Blu-ray drive

[pMad]

Can anyone suggest a good drive for ripping blue-ray discs? (I have a 2008 iMac)

Also, regular rips are roughly 1 GB.
How large are blu-ray rips?

 

[blueroom]

Blu-Ray are 25 GB per layer, some disks are dual layer.

Handbrake if size is a concern.

 

[mic j]

I have a Plextor USB powered read only drive. Works great. My advice...don't spend a lot of money.

 

[mpress03]

I bought one off eBay that is read only for a little over $40. It takes two USB ports (one for power and one for data) but works great.

 

[waw74]

my rips are 20 - 40 GB each, depends on the movie.
So far I haven't figured out any way to predict which ones will be 20 and which ones will be 40.
Length seems to only play a minor part.

 

[jailwut wunnow]

I picked up the Sony BC-5640H internal drive for my 2009 mini. Plug n play. Should/could work in the iMac. Now I can rip bluray with MakeMKV then flip an HD version using Handbrake; AppleTV 2 preset for 720p or Apple 3 preset for 1080p. It's also a burner so...

 

[guitarmandp]

I picked up the Sony BC-5640H internal drive for my 2009 mini. Plug n play. Should/could work in the iMac. Now I can rip bluray with MakeMKV then flip an HD version using Handbrake; AppleTV 2 preset for 720p or Apple 3 preset for 1080p. It's also a burner so...

Problem is the copyright protection is ridiculous on BluRay's

 

[itickings]

Problem is the copyright protection is ridiculous on BluRay's

May so be, but I still haven't (personally) encountered a bluray MakeMKV couldn't rip.

Good thing too, because about one in twenty of those "Digital Copies" many discs boast about on the cover actually work...

 

[JoeBlow74]

Can anyone suggest a good drive for ripping blue-ray discs? (I have a 2008 iMac)

Also, regular rips are roughly 1 GB.
How large are blu-ray rips?

ASUS sells a DVD writer/Blu-Ray reader combo drive for $75 at Fry's. I have also seen it on Amazon for the same price. This drive is a full DVD writer and only reads BD disks. It is USB powered only. Way better than the built-in DVD combo drive Apple puts into their iMacs.

 

[blanka]

Got a USB powered external drive for 20$ on Ebay BR reader/DVD writer. Works well so far. Can't complain at such a price.

 

[Nunyabinez]

May so be, but I still haven't (personally) encountered a bluray MakeMKV couldn't rip.

Good thing too, because about one in twenty of those "Digital Copies" many discs boast about on the cover actually work...

I also have not found a disk that couldn't be ripped with MakeMKV. The most creative attempt I have found was a disk that had something like 20 different versions of the main movie file. Apparently only one was valid with the others each having "blacked out" scenes at random places. I simply found a post in the MakeMKV forum where someone had figured out which file it was and I still got a good rip. But that only happened once. Otherwise, everything I've thrown at it has worked like a charm.

I'm just using a Lite-on BD reader (it's in a Hackintosh) but is pretty old, so I would guess almost any BD drive is going to work just fine. No need to spend a lot.