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[RC23]

I am looking for the best workflow with DVDs and Blu-rays. Ripping will be done by DFDfab PassKey and JRiver to ISO format. Then the ISO will be converted to mkv by MakeMKV.

If I scan the JR MC20 forum by the term "mkv" there are several postings with reading problems with these mkvs. Does come with MC21 an improvement?

Hint:  DFDfab PassKey is until 31th August for free if you buy a lifetime license of DVDfab products.

[CountryBumkin]

You will need the makeMKV product (free) http://www.makemkv.com/. However, MakeMKV will also remove the copy protection so you don't need DVDfab.

The problem with ripping the full disk to ISO is that JRiver can't work with BD menus. Plus all those ads, trailers, multiple languages, and extras waste a lot of disk space.

It's my preference to just rip the "main movie" and lossless sound track and leave out the rest. MakeMKV will do it either way. If you rip just the movie, JRiver will start to play it without any fuss. JRiver has no problems with MKVs, you might be reading about trying to get 3D movies to work in JRiver.

[RC23]

You will need the makeMKV product (free) http://www.makemkv.com/. However, MakeMKV will also remove the copy protection so you don't need DVDfab.

MakeMKV is only able to read DVDs and Blu-rays without "Cinavia" protection... DVDfab can ...

.... If you rip just the movie, JRiver will start to play it without any fuss. JRiver has no problems with MKVs.

Thatīs fine.

[Hendrik]

MakeMKV is only able to read DVDs and Blu-rays without "Cinavia" protection... DVDfab can ...

Cinavia is of no importance if you plan to only play it in MC, and not anything else.

Note that removing cinavia will usually degrade the audio quality quite a bit. Its not like other copy protections.

[mojave]

MakeMKV is only able to read DVDs and Blu-rays without "Cinavia" protection... DVDfab can ...

Cinavia is only required for licensed Blu-ray players. Any unlicensed player such as JRiver or MPC-HC won't have a problem. Any Blu-ray ripped to MKV by MakeMKV will playback just fine in JRiver.

[RC23]

Cinavia is of no importance if you plan to only play it in MC, and not anything else.

o.k.

Note that removing cinavia will usually degrade the audio quality quite a bit. Its not like other copy protections.

An interesting info. Well done.

[astromo]

You will need the makeMKV product (free) http://www.makemkv.com/. However, MakeMKV will also remove the copy protection so you don't need DVDfab.

The problem with ripping the full disk to ISO is that JRiver can't work with BD menus. Plus all those ads, trailers, multiple languages, and extras waste a lot of disk space.

It's my preference to just rip the "main movie" and lossless sound track and leave out the rest. MakeMKV will do it either way. If you rip just the movie, JRiver will start to play it without any fuss. JRiver has no problems with MKVs, you might be reading about trying to get 3D movies to work in JRiver.

Agreed. All you really need is MakeMKV. In addition to dealing with DRM it also can handle region codes (in my experience in 99+% of cases), depending on the drive your using. I deal with problem discs via the external ODDs that I've picked up and/or changing PC until I get a working rip. The only hassle with MakeMKV is that it saves files as (by default) title00.mkv, title01.mkv, title02.mkv &&&

The software can't pick up on the track name, so some manual intervention is required.

[RoderickGI]

Note that removing cinavia will usually degrade the audio quality quite a bit. Its not like other copy protections.

Oh darn. I didn't know that, and as I use DVDfab Passkey to play Blurays on MC, Passkey is always running in the background, so it always strips Cinavia.

I'll have to change to using MakeMKV on my workstation instead, then copying the result over. Grumble grumble.

Or, I could just change the options not to remove Cinavia. I think that is in the settings. 

[RC23]

... I deal with problem discs via the external ODDs that I've picked up and/or changing PC until I get a working rip.

What do you mean with external ODDs?

The only hassle with MakeMKV is that it saves files as (by default) title00.mkv, title01.mkv, title02.mkv &&&
The software can't pick up on the track name, so some manual intervention is required.

A little handwork is negligible for the actual freeware MakeMKV.

[astromo]

What do you mean with external ODDs?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Optical_disc_drive
- an ODD that you plug in via USB.

Learnt something - look here for info on changing the output filename logic in MakeMKV.

