Conversion

[BDNewbie]

Can MakeMKV convert files that are already ripped to the hard drive?

[mike admin]

Can MakeMKV convert files that are already ripped to the hard drive?

For DVD - absolutely yes.
For Blu-ray - it should, but in current version it can likely fail. It also depends on how you ripped the files - if files are encrypted then you will need either VID or VUK, and if you don't know what they are then it is hard to explain. If files are already decrypted then it should work just fine, but it was not tested very well. Please try it and post the results here.

[landoncube]

six months later, but here's a taker...

I have a ton of BD movies decrypted and ripped iso files. I would love to be able to play them on my WD HDTV.

I am excited about MKVs possibilities. I will download and look around. I hope that I don't have to convert all the files. I have close to 100 Blu-ray titles. What is the general drill, will I be making a new file for each movie?

thanks

[Chiasmos]

Yes, MakeMKV will create mkv's for "each movie", according to your selections, and you will be delighted with the playback on the WDTV.

The WDTV does play BD in most cases, so don't they play for you? ISO playback can be problematic, producing random choppiness and
stuttering on the WDTV , but it is noted, that ripping the original BD files, and not as ISO, seems to play very well with WDTV, and it even
plays audio with ac3, DD 5.1, DTS 5.1 and 6.1 DTS-ES, but the HD Bluray audio tracks are unsupported, but that is where "MakeMKV" will
provide Audio that will play with the WDTV.

Enjoy and please provide some feedback on some of the results.

[landoncube]

Okay, here we go...

I have downloaded MakeMKV and selected my Elby CloneDrive as the source.

I am saving the new file to a 500G Passport. It looks like about 45 minutes to save, or 1G/minute.

I am conflicted with the expectations. On one hand if the MKV plays well, I won't have to pony up $215 for a Popcorn Hour. On the other, I would have to convert all of my iso files to mkv or buy another five 1TB WD hard drives to match my current storage.

If I do get good 1080p and DTS out of this MKV file, perhaps I can just rip iso to mkv four or five movies at a time and delete them when I want to take new ones to the WD HDTV. I can save all of the isos as the first backup.

Am I missing anything obvious? I am starting to think that a whole house networked Popcorn Hour would save a lot of steps and moving of files and hard drives...

[landoncube]

I have converted three movies successfully. My HDTV reports that they are 1080p and I think I believe it.

I do prefer the iso format of the entire disc in one file. This is a bit messy having 17 files for each film, but, unlike my isos, at least they play!!!

I hate to have to convert all of these movies, but maybe wd hard drives are getting cheap enough to buy a few more. I can't see deleting my isos!

Any comments and tips would be greatly appreciated. BTW, I am averaging about 1:40 to convert a BD iso to mkv.
Thinking about the multiple files, maybe I will delete all of them save the main movie file...

[landoncube]

Okay, I am learning.

Instead of renaming the movie file before conversion, which creates the multiple file result, I 'taught' the program where to put the MKV. This created a nice single folder with the movie name on it.

I will continue converting and report as I figure out what I am doing...

[landoncube]

No way to convert multiple movies at once is there?

It would be handy to queue up five or ten to process while I sleep.

[subslug]

I just curious what size MKV files you're ending up with on the BD?

My regular DVDs are ending up about anywhere from 3 to 6Gb depending on the length of movie. I try and only select the main movie during the process.
I'm one of those types who really couldn't care less about the extra features and even no menus isn't a deal breaker for me.

[landoncube]

The conversion is chopping about 10% off of the original file. I am starting with Blu-ray movies that range from 23 to 49G.

[subslug]

OMG! That is a huge file even reduced by 10%.

Files that size sort of make a 1Tb HD seem not so big. I sort of wished MakeMKV crunched the files down even another 10%, I'm not sure you would really lose that much quality and another 10% would really add up in storage space in the long run.

An option to convert multiple movies might be nice, assuming you had several DVD drives. Or I guess in your case converting previously ripped files.

[mkv420]

MakeMKV should first focus on getting the packaging to MKV flawless (do one thing, do it well). The reason most people don't change the encoding of the audio/video is because of the amount of time involved, especially with formats like h264. After you have things packaged up in MKV, you should be able to find something that takes an MKV, unpacks it, encodes the audio and/or video and packages it back into a MKV. Integrating that into MakeMKV would be useful in the future, but I think the focus should be on correctly extracting and packaging into MKV first.

[liebowa]

MakeMKV should first focus on getting the packaging to MKV flawless (do one thing, do it well).

Maybe getting a bit off of the original topic here...

But I could NOT AGREE MORE! There is not other tool out there that does what this tool does so simply: I place a Blu-ray disc in the drive, and 60 minutes later I have an MKV file which I can then use on my WDTV.

This program is EXACTLY the functionality that I, and obviously others, are looking for. We don't need the bells/whistles.

So, I would hope that if they do start adding options, that they either

• - make this a "lite" standalone version
  - or, make this a standalone component - or core - of those tools that can be build upon, but not required to install

Again, just my opinion...

[subslug]

I'll agree it does a pretty nice job doing exactly what it was designed to do. It's a very nice tool for making WDTV files.

If I had to ask for one feature to add it would simply be to name the files it creates from the disk title. I realize it places the files in named folders but, I would rather the files were named.....anyway, doing it myself is no big deal.