Ripping a blu-ray with MakeMKV......surely it can't be this easy can it?

nickosbad · Jun 8, 2010

Hi I buy all my new movies on blu-ray rather than dvd but this means i cannot rip them to put on my iPad & apple TV anymore

What i was thinking of doing was getting one of these Sony Bc5500 External blu-ray drives, plugging it into my Macbook Pro and ripping my discs using Make MKV

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/External-SONY-NEC-BC-5500A-Blu-ray-BD-ROM-Combo-Drive-/270562923940?cmd=ViewItem&pt=LH_DefaultDomain_3&hash=item3efece95a4

I then want to use handbrake to convert this into an MP4 format

I'm not bolthered about keeping the Hi Def, I just want it into an MP4

Will this work? Surely i've forgotten something?

Thanks

turley97 · Jun 8, 2010

Yes and no. I have been on forums for about a week straight now trying to get some answers about blu ray ripping on mac. MakeMKV works MOST of the time, but it is by no means a fool-proof way. I have practically pulled my hair out trying to get some of my precious blu rays to rip with MakeMKV and the expensive Pavtube blu ray ripper for mac. I've had some that wouldn't copy at all, some that copied 15 seconds, some that copied 45 min., and some that copied the whole thing but would not display video in boxee, VLC, Plex, etc. On top of all that, some of the files did work, but then had a problem in Handbrake. These errors don't happen often, but be aware that you may not be able to copy your entire library of blu rays for playback on any apple device. But to answer your question, it actually is that easy for the ones that work! I downloaded the latest version of MakeMKV the other day, and it is a trial version that's good for 30 days; after that, I believe I'll have to pay for it. So keep that in mind. Also, keep in mind that not all blu ray drives are seen by OSX. I originally purchased a Lite-on, and was never able to get a disc to show up in OSX. I've used two LG's though, and they've both been great. Hope this helps!

nickosbad · Jun 8, 2010

I may give it a go, if the drive doesn't work then it should work on my works windows machine

Hopefully someone will come on here who's used one of these drives on a mac

turley97 · Jun 8, 2010

If you have a fast windows machine, that's the way I'd go. A friend of mine uses AnyDVD HD to copy his blu rays into .iso files and he claims it has never failed to copy a movie. It is $100, but I'd rather pay $100 for something that works every time than $50 for something that doesn't. You also get the added benefit of uncompressed HD audio output (provided you have an hdmi output on your PC and a receiver with an HDMI input), which a mac will have to downconvert to either DD or DTS to transmit through the optical output. However, the files are quiet large, around 30 gb per movie on average, so you might have to invest in more storage, as well.

Mach1.8 · Jun 8, 2010

turley97 said:
Yes and no. I have been on forums for about a week straight now trying to get some answers about blu ray ripping on mac. MakeMKV works MOST of the time, but it is by no means a fool-proof way. I have practically pulled my hair out trying to get some of my precious blu rays to rip with MakeMKV and the expensive Pavtube blu ray ripper for mac. I've had some that wouldn't copy at all, some that copied 15 seconds, some that copied 45 min., and some that copied the whole thing but would not display video in boxee, VLC, Plex, etc. On top of all that, some of the files did work, but then had a problem in Handbrake. These errors don't happen often, but be aware that you may not be able to copy your entire library of blu rays for playback on any apple device. But to answer your question, it actually is that easy for the ones that work! I downloaded the latest version of MakeMKV the other day, and it is a trial version that's good for 30 days; after that, I believe I'll have to pay for it. So keep that in mind. Also, keep in mind that not all blu ray drives are seen by OSX. I originally purchased a Lite-on, and was never able to get a disc to show up in OSX. I've used two LG's though, and they've both been great. Hope this helps!

Ive been using MakeMKV to rip my BRs for a while now with no problem at all, save one. When avatar came out, it took about a week for an update to come out that worked with that movie. Otherwise, flawless. So, to the OP, yes it can be that simple...with a few caveats: subtitles and DTS.

turley97 · Jun 8, 2010

Then I have a few questions. Have you tried The Hangover Unrated, Life narrated by Oprah, Inglorious Basterds, and Tropic Thunder, all on blu ray? For some reason, all these have problems, the ones I listed in the above post. Is there any a possibility it's my hardware? Or do these have some coding that MakeMKV can't crack? It's not that big of a deal, but I would like to have my entire collection of blu rays available digitally to my family and me.

turley97 · Jun 8, 2010

I think I just found the answer: If you are have a problem with a particular disc, go into preferences and uncheck the disable direct mode tab. I am copying the Hangover right now, and it seems to be working fine. Thank God! This will hopefully work with all the other discs with which I have had a problem. If so, then I would definitely recommend ripping with a mac!

