HandBrake - the "perfect" choice for Linux?

[microchip8]

there's libbluray library (dead or unmaintained?) and also developers are working on decryption/playback of BD/HD-DVD for MPlayer which possibly will be ported over to libav of ffmpeg (the decryption bits). We all would love to have solutions that work directly with the apps we prefer but reality isn't that easy, especially on the legal side of things, and it takes time and effort to do it ;)

[GLUBSCH]

there's libbluray library (dead or unmaintained?) and also developers are working on decryption/playback of BD/HD-DVD for MPlayer which possibly will be ported over to libav of ffmpeg (the decryption bits). We all would love to have solutions that work directly with the apps we prefer but reality isn't that easy, especially on the legal side of things, and it takes time and effort to do it ;)

Thanks, microchip8. Mh... there have been serious discussions about MakeMKV as well. Are those MKVs encodable afterwards? Is it really the most advanced solution at the moment (HD-DVD backup is only supported partially and for Blu-Ray support the team wants to see money later on)? Certainly looks to me like MakeMKV is going to turn commercial once it got popular enough... I´d like to hear Johns comment on this one, too. ;)

[microchip8]

I haven't used MakeMKV at all so can't really comment on it... Yes, the MKVs made by MakeMKV can be encoded afterwards. It does not create something that can't be read by anything else, as explained on its site http://www.makemkv.com/

[JohnAStebbins]

I don't follow the development of the bd decryption libraries that closely. But the aacs algorithm that most bd use is a public specification and there are implementations available. The tricky part is in obtaining the keys, and people seem to have this solved (google aacskeys). Then there's BD+ encryption that afaik only Slysoft (anydvd) can currently handle. There's an effort underway to reverse engineer the complete java subsystem that's used for BD+. Who knows when that might bear fruit. Handbrake will never include any of these libraries in it's source tree, but may someday allow dynamic linking to one as we do for dvdcss.

What I know a lot more about is the playlist and clipinfo structure used on bd. These define the titles and how to navigate the clips for proper playback. I've written a library that parses this information and plan to integrate that into handbrake. This will allow you to open an unencrypted bd and see all its titles and associated information (chapters/audio track languages/subtitles) similar to how handbrake currently handles dvds.

[GLUBSCH]

Another intersting point of view. I know that HandBrake is primarily set to re-focus on it´s core strengths. But tell me John, is there a slight possibility that HB 0.9.4 will link to external libraries like libbluray or similar libraries in order to handle Blu-Ray and HD-DVDs right inside the program without having backed up the image in the first place (just like libdvdcss integrates to handle DVDs inside HB)?

[JohnAStebbins]

HandBrake is currently in a feature freeze prior to an 0.9.4 release. So no, bd playlist handling will not be in 0.9.4. I will be integrating my bd work after the release.

[GLUBSCH]

HandBrake is currently in a feature freeze prior to an 0.9.4 release. So no, bd playlist handling will not be in 0.9.4. I will be integrating my bd work after the release.

Certainly sounds like you are working on BD implementation yourself right now. Awesome, Mr. Stebbins! :)