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

[gonca]

Try BD_Rebuilder as Kerry56 suggested. You can keep the HD audio

[justinrye]

Thanks, probably won't keep the HD audio for most, but it's good to know the option is there. So definitely can't be done with handbrake or ripbot (the two I am currently experimenting with atm)?

How many errors can I expect in these conversions? Say for example, out of 100 conversions, how many would have errors such as skipping or just a complete breakdown of picture quality? I mean, I know from personal experience, that purchased blu-rays aren't always faultless, one of my discs skipped and had to be returned for a replacement for example, so it might not be the software/pc's fault if there is an error.

[jagabo]

I don't know about Handbrake because I've only used it with AC3 audio. But I see DTS Passthru, DTS-HD Passthru, and Auto Passthru in the audio codec options.

[justinrye]

Auto pass through just gives me the DD5.1, not the HD audio. Think I'll be happy with CRF 18-20 and DD5.1 for most films.

Trying a second disc, what do you do if there is no big file to convert, just lots of little ones (I wonder if it's because the disc has maximum movie mode?)

[Kerry56]

If the movie has lots of medium sized m2ts files instead of one big one, you are looking at a movie that has seamless branching. Use ClownBD and select Blu-ray output. This will give you one large m2ts file within the Streams folder. No quality loss here, just another step if you need just one m2ts file for some reason.

It does help to know which mpls is the right one, but the first one selected is usually correct.

[jagabo]

Auto pass through just gives me the DD5.1, not the HD audio. Think I'll be happy with CRF 18-20 and DD5.1 for most films.

If you're making MKV files, maybe you can use MMG (part of MKVToolnix) to mux the original audio with the new video.

[justinrye]

In handbrake, is there a better way to check what the subs are? They all say "1 unknown (PGS)" and I have to preview each one to get the one I want. It lists them as languages in Ripbot but don't want to use ripbot as you can't rip multiple audio streams.

[justinrye]

I've found opening the original ripped file in vlc, the numbers correspond to those in handbrake, so that is a quicker way than doing a preview for each one.

I've been using Level 4 for my conversions, which look very nice at crf20, come in around 6-9gb, but am I missing something by not using Level 4.1 or greater?

[jagabo]

am I missing something by not using Level 4.1 or greater?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H.264/MPEG-4_AVC#Levels

With CRF=20 you might find a few shots here and there where the higher bitrate of 4.1 is beneficial (the file will be a bit larger).

[justinrye]

Hmm, just come across my first major issue, one of my rips crashes a minute or so into it when played on my blu-ray player. Plays fine on the PC, and still crashes on another usb pen drive.

It uses DTS-MA so thought I'd try a conversion just using the DTS and it plays fine. Just converting it again using DTS-MA and the same settings and seeing if it crashes again.

Out of interest, is there a known issue playing DTS-MA using mkv conversions on blu-ray players from pen drives?

[justinrye]

I did the same settings again and it crashes at the exact same point again.

I should also point out it crashes the entire blu-ray player, it has to be switched off at the mains to get going again. The only thing google seems to bring up is that some players may have trouble with VC-1, but I am using h264 with handbrake, no?

The file runs fine on my pc, if worst comes to the worst, can I forget the blu-ray player and use my PC/vlc player (or some other software) for these.mkv conversions and get exactly the same experience? Both the pc and blu-ray player use hdmi through an amp.

[jagabo]

I did the same settings again and it crashes at the exact same point again.

I should also point out it crashes the entire blu-ray player, it has to be switched off at the mains to get going again. The only thing google seems to bring up is that some players may have trouble with VC-1, but I am using h264 with handbrake, no?

Try another Blu-ray player? Also, make sure you're using Blu-ray compatible settings with the h.264 compression. Blu-ray only supports a subset of h.264 features.

The file runs fine on my pc, if worst comes to the worst, can I forget the blu-ray player and use my PC/vlc player (or some other software) for these.mkv conversions and get exactly the same experience? Both the pc and blu-ray player use hdmi through an amp.

Yes, you can get the same output from a computer if set up properly.

[fritzi93]

Hmm, just come across my first major issue, one of my rips crashes a minute or so into it when played on my blu-ray player. Plays fine on the PC, and still crashes on another usb pen drive.

It uses DTS-MA so thought I'd try a conversion just using the DTS and it plays fine. Just converting it again using DTS-MA and the same settings and seeing if it crashes again.

Out of interest, is there a known issue playing DTS-MA using mkv conversions on blu-ray players from pen drives?

Does the original disc have multiple m2ts files for the main movie? I suspect it's not joined properly, and that the audio is the culprit.

I say that because I almost always use Clown_BD to extract main movie, DVDFabPasskey running in the background. On branched discs with DTS-MA, I'll sometimes see in the eac3to window "sync byte discontinuity", "sync byte missing", or similar, multiple times. Which eac3to will fix. Just don't try to convert to AC3 at the same time, because likely eac3to will bomb out. Let it fix the audio sync and tsMuxer output main movie.

I have to wonder if such errors are deliberate, and that standalones can ignore them whereas rippers or encoders cannot. Or maybe it's just a decoder issue, I dunno.

At any rate, I urge you to try Clown_BD. Extract main movie first, then feed that to Handbrake or Ripbot or whatever.

Just a note here: You're aware that keeping DTS-MA will leave little room for the video if the target size is BD5?

[justinrye]

Yeah I've moved on from dvd size and from keeping (most) DTS-MA tracks. My journey is taking different paths all the time, now I'm looking at wireless media streaming. Just trying to nail down what causes an entire blu-ray player to crash, it was just one big file done twice in handbrake, and both times caused it to crash, will do more testing on DTS-MA tracks and see if I can't narrow it down. I already know it's not the pen drive, nor is it a corrupted mkv, probably the blu-ray player, I know it can't decode DTS-MA but the amp it goes through can, so shouldn't be a problem I would have thought.

[justinrye]

Just done a completely different film, one with DTS-MA 5.0 (didn't even know 5.0 existed), and one with just the dts core. (interesting side note, I didn't think that handbrake could rip the hd audio at first, it wasn't until I downloaded mediainfo and got a look at the exact codecs being used that I saw it was the full DTS-MA)

THE DTS-MA crashes at exactly the same time as the previous film, the dts core plays flawlessly just like the last film. I can only conclude my blu-ray player doesn't like mkv's with DTS-MA, I knew it couldn't decode it, but it goes straight through to the amp so thought there would be no issue (and even if no amp, it would just use the core, DTS-MA is set up like that isn't it?).

So problem solved I think, HD audio is out on my rips, unless there is something I can play around with on the blu-ray player?

If I did an mkv with full HD, how easy would it be to convert the .mkv with just the core?

Next problem, the blu ray player doesn't seem to want to play the subs, maybe it doesn't support handbrake's default (PGS?)?

[justinrye]

In handbrake, what should I choose for "anamorphic"? I have been using 'strict', but it looks like it does something to the image (in small amounts), shouldn't I be leaving the image alone as exactly on the blu-ray?

If I select 'none', I get given modulus options (no idea what they mean) and a checkbox to maintain aspect ratio. I want the image exactly the same size as it would be if I popped my blu-ray disc in, what options should I be choosing here?

Thanks

[justinrye]

Bump, really need advice on the subtitle problem, my blu-ray player won't play PGS subtitles that i convert into the mkv file. Handbrake only seems to add PGS for some reason. There is an option to import .srt, so maybe that is the way to do it, how do I get the .srt from the ripped blu-ray disc (using dvd fab)?