Ripping Blu-Ray discs on os x.

October 3, 2011 2:01 PM

A few Blu Ray questions, one external drives for a mac, one on ripping on a Mac, and one of buying discs online/in Toronto...

1. Where in Toronto is the best place to buy Blu Ray movies/tv shows, used or new? What about online that ships to Canada?

2. I'm on a Mac (Lion) with external hard drive. I want to rip my Blu Ray discs to the drive so that I put the discs in storage and watch the films off the hard drive (which connects via USB to my blu ray player).

What software do I need and what external Blu Ray drive should I get to hook up to the Air?

Also, if I want to rip PAL or other region discs, how does that complicate things?

posted by dobbs to Technology (9 answers total)

I use MakeMKV to rip the movie and audio and subtitle tracks I want to an MKV file, which can be played in VLC. To save disk space, I typically encode the files using Handbrake, and the quality is still very good.
posted by DakotaPaul at 2:40 PM on October 3, 2011

To clarify: To save disk space, I typically encode the ripped MKV files using Handbrake, and the quality is still very good.
posted by DakotaPaul at 2:43 PM on October 3, 2011

watch the films off the hard drive (which connects via USB to my blu ray player)

To clarify, does your BD player require a Blu-ray folder structure on the hard drive for playback, or is it a network media tank-type item that supports a variety of containers/video codecs/audio codecs/subtitles?
posted by Inspector.Gadget at 3:29 PM on October 3, 2011

Response by poster: I'm not sure I understand what you're asking, Inspector.Gadget. The player has a usb in on it and reads all kinds of file types (avi, wma, mp3, etc.). Since I've yet to rip a disc, I haven't actually tried this function yet.
posted by dobbs at 4:23 PM on October 3, 2011

Ah, OK. Then you should be fine with DakotaPaul's suggestions, though compressing files with Handbrake is sort of an answer in short of a question: If you're going to watch something once, compressing (and perhaps ripping) is a waste of time, while if you're going to archive something, most people would shoot for max quality over saving some hard drive space.

Region-coding and NTSC vs. PAL standards is not an issue with ripped files (e.g., Blu-ray title remuxed to Matroska).
posted by Inspector.Gadget at 5:06 PM on October 3, 2011

* in search of a question
posted by Inspector.Gadget at 5:06 PM on October 3, 2011

Response by poster: Thanks... any suggestions on a region-free external player that my Mac can talk to?
posted by dobbs at 7:49 PM on October 3, 2011

I have an external Blu-Ray burner that I got from OWC. I have used it for ripping blu rays but I have used AnyDvd in Windoze to make the ISO copy which I can then burn in toast for backup, etc. I have bought two from them (one for work and one for home) and I can say that either the Pioneer (faster) or LG models work great.

You can also check out Sonic Boom (Bathurst and Bloor) for used blu-rays. Used Blu Rays are getting pretty common nowadays so a lot of places have them.

I have also purchased good BD-R DL 50GB media from Japan via ebay for a fraction of what they cost here. The prices in NA are a rip off.

I don't rip my Blu-Rays to HD due to that I'm a stickler for the highest quality and compressing them isn't my bag.
posted by boomcha76 at 6:58 AM on October 4, 2011

Here is a link that tells you how to play, rip and encode blu-ray discs on a Mac running Lion.

http://www.applemediacenter.com/2011/08/18/blu-ray-on-osx-guide/

It's pretty easy these days.
posted by darkgroove at 7:26 AM on October 4, 2011 [1 favorite]