Need advice for ripping/storing BD & DVD

[SpyGuy]

I hope it is appropriate to post this in this forum; unfortunately, there is no separate forum to discuss ripping/storing strategies and methodologies.

Background:

I'm technically savvy, but new to the world of movie ripping. Over the years, I have collected about 400 DVDs and am now starting to acquire BDs. (I have some BD titles and a BD reader/burner on order so I haven't had a chance to play with BD yet). I want to get started ripping & storing movies, but I don't want to waste a lot of time & money going down wrong paths. All my movies will be ripped from physical BDs/DVDs that I own. I consider this Fair Use: I don't tell the movie companies how to spend my money; they shouldn't tell me how I watch my own movies.

My set-up:

• Dell PowerEdge 2900 Server with hardware RAID running Windows Home Server 2011
• Gigabit cabled network & WiFi g/n
• A number of PCs running Windows 7 or Windows XP
• Primary HDTV (1080p LCD) connected to Xbox 360 (media extender)
• Secondary HDTV (720p LCD) connected to network via internal DLNA
• Currently, no Home Theater sound system, but intend to add this in the future.

My requirements:

1. In order to protect & preserve my physical BD/DVD collection, I intend to store and play my movies from WHS2011 running on my server. Or course, this will also add convenience.
2. Remove all DRM, structural defects, etc., so as not to interfere with my watching and archiving.
3. Be able to play the movies on any client device listed above. In particular, I want to be able to stream to both the primary TV (via the Xbox) and the secondary TV (via DLNA).
4. Some movies which I consider to be "collectibles" (i.e., DVDs no longer available), I would like to preserve the entire contents of the discs with 100% fidelity (both in terms of quality and features, with the exception of the DRM/defects as mentioned above). I intend to preserve these limited number of titles as archives and don't need to include these in my shared media folders for streaming.
5. For viewing, I wish to preserve the highest picture quality. For me, it seems foolish to spend money purchasing titles on disc, only to compress them to a lower quality (the exception being compressing titles for specific purposes, such as for traveling). We pay a premium for BD in order to get best quality. And standard DVDs are already at the low end of HD. IMO, mass storage is now cheap enough to justify lossless ripping.
6. Audio Streams:
   1. Primary audio track (film's native language) must always be preserved.
   2. English language audio track must always be preserved.
   3. Some alternate language audio tracks (i.e., Chinese, Thai) must be preserved if available.
   4. I wish to preserve commentary tracks on some films.
   5. The primary track should be retained at the highest quality available on the disc (future-proofing for when I upgrade my audio system).
7. Subtitles
   1. Forced subtitles must be preserved.
   2. English subtitles (if available) must be available to view as an option -- including on English language films.
   3. Some alternate language subtitles (i.e., Chinese, Thai) must be available as an option if available.

My wish list (what I hope to achieve):

1. To shrink the "footprint" of each title by removing unnecessary material, specifically: warnings, trailers, unneeded audio tracks, unneeded subtitles, some extra features.
2. To keep some extra features.
3. To preserve the title's menu system.
4. To package all the title's related files in a single container file.

Based on what I've learned so far, I believe that only ISO and MKV are able to meet all my requirements. But I'm still unclear about some of the possibilities and limitations, particularly as it relates to BD. I've been playing around with MKV files, and it seems like each video stream (e.g., feature film, special feature, etc.) becomes a separate MKV and the disc's menu system is lost. With regards to ISO, I know there are tools that can rip straight to ISO (e.g., My Movies, AnyDVD), but I've read that one shouldn't do that. Besides losing the ability to discard unwanted items like warnings and trailers, is there a technical reason for not ripping straight to ISO?

I've read that BD packages most (all?) features in a single file. So is it possible to remove some features and then re-package the desired features without re-compressing?

Is it possible to remove some features from a DVD or BD, yet keep the title's menu system? (If so, what will happen if you try to select a missing feature when playing?)

Since my goal is for streaming movies off a server, I don't really care too much about burning new DVD/BD discs (with the exception of restoring my "collectibles" if needed). But I see a lot of questions and posts about burning discs, so I'm curious if I'm missing something.

Which are the best tools for accomplishing my requirements (and hopefully, my wish list)? Given a choice, I'd prefer a software package that makes the process fast and easy, and is well-supported.

[ScottJ97]

The silence is deafening... perhaps your post is just too big to be addressed all at once.

