Blu Ray drive for Mac Pro (1 Viewer)

[Josh Steinberg]

I also did 2010: The Year We Make Contact. That’s an older disc and I ended up with two version of the movie, the only difference was about 100 mb between the two as the length was identical. The reason I deduced was one had more subtitles and languages. Next will be 2001: A Space Odyssey.

ok, so this one i can explain.

Warner discs have two sets of menus and you’re seeing that in the disc contents when you look at it. One is for the whole world (including US) and the other is for Japan. You can rip either, but the one for Japan just offers English and Japanese languages and may default to Japanese.

I usually find the US one and elect to keep only the English tracks.

Now, about When Worlds Collide... iTunes has it in HD. Occasionally it’s onsale for $4.99, that’s when I got it. Same with War of the Worlds, which they now offer in 4K.

 

[Citizen87645]

So I've been making MKVs of my kids' oft-viewed BDs, mainly because – if you thought pre-menu ads and legal messages were annoying before, they are infuriating with an "impatient child who wants their stories NOW" added to the experience!

Life is so much easier being able to play an MKV off a hard drive.

 

[Josh Steinberg]

Yes, absolutely!

Impatient adults aren’t much better, or maybe I never grew up

I never want to see another Blu-ray TV on disc menu again.

 

[Citizen87645]

Or hear that Disney "swoosh" preamble to 5 minutes of promos.

 

[Josh Steinberg]

Yeah, Disney “fast play” my a$$...

 

[DaveF]

That's why I use AnyDVD to rip to ISO and then extract to MKV: special features.

I watch the ISO as blu-ray in PowerDVD (faster than running off the disc) and check the special features to identify them amongst the myriad files. Often they're easily identified from their length (min:sec). And often there's a "Play All" option for deleted scenes and other such multi-piece features that I can grab and ignore finding all the smaller bits.

I ripped and processed five movies last weekend (well, four, but one was a 4K so I did both blu-ray and UHD versions). It's still a process, but I'm faster at it than I was when I started.

 

[DaveF]

Caveats to special features: Disney DVDs are basically unmanageable. Their '90s or '00s era discs have weird, byzantine special features systems with complex branching menus. It results in dozens, even hundreds, of small special feature files. I have up dealing with them.

And the picture-in-picture special features -- like the Maximum Overdrive Mode on the Watchmen disc -- where small video plays in the corner over the normal movie can be impractical. Sometimes it's actually a second version of the movie with that commentary burned in. Then I just have a whole other version of the movie stored as "Commentary" or such. Not the best, but workable now in Emby, etc. Sometimes, all the little pieces are actually in a single file that can be found and saved as a standalone special feature. I lose the greater context, but it's easier to deal with and takes less space. Sometimes, there are handful of files that are few enough to be individually corralled (and using MKVToolNix, I can merge them into a single file). And sometimes, it's just dozens of small files and not worth dealing with.

 

[Josh Steinberg]

I’m keeping one shelf of discs where I’m simply conceding that they have features I want and are too much of a pain to be worth ripping definitively and there’s a lot of Disney in that group. For those cases, I rip the main movie into my HTPC for ease of watching, and then keep the disc on the shelf for the bonuses.

 

[Nelson Au]

Thanks guys for all the great insights!

Josh, you must have had some experience with Warner discs as you are right, the second version of 2010 had an English and Japanese track. I opted for the larger file without the Japanese, so I guessed right.

About When Worlds Collide, I’d been holding off buying it from iTunes. But if I do see it at that low price, I will buy it! My only hesitation was that as far as I can tell, those files are only playable via iTunes. Maybe I’m wrong and I hope I am, but I didn’t think legally purchased films from iTunes can play on any player other then in iTunes. So Plex and Infuse can’t play them due to DRM. In looking around, I see there are ways around it. I have nothing against iTunes and playing movies purchased from iTunes. It would be nice to be able to access all the files via Plex and Infuse and iTunes too.

 

[Nelson Au]

Dave, I’m not aware of that AnyDVD application. Sounds like a good work flow for you. I’ve been ripping everything, and the use VLC to play the files. Then I can see the length the video is. And I can see the file too to determine what it is. It is a lot more work.