PipPip · Jun 8, 2010

turley97 said:
..... and it is a trial version that's good for 30 days; after that, I believe I'll have to pay for it. So keep that in mind. .....

MakeMKV is free whilst it is still in beta testing (has been for quite a while now). You only have download the registration code from their forum. Will still be worth it IMO when it does leave beta, just for all its done so far.

I've used it for over a hundred BD discs, and only issue was with Avatar, which was fixed.

Subtitles do need a bit more work, but they can be done, and it feeds quite nicely into Handbrake to shrink them down, with AC3/DTS sound if you want it.

Mr Dobey · Jun 9, 2010

nickosbad said:
Hi I buy all my new movies on blu-ray rather than dvd but this means i cannot rip them to put on my iPad & apple TV anymore

What i was thinking of doing was getting one of these Sony Bc5500 External blu-ray drives, plugging it into my Macbook Pro and ripping my discs using Make MKV

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/External-SONY-NEC-BC-5500A-Blu-ray-BD-ROM-Combo-Drive-/270562923940?cmd=ViewItem&pt=LH_DefaultDomain_3&hash=item3efece95a4

I then want to use handbrake to convert this into an MP4 format

I'm not bolthered about keeping the Hi Def, I just want it into an MP4

Will this work? Surely i've forgotten something?

Thanks

I have that drive and it works fine, though the seller on ebay said it was made by LG. Warning you must plug in both the USB cables to read Blu-Rays and at least one of them must be directly plugged into your desktop/laptop. I have not found a powered USB hub to date than could provide enough power to both plugs.

nickosbad · Jun 9, 2010

Mr Dobey said:
I have that drive and it works fine, though the seller on ebay said it was made by LG. Warning you must plug in both the USB cables to read Blu-Rays and at least one of them must be directly plugged into your desktop/laptop. I have not found a powered USB hub to date than could provide enough power to both plugs.

Was it just a case of plug and play or are there any drivers to find?

I take it the power lead and the data lead would just plug into the two usb ports on the side of my MBP

Thanks

eleven59 · Jun 9, 2010

turley97 said:
Then I have a few questions. Have you tried The Hangover Unrated, Life narrated by Oprah, Inglorious Basterds, and Tropic Thunder, all on blu ray? For some reason, all these have problems, the ones I listed in the above post. Is there any a possibility it's my hardware? Or do these have some coding that MakeMKV can't crack? It's not that big of a deal, but I would like to have my entire collection of blu rays available digitally to my family and me.

i had no problems with tropic thunder or hangover, as mentioned elsewhere only a few have had issues.. but it has been a while since i ran into one

rayward · Jun 9, 2010

nickosbad said:
Was it just a case of plug and play or are there any drivers to find?

I take it the power lead and the data lead would just plug into the two usb ports on the side of my MBP

Thanks

I have ripped around 100 BDs using MakeMKV. No drivers were required for the external drive, but the power draw is such that it is necessary to use the two cable connection. You are correct that you plug both USBs into your laptop - one is for data and the other for juice.

Occasionally, a rip will not be recognised by Handbrake. This happened most recently with "2001" and "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest". When trying to open the file in the source menu, it says "No valid source found". I have no idea why this happens and have no idea how to fix it.

dynaflash · Jun 9, 2010

rayward said:
Occasionally, a rip will not be recognised by Handbrake. This happened most recently with "2001" and "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest". When trying to open the file in the source menu, it says "No valid source found". I have no idea why this happens and have no idea how to fix it.

Are you using a nightly or 0.9.4 ?

rayward · Jun 10, 2010

dynaflash said:
Are you using a nightly or 0.9.4 ?

