Recommended Blu-Ray Ripping Software

[Shed13C]

Hi Folks,

Set out to create a NAS containing our DVDs and Blu-Rays. So far, I have been using Wondershare to rip our DVDs and this has worked well. However, Wondershare does not support Blu-Ray so what tool do you folks recommend? Fortunately, we do not have many Blu-Rays but it would be good to get a complete collection.

Thank you in advance for your help.

Kind regards

Paddy
UK

[usually_quiet]

I hoped that someone else would answer because I do very little ripping but here goes...

If you want a free Blu-ray ripper, MakeMKV is good. MakeMKV offers a choice of output to your HDD, either the complete file and folder structure on the Blu-ray disc or a copy of the main movie only in an MKV file. It can rip DVDs too but those can only be output as MKV files. The decrypted audio and video output from MakeMKV is identical to what is on the original media. MakeMKV doesn't have the ability to convert the ripped video or audio to other formats and won't re-encode the video to a smaller size. Also, MakeMKV doesn't remove Cinavia, which is an uncommon type of copy protection. Cinavia prevents ripped media files and copied discs from playing on the majority of Blu-ray players and licensed player software such as PowerDVD.

MakeMKV is fairly reliable, especially for older releases but paid software from DVDFab or AnyDVD is updated more frequently and is better able to deal with novel DRM strategies applied to newly released movies. Some of DVDFab's paid ripping software can convert video and audio or shrink video and offers the choice of different container files instead of just MKV. DVDFab's paid software includes Cinavia removal too.

[videobruger]

Just a note. Actually MakeMKV has some limited (and often overlooked) conversion options for audio.


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[Shed13C]

Hi Both,

Thank you for your replies. Our DVDs have been ripped to 720p MP4 and work well. Not overly concerned about the cost - want a solution that can generate the above format from Blu-Ray with subtitles if needed (Wondershare does this for DVDs). If I am reading your suggestions correctly you are saying that I should give MakeMKV a go and if this fails buy DVDFab?

Kind regards

Paddy
UK

[Sharc]

Try AnyDVD as well. Would be my preference if cost doesn't exclude it.
https://www.redfox.bz/en/anydvdhd.html

[lingyi]

Hi Both,

Thank you for your replies. Our DVDs have been ripped to 720p MP4 and work well. Not overly concerned about the cost - want a solution that can generate the above format from Blu-Ray with subtitles if needed (Wondershare does this for DVDs). If I am reading your suggestions correctly you are saying that I should give MakeMKV a go and if this fails buy DVDFab?

Kind regards

Paddy
UK

+1 to using MakeMKV

It will give you an exact copy of your Blu-Rays in an .mkv container.


A few points about MakeMKV:

Since it rips and remuxes the files into an .mkv container, they will be almost the same size as the originals on the disc.

It will only output in .mkv, which can be remuxed to an .mp4 container which some of your playback devices may require.

It won't allow you to retain the disc menus (which you aren't getting with Wondershare anyway) and each file (main movie, extras) will be a separate file.

It won't create an .iso (i.e. a copy of the disc structure on you hard drive). Which is okay since there are few media players that can play Blu-Ray .isos.

If your Blu-Rays are new releases, it may take a few weeks/months for the program to be updated to allowing ripping. This is true of AnyDVD and any other program.


*Wondershare isn't ripping (which is an exact bit for bit copy of the original files in their original size) your DVDs to .mp4. At best it's ripping and remuxing, i.e. placing the files into a .mp4 container or more likely ripping and encoding the files to an .mp4, shrinking the file and losing quality.

[myklj]

I also have a NAS I have loaded with mp4 movies that I play on my LR tv via firestick using the vlc app. I just bought a blu-ray burner.
I have used MakeMKV and made it simple by just selecting the MAIN movie chapter(s) file (with the most chapters, the largest size) and it worked fine but did not include the subs. I changed the file extension .mkv to .mp4 so other players can play it, mainly VLC (although that can play mkv as well).
I am actually looking at a couple pkg's that advertise handling copy protection and are easy to use. Looking at Blue-Cloner and Leawo Copy or Ripper. I will be testing these (free trials). It appears the Blue-cloner is ~$50 1 time purchase whereas the Leowo is $40~ per year. I'm thinking Blue-cloner is a no brainer. Wondering if anyone out there has any experience with these.

[lingyi]

Not sure what you mean by "handling copy protection". Every ripping program has to defeat/remove the copy protection into order to work.

If you're talking about removing Region protection, again that's part of the decryption and ripping process.

If you're talking about Cinavia removal, the best program for that is DVDFab Blu-ray Cinavia Removal. Note that despite what anyone claims, to date and likely never, Cinavia can't be defeated or fully removed. What DVDFab (and every other program that claims to remove Cinavia) does is replace the audio track with one from a often lower quality non-Cinavia release that's in their database that may not be the same quality as the original.

