Ripping blu-ray to MKV with DVDFab

[roghelt]

I finally broke down and bought a blu-ray player and a bunch of BD movies...welcome to 2013

I've set up my external HDDs with plenty of storage and successfully networked streaming music to my Oppo player. I'd like to watch some of my blu-ray movies in a lossless format without the shiny discs, but of course the player won't stream .iso. So the next best thing would be MKV -- I'm only interested in the main feature movie.

I've searched DVDFab site to see if I can create 1:1 bit-perfect lossless MKVs of my BD movies -- including the audio tracks. Can anyone point this noobie in the right direction here -- and also let me know if it's possible to do this with DVDFab? I recently downloaded the latest trial version and think it's terrific for backing up my blu-rays -- but really interested in the MKV abilities.

It's nice to be aboard here! As a long time user (I confess) of xxxxxx & ImgBurn, they've worked really well for me in in backing up my standard DVDs, but DVDFab has so many more features for blu-ray! Looking forward to purchasing it in the near future - and eliminating the watermarked backups.

[Jonatan]

Try bd ripper you have a 30 day trial
What bd player did you buy may be infected with cinavia
Btw Go read forum rules do not discuss competitor software

[90312]

This one will give you what you want:

[MrVideo]

I've searched DVDFab site to see if I can create 1:1 bit-perfect lossless MKVs of my BD movies -- including the audio tracks.

If I read your posting cioorrectly, you want to be able to stream the MKV files to your Oppo Blu-ray player. I suspect that you will be using the DLNA feature of the player in order to be able to do that.

That will be an issue. It seems that the DLNA spec requires that the H.264 video be High Level 4.0. Blu-ray videos are High Level 4.1 and will not play via DLNA. The HL4.0 spec means that in many cases the bitrate will be too high. Recoding to a lower bitrate @ High Level 4.0 will be a must. Not even sure if loseless audio will work. I've been trying to find the DLNA spec, but the official website is lacking in specification info. I've discovered the issues via my Samsung BR player.

Also, the player might not accept MKV wrapped files via DLNA either. Mine will happily play HL4.1 MKV files via a USB connected device, but will not play HL4.0/4.1 MKV files via DLNA, only HL4.0 MP4 files.

In a nutshell, the DLNA spec appears to be pretty damn tight. I do not expect you to be able to do what you want via DLNA.

[roghelt]

This one will give you what you want:

If I read your posting cioorrectly, you want to be able to stream the MKV files to your Oppo Blu-ray player. I suspect that you will be using the DLNA feature of the player in order to be able to do that.

That will be an issue. It seems that the DLNA spec requires that the H.264 video be High Level 4.0. Blu-ray videos are High Level 4.1 and will not play via DLNA. The HL4.0 spec means that in many cases the bitrate will be too high. Recoding to a lower bitrate @ High Level 4.0 will be a must. Not even sure if loseless audio will work. I've been trying to find the DLNA spec, but the official website is lacking in specification info. I've discovered the issues via my Samsung BR player.

Also, the player might not accept MKV wrapped files via DLNA either. Mine will happily play HL4.1 MKV files via a USB connected device, but will not play HL4.0/4.1 MKV files via DLNA, only HL4.0 MP4 files.

In a nutshell, the DLNA spec appears to be pretty damn tight. I do not expect you to be able to do what you want via DLNA.

First: thank you, 90312 -- that's EXACTLY what I was looking for! I assume the mkv.passthrough profile will give me "lossless" MKVs of my blu-ray movies.

Second: Sorry, Mr. Video, but my Oppo BDP-105 does DLNA beautifully! I've been trying out two different media servers (as well as plain vanilla SMB), and all allow me to stream to the 105 -- as well as use the Oppo as a renderer. I use an Android app that provides the interface when my home theater TV isn't on.

I have hundreds of hi-res and lossless flacs that stream flawlessly to my 105 that's actually a universal network player. And, though I haven't ripped any of my BD movies to MKV yet, there are countless posts on Oppo's and other forums that discuss how well it does DLNA blu-ray MKVs. I'm running Windows XP-SP3, two 4-TB NAS and running an ethernet connection to the 105. I'll give you an update once I do a few conversions and report back on the quality of the streams. BTW, check out the Oppo website, for starters, to see what this 'beast' is capable of....

[90312]

Yeah it will be lossless and a very large file.

