A few HD ripping questions from a newbie

[starscomeout]

Hi All,
I soon will be starting to rip my BD and HD DVDs to hard drives on my media center. I currently am waiting on a LG BD/HD DVD drive that I just ordered. I have ripped hundreds of standard DVDs to HDDs, but I have never ripped HD movies, so I really don’t know where to start. I am looking at ordering AnyDVD HD to use for ripping the movies unless you guys have a better suggestion?

I would also like to know, so I can figure the average number of movies I can add to a TB drive, what is the average ripped BD/HD movie size that will still maintain a 1080p picture? Also does AnyDVD HD do the compressions for me or do I need a different software to do this? From what I have read already it seems that ripping BD/HD DVDs is a lot of complicated then ripping standard DVDs, so please let me know if I am going to need any other software other then AnyDVD HD to accomplish the task? BTW, I have also ordered Cyberlink PowerDVD 10 Ultra to play the movies.

I am and will be using Windows Media Center with Media Browser on a Win 7 system.

I would appreciate any help and suggestion that anyone could provide me. Also, is there any listed step by step guides here on the forum to help me?

Best Regards,
Don

[Inspector.Gadget]

If you want to keep the BD structure for playback but reduce size, you can't get much simpler than ripping the whole disc with AnyDVD and then compressing using BD Rebuilder. Bear in mind that to play ripped discs in PowerDVD you will need to create a disc image and mount it with something like Virtual CloneDrive, as PowerDVD does not play bare BD folder structures.

[setarip_old]

Bear in mind that to play ripped discs in PowerDVD you will need to create a disc image and mount it with something like Virtual CloneDrive, as PowerDVD does not play bare BD folder structures.Or, simply burn a disc and play it...

[CWR03]

I've used MakeMKV, then HDConvertToX. It's incredibly easy, allows a huge range of control and yields an excellent result.

As far as the "average number of movies I can add to a TB drive", it depends on a number of factors that makes that estimate impossible. You'll have to do a few encodes yourself and determine at what quality you'll be satisfied with the end files.

[CpT]

I've been backing up my blurays using Anydvd hd then playing them with xbmc. http://xbmc.org/download/

@CWR03
Thanks for the heads up about MakeMVK.
Testing it out now, so far its epic!

[starscomeout]

Thanks everyone for the help and advice!

If you want to keep the BD structure for playback but reduce size, you can't get much simpler than ripping the whole disc with AnyDVD and then compressing using BD Rebuilder. Bear in mind that to play ripped discs in PowerDVD you will need to create a disc image and mount it with something like Virtual CloneDrive, as PowerDVD does not play bare BD folder structures.

I was unaware that PowerDVD 10 Ultra could not play a movie from the hdd. At this point i have no idea to what you are talking about, "you will need to create a disc image and mount it with something like Virtual CloneDrive", but I guess once I receive my new drive and get it set up, I then will research that next step.

Or, simply burn a disc and play it...

I am sorry, but unless I am missing something, that makes totally no sense. Why would I want to burn the disc and then to play the burn copy instead of the original? I want to have my library on a media server where my wife and I can stroll through our movies with ease and then just click and play.

I've used MakeMKV, then HDConvertToX. It's incredibly easy, allows a huge range of control and yields an excellent result.

As far as the "average number of movies I can add to a TB drive", it depends on a number of factors that makes that estimate impossible. You'll have to do a few encodes yourself and determine at what quality you'll be satisfied with the end files.

I was just curious to what would be a ballpark figure in the size of a HD movie backup to hdd would be. I realize that it is going to be different with each movie and how much that movie is compressed. Using DVD Shrink I have found that an average movie size ripped to hdd, with extras removed is around 5gb and a 1 TB drive will hold around 200 movies. If I purchase a 2TB drive, on sale for $130, then that is 400 movies at a cost of only about 31 cent storage space per movie. Since I don’t have a clue to what size an average blu-ray movie is, so I don’t know if this is going to be cost efficient or not to rip my Blu/HD library to hdd. Am I looking at 20, 30 or more gb per movie?

I've been backing up my blurays using Anydvd hd then playing them with xbmc. http://xbmc.org/download/

Is "http://xbmc.org/download/" a free software, and how does it compare to a software player like PowerDVD?

Thanks again guys for all the help and advice. It really is appreciated!

-Don

[CpT]

Yea xbmc is free!

