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backinblack875

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Aug 23, 2010
614
46
USA
i have a blu-ray DVD of a tv show season and was wondering if it is possible to rip this with handbrake or w.e to my mac mini, even though it is not a blu ray drive. Thanks.
 

GGJstudios

macrumors Westmere
May 16, 2008
44,539
941
No, you need a Blu-ray drive to read the DVD and no Mac model comes equipped with a Blu-ray drive.
 

Vermifuge

macrumors 68020
Mar 7, 2009
2,067
1,589
No, you need a Blu-ray drive to read the DVD and no Mac model comes equipped with a Blu-ray drive.

There are plenty of external blu Ray drives you can use for data and yes that even means you can copy a blu ray to an MKV File (Assuming it's legal and unprotected ;) ) You just can't play blu ray movies on the mac natively
 

GGJstudios

macrumors Westmere
May 16, 2008
44,539
941
There are plenty of external blu Ray drives you can use ...
That's not what the OP asked:
i have a blu-ray DVD of a tv show season and was wondering if it is possible to rip this with handbrake or w.e to my mac mini, even though it is not a blu ray drive. Thanks.
You just can't play blu ray movies on the mac natively
That's what I said.
No, you need a Blu-ray drive to read the DVD and no Mac model comes equipped with a Blu-ray drive.
 

ryanide

macrumors 6502
Jul 23, 2002
292
31
Basically you need a blu-ray drive (an external one will do) to read the disk. However, you can not play that disk on your mac like you can a regular DVD.

You can use MKV to "backup" the blu-ray disk to your hard drive (this process generally takes about an hour or more), then you can use Handbrake to rip the MKV file (movie and/or other tracks) to an m4v movie file - as you would do from a regular DVD- but you can create a 1920 x 1080 resolution or smaller. Only then can you view that blu-ray content on your mac.

FYI the MKV backup will take about 45GB of HD space and a 1080 rip is about 15GB vs a 720 rip (ATV2 setting) is about 2-3GB.

It is a time consuming process and it is very frustrating that there is no way to just pop in a blu-ray and watch the movie like a regular DVD on the mac without having to go through this whole process.
 

wonderspark

macrumors 68040
Feb 4, 2010
3,048
102
Oregon
It is a time consuming process and it is very frustrating that there is no way to just pop in a blu-ray and watch the movie like a regular DVD on the mac without having to go through this whole process.
Actually, with about 60 seconds of clicking and typing, you can run a commercially bought Blu-ray disc via MakeMKV as a stream, which VLC will play on a Mac in OS X. That's how I play my Blu-rays on my 30" ACD when the main TV is busy. (I installed a Blu-ray burner in my Mac, which you'll also need)
 

ryanide

macrumors 6502
Jul 23, 2002
292
31
would you care to explain?

Actually, with about 60 seconds of clicking and typing, you can run a commercially bought Blu-ray disc via MakeMKV as a stream, which VLC will play on a Mac in OS X. That's how I play my Blu-rays on my 30" ACD when the main TV is busy. (I installed a Blu-ray burner in my Mac, which you'll also need)

I can't seem to find instructions on how to do this. I only see how to use MKV to create a backup which is then used as the source for Handbrake to convert.
 

KScottMyers

macrumors 6502
Jul 17, 2009
252
7
Orlando, FL
I can't seem to find instructions on how to do this. I only see how to use MKV to create a backup which is then used as the source for Handbrake to convert.

• Attach Blu-Ray Drive to Mac mini - http://goo.gl/BHgvg

• RIP Movie to MKV file on Mac mini - use MakeMKV - http://makemkv.com/

• Watch movie with VLC player - http://www.videolan.org/vlc/

Optional - Convert movie to preferred size and format - Handbreak - http://handbrake.fr/

Optional - Attach Apple TV to your big screen and stream movies from the Mac Mini - http://goo.gl/am2I

Works great and I have over 500 movies done this way.
 

xraydoc

Contributor
Oct 9, 2005
10,740
5,168
192.168.1.1
• Attach Blu-Ray Drive to Mac mini - http://goo.gl/BHgvg

• RIP Movie to MKV file on Mac mini - use MakeMKV - http://makemkv.com/

• Watch movie with VLC player - http://www.videolan.org/vlc/

• Optional - Convert movie to preferred size and format - Handbreak - http://handbrake.fr/

• Optional - Attach Apple TV to your big screen and stream movies from the Mac Mini - http://goo.gl/am2I

Works great and I have over 500 movies done this way.
Actually, if you just want to watch the movie, use MakeMKV to open a blu-ray stream, then use VLC to play the stream. Thus it'll play in real time without having to rip to hard drive first. Not exactly a single point and click, but it works.
 

KScottMyers

macrumors 6502
Jul 17, 2009
252
7
Orlando, FL
Actually, if you just want to watch the movie, use MakeMKV to open a blu-ray stream, then use VLC to play the stream. Thus it'll play in real time without having to rip to hard drive first. Not exactly a single point and click, but it works.

Good point. Thanks.
 
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