Backing up Blu Ray & DVDs

[gras4]

I have been trying to set up a NAS at home for creating backups from my DVDs and a couple of Blu Rays (i'm hoping to add a few more as they become affordable) and then play them through a PC from elsewhere. I have had the bad experience of losing some CDs and DVDs earlier to scratches :-(

For Blu Rays, is the following setup good enough to get the best backup?
1. An external Blu Ray drive off my PC's USB port
2. Software like PowerDVD

If there are other ideas, let me know.

 

[venkatcr]

For Blu Rays, is the following setup good enough to get the best backup?
1. An external Blu Ray drive off my PC's USB port
2. Software like PowerDVD

PowerDVD, VLC, Windows Media player all players - in the sense that they can only play the media. If you want to back up your discs, you have to use specialised software for that. Such software are called rippers.

Cheers

 

[deep]

PowerDVD, VLC, Windows Media player all players - in the sense that they can only play the media. If you want to back up your discs, you have to use specialised software for that. Such software are called rippers.

Cheers

Venkat, could you suggest some good rippers which I can use to back up some hig value DVD sets I have purchased. Want to preserve the audio/video to the best possible, no storage capacity contraints.

 

[ranojoy]

DVD Fab would be a good option. Its regularly updated to defeat all the new fangled copy protection measures dreamed up by the studios from time to time.

 

[zervinb]

For ripping DVDs, there is nothing better than DVD Decrypter. It is a very old software, not updated since a few years (some legal issue), but it still defeats most of the copy protection, while removing region coding too (I'm sure the other rippers too do that). You would have to do a bit of googling to find the software. It is still available on some websites.

 

[venkatcr]

In addition to what Ronojoy and Zervinb has said, look at DVD Cloner. I tired a trial version and it worked flawlessly. Another option is AnyDVD.

Cheers

 

[square_wave]

Hey Venkat,

What is the best blu ray ripper in the market now ? Do they create an image of the disc and store it or do they rip to some file ? I can lot of people buying blu ray discs and ripping them onto some NAS and then selling the discs off.

 

[spirovious]

DVD Fab would be a good option. Its regularly updated to defeat all the new fangled copy protection measures dreamed up by the studios from time to time.

+1 to that as I use the same.Even anyDVD HD also does the same.

 

[venkatcr]

To create an image you don't need any ripper. Use AnyDVD (legal copy, please), and simply copy the whole disc to your hard disc. You can also use something like ImageBurn to create an ISO file. Theoretically, an ISO file can be written back to the disc using something like Nero.

Ripping is a different business where you convert the disc into a different format such as MKV, AVi etc. For this you need specialised software. Please refer to Blu ray Ripper - 6 ways to rip Bluray, free Blu-ray ripper for more details.

Be aware of one thing. Any of these activities will take between 40-90 minutes for each Blu-Ray disc. You need to have a lot of patience.

Cheers

 

[spirovious]

Be aware of one thing. Any of these activities will take between 40-90 minutes for each Blu-Ray disc. You need to have a lot of patience.

Cheers

I have copied Avatar ISO & BD folder(both are different ways).I dont remember the time but must be around 45min.I have done this with DVDfab which has options to copy,ISO,ripping all.It can burn too.

 

[sam9s]

I have been trying to set up a NAS at home for creating backups from my DVDs and a couple of Blu Rays (i'm hoping to add a few more as they become affordable) and then play them through a PC from elsewhere. I have had the bad experience of losing some CDs and DVDs earlier to scratches :-(

For Blu Rays, is the following setup good enough to get the best backup?
1. An external Blu Ray drive off my PC's USB port
2. Software like PowerDVD

If there are other ideas, let me know.

Which ever way you choose to rip a Bluray, AACS and BD+ encryption follows. Ripping a bluray can involve multiple steps depending on the way you want to copy the disc, like for example, you want the entire disc to be copied with full menu navigation support and no A/V loss. OR you want to copy just the movie file with no menus and extras to save space, but keeping the A/V quality intact. OR you want menus and extras but can compromise on the A/V quality....etc etc. Usually with ever decreasing price for storage, people prefer to copy/rip the entire disc with full menu navigation and no A/V quality loss.

For that the easiest and the fastest way is to rip the disc in ISO format. ISO format is easy to play on a PC and almost all the media players also have started supporting it with full/light menu navigation. But as I said, ripping a disc also brings the AACS and BD+ encryption along with it and we need to first get rid of it in order to play the disc on a media player or PC. AnyDVD HD comes in to the ptcture here. Get the application and run it in the background that would remove the copy protection.(all automated) Then use any burning tool (I prefer Ashampoo Burning Software) to rip the disc in ISO format on your HDD.

Now to play it on your PC with full menu and all, you dont have to burn it on an empty BR disc. Get any Virtual CD application (I prefer Virtual CD v10) like ALCOHOL or DEMON Tools or which I prefer,, Virtual CD. Virtual CD creates virtual discs on you PC which behaves very much like an actual drive. Just insert the ISO image in to the virtual drive and play it using any DVD playing S/W like Power DVD or VLC or Win DVD ...etc with full menu navigation and no quality loss. Playing through Media players is even easy. Just copy the ISO to an ext HDD, plug it in your media player and start playing the movie, again with full/(or light menu navigation depending on the media player) with no quality loss ........

Hope this helped ...

Sammy