Backing up & shrinking Bluerays
#1
Hi Guys,

I would like to know how you guys are ripping and compressing bluerays for your NAS towers, as 30gig+ is a very large amount of space for one film?
Also what size you expect to be able to shrink a BR down to?

So far I have found the following combination to work for some people but I don't want to buy the software if no good or a free alternative is available.
  • make Mkv + Handbreak
  • dvdFab


I currently have the following set up

Storage
uNRaid NAS tower storing about 250+ dvd rips to .iso's all about 4-6gig (didnt wat to loose any quality)

Player
ACER Aspire 3610 with xbmc live 10.


Really hope someone can help?
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#2
Did you see this thread in the off topic forum?

http://forum.xbmc.org/showthread.php?tid=84614

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#3
He wants to encode them to a smaller size completely different to that thread

wiggy

Don't think you can go wrong with you choice btw those are all free software dvdfab have a free version

http://www.dvdfab.com/hd-decrypter.htm
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#4
Without loosing the quality (e.g. removing 2nd audio etc.)--> MakeMKV
With a decent quality, but reencode --> Handbrake (choose high-profile in mkv-container).

Should be enough for most purposes.

You may also check this thread.. http://forum.xbmc.org/showthread.php?tid=84614
.
Cheers
ubuntuf4n
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#5
What I use:

a) rip full BR using AnyDVD-HD [yes, I know this is the non-free route]
b) demux the audio track [DTS-MA, Dolby TrueHD or LPCM] and subtitle PGS from the source *.m2ts file with TSMuxer
c) transcode video portion *only* to H264 *.mkv using CQ 19 via Handbrake
d) convert the PGS subtitle to *.idx format using BDSup2Sub
e) remux the transcoded video *.mkv, subtitle *.idx and audio track back into final *.mkv using MKVMerge

This will give you a very high-quality picture, subtitles and original audio used on the BR.

PS: If movie split into several smaller *.m2ts files analyze the disc with BDInfo to find which *.pls paylist file contains the movie you want. Mux this movie together with TSMuxer and then go back to point b)
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#6
Seems a bit long winded to me and why convert subs when XBMC supports PGS now
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#7
>>X<<' Wrote:Seems a bit long winded to me and why convert subs when XBMC supports PGS now

I have another non-XBMC media player that requires this for compatibility + its only a 30-second operation to run BDSup2Sub.

Also, this isn't plug-and-play; you're correct.

However, if you want to reduce file size to approx 25-40% of the original [typical, depends on movie] -AND- keep original audio it works very well.

You'll also end up with mkv's that should play on a very wide range of devices now and in the future.
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#8
>>X<<' Wrote:He wants to encode them to a smaller size completely different to that thread

wiggy

Don't think you can go wrong with you choice btw those are all free software dvdfab have a free version

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

The thread has info just not a lot.

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#9
Thumbs Up 
thethirdnut Wrote:What I use:

a) rip full BR using AnyDVD-HD [yes, I know this is the non-free route]
b) demux the audio track [DTS-MA, Dolby TrueHD or LPCM] and subtitle PGS from the source *.m2ts file with TSMuxer
c) transcode video portion *only* to H264 *.mkv using CQ 19 via Handbrake
d) convert the PGS subtitle to *.idx format using BDSup2Sub
e) remux the transcoded video *.mkv, subtitle *.idx and audio track back into final *.mkv using MKVMerge

This will give you a very high-quality picture, subtitles and original audio used on the BR.

PS: If movie split into several smaller *.m2ts files analyze the disc with BDInfo to find which *.pls paylist file contains the movie you want. Mux this movie together with TSMuxer and then go back to point b)

I do something similar. I use AnyDVD-HD to decrypt on Win64. This runs under every other tool. Next I use eac3to to examine the media and decide which stream I want. I use the GUI tool found in meGUI to do this but commandline works too. I rip the video stream, chapter stream, audio stream, and subs I desire. The video is in a Matroska container, the audio I usually pull as AC3 but you can do DTS or DTSHD as well. Subs end up in a format that I've not ever been able to mux properly so I use BDSup2Sub as well to create IDX files.

Next up I create a graph file and AVS script. I then use meGUI as a front-end to x.264 to compress the video. When done I use MKVMerge to put them all together. For subs I export just the FORCED subtitles. You may think you can ignore subtitles if you never use them but extract them and check the eac3to log to see if there are FORCED subs because you WILL want this at least - trust me!

Oh, expect this to take TIME. For good looking video expect hours and your CPU will weep. My C2D took as much as 20+hours for some movies and it ran about 4ghz. My current system is an i7 4core running 4.2GHZ and the difference in speed is stunning. I have tried GPU only encoding programs - they were actually slower and had worse quality than my x.264 compression.

Lastly, if commercial software is something you will consider checkout the MediaConverter7 package. I only mention this because it will use BOTH CPU and video card (CUDA in my case) to trans-code. It only does Base and MAIN profiles but you can tweak bitrate and a few other things - there's a free trial. It appears to have acceptable results in as little as 45mins on my computer although I'm still testing. Normally my computer takes about 3-5HOURS to compress a rip and I use very high bitrates and quality settings.

More later maybe when I'm home and have the computer in front of me if there are more questions...
Openelec Gotham, MCE remote(s), Intel i3 NUC, DVDs fed from unRAID cataloged by DVD Profiler. HD-DVD encoded with Handbrake to x.264. Yamaha receiver(s)
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#10
Wow thanks guys for your response, one thing I have learned is that its not a simple (yet) at ripping a dvd!! Sad

But will try the free dvdfav HD ripper then use handbreak to shrink, just a question on the forced sub titles, doesn't dvdfab or handbreak let you choose to keep them when ripping or shrinking?
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#11
I've not ever used DVDFab, so long as they update FREQUENTLY you may be fine. AnyDVD-HD updates itself pretty regularly and seldom does a disk stop them for more than a few days after release.