Note: to make the above work within MakeMKV, you need to enable Expert Mode via:
   View>Preferences>General>Expert mode = check
Once you've done that you'll see Advanced show in Preferences and the Properties options appear on the main dialogue.

[RC23]

... Note: to make the above work within MakeMKV, you need to enable Expert Mode via:
   View>Preferences>General>Expert mode = check
Once you've done that you'll see Advanced show in Preferences and the Properties options appear on the main dialogue.

Thanks for your hint.

I will take it for my workflow.

[flydeep]

I tried the makeMKV option but the video quality degrades somewhat during format conversion. I use AnyDVDHD to remove the copy protection and just rip the entire BD to iso. JR plays the disc fine (Clone CD to automount the iso) without issues and I like the option of playing back additional content whenever JR incorporates the ability to do that. HD space can be added easily when needed. Are you really saving that much by ripping the main movie while preserving the audio+video quality as best as possible? I learnt this the hard way about 10 years ago when I ripped the DVDs only to realize I had to redo them for better quality when HD storage came easy and I was also getting picky about video and audio quality.

You will need the makeMKV product (free) http://www.makemkv.com/. However, MakeMKV will also remove the copy protection so you don't need DVDfab.

The problem with ripping the full disk to ISO is that JRiver can't work with BD menus. Plus all those ads, trailers, multiple languages, and extras waste a lot of disk space.

It's my preference to just rip the "main movie" and lossless sound track and leave out the rest. MakeMKV will do it either way. If you rip just the movie, JRiver will start to play it without any fuss. JRiver has no problems with MKVs, you might be reading about trying to get 3D movies to work in JRiver.

[glynor]

MakeMKV does not, and cannot, degrade video quality.  It rips the video in the original format directly and wraps it in a MKV file.

It isn't a transcoder.

[CountryBumkin]

*All meta information is preserved in MKV and compressed media data (video, audio, subtitles) is not changed in any way it is always possible to transcode MKV files into original format - so if your getting some sort of degradation, then you are doing something wrong.

* from http://www.makemkv.com/aboutmkv/

[RC23]

I tried the makeMKV option but the video quality degrades somewhat during format conversion. I use AnyDVDHD to remove the copy protection and just rip the entire BD to iso. ...

You have done comparisons between iso and mkv version. Which differences do you notice in the picture quality?

Interesting for me was the posting of Hendrik that removing cinavia will usually degrade the audio quality quite a bit.

[flydeep]

Based on what CountryBumpkin and glynor say, I am not certain what happened when I tested this couple of years ago. The video quality wasn't perfect comparable to BD playback.

I have two toddlers and usually scrambling for time. The quickest and easiest way for me is to pop the BD and rip to iso using AnyDVDHD- takes about 40 mins to rip to a NAS directly from my old LG BD/HD-DVD drive. I may save about 30% space out of a 40GB BD converting to MKV but I get the satisfaction of having the entire BD in the my library so that it is future proofed. If JRiver ever gets the ability to play extras or I chose another capable media player down the road, I do not have to worry.

You have done comparisons between iso and mkv version. Which differences do you notice in the picture quality?

Interesting for me was the posting of Hendrik that removing cinavia will usually degrade the audio quality quite a bit.

[CountryBumkin]

You have done comparisons between iso and mkv version. Which differences do you notice in the picture quality?

Interesting for me was the posting of Hendrik that removing cinavia will usually degrade the audio quality quite a bit.

I tried to reply earlier, but after typing a twenty minute response, I bumped the mouse and all was lost (why does moving the mouse delete my reply window?).
Anyways...

Cinavia is a "watermark" encoded* into the audio track, so the current method to circumvent this annoyance is to delete the lossless audio track (leaving AC3) which AnyDVD+CloneBD does, or to replace the audio track (which DVDfab does from its database of movie audio tracks).

AnyDVD also has a feature that fools the BD player into not triggering Cinivia if you play a BD on a computer (with a Cinivia enabled player like PowerDVD) while AnyDVD HD is running in the background. But if you want to remove Cinivia completely from the disk, there isn't a good way (yet) to do it without messing with the audio track.

* "encoded" may be the wrong term (someone will correct this if I'm wrong).

[glynor]

* "encoded" may be the wrong term (someone will correct this if I'm wrong).

Nope. That's right.