I own powerdvd 10 and I like it, but it didn't play nice with my remote control ect.
I also found the navigation to be annoying unless I was sitting there with a mouse.
Thus far xmbc works great. I run it on a little xp machine loaded with drives n hooked up to a hdtv.

Its got tons of plugins, scripts and active forums. Its worth trying out for sure.

[Inspector.Gadget]

I then will research that next step.

Basically you need to make an ISO of the movie - e.g., a sort of container file that contains all the data (less re-encoded audio and video) on the original disc - and then fool PowerDVD into thinking that the image is a physical BD/DVD drive using software that allows you to represent the ISO file as a fake physical drive.

[starscomeout]

Yea xbmc is free!

I own powerdvd 10 and I like it, but it didn't play nice with my remote control ect.
I also found the navigation to be annoying unless I was sitting there with a mouse.
Thus far xmbc works great. I run it on a little xp machine loaded with drives n hooked up to a hdtv.

Its got tons of plugins, scripts and active forums. Its worth trying out for sure.

Thank you! I appreciate the advice. I will be sure to check it out. I went to the download page, but I saw nothing of cost or if it was free or not. Could you tell me if it is free software or just a free tryout?

I am sorry, I did not read your response to closely. I see that you did say it is free. I was just at their site again and I realized that it is a software I already have on my system. I think it got there when I downloaded the Beta version of Boxee. I did not know that it played HD media. I will check it out further.

Thanks again my friends!

-Don

[spock2000]

I've been in the same boat as you until about 2 years ago when I converted from dvd to blu ray discs. I've tried Anydvdhd, dvdfab, dvdfab passkey, Makemkv for decrpyting. For decrypting I prefer Makemkv because it does not require an internet connection to decrpyt the latest Mkb v17 blu ray discs. Usually the blu ray movies are between 20gb and 50 gb in length depending on whether the are single or dual layer blu ray discs. If you want the same quality (Mbps) as the original movie do not compress the movie.The problem is the 50 gb blank BDR discs are a little pricey. For compression I use BD rebuilder or MultiAvhcd. Good luck :)

[starscomeout]

I've been in the same boat as you until about 2 years ago when I converted from dvd to blu ray discs. I've tried Anydvdhd, dvdfab, dvdfab passkey, Makemkv for decrpyting. For decrypting I prefer Makemkv because it does not require an internet connection to decrpyt the latest Mkb v17 blu ray discs. Usually the blu ray movies are between 20gb and 50 gb in length depending on whether the are single or dual layer blu ray discs. If you want the same quality (Mbps) as the original movie do not compress the movie.The problem is the 50 gb blank BDR discs are a little pricey. For compression I use BD rebuilder or MultiAvhcd. Good luck :)

Thanks Spock! Since I have nothing in front of me right now to have an idea to what any of you are talking about and how this all works, I guess I am going to have to wait until my Bluray drive arrives so I can have something in front of me to start working with to figure this all out.

I am not interested in burning any of my ripped movies to disc. I just want to be able to have my library on Hard Drives so I can view and select them within Windows Media Center using Media Browser, which I am currently doing with my standard DVD library.

Wow, up to 50 GB per movie! That would only be about 20 movies per a 1 TB drive. I don’t know if I really want to get into that kind of investment and that many drives or not. How far can you compress an HD movie before it starts looking less like an HD movie and more like a standard DVD? If some of you are compressing them that much, then I would see no purpose in ripping Blurays and HD DVDs to hard drives, but instead just rip my standard DVDs without the extras which average about 5GB per movie without any compression.

Thank you for your help!

-Don

[Guest]

Most BluRay movies are 20-30GB with a bitrate of about 30Mbps. With good x264 settings you can get good HD quality in 10Mbps. So you'll typically be able to reduce the movie to 7-10 GB.

[starscomeout]

Most BlurRay movies are 20-30GB with a bitrate of about 30Mbps. With good x264 settings you can get good HD quality in 10Mbps. So you'll typically be able to reduce the movie to 7-10 GB.

Wow, that sounds and makes me feel a lot better.

Thank you!

-Don

[Blue_MiSfit]

Definitely. Lots of times BluRay discs don't have detail up to 1080p and you will literally see no difference if you downscale to 720p. In cases like this I usually get excellent quality under 5mbps.

My smallest BluRay rip is about 2GB, and is totally transparent to the source (The Men Who Stare at Goats, which came out at just over 2.5mbps for video and audio).