Was using 0.9.4, but now using the latest nightly whenever I have a new rip to encode.

nickosbad · Jun 15, 2010

The drive arrived today so I went and got an enclosure for it as I bought it from the uk rather than eBay,

I needed to plug 2 USB cables i not my mbp and one into my works laptop for the drive to receive enough power (my mbp doesn't have high power USB) but once it was recognized by osx it took about an hour and a half to rip transformers in make mkv

Opened handbrake and started an encode from 1080p to 720x1280 so iPad would recognize it and WOW its gonna take 9 hours to convert!!

It's averaging 10fps in handbrake, I think its time to get rid of the mbp 2.16 c2d and get an iMac for all my ripping needs!!

To sum up, it WAS really that easy to rip blu Ray it's the re encoding that is a real pain!Z,

psingh01 · Jun 15, 2010

Lol, I discovered that too so I quit the encoding part and just keep the mkvs on a 2tb drive. When I get a faster computer I'll try the handbrake part again.

I spent what seemed like 20hrs encoding Avatar into a 11gb mp4 which then wouldn't play lol.

vicliner · Jun 17, 2010

Now just spitting out

turley97 said:
Yes and no. I have been on forums for about a week straight now trying to get some answers about blu ray ripping on mac. MakeMKV works MOST of the time, but it is by no means a fool-proof way. I have practically pulled my hair out trying to get some of my precious blu rays to rip with MakeMKV and the expensive Pavtube blu ray ripper for mac. I've had some that wouldn't copy at all, some that copied 15 seconds, some that copied 45 min., and some that copied the whole thing but would not display video in boxee, VLC, Plex, etc. On top of all that, some of the files did work, but then had a problem in Handbrake. These errors don't happen often, but be aware that you may not be able to copy your entire library of blu rays for playback on any apple device. But to answer your question, it actually is that easy for the ones that work! I downloaded the latest version of MakeMKV the other day, and it is a trial version that's good for 30 days; after that, I believe I'll have to pay for it. So keep that in mind. Also, keep in mind that not all blu ray drives are seen by OSX. I originally purchased a Lite-on, and was never able to get a disc to show up in OSX. I've used two LG's though, and they've both been great. Hope this helps!

Wondering if anyone can tell me what's going on. Put Avatar in my Imac last night and MakeMKV had no trouble ripping me an MKV file to replay.
Tonight, I've tried two different Blu-rays and the Imac won't spin or even register that the disc has been inserted. Can hear it trying to wind up but gives up after about 4 tries and ejects the disc. It will still play older SD dvd's and home movies from my collection. Any reason for this?
THanks

pprior · Jul 9, 2010

vicliner said:
Wondering if anyone can tell me what's going on. Put Avatar in my Imac last night and MakeMKV had no trouble ripping me an MKV file to replay.
Tonight, I've tried two different Blu-rays and the Imac won't spin or even register that the disc has been inserted. Can hear it trying to wind up but gives up after about 4 tries and ejects the disc. It will still play older SD dvd's and home movies from my collection. Any reason for this?
THanks

Any f/u on this? I have the same drive by the looks (BD-CMB UJ-120 reported) and it USED to work but it's been months since I tried it and before snow leopard I think.

Now I put a blu-ray in and after a few whirs, clicks, it either ejects or is not recognized. I've tried this in Parallels using anydvd as well with same result. It will software eject from makeMKV but not recognized.

keeper · Jul 14, 2010

nickosbad said:
The drive arrived today so I went and got an enclosure for it as I bought it from the uk rather than eBay,

I needed to plug 2 USB cables i not my mbp and one into my works laptop for the drive to receive enough power (my mbp doesn't have high power USB) but once it was recognized by osx it took about an hour and a half to rip transformers in make mkv

Opened handbrake and started an encode from 1080p to 720x1280 so iPad would recognize it and WOW its gonna take 9 hours to convert!!

It's averaging 10fps in handbrake, I think its time to get rid of the mbp 2.16 c2d and get an iMac for all my ripping needs!!

To sum up, it WAS really that easy to rip blu Ray it's the re encoding that is a real pain!Z,

Could you please confirm the UK website you ordered the drive from?
Im struggling to find a cheap UK one to match the ebay price.

Cheers Phil

Ripping a blu-ray with MakeMKV......surely it can't be this easy can it?

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