Backup DVD, BD (Lossless)?

[JCarnon]

Hi,

I am planning on ripping my entire DVD, BD collection for use in the two devices listed below (DLNA):-

http://www.lacie.com/uk/products/product.htm?pid=11390
http://www.sony.co.uk/product/blu-ray-disc-player/bdp-s370?source=rss

I appears both of the devices support MPEG2 so that isn't an issue.

I believe the process of "Decrypting" DVD's is lossless (Creating folder structure). Is the VOB2MPG process lossless also (Am I going to lose any quality in the process)?

Is this 2 part process the only way to do it without losing quality?

Regards

J

[hech54]

It will be lossless for DVD because DVD is MPEG2.....it will not be lossless for Blu Ray.

[JCarnon]

Thanks for your reply hech54. So that is DVD's sorted.

Any ideas on the process for lossless Blu Ray backups?

Regards

[hech54]

For decrypting or ripping(a rip is an exact copy of a disc - no changes except copy protection removal)....the most reliable rip methods for Blu Ray is pay-ware stuff like AnyDVDHD and DVDFab. I don't do Blu Ray so someone will come along shortly to call me an idiot...

[yoda313]

If the players support it you could use makemkv to put the bluray into an .mkv file without shrinking. It will be huge though - 20gb or more depending on the size of the movie. Do movie only and only one soundtrack to limit the size.

If you want a more surefire way for bluray players with loss but not a great deal of loss you can convert the bluray to avchd. That can be burnt to dvdr. More bluray players should handle avchd than those that do .mkv. At the very least ntfs support and mkv support aren't as common on older players - newer ones I understand are starting to implement this feature.

[JCarnon]

Thanks again, I can call you an idiot now if you want to get it out of the way?

So DVD Decrypter and VOB2MPG is the best way to "Rip" DVD's? (Whilst maintaining all quality)?

J

[JCarnon]

Wow, that's expensive! Thanks yoda. I am not 100% whether the S370 can play mkv files through DNLA so I might have to test that.

Are there any free alternatives to "ripping" BD?

Thanks for the help chaps.

J

[yoda313]

Free bd ripping should be available in dvdfab but won't have the current updates - I guess thats delayed on the freeware version. Though I have anydvdhd so I don't know for sure.

If you are streaming why not just transcode it with playon, tversity, or ps3mediaserver?

Assuming you are wired and not wireless you should have excellent video quality. Wireless can have buffering issues unless you are in the same room. And you should have wireless N for the best possible outcome. Use repeaters if you are far away from your router.

Edit - and what do you mean something is expensive? I'm not sure I follow. if you mean large in terms of a ripped bluray file size that is the nature of the beast if you want to go uncompressed.

[JCarnon]

What file format is used on DB discs? Once I have ripped the BD on to my PC using DVDFab HD is it the VOB2MPG process again or is there something I am missing?

My plan was to rip my collection into a suitable format (which can be played by both the Blu Ray player and the Media LaCie External HDD). The files would then reside on the LaCie device. I am not entirely sure what benefit playon, tversity, or ps3mediaserver would have. Unless there is something I am missing?

The expensive statement was regarding makemkv which was $70.

Great help so far. Could not be more grateful.

Thanks.

J

[yoda313]

Here is the detail for bluray:

https://www.videohelp.com/hd

You will get a bdmv folder with a bunch of .m2ts files in it.

As far as makemkv I don't know if there is a free trial version available or if there is a stripped down shareware version available.

I believe there are alternatives out there but I can't name that at the moment.

For streaming you wouldn't have to make special formats. You would just play the original files and stream them that way.

[JCarnon]

Can you explain the streaming options as I'm intrigued! What formats can I use? Is the format not depended on what the Blu Ray player can support? In which case I'll need to convert? Please help a doofus!

J

[yoda313]

Streaming with a program that transcodes will play on any receiving device that can see the server. If it sees the server it will play it regardless. If its dlna it should play it without a hitch.

Ideally you should have at least a dual core processor for streaming. The computer program translates it into something the receiving player will recognize and play. This is done automatically without encoding prior to playing - ie realtime.

Test the three programs I mentioned. All are free for file streaming. Tversity and playon require payment for streaming from online sources like amazon vod and youtube.

[JCarnon]

Thanks for the info. I don't suppose there is the option to utilise such software on an external HDD. I want to get away from using a media PC and instead use a External HDD.

I very much like the idea of streaming all formats from an external HDD!

J

[yoda313]

You could look into a nas for that.

Or you could look into media players like the wdtv that can run high def and standard def files directly off ntfs harddrives.

[JCarnon]

Take a look at the LaCie disk linked in my first post. According to the blurb it supports the playing of ISO files. The Blu Ray player does not mention the ability to play ISO files. Let's assume is does not natively support it. Are you suggesting the Blu Ray player should be able to play it regardless of native support?

J

[yoda313]

Are you suggesting the Blu Ray player should be able to play it regardless of native support?

Only if you stream to it with one of the programs I mentioned. But that would require a full computer to do so.

You can get dlna servers with harddrives but I believe those are relatively expensive and probably use the same power as a computer.

For roughly a 100.00 USD or so you can get a wdtv media player and use it with an existing external harddrive and play just about anything on it without converting and on a ntfs drive with no file size limits (older media players and dvd players would limit you to a fat32 drive and no files larger than 4gb at a time).

[JCarnon]

Cool, can you send me a link to the media player?

In terms of DVDS and BDS, would it simply be a case of dumping the disc contents on the external drive. Removing the need to rip and mess around with converting etc?

Thanks again.

J

[yoda313]

@jcarnon - go to http://www.wdc.com/en/products/wdtv/

There are multiple versions available and there are competitors to wdtv also. You could get an older model used at places like ebay or amazon.

I believe the newer models could play a dvd iso with a menu so a straight rip would work.

I'm not sure how easy it is to do bluray rips without much hassle.

[JCarnon]

I have had a look around at the various WD options. It appears the only one available in Europe that is suitable is the WD TV Live Hub. Unfortunately it doesn't support ISO files and seems to do exactly the same thing as the LaCie LaCinema, but the LaCinema has an internal 2TB HDD (and support for ISO files).

So taking everything in to account, the LaCinema seems to be suitable as it can act as a DNLA server and in theory as you have said earlier should be able to stream all files, regardless of whether the Blu Ray player supports it?.

Correct?

Thanks for your help.

J