That said - that gets you access to the unencrypted data. The best program for removing the various streams from that is, at the core, eac3to. BD doesn't store all of it's video in just one file and eac3to can handle the multiple parts. Many other programs are front-ends for this including the one I use - meGUI. Handbrake doesn't use eac3to so it may not serve all of your needs. eac3to gives you separate video, audio, chapter, and sub files. Choose your poison to process the video and audio. Audio I leave alone, AC3 audio is seldom more than 500-700megs. DTS can be a gig plus! DTS is uncompressed which explains this and it has more channels. Video can be in several formats but x.264 handles it well, choose your settings and front-end (including HB), and off you go for a few hours more or less depending on what you're using and your hardware. Hint: more cores good, a slower clocked multi-core CPU can stomp a faster fewer core CPU. Intel rules here. GPUs fly but seem to limit encoding options. Once done you need to mux the audio and video together with chapters and subs - that's MKVMerge. Tada, done!

Yeah, more complex than DVD! You could try RipBot264 for a more DVDShrink like experience but I find that program quirky as hell. Doom9 is the place to look for help with these programs BTW.

Now if compression wasn't an issue there's a program out there that just rips right to MKV. The name escapes me but considering file sizes I think it's a bit nutz to use. I've compressed a ton of BD and the resulting files are gigs smaller with no loss of quality I can see....

Forced subs? I've not seen anything handle these well including RipBot etc. Sad
Openelec Gotham, MCE remote(s), Intel i3 NUC, DVDs fed from unRAID cataloged by DVD Profiler. HD-DVD encoded with Handbrake to x.264. Yamaha receiver(s)
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#12
P.S. For some real fun wait till you encounter a BD with Theater, Director, and unrated cuts on the same disk! Which do you keep? the media saves space by using branching to store one copy of the common parts and copies of all the unique parts but currently ripping that leaves you with THREE full movies. I'm playing around now with some stuff to get around this but there's "issues". Just be aware the problem exists. Oh and always check the audio track, sometimes you cannot tell which is the director dub and which is the track you want for the movie until you're all done! VLC will play DTS and AC3 tracks.
Openelec Gotham, MCE remote(s), Intel i3 NUC, DVDs fed from unRAID cataloged by DVD Profiler. HD-DVD encoded with Handbrake to x.264. Yamaha receiver(s)
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#13
Well this all seems very confusing. I admit to not fully understanding video codecs and muxing and demuxing and tuxing lol. However I have ripped several Blurays with very little effort.

I use AnyDVDHD which I think everyone will agree is the easiest, though not cheapest, method for decryption. I then copy the Bluray to my harddrive. Next I use handbrake to scan the folder, get the title to copy and rip. I usually use the Normal profile. I have tried the High profile but couldn't detect a deference in quality, and the Normal takes half as long. It usually takes four hours to rip on a dual core AMD x2 3.0ghz. And I wind up with a file that is between 4 and 8 gigs.

Get the SVN version of handbrake here for Bluray disc support. That is how I have done probably 15 of my Bluray's with no problems. If there is some benefit gained by going through all of the other suggested programs please let me know, otherwise two clicks and I am done.
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#14
wiggy Wrote:Wow thanks guys for your response, one thing I have learned is that its not a simple (yet) at ripping a dvd!! Sad

But will try the free dvdfav HD ripper then use handbreak to shrink, just a question on the forced sub titles, doesn't dvdfab or handbreak let you choose to keep them when ripping or shrinking?


Dvdfab will let you delete subtitles if you want to. So does Makemkv. If you want to leave the subs in you can too.
The problem I have with movies I have is when you rip a movie the forced english subs aren't really labeled right. With a little bit of testing you will find them.

If the movie has english forced subs in the movie itself I don't think you can do anything about it.

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#15
Jay_M Wrote:Well this all seems very confusing. I admit to not fully understanding video codecs and muxing and demuxing and tuxing lol. However I have ripped several Blurays with very little effort.

I use AnyDVDHD which I think everyone will agree is the easiest, though not cheapest, method for decryption. I then copy the Bluray to my harddrive. Next I use handbrake to scan the folder, get the title to copy and rip. I usually use the Normal profile. I have tried the High profile but couldn't detect a deference in quality, and the Normal takes half as long. It usually takes four hours to rip on a dual core AMD x2 3.0ghz. And I wind up with a file that is between 4 and 8 gigs.

Get the SVN version of handbrake here for Bluray disc support. That is how I have done probably 15 of my Bluray's with no problems. If there is some benefit gained by going through all of the other suggested programs please let me know, otherwise two clicks and I am done.

Reading through the thread you linked it seems those were builds leading up to 0.9.5 - which my copy of HB informed me tonight was ready for download. I'm doing some testing tonight for the creation of branching MKV and had a BD in the drive and HB handy so.... 0.9.5 which is a release of HB recognizes the BD structure just fine like it would with a standard DVD so yeah this might work very well for folks!! High profile is available too which is nice - I may have to play with HB a little bit now darn you Shocked

FWIW my dream right now is threaded MKV files for all of these multi-cut bluray but creating and then playback is a trick. Matroska DOES support it however as well as menus - another trick I have yet to figure out or find tools for :o
Openelec Gotham, MCE remote(s), Intel i3 NUC, DVDs fed from unRAID cataloged by DVD Profiler. HD-DVD encoded with Handbrake to x.264. Yamaha receiver(s)
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