"Best" Way to Rip Blurays

[Bert 49]

??

 

Usig makemkv will be fast and best quality as it is 1:1 rip.

 

Not saying it's not, but can anyone confirm this is accurate?  I am still toying with what I want to buy.  I have VideoRedo and current trials of MakeMKV and DVDFab.   None of these are perfect.  I am trying to play either mkv or mp4 through my Xbox Extender, with highest possible audio for the xbox 360 (I have 7.1 receiver), burn in subtitles,and also be able to play on other devices (android and laptops).  The 1:1 rips of blu-ray when played on the xbox look terrible, grainy, blotchy, blocky.  I am thinking it is too much data for the xbox.  DVD rips play fine, look good, however, I think maybe slightly worse than the .wtv files I was ripping to.   I am definitely wanting to buy some software because of my user level, just not sure what.  

 

So back the question, is it for sure a 1:1 rip?  If so, I think I may just buy MakeMKV (and learn how to better use handbrake) because the files DVD Fab produces are only like 4 GB from a blu ray, there has to be some serious quality sacrifices to do that.  

[Koleckai Silvestri 1150]

MakeMKV for full 1:1 rip of titles. Handbrake for any necessary conversions. With MakeMkV, you can strip audio and subtitles that you will never use. Helps with file size. Use MKVmerge to bundle subtitles and chapters with recorded video.

 

Currently both are free. MakeMKV during beta (it has been in beta for a long time) and Handbrake is free and open source.

Edited January 4, 2014 by Wayne Luke

[Bert 49]

MakeMKV for full 1:1 rip of titles. Handbrake for any necessary conversions. Use MKVmerge to bundle subtitles and chapters with recorded video.

 

Currently both are free. MakeMKV during beta (it has been in beta for a long time) and Handbrake is free and open source.

 

So, yes on the 1:1 I assume.  I had thought I read MakeMKV requires registration to use the direct from disk mode after 30 days, am I incorrect on that?

[Koleckai Silvestri 1150]

So, yes on the 1:1 I assume.  I had thought I read MakeMKV requires registration to use the direct from disk mode after 30 days, am I incorrect on that?

Yeah that is correct for Blurays... A new key is posted on their forum every month during the ongoing beta process.

[cylon 15]

My experience with MakeMKV (admittedly I haven't used it in a while) is that it wasn't intelligent enough to select the correct stream to extract. DVDFab on the other-hand seems to get it right every time (only done 40 movies so far) including working out which subtitles to extract (not director commentary, etc.).

 

I am in the process of batch converting 400+ Blu-ray ISOs to 1:1 MKVs and DVDFab is saving me a lot of time because of this feature.

[Bert 49]

MakeMKV for full 1:1 rip of titles. Handbrake for any necessary conversions. With MakeMkV, you can strip audio and subtitles that you will never use. Helps with file size. Use MKVmerge to bundle subtitles and chapters with recorded video.

 

Currently both are free. MakeMKV during beta (it has been in beta for a long time) and Handbrake is free and open source.

 

I don't quite get "Use MKVmerge to bundle subtitles and chapters with recorded video."  Is that a third program?  

[Bert 49]

My experience with MakeMKV (admittedly I haven't used it in a while) is that it wasn't intelligent enough to select the correct stream to extract. DVDFab on the other-hand seems to get it right every time (only done 40 movies so far) including working out which subtitles to extract (not director commentary, etc.).

 

I am in the process of batch converting 400+ Blu-ray ISOs to 1:1 MKVs and DVDFab is saving me a lot of time because of this feature.

 

And what profile / options are you selecting / changing?  Do you get forced subtitles?

[foghat 65]

I don't quite get "Use MKVmerge to bundle subtitles and chapters with recorded video."  Is that a third program?  

If you are using MakeMKV there is no reason to use mkvmerge.  MkvMerge comes in handy if you use other programs to rip your bluray, programs that extract each file individually.  Such as 1 or more audio files, the movie file, a chapters file, subtitle files,etc.  Mkvmerge will take all of these individual files and make a single mkv file out of them.  MakeMkv does this for you automatically.

 

You can also use mkvmerge to remove tracks from an mkv file.  For example if you had a file that had audio tracks and subtitles other than english (or of any language you don't need), you could strip them out with mkvmerge.

 

I just use the default profile.  All the subtitles are automatically selected.  I am only interested in the english forced subtitles.  So I unselect all the subtitles and then select the 'English (forced only)' subtitle option.  If there is more than one Enlgish forced subtitle I pick the one that have 'MKV Flags: Default' in the Info window.

