I would like to back up my blu-ray discs to a hard drive. I have a 1.5TB drive so disc space really isnt an issue. I'm going to purchase a blu ray reader for my computer which I have hooked up to my sony aquos 52'' tv via HDMI. I have anydvd hd and am looking for a program that will rip the "main movie" only like dvd shrink does. I would like the file output to be an .iso when it is finished ripping the disc. Does anyone know of any free programs that do a good job of this? Also anyone know of any good programs that will play back the blu-ray on the computer?
I do this already with ANY DVD HD but I have not as yet found a way to strip it down to just the main movie. I would imagine there are convoluted ways of doing it but you would have to rip in file mode so that the other programs could do the re-muxing. I rip to the HD using ISO image mode, and thats because Power DVD 8 ultra will only play the ripped bluray if I mount the image on a virtual drive (I use nero 8 imagedrive). It cannot play it from a set of ripped files. One thing to be aware of (although, if you have anydvd HD it's not an issue)is that to play a bluray from your bluray drive in your PC, your Gfx card needs to be up to the job and HDCP compliant.
My computer will output 1080p so I'm good there. If you don't have a way to rip just the movie what size iso's are you getting. Are most discs single or double layer?
You said it can output 1080P resolution. That's fine but nothing to do with HDCP compliance. You need to deliver a HDCP protected signal to the TV to know if your graphics card (and your TV) are HDCP compliant. You can only do this from a Bluray Disk.
I have a PS3 that plays blu ray on my tv fine. as for the graphics card is there an easy way to check? Im not sure how to
No there is no easy way mate. The only thing you can check is to take a look at the specs of it either from where you bought it or the box or the manufacturers website. The specs need to say "HDCP compliant". "HDTV capable or ready" do not cut-it and is misleading. The problem seems more varied with Nvidia based cards than ATI. I had an XFX 8600GT 256MB before that said "HDTV Ready". When I added my Bluray drive power dvd gave a message after the first few seconds that HDCP compliant equipment was not detected. In this case I had to use ANYDVD HD to strip the protection on the fly, but the software needs to be kept up to date with almost every other release of bluray because the protections keep changing. I argued the point with XFX but they claimed the product (by serial number) was HDCP compliant. I bought a 8800GT 512MB from Gigabyte in the end and my HDCP compliance problems went away. The problem is complicated because Nvidia will say that there chipset is HDCP capable, but they do not make the card. So its down to the card manufacturer to implement an pay for the licenses to use a HDCP chip on the board.