Ripping Blu Ray

[Robert van Diggele]

Just a question out of curiousty. Do you guys rip the entire content from the discs? Take XTC Skylarking, the total mkv-size is over 30 gb!

I do. Multichannel and stereo all converted to flac. Will be around 8GB I guess.

 

[antoine555]

For Slylarking I transcoded to flac the 2.0 pcm and the 5.1 tracks.
I also kept 2 small MKVs of the videos of Grass and Dear God

I transfer dts to flac files, better compatibility, even if it means going to somewhat lossy to lossless...

 

[Marplot]

I keep them all, but not necessarily online. You can see how I normally handle items below.
Skylarking (The Surround Sound Series 2016 Bonus Mixes 5.1 DTS HD) [1986]
Skylarking (The Surround Sound Series 2016 Bonus Mixes LPCM 5.1) [1986]
Skylarking (The Surround Sound Series 2016 Bonus Mixes Stereo LPCM) [1986]
Skylarking (The Surround Sound Series 2016 Mixes DTS HD) [1986]
Skylarking (The Surround Sound Series 2016 Mixes LPCM 5.1) [1986]
Skylarking (The Surround Sound Series 2016 Mixes Stereo LPCM) [1986]
Skylarking (The Surround Sound Series Andy's Non-Album Demos & Other Recordings Stereo LPCM) [1986]
Skylarking (The Surround Sound Series Colin's Non-Album Work Tapes Stereo LPCM) [1986]
Skylarking (The Surround Sound Series Corrected Polarity Edition Stereo LPCM) [1986]
Skylarking (The Surround Sound Series Corrected Polarity Edition) [1986]
Skylarking (The Surround Sound Series Demo And Work Tape Form Stereo LPCM) [1986]
Skylarking (The Surround Sound Series Demos) [1986]
Skylarking (The Surround Sound Series Instrumental Edition) [1986]
Skylarking (The Surround Sound Series Instrumental Stereo LPCM) [1986]
Skylarking (The Surround Sound Series Original Stereo Mix) [1986]
Skylarking (The Surround Sound Series) [1986]

 

[marpow]

I am jumping the Anything DVD thread to this.
Post #1 says ripping Blu Ray is a motherfucker and I agree. The HFPA series is the easiest cuz they are alot alike a DVD-A with limited choices but the BD's, oh my with there massive choices. I have to study the rips before I rip. I appreciate MKV and MMH but wow, I don't think I will be able to rip 30 discs on the weekend like I did with SACD and the others.
I mean look at the above post, really, forget it, too much for this country boy. This does however lead to the emotional response of, should I keep or sell after a rip, what if I want those 100 outtakes later? Not.

 

[Marplot]

Nah, ripping is easy. it only takes more time because there is so much more data on the disk than a DVD. Well that and the read rate for BR drives is usually slower than DVD.
If you use MakeMKV it is easy to look at the content and decide what to rip; or do what I do, grab it all and us ffmpeg to see the format, bit and hz and decide which streams I want.

 

[marpow]

Nah, ripping is easy. it only takes more time because there is so much more data on the disk than a DVD. Well that and the read rate for BR drives is usually slower than DVD.
If you use MakeMKV it is easy to look at the content and decide what to rip; or do what I do, grab it all and us ffmpeg to see the format, bit and hz and decide which streams I want.

Is there link for ffmpeg ? I am a beginner and I don't know all the terminology.

 

[Marplot]

https://www.ffmpeg.org/
As I have stated in previous threads, I automate my ripping with perl scripts.

The jist of my process is MakeMKV and extract every thing on the disc. For something like Ayreon The Theater Equation this gave me 2 files.
I then use mkvmerge to break out every chapter for each mkv. Since that Ayreon is a live set in 2 parts, it gives me a list of files (chapters) from each of the sets. Each file contains every stream.
I then use ffmpeg to generate a text file with the stream info in it. Here we got something that looked like (actual info from different media):
Stream #0:0(eng): Video: h264 (High), yuv420p(progressive), 1920x1080 [SAR 1:1 DAR 16:9], 23.98 fps, 23.98 tbr, 1k tbn, 47.95 tbc
Stream #0:1(eng): Audio: ac3 (ac3), 48000 Hz, stereo (side), s32p (24 bit) (default)
Stream #0:2(eng): Audio: ac3 (ac3), 48000 Hz, 5.1(side), fltp, 1536 kb/s
Then I use ffmpeg to extract each tracks stream into different files.
voila 28 stereo flac and 28 5.1 flac files.
If my set doesn't have a normal CD version of the show I will then use sox to generate the CD standard MHz files from the higher bit rate source.

I know, my response sounds complicated and scary. It isn't. If you can setup a solid 5.1 stereo system you are already have more skill than my process requires.

If you run on Windows and don't mind installing a few pieces of free software, I am confident that I could explain the process to you.

Now, I am not condoning stealing which various industries argue this is, but helping you archive your own media into a more portable format to allow you to enjoy it unchained from the limitations of the source media playback requirements.

 

[HomerJAU]

MMH uses ffmpeg to convert but adds a nice user interface for ease of use. No speed gain to use ffmpeg directly.

I doubt a casual user want to run command line programs like ffmpeg and try and understand the various complexities and and documentation.

