remember with DVD's you could pick and choose certain files, IFO mode iirc.

Would a full backup play on a usb pen drive on my sony blu-ray player, that's how I'll want to play any .avi or .mp4 files.

Are these all the same methods used by the naughty sharers on p2p etc?

[Kerry56]

You will lose menus and extras when converting to DVD-video or mkv/mp4 files. The only way to keep them is to output to a smaller sized Blu-ray/AVCHD movie using BD Rebuilder in Full backup mode. 8gb output size is feasible, but I'd convert the HD audio to AC3. The DTS HD MA audio just takes too much room.

Does that take longer than 60-120 mins? Is there no other way of getting the extras converted, I remember with DVD's you could pick and choose certain files, IFO mode iirc.

Would a full backup play on a usb pen drive on my sony blu-ray player, that's how I'll want to play any .avi or .mp4 files.

Are these all the same methods used by the naughty sharers on p2p etc?

Just ripping the Blu-ray to the hard drive using AnyDVD HD or MakeMKV (free) will take over 40 minutes. Then you can start re-encoding. Going from an average sized Blu-ray down to 8gb will take 3 or 4 hours in my i5 3570k computer. But I use the High setting in the program, which will be much slower. You could use the High speed setting and shave a fair amount off of that. It still won't be anywhere near two hours for everything.

BD Rebuilder will let you pick and choose which extras/languages/subtitles you want to keep.

I don't think you'll be able to play full Blu-ray video structure from a usb pen drive...I doubt the player will allow it. But I could be wrong, and its hard to predict the capabilities of all the players.

[Noahtuck]

I've had issues with DTS HD MA audio when trying to convert from Blu-ray to DVD-video format

Normally, it is the tool I would use to convert to DVD-video

He said to "dvd size" not to DVD VIDEO.

How good will a blu-ray look at around 4gb? (can I keep DD5.1 sound?)

You will notice a difference on a screen that large if it is HD, even 7gb files from Bluray you can tell the difference.
It will probably be okay but I can see a difference but it is still better quality than a standard dvd and is fine for me
most times.

[hello_hello]

Do you need a DVD or Bluray video disc or would MKV/MP4 files be okay? I do it using the latter method myself.

A rule of thumb might be 8GB when re-encoding 1080p Bluray video, or 4GB if you resize it to 720p. I also do the latter most of the time. Those sizes should give you good quality using the x264 encoder, keeping the original DTS or AC3 audio.

If you're not worried about exact file sizes, the x264 encoder's single pass, quality based encoding method is the way to go. Outputting a specific file size requires 2 pass encoding, which takes longer. If you use the quality based encoding method it only requires a single pass. You can specify the quality, but the resulting file sizes will vary quite a bit (depending on how hard the video is to compress).

x264's single pass quality setting of CRF18 is roughly where the encoder is considered to be "transparent". Higher CRF values = lower quality and smaller file sizes. I tend to stick to CRF18 for 720p and CRF20 for 1080p (you can get away with higher CRF values for higher resolutions) and using those quality settings I'd probably average around 4GB for 720p and 8GB for 1080p but it's a very rough average. One 720p encode at CRF18 might come out at 3GB while the next will be 5.5GB etc. The quality will be the same relative to the original but the file sizes (bitrate) will vary instead. How hard the video is to compress makes a difference to the file size, and naturally the duration of the video and it's resolution will too.

You can extract and convert the extras when converting to MKV or MP4 (still using the x264 encoder each time) but you'd end up with individual files and you'd lose the original menus, which I think is a good thing, because as a general rule using the original menus is something I find to be quite annoying.
MKV and MP4 (and AVI etc) are containers for holding various types of video and audio). MKV is the most versatile and the easiest to work with, while MP4 might still be supported by more devices).

[Noahtuck]

Do you need a DVD or Bluray video disc or would MKV/MP4 files be okay?

Did anyone replying actually read anything the OP wrote ?!?!?!
LOL!!

[hello_hello]

Do you need a DVD or Bluray video disc or would MKV/MP4 files be okay?

Did anyone replying actually read anything the OP wrote ?!?!?!
LOL!!

Yes, he said DVD size, not DVD video, but he also mentioned full backups. Pardon me for trying to clarify given BD Rebuilder had been discussed, and errr.... bite me! LOL!!!

[johnsonchang]

That would be a great loss in quality if you just simply compress the Blu-ray disc to DVD size. If you want to just enjoy the movie on PC with 4GB file size, you may use a Blu-ray converter, which may takes about 40 minutes to process a 40GB disc. or some software may let you to convert Blu-ray to DVD and store them on DVD disc.

[redwudz]

I use AnyDVD HD to decrypt, then RipBot to convert to a MKV (H.264/2 pass) file with AC3 surround sound, about 8GB size. Very good quality, IMO. But even my listed PC takes about 2 hours, plus about 40 minutes ripping the BD to my hard drive. Three hours plus would be more realistic for a slower PC.

If I really want extras, I encode them separately. There is no simple way to encode menus from BDs. But if I wanted all that, I'd just use my original BD disc. I only back up my BDs to HDD to make playback more convenient and faster.

[jagabo]

Since you have an i5 CPU: Handbrake with the Intel h.264 Quick Sync encoder can encode a 100 minute 1080p Blu-ray rip in less than 25 minutes on an i5 2500K (when downsizing to 720p it takes about 15 minutes.). On a newer Ivy Bridge or Haswell CPU it will be even faster. Quality isn't quite as good as x264. On a Haswell CPU the quality is getting close enough that most people probably wouldn't care, given how much faster it encodes.