What's best for you will really depend on the playback capabilities.

For example, how do your playback devices support menus? Subtitles? (Especially forced subtitles?) I don't know enough about DLNA or Xbox 360 media extender to answer, but you should answer these questions before settling on a ripping strategy.

I rip to ISO using ClownBD, which is a front-end to a series of BD ripping tools. It leaves movie only and rips out the rest of the junk. There's also tools like MakeMKV for the MKV format. Both of these tools remove all menus and extras.

I use ClownBD to ISO because my playback device (HDI Dune Base 3.0) supports forced subtitles only in this format. The MKV format has a way to do forced subtitles, but the Dune does not honor that.

[mike_r]

I started to reply, but the answer is not so simple. You are looking for a egg-laying, wool, milk and bacon producing animal...

You need to decide on one playback method only. Streaming, physical disk, USB/SMB connected hard drive. Once you decide that then you have to choose a container that will work for both your device and playback method -TS/M2TS, MKV or BDMV/ISO. You'll find that you can't stream all formats to all devices from all containers.

I'll give you my example. I always keep the full BDMV structure (or ISO) on a physical USB disk and plug this into my OPPO BDP-93. This works fine. I've also got several media servers, playing back HD MKV (you get chapters fine) is a great choice for the Oppo. However, my TVIX M6500 doesn't like this. It prefers TS/M2TS. Similarly my Xoom doesn't like 1080p, whereas my Galaxy S2 doesn't mind.

At the end of the day you will have to decide where your compromise will be.

[Recycle]

Originally Posted by ScottJ97

The silence is deafening... perhaps your post is just too big to be addressed all at once.

That is probably the case as people are probably still digesting what your asking and will take some time for them to respond. You have to remember this is a international forum and people don't live in the same time zone and or this isn't like Customer Service from a company this is for software creators and developers to interact with the users and people looking for solutions to their problems. So you going to have to wait for a answer and if you want it that soon you best approach is to contact a computer and software manufacture that could address you setup in a quicker fashion.

[Zamfir]

LOL That is an awesome post..Many questions in there I am curious about myself. First post here for me but been a long time user..looking forward to some responses.

[Frank]

That is a lot to digest and is a very long shopping list for a low-level design meeting with a table-full of product planners and developers.
Sort of reminds me of my days in IBM development.... the starry-eyed looks in the eyes of the marketing footsies, the planners telling us how great it will be, the money guys turning white, the service guys looking stunned, etc.
An idea here: http://www.projectcartoon.com/cartoon/3

Anyway, an interesting thing for users to toss around.

[fast eddie]

I would use the routes or methods Cinavia is least likely to attack.

Cinavia has hit PS3, standalone Blu-ray players, most likely software playing is next on the hit list, and who knows from there.

Until Cinavia reaches enought DVD fans and rattles their cage, then it is time to put forth the effort and expertise to remove it from the audio or a workable circumvention, you will have problems with some of the routes you choose.

[Lucky Thirteen]

Definitely gotta consider Cinavia. I have a WD Live media player because of it. My set-up is simple. I'm new to backing up my bd's, so my method is still evolving. So far I've been ripping to mkv and stream from my computer to the PS3 using PS3 media server. I generally only use the WD Live media player when I'm streaming a Cinavia infected file.

Forced subtitles seem like the biggest issue with ripping blu-rays. When I was only backing up DVD's, it was easy. I used an old version of handbrake on a i-mac and burned the forced subtitles into the video. This old version of handbrake picked up the forced subtitles every time. The new version of handbrake I have on Windows 7 doesn't seem to allow you to burn in subtitles. (For the Colombiana bd) Handbrake would not pick up the forced subtitles, so I downloaded the forced subtitles in a SRT file and merged them. This worked in playback on the WD Live media player (since this bd disc has Cinavia), but who know's if future media players will pick it up. Would much rather burn the subtitles into the video. There just doesn't seem to be a way to do it with the software I have.

[mike_r]

Originally Posted by mike_r

You are looking for a egg-laying, wool, milk and bacon producing animal...

@Frank LEO translates as 'Swiss Army Knife'

[Frank]

Originally Posted by mike_r

@Frank LEO translates as 'Swiss Army Knife'

Yes! Gotta love it!!

And as for the Cinavia thing, this will not happen in AnyDVD as far as I know.
The architecture of the product and how it does what it does will simply not allow it to address that annoyance. I don't consider it a protection.