I have not gotten to the Disney discs yet. I guess what that means is it includes everything from Disney, including the Marvel films as well as Disney’s legacy films. I was going to make an MKV file of 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea soon. I’ve only converted Iron Man and I only did the film, not the extras. I see it’s a Paramount release. I didn’t see how Byzantine the extras are.

 

[Nelson Au]

By the way, I’m not sure I’ve heard this Disney swoosh you refer to. But it reminds me of the olden days of Pioneer laser discs and the swoosh you’d hear as it plays the Pioneer logo at the start. Kind of cool. That was it, the only thing you had to sit through the legal card about not stealing the intellectual property. Then the movie started. No trailers, not promos.

 

[Citizen87645]

Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!



BTW, I don't know why the YouTube poster tagged it as "rare." It seems like it's on everything I own!

 

[DaveF]

Dave, I’m not aware of that AnyDVD application. Sounds like a good work flow for you. I’ve been ripping everything, and the use VLC to play the files. Then I can see the length the video is. And I can see the file too to determine what it is. It is a lot more work.

I have not gotten to the Disney discs yet. I guess what that means is it includes everything from Disney, including the Marvel films as well as Disney’s legacy films. I was going to make an MKV file of 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea soon. I’ve only converted Iron Man and I only did the film, not the extras. I see it’s a Paramount release. I didn’t see how Byzantine the extras are.

Just google AnyDVD if you’re interested in learning more.

The recent Marvel and Pixar discs don’t have the special features insanity. I’m speaking about animated classics like Beauty and the Beast and Aladdin. I don’t know how pervasive it is, and if it’s on live action classics like 20k Leagues Under...

 

[Nelson Au]

Dave, I will do a search for AnyDVD as you suggested. I’ll see if it’s something I can figure out.

Josh, I have a new question that I suspect you are uniquely qualified to answer. But certainly not exclusively. I ran the new blu ray of 2001: A Space Odyssey through MakeMKV. ( not the 4K disc, just the blu ray). That took a long time! There was two copies of 2001 made, as was on the 2010 disc, one has more audio options and the second copy has a English and Japanese track. But my quandary is I can’t seem to see the theatrical trailer. I see it as an option when I insert the regular blu ray into my blu ray player, it’s in the extras disc. But MakeMKV is either missing it, or I can’t see it. Am I missing something? Thanks for any insights.

 

[Josh Steinberg]

I actually have not tried ripping 2001 yet (I know, I’m surprised too!) so I’m not sure about where the trailer is hiding. I’m taking a small pause from ripping but PM me if I haven’t gotten you an answer here within a couple weeks and I’ll make it a priority.

 

[Nelson Au]

Thanks Josh. I am a little surprised you have not ripped 2001 yet, but I was thinking after the number of times you’ve recently seen it, you may not be that eager to see it again.

In the mean time, I’ll see if it’s locatable on the old Blu Ray. I’ll let you know.

 

[Josh Steinberg]

If memory serves, on the newer set, all the bonus features got moved to disc 2.

I didn’t rip it yet because it fell into one of those areas where it was a title I was keeping the disc for no matter what. And it’s a movie I tend to wait to see on a big screen vs at home. So it was lower priority than things that I could rip and then put into storage.

 

[Nelson Au]

Josh, yes all the bonus features are on disc 2.

That’s a very good reason why you’ve not converted 2001 to MKV yet. I get it.

It would be interesting to try to get a large projected image at home. Maybe sometime soon, I’ll be able to add a projector to my system. Not the same as a theater screening of course.

 

[Josh Steinberg]

Home PJs are awesome. Whatever is missed from big theaters is nearly compensated by you having the remote, your own favorite chair, and your choice of food.

 

[Nelson Au]

I’ve been very reluctant to go to a theater the last couple of years to see the latest new films. I relaxed that rule so I could go see The Rise of Skywalker. I was reluctant because I began to dislike the crowds, the parking difficulties, etc. I chose to go to try out the new Cinepolis theater that just opened in my area, and it was a very nice experience. I didn’t order food though. Seating was good and no one blocked my view. It was nice and new. Worth the extra cost. But yeah. My home is better and I can get my own food and drink.