 

@@cylon Makemkv does not automatically pick the main movie. I guess it does not want to assume that is the track you want to extract.  but it is easy enough to figure out what the main movie is based on the size in the description column.

[Bert 49]

 

I just use the default profile.  All the subtitles are automatically selected.  I am only interested in the english forced subtitles.  So I unselect all the subtitles and then select the 'English (forced only)' subtitle option.  If there is more than one Enlgish forced subtitle I pick the one that have 'MKV Flags: Default' in the Info window.

 

 

 

In what program are you speaking of here?

[foghat 65]

In what program are you speaking of here?

 

MakeMkv

[cylon 15]

And what profile / options are you selecting / changing?  Do you get forced subtitles?

I use the "MKV Passthrough" profile. Yes, I get forced subtitles.

 

The only thing you can change in this profile are the subtitle settings which I have set to:

Mode: Remux into Source : PGS Subtitle

 

Under the global setting for Streams I have these settings:

• Audio
  • Preselect the following audio tracks: English
  • From multiple tracks of the same language select: All Tracks (I manually select the HD Audio stream I want to keep and deselect the rest.
  • If none meets my selection criteria: Select all audio tracks (I have't had this happen yet)
• Subtitle
  • Preselect the following Subtitle tracks: English
  • If none meets my selection criteria: Select all subtitle streams

Edited January 5, 2014 by cylon

[Pelon 160]

If you are using MakeMKV there is no reason to use mkvmerge.  MkvMerge comes in handy if you use other programs to rip your bluray, programs that extract each file individually.  Such as 1 or more audio files, the movie file, a chapters file, subtitle files,etc.  Mkvmerge will take all of these individual files and make a single mkv file out of them.  MakeMkv does this for you automatically.

 

You can also use mkvmerge to remove tracks from an mkv file.  For example if you had a file that had audio tracks and subtitles other than english (or of any language you don't need), you could strip them out with mkvmerge.

 

I just use the default profile.  All the subtitles are automatically selected.  I am only interested in the english forced subtitles.  So I unselect all the subtitles and then select the 'English (forced only)' subtitle option.  If there is more than one Enlgish forced subtitle I pick the one that have 'MKV Flags: Default' in the Info window.

 

@@cylon Makemkv does not automatically pick the main movie. I guess it does not want to assume that is the track you want to extract.  but it is easy enough to figure out what the main movie is based on the size in the description column.

How do you configure MAKEMKV to grab the chapter descriptions? As far as I know MAKEMKV will only grab the chapters from the BD,  but the chapter name will be generic, like chapter 1, etc.

[cylon 15]

@@cylon Makemkv does not automatically pick the main movie. I guess it does not want to assume that is the track you want to extract.  but it is easy enough to figure out what the main movie is based on the size in the description column.

@@foghat I agree, it is generally quite easy but there are circumstances where it can be very confusing. A good example are Disney, movies they have a stream for each language and there is no obvious way to tell which one to play. In the past I have used this thread on the AVS Forum to work out which stream to rip:

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?s=e7ca59a61739e6f3183a4ba370e80144&t=1155731

 

With DVDFab it works it out for me based on my default language and subtitle settings.

[foghat 65]

How do you configure MAKEMKV to grab the chapter descriptions? As far as I know MAKEMKV will only grab the chapters from the BD,  but the chapter name will be generic, like chapter 1, etc.

 

I have never paid much attention to the chapter descriptions, if makemkv isn't doing it by default, I don't think there is a way for it to grab chapter descriptions.  You could ask over in the makemkv forum.

[Koleckai Silvestri 1150]

My son that says the Chapter (e.g. names) information isn't on the disc usually.

[Nate8727 9]

MakeMKV, and then handbrake to shrink it down to around 2-3gb and make it an mp4 file.

[Bert 49]

MakeMKV for full 1:1 rip of titles. Handbrake for any necessary conversions

 

I'm still having trouble.....I want to convert to .mp4, I assume you are doing the same with handbrake.  What profile / settings are you using?  I want highest quality that the XBOX will play for both Audio and Video.

[Koleckai Silvestri 1150]

I'm still having trouble.....I want to convert to .mp4, I assume you are doing the same with handbrake.  What profile / settings are you using?  I want highest quality that the XBOX will play for both Audio and Video.

 

If I convert to .mp4, I use the Handbrake Preset of Regular: High Profile. I don't know if that will work for the XBOX. 

 

Lately, I've just been leaving the files in their MKV container and letting MediaBrowser handle things.

Edited January 15, 2014 by Wayne Luke

[Bert 49]

OK, that's not an option.  The XBOX won't play what MakeMKV produces because (I believe) it's flooding the xbox with too much information.  They play but look awful.