Hardware considerations for MakeMKV ?

[HolgiB]

Hi all,

I have searched through the web and various threads in this forum but unfortunately found no answer. Hence I am writing this posting.
For now I only have a Blu Ray SAP plus a few discs but since I have already a HTPC connected to the TV it seems like a logical step to copy all my Blu-Rays to the HDDs similar than my DVDs.

Do I need to consider special Blu Ray drive functionatlity when buying a BD drive which needs to work with MakeMKV under Linux ?

For now I was planing to buy an external Blu-Ray drive with USB connection and burning capabilities. Should I prefer certain brands ?

Folks over at d9 mentioned that I should stay away from LG because they tend to rip slow.

TIA,
HolgiB

[SorenM]

Personally, I've had experience with two blu ray drives under Linux - first an external LG Super Multi Blue burner, and then an internal Samsung SH-B123L.

I cannot vouch for the LG drive and MakeMKV compatibility since I didn't discover MakeMKV until after getting the Samsung drive, and don't really use the LG any more. However, do not remember any specific speed issues with the LG drive.

I can however state that I have experienced no compatibility issues what so ever with the Samsung drive - so far I must have used it with MakeMKV to rip at least 50 blu rays and 200 DVDs.

[crowfax]

I have 1 unbranded slim drive, a Samsung slim drive and a full size external Plextor drive and they all work fine with MakeMKV under Linux.

[Pajoe]

I have an ASUS BW-12B1ST/BLK/G/AS 12X Blu-ray Internal Burner Drive with Disc Encryption - Black - Retail Box that was on sale back in August and so far has been great, even streaming works pretty good with the exception that some times the makemkv UpNP server will crash when I stop the Blu Ray movie play. We use an AIOS HD media player that does a pretty good job with 1080p via UpNP as well as bitstreaming the hd audio and works well with makemkv UpNP streaming - no configuration needed, just slect UpNP and the makemkv server shows up. Simple process , stick in Blu-Ray, start makemkv and under file select stream, on AIOS HD media play connected to TV select UpNp, makemkv,title,and file to play. It takes a short time, less than 2 or 3 minutes including walking downstairs to the TV.

Makemkv is a must have application for linux users wanting to enjoy easy to use Blu-Ray streaming and backup of Blu-ray tittles you own. Well it works with DVDs too but we seldom use dvd these days.

On edit: Streaming allows us to enjoy the movie at 1080P with full hd audio prior to deciding to use Handbrake to rip it to 720P and it also lets me decide if I want to keep the HD audio which is a large file or just go with the 5.1 Other linux programs you may want are mkvmergegui and media info . Mkvmerge allows you to move the various tracks, including blu ray subtitles, sound tracks etc to your .mkv rip made by Handbrake. After you use Hanbrake to make your rip, start mkvmergegui and add the Handbrake rip and the original .mkv file from makemkv and select which tracks you want in your finished rip. You may need to make a few to get the idea of what you like but afterwards it is pretty easy to do.

[HolgiB]

Hi all,

1st thanks for all your responses. Seems the forums mailing function didn't work. At least I did not get any notification about replies. Strange...

Anyhow, I have bought now a LG BP20NS20. Works pretty nicely with MakeMKV under Windows 7 x64. Unfortunately my main PC (a Linux box running Xubuntu) is not as beefy as my Windows gaming PC (AMD E350 with 2x1.6GHz vs. Phemom Quadcore with 4x3GHz). I am afraid that my E350 will not be able to provide enough CPU power to rip BDs in a reasonable amount of time.

BTW: Makemkv seems to have issues with certain BDs during ripping. I had the app dying two times during the rip process.
Is this normal ? I would rather expect that MakeMKV produces some dump files and gets SCSI errors when accessing the drive.

The candidates for this behaviour were Predator (Hunter Edition) and Alien from the Anthology box. The MakeMKV GUI exits with an error, the console app stays in the background and I am unable to kill the thread.

Regards,
HolgiB

[Woodstock]

SCSI errors generally mean that the drive can't read the disk. MakeMKV waits as it tries.

As for "ripping speed", that is less a function of the CPU than the drives. My main Windows box has about 4x the CPU power as my backup machine, but the backup rips much more quickly. The initial opening of the disk (when the CSS is decrypted) is slower, but the drives make up for it when it comes to pulling the data off.