Is is possible to make a 1:1 copy just removing the region coding of a blu?

[justinrye]

I don't have a region A player but obviously there are many Region A locked discs out there, so was just wondering if it was possible to just remove the region coding. Would use a usb stick on my blu ray player probably as dual layer bluray discs are v expensive.

[Kerry56]

AnyDVD HD removes region codes from blu ray. There is a free trial available for it.

Does your player support blu ray video format on usb?

[Baldrick]

Or if it supports mkv try makemkv and put the mkv on the usb stick. No menus,etc but no reconversion.

[justinrye]

AnyDVD HD removes region codes from blu ray. There is a free trial available for it.

Does your player support blu ray video format on usb?

Not sure as I haven't bought it yet, I'm looking at the cheap sony BDP-S1100 and LG models, what format should i be looking at when shopping that will allow playback of a full rip?

[Kerry56]

The only format that will let you keep the original menus and extras is Blu-ray video. If you just want the main movie, I'd try ripping to an mkv as Baldrick suggested, as I would think that Blu-ray video format would be unlikely to be supported from a usb stick. Players differ quite a lot in what they support, so there is no certainty about that.

You also have to consider the size of Blu-ray video. Most will be in the neighborhood of 30gb (complete movie + extras). Some will be over 40 gb. So plan ahead when purchasing a usb drive. The other option is to compress the movies to a smaller size using something like Vidcoder. You would need to decrypt and rip the movie to the computer hard drive first, before attempting to use VidCoder, since it cannot work with encrypted video.

[justinrye]

Seems weird that on usb it wont (or might not) play, but on disc it will play ok (or will it?)

The only way I would consider discs is if I can keep everything, and split the movie over two discs (did this back in the day with DVDs, it was my preferred option), is this still possible?

[Kerry56]

I doubt that many people are splitting blu ray into two parts the way you are describing. Keeping the menu might be a problem. Wait and see if anyone else will chip in though, there's no telling what the folks around here will try.

Is there any reason why you simply wouldn't use a double layer recordable blu ray disc? It would hold the entire movie. DL blu ray media is fairly expensive.

One other option is to compress the entire movie using BD Rebuilder to fit onto a 25gb single layer disc. You would have the entire movie this way too, just not at the original video quality. Still excellent results, but not 1:1 as you seem to want.

[jman98]

DVD menus were relatively easy, so the process of splitting dual layer DVDs into two single layer discs AND keeping the menus was not too difficult. BD menus are incredibly complicated. I know of no tool that will allow you to split a dual layer BD disc into two single layer BD discs and keep the menus.

BD players are NOT guaranteed to play ANYTHING via USB. Some will but some won't. That's why nobody can guarantee you that any random player you own will definitely play a BD rip (and conversion if you do it) via USB.

[justinrye]

I doubt that many people are splitting blu ray into two parts the way you are describing. Keeping the menu might be a problem. Wait and see if anyone else will chip in though, there's no telling what the folks around here will try.

Is there any reason why you simply wouldn't use a double layer recordable blu ray disc? It would hold the entire movie. DL blu ray media is fairly expensive.

One other option is to compress the entire movie using BD Rebuilder to fit onto a 25gb single layer disc. You would have the entire movie this way too, just not at the original video quality. Still excellent results, but not 1:1 as you seem to want.

Simply a cost/time issue. I'm only doing this to play Region A titles I've bought, and at some point, ripping, re-encoding and burning becomes less efficient than importing a US region A (or multi-region) player and getting it to work on a UK power supply.

Just exploring other options before I spend money on hardware, but it seems both my preferences aren't possible for whatever reasons... my preferences being to rip to usb/play from stick, or to a lesser extent, splitting the blu across two recordable discs. (Edited to add - jman98 has given some reasons, thanks)