Before buying a Blu-Ray burner I want to look into how to make a copy of a Blu-Ray disc and burn it to a Blu-Ray disc. Is there any good tutorials to do this? Do you have to shrink it to fit onto a 25GB disc? Does it affect video quality?
It is a similar process to ripping and burning a dvd except the file structure is totally different on a blu-ray and the copy protection is more sophisticated. You will have to purchase software to ensure flawless rips (I have been copying dvds for years with only free software and have never been beaten but almost immediately realised that this is just not possible for blu-rays!) I would recommend DvdFab which is now split into several sections which you can purchase separately so you only buy what you need. For blu-ray copying you only need the blu-ray copy part (this will rip and burn any blu-ray disc). Most recordable BR discs are 25GB so yes you will need to compress. However if you rip movie only then most will fit with very little compression and no noticeable picture quality loss. There is also an option to remove the HD audio which then means even less compression of the video stream. DvdFab also gets around the Cinavia protection which prevents some BR copies being played on a PS3! The only other software you may need is TSMuxer which is very useful and free! Some BR movies rip to multiple streams which will play back on a pc but will not be recognised by a BR player. TSMuxer stitches them together in the correct order resulting in a seamless single stream file which can then be burned onto a BR disc in the usual way. I am not an expert by any means but I have successfully ripped about 20 movies (mostly new releases) in the last couple of months since getting my BR drive. I am happy to answer any basic questions although I'm sure there are many more experienced than me on the forums!
I use DVD Fab 8 with the options set for a 25GB. 1080res. You just have to wait for the pgm to analyze the master disk and hit next.. The c**y portion can take anywhere from an hour to several hours depending on the disk. I finish up with a relatively inexpensive 25GB disk and have had no problems (touch wood!!)
Is there any way to create a 1:1 copy with the blu ray? I want to make an exact copy of my original discs and want to keep all of the audio codecs, image quality, special features etc. Is this possible yet?
Yes you can, but it is rare to find a complete movie that will fit on a 25g disc. Maybe 1 in 20 movies. If you just do the main movie and the HD audio stream, there are some that will still fit on a 25g disc. Maybe 1 in 10. I have backed up my BR collection (about 50 movies)there were only about 8 that could fit on a 25g disc (Movie only). I want the HD audio AND full quality so I don't compress at all. My movies are just sitting on my hard drive until the $ of BD-R DL discs come down. Use DVD Fab or Anydvd and just rip full disc, very easy. I use the free version of DVDfab. Scroll down to the bottom of their website and click on "free Stuff". It always works and allows you to do full disc or main movie ONLY. Nothing else, but it's all I need.
I'm trying to rip, shrink and burn BD movie to BD media. I can rip to hd w/anydvd, but when trying to use tsremux to open the file I just get two more folders, bdmv and certificate, can't get remux to open anything. I can point remux to source file of bdmv or cert but it won't load anything. I must be doing something wrong.
In the bdmv folder there should be a subfolder called "playlist". In that folder there will be a file called 00000.mpls - this is the file that should be opened as it contains the playback data needed to remux. Hope this helps
edited by ddp we'll give it a try......thanks. Nope....remux is having nothing to do with it. I might add...in the 'file type' box, bottom right in TSR it doesn't have mpls files listed at supported, I have to change it to 'all files' to get TSR to even try to open anything. When pointed to the 00000.mpls file, I get an error message "unhandled exception has occured in your application."
edited by ddp I downloaded TSmuxer, ran the 00000.mpls file, muxed and now have a 313kb file with bdmv and certificate as sub folders. Now what? Shouldn't there be a 26g file somewhere?
edited by ddp Not sure what you've done here! Yes the muxed folder should be around 25gig and contain the bdmv and certificate subfolders. Did you set the output to Blu-ray disc? If so I'm guessing the problem must be in the original rip/shrink settings - I'm not familiar with anydvd as I use dvdfab so I can't help you with that. What is in the stream subfolder in bdmv folder? This is where the actual movie is stored - it will either be a single m2ts file in which case you don't need to mux or several m2ts files which will have to be muxed.
edited by ddp I'm using dvdfab now...under blu ray rip i'm guessing i want 'TS' ? 2hr rip...long time. After I rip w/fab...what's next if 'movie' only doesn't get it to 25g? I didn't really SEE a 'movie only' option, just checked the 1:47 file.
edited by ddp Ok you need the latest version (DvdFab8 Qt) then select Blu-Ray Copy then movie only. At the bottom there will be a box with a dropdown menu with the option BD50, BD25 etc - select BD25 which will compress to a 25 gig BR disc. It will scan the disc and tell you what if any compression you need - there is also a box you can check to remove HD audio if you want less compression of the video stream. If it has to compress it will take about 1½-2hours depending on your hardware acceleration capabilities. If no compression about 30-40mins. Choose your destination folder on the drop down box at the top, hit start and sit back! When done check the stream subfolder - if 1 file then you are done, if multiple files you will need to mux. You can then use the write data option under blu-ray copy to burn to disc. Happy days
edited by ddp ok....no compression needed. Playlist has one file: 00000.mpls, stream has about 40 m2ts files, totaling 21g. What now? Open tsmuxer, use what for input file? use blu ray disc for output file? Go to bluray tab and select "custom chapters list" and 'blu ray disc" for output? On the right side of the blu-ray tab under options, do i uncheck 'add blank playlist for cropped video"?
edited by ddp Use 00000.mpls as input file, select output as bluray disc, choose save destination and hit start muxing. You don't need to change anything else! When done you will have bdmv and certificate folders stored at the chosen destination. In the stream folder will now be just one m2ts file. Use the parent directory ie the location you selected to save the muxed file as the input source under write data when you are ready to burn to disc.
edited by ddp i'm ready to try it. Had to get more media. This process will allow the dvd to be played in a stand alone player? I can write to bd or bd-re media?
edited by ddp err yes I'm guessing you mean blu-ray not dvd....yep BD-R or BD-RE it makes no difference - worth investing in a rewritable until you've done a few - saves many coasters!
