Digitizing DVDs and Blue-rays

[Mr.Funk]

Long story short I’ve been on the hunt for a solution, guide, or even a simple how to on digitizing my collection of DVDs and Blue-rays. So far I’ve found a lot of information about programs, formats, and storage solutions, but not many how to guides. Wanted to post here and get the communities input and suggestions. Would like to start out by ripping or digitizing (not sure what the correct term is) DVDs and Blue-rays onto a SSD for use in my computer. Just not sure where to start, what formats to use, or programs. Eventually I’d like to be able to stream anywhere in the house, or remotely if that’s even possible. 

[BondiBlue]

In this case you'd be ripping the discs. They're already digital, so you won't be digitizing them. 

 

Personally I just use MakeMKV to rip my discs. It's always worked well for me for both DVDs and Blu-rays, including 4K Blu-rays. I use Plex to watch the files remotely. 

[RONOTHAN##]

MakeMKV to rip the disks (Dvds are free, Blu Ray's require the premium version but there's a 30 day free trial with it), it's the best one I've used, and Plex or Jellyfin to stream it anywhere. There's debate over which one is better between Plex and Jellyfin, there's dozens of comparison charts out there that you can find to see which is better for you. I find Plex a bit easier to setup, so it's what I've been using, though I have been experimenting with Jellyfin as of recent so that might change in the future. 

[Alex Atkin UK]

15 minutes ago, RONOTHAN## said:

MakeMKV to rip the disks (Dvds are free, Blu Ray's require the premium version but there's a 30 day free trial with it),

Also so far, that 30 day trial can be extended indefinitely by just getting the latest beta code.  Although I use it enough (mostly just to verify my Blurays aren't damaged without having to watch them immediately, as had issues with scratches and faults on newer releases) I just paid for a full license so I never need to think about it again.

[RONOTHAN##]

1 minute ago, Alex Atkin UK said:

Also so far, that 30 day trial can be extended indefinitely by just getting the latest beta code.  Although I use it enough (mostly just to verify my Blurays aren't damaged without having to watch them immediately, as had issues with scratches and faults on newer releases) I just paid for a full license so I never need to think about it again.

Good to know, I've never had it on a windows install for long enough to actually run out the trial (long story). 

[Alex Atkin UK]

Just now, RONOTHAN## said:

Good to know, I've never had it on a windows install for long enough to actually run out the trial (long story). 

https://forum.makemkv.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=1053

[Hazgebu]

Best advice for 4k blue rays?

I have a normal blue ray drive in my PC and a 4k blue ray player for my TV.

 

My PC can't read 4k discs and my 4k Panasonic DP-UB154 only has a hdmi out. There is a USB on it but it doesn't work when connected to my PC. It's only for USB sticks etc.

 

How do you deal with 4k Blur-Rays?

 

[dalekphalm]

On 5/25/2023 at 10:32 PM, Mr.Funk said:

Long story short I’ve been on the hunt for a solution, guide, or even a simple how to on digitizing my collection of DVDs and Blue-rays. So far I’ve found a lot of information about programs, formats, and storage solutions, but not many how to guides. Wanted to post here and get the communities input and suggestions. Would like to start out by ripping or digitizing (not sure what the correct term is) DVDs and Blue-rays onto a SSD for use in my computer. Just not sure where to start, what formats to use, or programs. Eventually I’d like to be able to stream anywhere in the house, or remotely if that’s even possible. 

Here is one such guide!

https://forum.makemkv.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=20438

 

I mirror the suggestions to use MakeMKV - it's an incredible program.

 

At it's most basic, you can use it to rip and store perfect quality copies of the discs. For DVD's, I definitely recommend using Handbrake or a similar program to compress the video afterwards (DVD video codec is incredibly inefficient by modern standards) - you can shrink the video size substantially with no noticeable quality loss.

 

For ripping Blu-Rays, it gets a bit more subjective. You can still compress Blu-Ray rips using Handbrake and save some space with little to no noticeable quality loss - sometimes as much as half the space savings (Going from a 15GB rip to 8GB, for example). I recommend using an RF 18 setting in Handbrake for Blu-Rays, and an RF setting of 20 for DVD's (or even 22, if you'd rather save more space). RF is a constant quality metric that's more intelligent then simply using a constant bitrate or a simple variable bitrate.

On 5/27/2023 at 7:53 AM, Hazgebu said:

Best advice for 4k blue rays?

4K Blu-ray's gets way trickier. You need to buy a very specific Blu-Ray drive, with a very specific firmware level to get 4K Blu-Rays to work in MakeMKV.

 

Here's a list of confirmed working drives and firmware, including a list of people to buy pre-flashed drives from:

https://forum.makemkv.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=16&t=19634

On 5/27/2023 at 7:53 AM, Hazgebu said:

I have a normal blue ray drive in my PC and a 4k blue ray player for my TV.

 

My PC can't read 4k discs and my 4k Panasonic DP-UB154 only has a hdmi out. There is a USB on it but it doesn't work when connected to my PC. It's only for USB sticks etc.

 

How do you deal with 4k Blur-Rays?

See above - unless you lucked out, and all your drive needs is a firmware update, you probably need to buy a new drive.

[Donut417]

On 5/25/2023 at 10:32 PM, Mr.Funk said:

Long story short I’ve been on the hunt for a solution, guide, or even a simple how to on digitizing my collection of DVDs and Blue-rays. So far I’ve found a lot of information about programs, formats, and storage solutions, but not many how to guides. Wanted to post here and get the communities input and suggestions. Would like to start out by ripping or digitizing (not sure what the correct term is) DVDs and Blue-rays onto a SSD for use in my computer. Just not sure where to start, what formats to use, or programs. Eventually I’d like to be able to stream anywhere in the house, or remotely if that’s even possible. 

Plex îs an excellent solution to stream to devices. But there are other alternatives as well. I personally do use Plex. 

 

As far as formats are concerned, your best bet if taking a good look at your devices and seeing what they support. Find a format that a majority of your devices support and use that one. Plex can do on the fly transcoding both software and hardware. Hardware transcoding requires you to pay for Plex however. That all being said, if you plan on doing any 4K content it's recommended you dont transcode 4K content, requires a lot of CPU/GPU horsepower. So if you do 4K, make sure you also make a copy that is of a lower resolution.