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[Ardemus]

Thanks to everyone for the help.

I tried AnyDVD HD but Media Center would only play one of the titles on the disk.  I have plenty of disk space so I tried ripping the Blu-rays with AnyDVD HD and DVDFab.  It worked well enough, but I chose a different solution that I think is much better:

• Decrypt and rip the desired Blu-ray content with MakeMKV (~2.9GB per raw 22 Minute episode of The Big Bang Theory)
• Re-encode with Handbrake if desired (~1.3GB as very high quality h264 video with MP3 audio)

Both tools are currently free, and both work fine for me in Windows 8. There is a learning curve with any of these tools, but MakeMKV and Handbrake have actually been a little easier than the paid $60+ commercial solutions.  A big part of that came from Handbrake's excellent documentation.

GPU Acceleration?
DVDFab offers GPU accelerated decoding and (if you have a modern NVidia card) encoding.  However, recent analysis from TechReport concluded that GPU trans-coding in general (it didn't directly discuss DVDFab) produced such inconsistent and low quality results that it should be avoided unless quality isn't a concern.  The only exception was the OpenCL based trans-coding that Handbrake is working on. More-over, Handbrake is extremely well regarded in general; I saw several respectable tech sites call it the best / highest quality trans-coder available.  

MakeMKV
I can easily choose what titles, audio tracks, subtitles and other features to rip. You do have to click quite a few check boxes in the GUI but it does try to intelligently auto-select what you might want.  The advanced features also let you modify the coded string used to auto-select content.  Additionally, you can write you own text based profiles to control other parts of the process.  It's not for the faint of heart, but it is possible.

Handbrake
The GUI and help files are very good. There are plenty of options, including various transformations and filters.  You can select a range of chapters to encode from each title. It also lets you put multiple jobs into a stand alone queue that you can modify while it works. You can run it from a command line interface that does everything the GUI does. In fact, you can edit the CLI command for a job from the GUI, and the Queue can export the entire batch into a standard windows BAT file for you to edit or run later.

My Process
I did quite a bit of reading and experimentation, combined with what I already knew about AV, to come up with this approach. If you're just starting, I don't think you'll be unhappy with the results.

I used MakeMKV to rip all 2D video and English audio with a preference toward standard definition surround sound.  Then I used Handbrake to trans-code the resulting ~3GB MKV files from MP4 video and DTS 5.1 Audio to comparable 1.3GB MKV files with h264 video and stereo, lame encoded MP3 audio. (If the audio was AC3 Dolby Digitial I would have set Handbrake to pass the audio straight through. Unfortunately, Handbrake can't do that with DTS. The Handbrake documentation was out of date.  You can pass DTS audio straight to the output file without re-encoding.)

FYI - The Handbrake CLI provided below is specific to one particular input file.

• MakeMKV Profile: Default
• MKV selection string (you have to turn on the advanced settings option): +sel:all,-sel:subtitle,-sel:mvcvideo,=100:all,-10:favlang,-sel:audio,+sel:(special|audio)&(favlang|nolang),-sel:(havemulti|havecore)
• Handbrake CLI: "C:\Program Files\Handbrake\HandBrakeCLI.exe" -i "Input.mkv" -t 8 -c 1-5 -o "Output.mkv"  -f mkv --decomb -w 1920 -l 1088 1080 -e x264 -q 18.5 --vfr  -a 1 -E lame -B 160 -6 stereo -R Auto -D 0 --gain=0 --audio-copy-mask none --audio-fallback ffac3 -x b-adapt=2:rc-lookahead=50 --verbose=1

2013-01-17 - Updated as marked in green. The Handbrake command line will now work for most 1080p titles.  I'm still working on this, and I will update this post as I learn more.

[fitbrit]

I applaud your sharing of this information. Perhaps this deserves its own thread so it'll get more notice. Just a note about AnyDVD HD and MC. This solution works best for movies, because it automatically plays the movie feature, skipping all the warnings, trailers etc. which can normally not be skipped. Unfortunately, for a DVD/BD with episodes on it, there has to be an extra step, perhaps involving the particles feature. At one point I was going to recommend the makemkv/handbrake route to you, but I thought it would be an unsatisfactory workaround for you. I'm glad it's working out for you.

