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How Do You Know if a Blu Ray Is Bad

Streaming is convenient, but Blu-ray provides the all-time quality video and sound you tin go far your habitation theater. The simply problem: getting off the couch to switch discs is and then 2006.

If y'all'd rather shop those high-quality Blu-ray movies on a PC and play them through something like Kodi (or if you merely desire to dorsum them up in case of time to come scratches), y'all can "rip" them to your computer using a simple, free program chosen MakeMKV. Hither'southward how to practise it.


Find a Blu-ray Bulldoze

disk drive

In society to rip those movies to your PC, you'll need an optical drive in your PC that can read Blu-ray discs—a DVD bulldoze is non plenty. You lot can purchase an external one that connects over USB, or an internal one for your desktop—either is fine.

If you want to rip 4K UHD Blu-rays, still, your choices are more than limited. Due to their enhanced copy protection, 4K UHD Blu-rays can't be ripped on most 4K Blu-ray drives. Instead, you will desire a regular Blu-ray bulldoze that is considered "4K friendly."

If you lot already take a Blu-ray drive, yous tin poke around the MakeMKV forums to run into if it'south usable for 4K Blu-rays, or yous tin can buy one of their recommended drives. You lot may take to flash custom firmware or scroll back to an older firmware version in order to read those 4K discs. This can exist a bit nerve-wracking, but I've done it twice without breaking anything, and then it tin can be done.

You can read the nigh upwardly-to-date drive for flashing new firmware here. I used an LG WH16NS40 with patched firmware for the most contempo version of this guide.


Set up MakeMKV

makemkv

MakeMKV is a program for Windows, macOS, and Linux that can rip DVD and Blu-ray discs into the versatile MKV video format. There are other paid programs that offer more features, like DeUHD and AnyDVD, only we'll be using MakeMKV for this tutorial, since it'south free.

Technically, it'south simply free while in beta, but it's been "in beta" for about 10 years. Yous just need to apply the latest beta key whenever it asks you lot to register, which is about once a month. You lot can purchase a license for $50 if yous desire to avert this annoyance. Install MakeMKV and open the plan, then enter the primal when prompted (or enter it afterwards nether the Help > Register menu).

If yous're just ripping traditional Blu-rays, that's all you need to do. Nevertheless, if you take a 4K-friendly drive and want to rip a 4K UHD disc, yous'll demand to open up MakeMKV and see if your drive is compatible with 4K discs—again, see the MakeMKV forum for more information. On some drives, you may need to perform one other pace.

hashed keys

MakeMKV can't intermission the re-create protection on its ain, so yous need a hashed decryption key for the disc in question. Y'all can download a list of currently known hashed keys, which y'all can find through a quick Google search. In general, this method is considered outdated, but if you have an older drive that isn't compatible with the newer "LibreDrive" method of ripping, it may even so be relevant for you.

If you require hashed keys, y'all tin can download them, and so head to MakeMKV's preferences, become to the General tab, and cull a "information" directory for MakeMKV (or make note of the default directory's path). Re-create the text file of hashed keys to that directory and restart MakeMKV. Information technology will then exist able to reference those keys when ripping 4K UHD Blu-rays. You may need to periodically update this text file equally new movies are released on 4K Blu-ray.


Insert and Rip Your Disc

makemkv rip

When MakeMKV launches, information technology will scan your computer for optical drives, and so nowadays you with information most your drive and the name of the disc inside it. (If you get an error, yous may need to correct-click its shortcut and run it as an ambassador.) If everything looks right, click the big Blu-ray button to open up the disc for ripping.

One time the disc has been scanned, MakeMKV volition present you with a list of "titles" on the disc. At least one of these will exist the total picture show, while other titles may exist special features or other footage. Click on the dissimilar titles and look for 1 that matches the length and chapter count of the movie itself, and then uncheck the other boxes. You lot can too expand a given title to add or remove sound and subtitle tracks—though for most users, the default choices volition be fine here.

makemkv rip

In the right-hand pane, click the folder icon to choose the folder where you want the resulting video to appear, then click the "Make MKV" button. The movie will probable have a while to rip, depending on the size of the motion picture and the speed of your actor. Be prepared to go exercise something else for an hr while you await. Once the process is done, though, you will take an MKV file that you tin open in a video role player like VLC or PotPlayer.

Continue in mind that MakeMKV is not guaranteed to rip every disc, and your mileage may vary depending on the disc, your drive, and the residual of your setup. Some discs may have newer re-create-protection schemes that haven't been cracked however, or your disc may exist too damaged to rip.

Ripping discs tin be more finicky than playing them, so even if a disc plays fine in your Xbox One, there'south no guarantee it will rip reliably. If you run across an fault, try giving the disc a good cleaning, or try removing some of the scratches. If that doesn't work, you may need a new disc or a subsequently version of MakeMKV.

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Compress Your Video (Optional)

handbrake

A typical Blu-ray moving picture usually ranges from 15GB to 30GB in size, with 4K UHD Blu-rays being around 50GB or more. That's a lot of space, and it'due south easy to make full your hard drive subsequently ripping only a small portion of your collection.

Y'all could always buy some large drives to store your movies—after all, storage is pretty affordable these days—or you could shrink those movies downwardly to a more manageable size. You volition lose some video quality, so this may not be platonic for those 4K HDR Blu-rays, but this can exist a worthwhile endeavor for comedies and other visually unimpressive films.

If y'all choose to compress your movies, Handbrake is a gratis program that tin can can accept a video file and compress it to a smaller file size. This comes with a loss in video quality, but the program has lots of settings that you can use to discover the perfect balance betwixt quality and space savings if you're limited on drive infinite.

In Handbrake, under the Source Choice bill of fare that appears, click File, and browse to the location of your newly ripped MKV file. Handbrake will open it and gear up it for conversion. Click the Browse button along the bottom of the window to choose the destination for your final video file, and select your quality settings.

handbrake settings

This tin get complex, but y'all tin save yourself some time by clicking the "Preset" button in the toolbar and choosing an option from the sidebar that appears. Obviously "Super HQ 1080p30 Surround" will requite y'all a higher-quality result than "Fast 720p30," and then pick what sounds adept to y'all for that movie. (In that location are also presets for specific devices, like the Roku or Apple Boob tube.)

Whatever preset you cull, though, I recommend going to the "Video" tab and changing the Framerate to "Same as Source." If you lot're watching this in a domicile theater with high-quality audio, you may also want to go to the "Audio" tab and elevate the "Passthru" selection to the top of the list. From in that location, feel free to tweak anything else you want. Cull a video format on the Summary tab (MKV has more features, but MP4 is more than compatible with some older devices), and click "Start Encode."

Again, this will take a while to consummate, just when information technology'southward finished, you will have a much smaller video file that you can safely store on your computer, take on the aeroplane with a USB drive, or lookout at a friend'southward house.

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Source: https://www.pcmag.com/how-to/how-to-rip-blu-ray-discs-to-your-pc

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