 

[Marplot]

MMH uses ffmpeg to convert but adds a nice user interface for ease of use. No speed gain to use ffmpeg directly.

I doubt a casual user want to run command line programs like ffmpeg and try and understand the various complexities and and documentation.

MMH sounds cool.
I realize performance gains by not interacting with the command line utilities as they extract all the the streams into tracks. I can walk away and will have individual tracks for each stream and song when I come back.

I realize my method isn't for everyone; nor am I saying it is the best. It works for me with a minimum amount of fuss and therein lies the value.

I forgot to mention one other artifact of my method, again using the Ayreon as an example. I retain the mkv of live sets so I can view them anywhere. In this case, since it is is a file per set, I use mkvtoolnix-gui to create a merged Matroska Video file and rename the chapters in sequence (in this case, 1-28 versus the default 1-14, 1-14 that is created with the merge)

 

[marpow]

MMH uses ffmpeg to convert but adds a nice user interface for ease of use. No speed gain to use ffmpeg directly.

I doubt a casual user want to run command line programs like ffmpeg and try and understand the various complexities and and documentation.

I am just going to stay with MMH after checking ffmpeg out, too complicated.

 

[marpow]

Too smokey for exercising outside. I usually ride my bike on Sat and Sun but the smoke pollution is worse than Bejing China, so I will do a day of BD-A ripping in hell.

 

[marpow]

I have a Music Media Helper question.
When looking at the Album Tag section on the right, sometimes the provided tags are correct but out of order, sometimes when ripping large BD's with many selections, ie: John Lennon Imagine's 2 Blu Ray discs the tags are all there, but it only automatically tags from the first listed 1 thru whatever.
I can't seem to be able to drag and drop or edit each track with tag tracks from the Album Tag section. I can re edit manually but I would prefer an easier way.

 

[marpow]

Oh my, not sure why I did it, but ripped both BD-A's of John Lennon's Imagine, between ripping time each over 1 hour and numerous tagging errors, manual tagging I think I spent 5 hours on Imagine. All good now, I just don't like the music anymore

 

[quicksrt]

I have a Music Media Helper question.
When looking at the Album Tag section on the right, sometimes the provided tags are correct but out of order, sometimes when ripping large BD's with many selections, ie: John Lennon Imagine's 2 Blu Ray discs the tags are all there, but it only automatically tags from the first listed 1 thru whatever.
I can't seem to be able to drag and drop or edit each track with tag tracks from the Album Tag section. I can re edit manually but I would prefer an easier way.

Editing tags is a breeze with any number of programs, "Tag & Rename" being a favorite as long as your rips have song file numbers in sequential order like 01, 02, 03, 04 and so on - at beginning of file name. It's when the songs are the file names but files numbers did not attach to files, it's a nightmare. Use another program to fix tags is my humble guess. I don't do a lot of ripping BDs, but I do a lot of tagging.

 

[Marplot]

Editing tags is a breeze with any number of programs, "Tag & Rename" being a favorite as long as your rips have song file numbers in sequential order like 01, 02, 03, 04 and so on - at beginning of file name. It's when the songs are the file names but files numbers did not attach to files, it's a nightmare. Use another program to fix tags is my humble guess. I don't do a lot of ripping BDs, but I do a lot of tagging.

Tag & Rename can rename files from the track title and number so if there are no numbers, it does not matter.
If you need a hand with that I can tell you how I have my filters set so it is a simple Ctrl-t 01 to number tracks from 01... and then rename files with that number and track name.

 

[marpow]

Editing tags is a breeze with any number of programs, "Tag & Rename" being a favorite as long as your rips have song file numbers in sequential order like 01, 02, 03, 04 and so on - at beginning of file name. It's when the songs are the file names but files numbers did not attach to files, it's a nightmare. Use another program to fix tags is my humble guess. I don't do a lot of ripping BDs, but I do a lot of tagging.

Thanks for that, looks pretty easy, I am in a good groove now with the next 20 I am ripping.

 

[marpow]

Tag & Rename can rename files from the track title and number so if there are no numbers, it does not matter.
If you need a hand with that I can tell you how I have my filters set so it is a simple Ctrl-t 01 to number tracks from 01... and then rename files with that number and track name.

Would I still need to use Media Helper to seperate the files. Or just go from the MKV rip directly to Tag and Rename?

 

[Marplot]

can MakeMKV rip by track? I do not know because of my workflow of ripping a single file so I get every stream and then breaking it into tracks.

 

[marpow]

can MakeMKV rip by track? I do not know because of my workflow of ripping a single file so I get every stream and then breaking it into tracks.

No, I believe MKV rips the Blu Ray as a single unit (the sections that you have checked) for instance either the 5.1 main songs or if you want the outtakes if tha's offered, etc. Then Music Media Helper seperates the tracks from the larger file that has been ripped, stereo, 5.1, extras, extras, etc. The combination of MKV and MMH is actually pretty good until I get into a tagging problem. I feel like there is no way out except to manual tag, fortunately don't have to do too much, but Rename And Tag looks like a good back up.

 

[Marplot]

Gotcha. Yeah if MakeMKV and MMH work for you then sticking Tag & Rename in your kit for outliers should meet almost all of your needs.
Now, I can't ever get export/import to work with T&R, but that is also an outlier need for me.