[justinrye]

Excellent replies so far, much appreciated. I want to get cracking experimenting on this but just waiting for my new pc parts to arrive.

If I went with .mkv , how easy would it be to convert to .mp4 or .avi? (assuming I didn't rip the original blu-ray again) I'm thinking that my smartphone doesn't support .mkv, even if my bluray player does.

[jagabo]

If I went with .mkv , how easy would it be to convert to .mp4 or .avi?

If you use codecs and settings that are suitable for your phone and the MP4/AVI containers it's a simple remux.

[justinrye]

What about region locks on discs, can these be bypassed by ripping?

[Kerry56]

If you are making mkv or mp4 files, region locks won't apply anyway.

[justinrye]

Ah ok, it seems blu-ray drives aren't locked like dvd drives are (just remember having to use some software like RPC or something). So the ripping software takes care of that then?

How often are there problems doing what i want to do? Just a casual glance at the forum suggests any number of problems from audio syncing and subtitle issues. Can I expect perfect results every time, or should I brace myself for problems?

[MOVIEGEEK]

AnyDVD + Handbrake is all you need. Select MP4 output and 5.1DD.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IDJH5p15tNU

You're welcome,

MG

[jman98]

Ah ok, it seems blu-ray drives aren't locked like dvd drives are (just remember having to use some software like RPC or something). So the ripping software takes care of that then?

Incorrect. Kerry56 gave you a shortcut answer, but they're just as region locked as they were in the DVD only days. His point was that if you can rip the BluRay discs to produce MKV or MP4 files, the ripping software will bypass the region locks just like DVD ripping programs still do on DVD drives.

[jagabo]

Ah ok, it seems blu-ray drives aren't locked like dvd drives are

Blu-ray is region locked, similar to the way DVDs are.

So the ripping software takes care of that then?

Yes, ripping software ignores the region code. Once the files are on your drive they are no longer encrypted or region locked. Region codes are really just a number on the disc that the player checks. If the number isn't right it doesn't play the disc.

How often are there problems doing what i want to do? Just a casual glance at the forum suggests any number of problems from audio syncing and subtitle issues. Can I expect perfect results every time, or should I brace myself for problems?

There will be occasional problems. Studios spend a lot of time/money to make the material hard to copy.

[justinrye]

I'm off and running with my new pc parts, I am using dvdfab (hd decrypter) because I already have it installed from last year, is it better to use anydvd for ripping or no difference?

[Kerry56]

AnyDVD HD is what you would need for ripping Blu-ray...its more expensive than the regular AnyDVD. Most of us prefer the Slysoft programs over DVDFab HD Decrypter, as there have been fewer issues in decryption and AnyDVD HD is updated much faster than the free program from DVDFab. If you are not ripping very new releases, it won't matter too much.

I use AnyDVD HD, but I also have MakeMKV on the computer. It is free while in beta, not updated quite as quickly as AnyDVD HD, and can rip the entire Blu-ray movie to the hard drive in Backup mode. The only thing with MakeMKV is that you have to download a new beta key from their forum every month or so, or download the latest version as they are released.

[justinrye]

Decided to experiment with RipBot first, can't find any way to add a second audio stream (for commentary tracks etc), not sure if "copy stream" is the right option to keep the dolby truehd track either, but all the others were just listed as AC3.

Looks like I'm looking at 3 hours conversion for a 28gb blu-ray, with CQ CRF set to "16". not sure what profile to use, went with [high 4.0].

Will be interest to see what the .mkv looks and sounds like (decided to go with .mkv as found out my blu-ray player supports it)

[justinrye]

On my first convert, a 1.30hr film, got three problems using ripbot264

-no second audio stream (apparently handbrake will allow me to do this)
-no trueHD audio (still confused if this is actually possible to get the DTS-MA or TrueHD retained)
-file size too big, 10gb for 1.30hr old film is too much, but can play with the settings to get this reduced

It looks good though on the big tv through a usb drive, really can't tell the difference as to where those 16gb have gone compared to the original blu-ray.

[jagabo]

If RipBot264 supports x264's presets try using veryfast. That will give files about the same size as the medium or slow presets (within a few percent), and the quality will be a little lower, but it will encode much faster. It's a good way to experiment with CRF values to determine what's in the ballpark you're looking for. Also, instead of encoding a full 90 minute movie encode a 5 minute segment of mixed material.

x264's weakest points are in dark grainy areas and moving edges. That's where you'll see problems first. Watch for posterization in the dark areas and rough edges on moving objects.

https://forum.videohelp.com/threads/345427-Handbrake-Should-i-leave-it-on?p=2156674&vie...=1#post2156674
https://forum.videohelp.com/threads/339510-Best-Software-For-DVD-to-H264-MKV?p=2115527&...=1#post2115527

With CRF encoding, just because one 90 minute movie comes out at 10 GB doesn't mean that the next one will to. The point of CRF encoding is to maintain a roughly constant image quality (relative to the source; you can't make a crappy source better, just keep it from getting much worse) so the bitrate it uses (and hence the file size it delivers since SIZE = BITRATE * RUNNING_TIME) will vary depending on the source. For example, clean animated material can be compressed a lot more than a grainy action film.

[justinrye]

Is it possible to keep the lossless audio using Ripbot or handbrake (DTS-MA and TrueHD), I'm trying to do it but no matter what option I choose it doesn't seem to work.