[roghelt]

Wow! It worked like a charm. Yes, the MKVs were indeed lossless AND very large...but I expected that. With 8 TB of space, I can probably accommodate about 350 blu-ray lossless MKVs before adding any more HDDs.

I ripped 2 of my blu-rays to MKV with DVDFab's ripper component, "Blade Runner" and "Casino". It took about 35-45 minutes (with all HD audio streams, no compression) to process each movie, pretty fast for 24-32 gigs per blu-ray. The streaming quality to my Oppo 105 player is superb! I did an A/B comparison while playing the DLNA movie stream and my original blu-ray DVDs -- the quality (picture and audio) is indistinguishable between the two!

Let me repeat: WOW! My only dilemma now is whether to buy the standalone DVDFab Blu-ray Ripper (3D Plus) or DVDFab All-In-One. Virtually all of my blu-ray needs will be transferring movies to network attached servers -- I don't really have any desire to backup my blu-ray DVDs, no kids in the house to wreck them

Thanks for a fabulous product!

[90312]

You might try mkv.h264.audiocopy as well, it will keep your HD audio and save a ton of file size. Most folks can't tell the difference I sure can't. Experiment a little.

[SeeMoreDigital]

It seems that the DLNA spec requires that the H.264 video be High Level 4.0. Blu-ray videos are High Level 4.1 and will not play via DLNA. The HL4.0 spec means that in many cases the bitrate will be too high. Recoding to a lower bitrate @ High Level 4.0 will be a must. Not even sure if loseless audio will work. I've been trying to find the DLNA spec, but the official website is lacking in specification info. I've discovered the issues via my Samsung BR player.

I store all my .MKV contained 'movie only' (1:1) Blu-ray disc back-ups on an NTFS formatted external HDD, which is connected via USB3 to my Synology NAS and passed over a 10/100 wired network and switch-gear.

My Oppo BDP-103 and LG 32LS570T TV don't any problems playing any of my movies via UPnP.

Cheers

[roghelt]

You might try mkv.h264.audiocopy as well, it will keep your HD audio and save a ton of file size. Most folks can't tell the difference I sure can't. Experiment a little.

Thanks for the tip! My only concern is that mkv.h264 would probably take way more time to rip a blu-ray due to the compression process. But I'll definitely give it a try when I don't need to use my pc for a few hours.

[roghelt]

@90312: I tried to add a PS to my previous post but couldn't find the edit button. Sorry...

Wanted to locate the mkv.h264.audiocopy profile. All I could find was "mkv.h264" and a separate "audio.copy" format that appears to be for audio only. How does one combine them? Or did you just mean "mkv.h264"?

Sorry to be such a noobie bother...

[90312]

In ripper when you click the profile bar click the format tab at the top and then the mkv button along the left side. See attached:

And it may not take as long as you think I just completed The Hobbit from the disc in 35 minutes with my rig.

[roghelt]

In ripper when you click the profile bar click the format tab at the top and then the mkv button along the left side. See attached:

And it may not take as long as you think I just completed The Hobbit from the disc in 35 minutes with my rig.

Ahhh...found it, thanks again! So many sub-features in DVDFab; but that's why it's such a terrific and versatile program.

35 minutes for a compressed MKV? Wow...you must have some rig. I'll give it a try tonight and report back on how long it'll take to rip something like The Hobbit (don't have that one) as well...most important...on how the quality appears to match up with lossless.

[90312]

I have an Ivy Bridge 3770 and using Intel Quick Sync. The result is 14+GB down from 34.8GB and I really can't tell the difference. Let us know how you get on.

[roghelt]

I have an Ivy Bridge 3770 and using Intel Quick Sync. The result is 14+GB down from 34.8GB and I really can't tell the difference. Let us know how you get on.

Well, my i7 is a generation behind your Ivy Bridge, so ripping "Kill Bill 1" with mkv.h264.audiocopy took about 50+ minutes and generated a 17gb MKV; with mkv.passthrough it took 19 minutes and resulted in a 36gb file.

But you're absolutely right. Doing an a/b comparison on the Oppo (thanks to its great interface), I was amazed to find I couldn't tell a significant difference (with a Samsung F7500 55" panel) between my original bd DVD and the h264.audiocopy version...wow!! You've made a believer of me!

In the future, I'll probably keep my fast-action hi-res movies at lossless...just because...but most of my current and future blu-ray movies will be compressed MKVs. This'll save some valuable real estate and keep me from adding another HD for a very long time.

Thanks again..DVDFab rocks!!!!!!