I may save about 30% space out of a 40GB BD converting to MKV

Converting to MKV using MakeMKV does not save any space over ripping to ISO (nothing substantial anyway), except if you don't rip the extras.  Assuming you rip everything available on the disc, they should be roughly the same size (save the size required for the menu system, I suppose, and maybe slightly more efficient storage).  Certainly not 30%.

I suspect you were ripping using a different application that re-compresses the video to H.264 MKVs and shrinks them to save space, and remembering wrong.  This can be done well, but is "lossy".

MakeMKV cannot do that.  It only rips the original files and decrypts them, and then "wraps them" into a MKV. It does not re-encode them, and is also quite quick (for this same reason). It usually rips BluRay movies on my system in 20 minutes or so (though this depends on the film in question, and the size of the rip).

The main benefit to ripping to ISO is that it preserves the menu system. This is certainly a benefit, I suppose, if you like that sort of thing. To me, it is a "good thing" to get rid of those horrible things. But using ISO rips does also have substantial file management and ease-of-use limitations.

It is a trade-off, but not a quality trade off, was the point I was making.

[jmone]

I just use MC to Rip to Folder Structure (ANYDVD HD running in the background).
- Easiest Method of all, no remuxing, transocding, and you get all the content on the disk
- MC Autotags as part of the ripping
- No need to mount an ISO for play back
- MC just plays the Main Movie but gives you access to all the playlists from it's OSD
- Can create Particles for Alt Endings, Episodes etc
- Can access the BD Menu using 3rd party SW (eg PDVD) when needed
- Can burn back to a physical disk if needed

...and HDD space is cheap these days, with 8TB hdd around $300 or about $1.5 to store a full BD

[RoderickGI]

I just use MC to Rip to Folder Structure

I don't rip BDs that often, but when I do, I also rip the whole folder structure, for much the same reasons. But I use the DVDfab Passkey functionality to do that, since it is then one application doing all the work. I might look at using MC as the front end to that, but is there any advantage?

. . . replace the audio track (which DVDfab does from its database of movie audio tracks).

Do you have a reference for that. I must admit, I am being lazy as I haven't searched, but that surprises me. Does that mean I need an internet connection to rip a BD with DVDfab, and it downloads the Cinavia free audio track?

[jmone]

I don't rip BDs that often, but when I do, I also rip the whole folder structure, for much the same reasons. But I use the DVDfab Passkey functionality to do that, since it is then one application doing all the work. I might look at using MC as the front end to that, but is there any advantage?

As I have AnyDVD HD running in the background, MC just sees the BD as an unencrypted disk and hence can rip/copy, tag etc all in one go.

[RC23]

As I have AnyDVD HD running in the background, MC just sees the BD as an unencrypted disk and hence can rip/copy, tag etc all in one go.

This should also work with DVDfab Passkey and MC.

[dtc]

Off topic - is there an advantage to a usb 3 blu-ray player for ripping? Is usb 2 a bottle neck?

[CountryBumkin]

Do you have a reference for that. I must admit, I am being lazy as I haven't searched, but that surprises me. Does that mean I need an internet connection to rip a BD with DVDfab, and it downloads the Cinavia free audio track?

I did a search to provide backup of my statement, and it looks like I was wrong. I was thinking of DVD-Ranger (which has the database where you download a fix for each movie).

From the article:

DVD Ranger
DVD-Ranger has released their CinEx HD module. For a long time this software was the only application that made it possible to end up with a Cinavia free copy of your movie. You can use this software to make copies of your movies that playback on any device and any Blu-ray playback software but need to download a database that's specific to the movie first.

DVDFab

DVDFab is able to copy a whole lot of movies that are protected by Cinavia using a proprietary BDMVREC format Their software doesn't actually remove Cinavia but it creates an AACS protected "backup" that will play on selected Blu-ray playback software.

AnyDVD (** Recommended **)
Slysoft has added support for removing Cinavia from Blu-ray movies since April 2015. Previously the company only tricked the Cinavia detection routing of a select few software Blu-ray players. Because the new version actually removes the Cinavia signal from the audio track when used with CloneBD, the copy will work on all Blu-ray players, both hardware and software based.
from

source: http://www.myce.com/article/cinavia-the-copy-protection-that-doesnt-want-to-be-silenced-68001/