Can someone get this noob going?

[markfleener]

I installed the program, but I'm afraid to start the 30 day trial before learning more.

I currently have Windows 10, will be upgrading to 11 soon.

This is the external drive I'll be using to dump to...
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08RX3343D

What all is needed for me to get ripping blue rays and 4K UHD DVDs, with the ability to turn subtitles on/off?

I think last time I learned about this over 10 years ago, one needed a certain file in the same folder as the video file to get the subtitles activated, but idk these days.

Will I need some sort of firmware installed onto the external drive or the internal C drive?

[dcoke22]

Do you have an optical drive? Is it a LibreDrive compatible optical drive?

[Woodstock]

The 30 day trial can be reset. There are people here that are several years into their "30 day trial", and complain every time the license key expires for a few days every couple of months.

Your version of Windows does not matter; I use Win7.

Subtitles depends on your playback environment. They're ripped, unless you tell MakeMKV not to rip them.

Main issue is going to be the drive you'll rip with. Some are blocked from ripping 4K disks; some require firmware changes to enable it. Ripping "just" Bluray disks works with regular BD drives.

[markfleener]

Well, this sounds great! I've yet to get the DVD drive. Now, I'm trying to figure out why the most expensive drive here (1st link) would be better than the $275 drive. When doing a comparison on the Pioneer site, I see that the most expensive drive is the only one that already had some sort of 4K compatibility before the computer guy does his magic firmware thing, and can't help but wonder if that could be a factor in whether or not there's ever any glitches in the future while trying various DVDs, you think? If the only benefit to the most expensive drive, is that, it runs more quietly, I don't think that'll be worth it, but idk?...

viewtopic.php?f=20&t=17831

https://usa.pioneer/collections/optical-drives

[Woodstock]

Pioneer drives are considered very good, but... the manufacturer has blocked new drives from ripping 4K disks. If it was built on or after 12/22/2022, it won't work, with certain minor exceptions.

[dcoke22]

Even Billy will tell you the Pioneer BDR-S13UBK is enough. (I happen to have one of those drives and it is great.) The Pioneer BDR-S13U-X has more sound dampening and a few of the capacitors are a higher spec, but the extra $ it costs isn't worth it.

[markfleener]

Pioneer drives are considered very good, but... the manufacturer has blocked new drives from ripping 4K disks. If it was built on or after 12/22/2022, it won't work, with certain minor exceptions.

The link in my previous comment says...

"MakeMKV now supports pioneer drives for ripping UHD discs", but I just realized that UHD is not really the same as 4K 4096 x 2160, so would an LG drive be best then, which one?

[markfleener]

.....and to add even more to my previous comment, I just realized that UHD not being 4K 4096 x 2160 is irrelevant, the Pioneer drives should be good now.

[flojo]

I bought 5 of these Pioneers for a CD loader project: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08R89FN61

Sadly for some strange reason they return all 0000's for CD sub channel data, so they don't work for the purpose I'm intending, but they do work for Blu-ray/UHD after flashing the appropriate Libre firmware.

[markfleener]

Awesome! I ended up getting one of billy's drives. Was there anything other than MakeMKV required for the matter, like, to include SRT files for subtitles that can be turn on/off? Also, I now can't help but wonder if there will be any glitches from having K-Lite Standard Codec Pack and PowerDVD installed on my computer. Thanks everyone!

[dcoke22]

If you're leaving your files in the .mkv container, you can put the PGS subtitles from the disc in the file. Most playback systems can show them I think. That way there's no need to mess around with downloading or converting .srt subtitles.

[markfleener]

If you're leaving your files in the .mkv container, you can put the PGS subtitles from the disc in the file. Most playback systems can show them I think. That way there's no need to mess around with downloading or converting .srt subtitles.

When you speak of putting the subtitles from the disc in the file, do you mean hard copying the subtitles into the video file? That's something I'm trying to avoid. And when you speak of an .mkv container, do you mean keeping the PGS file with the video file in their own folder (taking it out when wanting to turn off subtitles)?

[dcoke22]

When you speak of putting the subtitles from the disc in the file, do you mean hard copying the subtitles into the video file? That's something I'm trying to avoid. And when you speak of an .mkv container, do you mean keeping the PGS file with the video file in their own folder (taking it out when wanting to turn off subtitles)?

No.

A .mkv file or a .mp4 file is something people refer to as a container format. You can think of a container format as a well known way to store more than one thing in a single file.

The .mkv file is a kind of container format that is an open standard and is quite flexible. It is more flexible than .mp4 files, for example.

Blu-rays store subtitles in the PGS format, an image based format. A common text based format, .srt, is often produced by applying optical character recognition to PGS subtitles.

One of the benefits of the flexibility of the .mkv container is it allows for subtitles to be included in the file.

.mp4 containers generally do not allow subtitles. So, if you're ultimately going to end up with .mp4 files, you either need to burn the subtitles into the movie (aka, hard copy them into the file) or convert the subtitle to .srt and store them along with the .mp4 file. Lots of playback systems like Plex support subtitles in .srt format if they're named the same as the movie and in the same folder.

Obviously, MakeMKV produces .mkv files. In the typical case where you select the movie and the subset of the audio tracks and subtitle tracks that interest you and produce a .mkv file, you end up with everything you need in one file. Lots of playback systems (though not all) can support showing PGS subtitles. If your playback setup supports PGS subtitles and you choose to use the .mkv container format, you can skip all the steps required to produce or find a .srt subtitle for your movie. By choosing to use .mkv files you can include whatever subtitle format you want (PGS, .srt, or whatever) in the file which makes managing a library easier with fewer files to manage.

Something like Plex allows you to turn a subtitle stream on or off as you see fit. .mkv files have a way to mark a particular subtitle stream as the default one to turn on, which Plex generally honors.

It isn't uncommon to end up with a movie with a main audio track and a commentary track. The movie might have forced subtitles for the parts where a character speaks in a foreign language. Then there's the regular subtitle track for all the dialog in the movie. Then there's a subtitle track for the commentary audio in the movie. This could be a single .mkv file with one video stream, two audio streams, and 3 subtitle streams. The main audio and the forced subtitle track would be marked as default. However, if you wanted to watch the movie while listening to the commentary audio with commentary subtitles turned on, just a few clicks makes it so.

If you want to transcode the video and perhaps the audio to end up with a smaller file using something like Handbrake, you can. And you can choose to output the results into a .mkv file. And Handbrake can copy whatever subtitle format you're using into the new file.