Blu-Ray/HD-DVD Rip & Playback

[ntwp13]

I got a shiny new 2TB drve from Santa, now I want to rip my HD-DVD and Blu-Ray movies to my HTPC for playback in 7MC.

1) what is the best way to rip disks, Priority #1 is quality. I store DVDs uncompressed in folders.

2) What do I need for playback. Right now I have a 5.1 system using SPDI/F, but HD audio is planned for the basement theater some day.

Thanks.

[mikinho]

There are many different opinions on what the “best” approach to storing Blu-ray movies.  I don’t buy many movies anymore so I keep everything in as close to the original format as possible.  This means using either AnyDVD HD or DVDFab to “Rip to Image”.  Even though Windows Media Center and TMT5 support playback from folder I continue to use ISO format to ensure future compatibility.  Both AnyDVD HD and DVDFab support ISO and folder (BDMV) output formats.

From there I use my Mount Image add-in and Virtual CloneDrive to view and mount the ISO within Windows 7 Media Center.  At that point TMT5 is my preferred Blu-ray playback software.

[skirge01]

I’m using Another EAC3to GUI Plus to rip to MKVs.  This allows me to extract and include only the audio and video tracks I want, including removing the core audio track from the HD audio stream, plus throwing in subtitles (both forced and English), as well as throwing in cover art for good measure.  Removing the core audio is probably overkill for most, but it’s what I want.  Why should I keep the core audio if I always want to play the HD audio and my setup supports it?  I use MKVs because I prefer single files and they’re very flexible.

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