I've just took delivery of a film on Blu-ray and the disc has a small scratch on it. The Blu-ray is actually one of three titles for a special film night I have planned, so I don't really want to watch it before hand to check whether the disc will playback without problems. So my question is... if MakeMKV is able to rip the disc without reporting errors, is that a reliable indicator that the disc will play in my Blu-ray player without freezing, skipping, stuttering etc.?
I'm hoping it is because it'd be great to be able to verify the functionality of a disc without having to watch and listen to every second of the content on the disc.
NOTE: Please don't tell me to just return the disc. Not only is that an undesirable option in this particular case. Even if it were a good option, I'd still like to know the answer to my question.
Is MakeMKV a reliable way of detecting playback issues?
Re: Is MakeMKV a reliable way of detecting playback issues?
The short answer is no, as a clean rip seems to be easier to achieve than a "clean play". I've tested this before and I've had multiple Blu-rays that I ripped just fine and despite this, they were still showing playback errors. The good news is that if you clean your Blu-ray disc with a clean, slightly damp microfiber cloth and then dry it with another clean, dry microfiber cloth before putting it back in the drive, it is likely (not 100% guaranteed but likely) to get rid of most stuttering issues. As it turns out, the protective chemical haze that comes with movie Blu-rays is far more likely to cause issues than "a small scratch". I've been able to rip (and play) discs that were full of scratches with few issues (Blu-rays are somewhat scratch-resistant); whereas even a small spot of haze could give me some serious trouble for both ripping and playing.if MakeMKV is able to rip the disc without reporting errors, is that a reliable indicator that the disc will play in my Blu-ray player without freezing, skipping, stuttering etc.?
Re: Is MakeMKV a reliable way of detecting playback issues?
My experience is different than Sayaka's. A common post on this forum is "MakeMKV won't rip my disc but it plays fine in my blu-ray player." Personally, I don't think I've ever ended up with a clean rip that resulted in playback errors.
Lots of blu-ray players can play files from storage plugged into a USB port on the player. If your player supports this you could play a rip of your disc to reduce the likelihood of a disc reading error.
Lots of blu-ray players can play files from storage plugged into a USB port on the player. If your player supports this you could play a rip of your disc to reduce the likelihood of a disc reading error.
Re: Is MakeMKV a reliable way of detecting playback issues?
Actually, I think I may be able to narrow my issues down to specific causes.
The issues I had (nearly) always happened with discs that were relatively new, and that I did not need to clean before ripping. When I got playback errors, they usually went away after using the microfiber cloth trick.
I can give an example if you'd like : Hazbin Hotel Disc 1 ripped just fine without needing to be cleaned, but when doing direct disc playback I got stuttering when I got to the Loser, Baby part (and I believe the stuttering always happened near the exact same part of the song). After thoroughly cleaning the disc and switching to a Pioneer drive for good measure, the issue seemed to go away.
EDIT : Also, I should point out that I do not own a TV-compatible Blu-ray player at the moment. I am aware that these players usually have less trouble with some discs. I was talking about direct playback with a PC/Mac-compatible Blu-ray drive.
The one exception where I can confirm that I was able to get a full rip but, even without the haze, ended up with a disc that was nearly unplayable was with a defective Walking Dead disc. That disc gave both my LG and Pioneer drives serious issues during ripping, but I was able to get a full rip with flawless playback eventually, whereas the disc defects would cause so much stuttering during direct disc playback that the "faulty" episode was basically unwatchable.
The issues I had (nearly) always happened with discs that were relatively new, and that I did not need to clean before ripping. When I got playback errors, they usually went away after using the microfiber cloth trick.
I can give an example if you'd like : Hazbin Hotel Disc 1 ripped just fine without needing to be cleaned, but when doing direct disc playback I got stuttering when I got to the Loser, Baby part (and I believe the stuttering always happened near the exact same part of the song). After thoroughly cleaning the disc and switching to a Pioneer drive for good measure, the issue seemed to go away.
EDIT : Also, I should point out that I do not own a TV-compatible Blu-ray player at the moment. I am aware that these players usually have less trouble with some discs. I was talking about direct playback with a PC/Mac-compatible Blu-ray drive.
The one exception where I can confirm that I was able to get a full rip but, even without the haze, ended up with a disc that was nearly unplayable was with a defective Walking Dead disc. That disc gave both my LG and Pioneer drives serious issues during ripping, but I was able to get a full rip with flawless playback eventually, whereas the disc defects would cause so much stuttering during direct disc playback that the "faulty" episode was basically unwatchable.
This.Lots of blu-ray players can play files from storage plugged into a USB port on the player. If your player supports this you could play a rip of your disc to reduce the likelihood of a disc reading error.