Of course, I use CRF encoding in all cases, so it's always a crapshoot :)

Derek

[CWR03]

Basically you need to make an ISO of the movie - e.g., a sort of container file that contains all the data (less re-encoded audio and video) on the original disc - and then fool PowerDVD into thinking that the image is a physical BD/DVD drive using software that allows you to represent the ISO file as a fake physical drive.
Or you can use MakeMKV to rip the movie only into a single file and play it with any media player once you've installed the proper playback filters.

An uncompressed BluRay movie rip will be around 50GB, ballpark. Compressing that is rather time-consuming, but you can easily take it down to around 10% of that with minimal loss of quality.

setarip_old's "suggestion" is, as usual, a means of fishing whether you're making legitimate copies of disks that you own. I pretty much ignore him.

[setarip_old]

@starscomeoutBasically you need to make an ISO of the movie - e.g., a sort of container file that contains all the data (less re-encoded audio and video) on the original disc - and then fool PowerDVD into thinking that the image is a physical BD/DVD drive using software that allows you to represent the ISO file as a fake physical drive.And, as I said before, alternatively, once you've used BD Rebuilder to reduce your BluRay backup to a size of 8Gigs or less, you can burn it to a DVD9 disc and PowerDVD will play it DIRECTLY, without having to create and mount an .ISO image file...

[Inspector.Gadget]

Well, the OP said he intended to use PowerDVD. Personally, I can't stand that application and will always use MPC-HC to play the main title direct from disc or as re-encoded/remuxed by various freeware applications I use, but that's the way to do it. Anyone that can afford to burn DVD-9s as a matter of routine practice can afford a large external hard drive on which to store an equivalent number of disc images - or, for that matter, whichever format the OP chooses to mux/transcode to.

[setarip_old]

@Inspector.Gadget

Hi!Well, the OP said he intended to use PowerDVD.Yes - and if he/she burns the BD-RB compressed BluRay "package" to a DVD-9 (or possibly, even a DVD-5), Power DVD will happily play the actual disc, with no need to create and mount and .ISO image file ;>}

[Inspector.Gadget]

That's fine. I anticipate that most people would prefer not to buy a new physical disc every time they want to watch a backed-up movie, so I point out to the OP and similarly situated persons that a particular limitation of PowerDVD can be overcome with a freeware application and 2 additional clicks.

[setarip_old]

@Inspector.Gadget

That's fine too ;>}

I just wanted to make sure that the OP was aware of all available options

(Some of us purchase blank media in bulk for just this purpose)

[starscomeout]

Thanks everyone for all your great help. You guys are great!

As soon as my BD/HD drive arrives I will then at least have some idea to how to get started thanks to you guys. I am sure I will be back with many questions, but for now everything just sounds foreign without actually having something in front of me to work with.

:thanks:

-Don

[nibus]

Definitely. Lots of times BluRay discs don't have detail up to 1080p and you will literally see no difference if you downscale to 720p.

I've noticed this too - in fact quite often I get better results if I spend the extra encoding time on some basic filters with a 720p encode rather than a 1080p encode without filters.

[starscomeout]

I installed ArcSoft TotalMedia Theater 3 the other day and today I received and installed my BD/HD drive. I have also installed the following software: AnyDVD HD, BD Rebuilder, FFDshow and Matroska Splitter.

I have ripped the BD movie to hdd, which ended up being about 45 GBs in size and I am now processing it with BD Rebuilder. How long does this process take? Is this something that requires letting it process overnight or am I just looking at a few hours? Also what are good settings within BD Rebuilder to maintain an HD guilty video, but to minimize file size as much as possible?

-Don

[setarip_old]

Also what are good settings within BD Rebuilder to maintain an HD guilty video, but to minimize file size as much as possible?For your first effort with BD Rebuilder, I strongly suggest you use the default settings. Based on your interpretation of the results, you can then fine tune the settings for subsequent conversions...

[CWR03]

I'm curious if you considered HDConvertToX. With default settings it takes 12-18 hours per movie, but on fastest, single-pass x264 it can take as little as an hour.

[starscomeout]

I started ripping and processing my Blu-ray and HD DVDs last night. I am processing them at BD-9, which ends up giving me a movie that has been averaging 7.75 GBs.

Has anyone tried BD-25? How big is the final size when processing with BD-25 and how long does it take?

I am now realizing that it is going to take a very long time to rip and process all my Blu-ray and HD collection.:eek:

-Alienseeker