[glynor]

I've invested quite a bit of effort based on JRiver's claims that (paraphrased), "JRiver Media Center supports every media format, including DVD and Bluray. You never need to download, install, or configure any decoders or codecs, they are all included or downloaded silently as needed."

I just wanted to chime in and say that I agree with you here.  They absolutely should change that copy.  It is, at best, a bit misleading, and at worst...

It does handle BluRay in the way that many of us users need.  However, someone coming to the software "fresh from the street" would have no way to know the details.  If they want to claim that it "supports BluRay", then it needs to support BluRay.  Right now, it is not anywhere near so cut-and-dried.

For me?  I don't care if it ever does fully support it, frankly.  But the copy is bad.

[JimH]

Where does it say that?

Not all Blu-ray discs are encrypted, but we try to say "requires a reader like ANY DVD HD" wherever we say it plays Blu-ray.

[glynor]

Where does it say that?

Not all Blu-ray discs are encrypted, but we try to say "requires a reader like ANY DVD HD" wherever we say it plays Blu-ray.

Right on the home page...

And then when you click on that link, it isn't clear either, it goes on to say:

Introduction

JRiver Media Center offers the highest quality video available. And it plays everything, without any setup required. MC's Red October DirectShow support is the benchmark of the industry.

Video Sources

Video comes in a lot of packages. DVD and Blu-ray, streaming video from Netflix or Hulu, Youtube clips and movies, and so on. JRiver Media Center integrates these into a single seamless interface.
Red October

JRiver's innovative Red October system completely eliminates the frustration factor from video. The download, installation, and configuration of DirectShow filters is fully automatic. You won't need to set up anything, and the configuration is separate from the normal DirectShow method Microsoft and other players use, so any changes there won't break MC's support.

There's no "qualifier" there either.

[JimH]

How about now?

[glynor]

How about now?

Much better, Jim.  If you wanted to tweak it further, you could mention in the * note that "Encrypted disc playback requires..." (since MC will work with non-encrypted discs without auxiliary software, they're just relatively rare for commercially produced discs).

Also, I don't know if you'd want to go into it there at all (though maybe it could be linked to something in the Wiki or forum), but it would be good to mention that it doesn't handle the menu systems at all.

In any case, I think what you did could be called "good enough".

[InflatableMouse]

...

Also, I don't know if you'd want to go into it there at all (though maybe it could be linked to something in the Wiki or forum), but it would be good to mention that it doesn't handle the menu systems at all.

In any case, I think what you did could be called "good enough".

Although it would be better if you did mention it somehow 

Its great and I think visitors are going to appreciate it.

[Ardemus]

Much better, Jim...it would be good to mention that it doesn't handle the menu systems at all.

I agree, that footnote does the trick. 

I also agree that it would be good to explain the other limitations.  Might I suggest, "*Blu-ray support limited to video playback. Third party software such as AnyDVD HD required to access encrypted content." ?  That should cover all of the bases. I'm assuming that it is possible to play all of titles on a Blu-ray disc, as suggested by fitbrit above.

[glynor]

I'm assuming that it is possible to play all of titles on a Blu-ray disc, as suggested by fitbrit above.

Yes, it just has logic to automatically try to guess the right one (though it assumes it is a movie disc, not a disc full of TV episodes).  But you can pick and choose the titles individually too.

[Ardemus]

I applaud your sharing of this information. Perhaps this deserves its own thread so it'll get more notice.

Thank you, I'm pleased to contribute.

This solution works best for movies, because it automatically plays the movie feature, skipping all the warnings, trailers etc. which can normally not be skipped. Unfortunately, for a DVD/BD with episodes on it, there has to be an extra step, perhaps involving the particles feature.

I really need to sit down and read all of the MC documentation. I've figured quite a few things out, but I haven't even touched on particles.

At one point I was going to recommend the makemkv/handbrake route to you, but I thought it would be an unsatisfactory workaround for you. I'm glad it's working out for you.

No problem. It's a lot of work and it's fair to assume that I wouldn't want to do it.