Done with Apple

[Shakadula]

Apple iTunes is not just losing my music but it is deleting it from my source file. I am going to buy a pc so..........

I currently have the paid mac version of MakeMKV which works great everytime on DVD and Blu-Ray discs. MakeMKV and Handbrake on the Mac work together great for dvds and Bluray discs through Apple TV for viewing. For backing up my dvds I used One Click DVD copy which used to work but I think they want me to buy it again so they wired it to copy the dvd but shuts my computer off when it goes to write it. Not gonna pay again when I was satisfied with the old version that worked fine. I have one click on a old HP Windows XP computer that I will have to dump since one click no longer works. That is all I used it for.

So now to my question......if I buy a Windows 10 PC, I would like suggestions on software to backup my bluray collection. Especially the new bluray james bond box set I just spent a boatload of money on. The teens love these movies and watch them over snd over so I need to keep a clean copy. I have ocd over this stuff. I still have my backup copy of the Layla album I bought 40 years ago that has never been played because I bought the CD too in the 80's. Could you all suggest software to rip my dvds and blurays to backup discs for a pc.

Goodbye Apple. Maybe. I am happy with the video side of iTunes but I am moving my music to Media Monkey and that requires a PC with Windows. I would like to get off Apple totally. Suggestions please.

[Kerry56]

MakeMKV and Handbrake both work perfectly well in Windows computers, so if you want to continue with them for your Blu-ray, that is certainly a popular combination. Some people prefer VidCoder over Handbrake, but its based on Handbrake, so there are only a few extra choices in it.

You're probably already aware that MakeMKV can decrypt and rip DVD's as well, but only into uncompressed MKV files, and if you want DVD-video structure, you'll need a different program to keep the original menus and extras. Most would recommend DVDFab, DVDFab Passkey or AnyDVD for this. There is a free section within DVDFab called DVDFab HD Decrypter that is supposed to continue to function even after the trial for the rest of DVDFab expires. It will decrypt and rip DVD's and Blu-ray, but lags on updates compared to the paid sections of Fab.

[Shakadula]

Thanks Kerry for reading and replying to my post. Just what I am looking for before proceding with a purchase.

[JVRaines]

If you just want a perfect backup of the discs, use something like ImgBurn to create ISO files. They are exact images of the discs, can be used to burn new discs, or mounted as if they were physical discs when you want to rip media files.

[Shakadula]

So I downloaded dvdfab for MAC and it works on standard dvd copy but not for mkv files. When i try to burn a dvd 9 disc from a mkv file it runs for about 5 hours and craps out. 3 tries and no luck. Yes i have space and a dvd/bluray writer. Tried on two different mkv files and still no luck. For the money dvdfab wants, it should be more intuitive and spit out specific error messages. Maybe a system check BEFORE the burning process. I copied the entire error message but dvdfab doesn't supply a button to send them the error. Only a cancel and reopen the app button. Unless i am missing something, i believe this product to have poor analysis and design.

Comments and suggestions please as I still want to buy a PC but I want to nail down the software first. If it doesn't work on a mac, i can only assume it doesn't work on a PC.

On to the next product to test.

[hech54]

So I downloaded dvdfab for MAC and it works on standard dvd copy but not for mkv files. When i try to burn a dvd 9 disc from a mkv file it runs for about 5 hours and craps out. 3 tries and no luck. Yes i have space and a dvd/bluray writer

I don't understand. Why would you go from DVD to MKV then back to DVD?

[Shakadula]

Bluray to mkv to dvd. The kids have bluray and i want bavkups. You know how careful kids are with discs. They each hsbe their favs and don't like to share so i want to just create standard dvds from mkv files i created to load to appletv. Plus, i have mkv files of bluray discs that have been destroyed so i would like to save some bucks on copies. Hence, standard dvd copies of mkv files.

[Kerry56]

If you want to convert to DVD-video from Blu-ray source, I would not recommend DVDFab. I only recommend Fab for decryption.

Use AVStoDVD for this conversion (HC encoder in two pass mode), or BD Rebuilder in Alternate Movie-Only mode.

[Shakadula]

Thanks Kerry. I will look at both.

[stonesfan129]

Yes as stated, only use DVDFab for decryption. I would recommend keeping MKV backups across a couple of external drives. You may be better off with MakeMKV for that task. The nice thing about BD Rebuilder is it can accept MKV files as input if you ever want to burn them back to disk (DVD or BD). And if you get something like a laptop or tablet that can play MKV files, you can throw one on there and watch without having to convert it again. But backup, backup, backup. Drives can and do fail. Avoid Seagate. I recommend WD Red which is around $100 for a 3TB drive.

[Shakadula]

Thanks stonesfan, I will give it a try. I just bought a new pc with windows 10 and am working through my applications.