Recommended DVD/Blu-Ray Ripper
#1
Hey folks, new to these forums and XBMC as well. I am coming to you veterans to ask for your recommendation for a program to rip my Blu-Ray and DVD library into files playable on XBMC. Let me fill you in on my setup.

My XBMC box is an Acer Aspire Revo AR3610-U9022, I am currently running XBMC in Windows to learn it, and I may switch to booting to a USB Drive.

The files will be stored on a Windows Home Server, plenty of storage so I am really not worried about compression at all. I want my XBMC to allow me to watch my library and never touch a disc.

I really want something user friendly (read: idiot proof) that will rip from the discs easily and into a file-format/structure easily read by the XBMC box. Your help in this would be greatly appreciated guys. Just a note, I don't necessarily need a free application. I would prefer to pay if it gets the job done well.
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#2
Anyone? Sad
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#3
For DVDs I used DVDShrink or MakeMKV. Both pretty user friendly apps.
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#4
I second MakeMKV. If you need to transcode to h.264, you might also take a look at Handbrake.
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#5
Make Mkv is a great program for ripping and if you need to shrink files such as blu ray handbrake is another great tool.
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#6
To remove copy protection: Anydvd/anydvd hd Buy it, install, and it just works.

To rip - Anydvd will rip DVDs and BRs to isos. XBMC plays DVD isos. DVDShrink works to strip unwanted parts, IE FBI warnings, forced trailers/commercials, etc.

To rip BR - ClownBD, ToNMT will pull the movie m2ts from the disk, which XBMC will play.

To reduce the size of the rip: Handbrake. Note that reducing the file size does remove information. If you're watching on a 17" LCD the reduction won't be noticeable. If you're watching on a properly set up 1080p projector you will see a reduction in quality.
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#7
Yeah, I am not wanting any reduction in quality, compression does not concern me.

Thanks for all the tips, any thoughts on DVD Fab?
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#8
I've seen it mentioned positively but I've never used it.
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#9
To rip a DVD to .ISO I use DVDfab. its free.

http://www.dvdfab.com/en/hd-decrypter.htm

If you pay for DVDfab you can rip Blu-ray and remux into .MKV. I have tried it and it works well. It takes about an hour.

You can use makeMKV to rip DVD and Blu-ray into .MKV. Dvd is free and Blu-ray you need to pay for.
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#10
What is the purpose of remux'g to mkv? XBMC plays m2ts fine and that's the native BR container.
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#11
I second that, DVDfab platinum is the bomb for windows, rips, and converts to heaps of formats, it's quick and quality is good. What's the purpose of remuxing?? For me, I have a lot of pc's in the house that access the server, as well as 2 ps3's and an xbox 360... Converting to .mkv/mp4 means these platforms van all use the files with ease. If a friend wants a movie I can just drag and drop, and they can watch it at home... No stuffing around.

There's plenty of reason to remux.
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#12
I'm in your boat, I have WHS, terabytes of space with absolutely no desire to shrink, re-mux, or re-encode any movie. I just keep everything untouched as ISOs.

Pick one of these: DVDFab Passkey (Free during beta, cheap afterwards) or AnyDVD HD (Trialware, $80).

Then use the free ImgBurn to rip directly to ISO.

Passkey is nice because it's JUST the driver portion of DVDFab or AnyDVD, it'll monitor the DVD/BD drive and remove the encryption/protections on the fly, then you can use ANY tool to rip to ISO. I should note that AnyDVD has a built in option to "rip to iso", but it's not worth the $80 to me.

That's it... I've been doing exactly this for months an I've have zero problems, you lose nothing in terms of features, menus, video quality or audio tracks and you maintain as close as possible copy of the original disk as you can get. The only reason it's not a bit-for-bit copy is that you are stripping the encryption and region coding, which is the only way you can rip movies to play later.
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#13
TugboatBill Wrote:What is the purpose of remux'g to mkv? XBMC plays m2ts fine and that's the native BR container.

xbmc does not currently play m2ts files well enough to watch.



And to answer orig posters question I have DVDFab, and AnyDVD HD.

Any DVD is nice because you can just click Rip to Hard Disk or Image (iso). DVD Fab is nice because it can compress video AND rip.

Keep in mind new bluray movies are almost always not-rippable for a few days/weeks after release because they are constantly updating the copy protections on them.
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#14
Philmatic Wrote:I'm in your boat, I have WHS, terabytes of space with absolutely no desire to shrink, re-mux, or re-encode any movie. I just keep everything untouched as ISOs.

Pick one of these: DVDFab Passkey (Free during beta, cheap afterwards) or AnyDVD HD (Trialware, $80).

Then use the free ImgBurn to rip directly to ISO.

Passkey is nice because it's JUST the driver portion of DVDFab or AnyDVD, it'll monitor the DVD/BD drive and remove the encryption/protections on the fly, then you can use ANY tool to rip to ISO. I should note that AnyDVD has a built in option to "rip to iso", but it's not worth the $80 to me.

That's it... I've been doing exactly this for months an I've have zero problems, you lose nothing in terms of features, menus, video quality or audio tracks and you maintain as close as possible copy of the original disk as you can get. The only reason it's not a bit-for-bit copy is that you are stripping the encryption and region coding, which is the only way you can rip movies to play later.


Can you do me a favor...can you rip a bluray movie to m2ts and test-play it with xbmc. Then play the iso of that same movie and let me know a few things:

1) did the m2ts play without studdering?
2)did the iso play without studdering?
3)did you notice any difference with playback, which played better?
4)What XBMC build are you running and ontop of what OS?

I know this is asking for hours of ripping but it would be a HUGE help to a bunch of people on these forums it seems.
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#15
Lunarpancake Wrote:Can you do me a favor...can you rip a bluray movie to m2ts and test-play it with xbmc. Then play the iso of that same movie and let me know a few things:

1) did the m2ts play without studdering?
2)did the iso play without studdering?
3)did you notice any difference with playback, which played better?
4)What XBMC build are you running and ontop of what OS?

I know this is asking for hours of ripping but it would be a HUGE help to a bunch of people on these forums it seems.


Blu-ray .ISO is not supported my XBMC right now.
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