"In the Blu-ray Copy option, with the help of DVDFab Blu-ray Cinavia Removal, the audio track affected by the Cinavia watermark, including DTS HD Master Audio, will be copied as the lossless DTS-HD audio..."

Source: https://www.dvdfab.cn/blu-ray-cinavia-removal.htm?trackID=headmenu2

Which also means you'll also lose your Cinavia Atmos soundtrack.

There are only three recommended Blu-Ray ripping programs here: MakeMKV, AnyDVD (recommended above) and DVDFab. All three are recommended not only because they're been proven to work through the years, but because they're continually updated, critical since new variations of copy protection are continually developed. Yes, other than MakeMKV, the programs are more expensive, but they'll be around a lot longer than the programs you asked about.

The money you save today will be wasted if the bargain program you buy isn't able to rip your latest disc.

[Shed13C]

Hi Everyone,

Great discussion and I really appreciate all the advice and technical explanations.

Still working on "ripping" our DVD collection using Wondershare so will return to Blu-Rays once this is complete.

I will provide feedback.

Kind regards

Paddy
UK

[video.baba]

I really don't want to 'bite' but literally sometimes have no control.

So far, I have been using Wondershare to rip our DVDs and this has worked well.

Tell me if I'm wrong but Wondershare is a company not a program? If so, your comment makes no sense. What program exactly are you using?

Our DVDs have been ripped to 720p MP4 and work well.

Ahh OK, I now understand both you don't know what you are talking about and you don't know what 'ripped' means.

Still working on "ripping" our DVD collection using Wondershare

Ouch there we go again lol. See first paragraph.

[Shed13C]

Hi Video.Baba,

Feel free to bite away - I can see from your previous posts that this is your modus operandi. Totally accept that I am a complete novice when it comes to all this stuff and that experts (like your goodself) no doubt get frustrated with us.

In answer to your questions:

Tell me if I'm wrong but Wondershare is a company not a program? If so, your comment makes no sense. What program exactly are you using?

You are 100% correct. Currently using Wondershare Uniconverter 11.2.1. Probably not the best tool out there but it works for my needs although it does not recognise the HD Graphics of my quad core i7. Spoke with Wondershare Technical Support and they acknowledged that they did not support my particular microprocessor.

Ahh OK, I now understand both you don't know what you are talking about and you don't know what 'ripped' means.

You are 100% correct. I see that Lingyi above describes the process as:

*Wondershare isn't ripping (which is an exact bit for bit copy of the original files in their original size) your DVDs to .mp4. At best it's ripping and remuxing, i.e. placing the files into a .mp4 container or more likely ripping and encoding the files to an .mp4, shrinking the file and losing quality.

Ouch there we go again lol. See first paragraph.

Yep, hence why I put "ripping" in quotes. Should I have put "ripping and remuxing" or "ripping and encoding"?

Kind regards

Paddy
UK

[lingyi]

IIRC, the Wondershare programs (like many other All-In-One's) take freeware and sometimes paid software and just put their interface on it. Convenient yes, but often lacking all the options of the original programs, particularly since they're usually not the latest versions (more likely to get caught that way). Another reason why AIO's are poor choices for quality and performance.

[video.baba]

Hi Video.Baba,
Feel free to bite away - I can see from your previous posts that this is your modus operandi. Totally accept that I am a complete novice when it comes to all this stuff and that experts (like your goodself) no doubt get frustrated with us.

Well thank you for the reply and thank you for taking my comments with a pinch-of-salt, just a little 'banter'

Well after re-reading the previous posts I see you have some good recommendations. MakeMKV is always a name that crops up, seems popular, I use it myself. It's handy as it will 'rip' your disc to a single MKV file. This of course can give you more options, and makes life easier, for post-processing (conversion) if needed. If I remember correctly, MakeMKV for DVD is free in 'beta' stage, however, it's been in beta stage for many years, and is regularly updated. I'm sure for blu-ray you have to pay, it may have a trial?

Can I just ask? What is your ultimate goal? I know you are going to store these on your NAS, are they ok left as they are? full size MKVs? Or would you prefer to then encode/transcode them to something smaller? A smaller MKV? or MP4? There are many options available.

However, one thing worth noting. Earlier you mentioned subtitles. DVD and BLU-RAY have bitmap subtitles, not widely supported in MP4. So if you plan to have everything as MP4 with all the subtitles you may run into a problem later on.

Speak soon,

[lingyi]

The developers of MakeMKV has stated it will remain free while in Beta. The only difference between the free and paid versions is that the key on the paid version never expires and you never have to get a new key when you update the program. Oh...and the warm fuzzies you get for supporting the developer's great work!