Search for tools to extract Blu-ray data.
Search for tools to extract Blu-ray data.
I previously relied on MakeMKV for ripping Blu-rays and converting them with Handbrake, but after Beta release I'm seeking a more affordable or free alternative. A £20 solution would suffice, but £50 feels excessive given its frequency of use. Are there any other tools offering comparable features at a lower cost or even for free? I’m open to using raw formats like .mp4 or .m4v if that’s acceptable. So far, finding suitable options has been challenging. SOLVED – thanks to @ Captain Chaos
Sadly yes, for encoding files there are several reasons. These large files, around 30GB or more, are often too big—especially with h.265 support you can significantly shrink their size without noticeably affecting video quality. This also boosts compatibility; if I need to play them in formats that only support .mp4 and not .mkv, the latter is far less common. Unfortunately, few players currently decode h.265, which limits its usefulness right now. I have plenty of free storage, so I encode them for efficiency. Knowing I’ll eventually run out of space, encoding each file helps preserve it longer and avoids having to encode everything at once, which would be very time-consuming.
50 EUR is quite a sum. Still, I intend to purchase many more films and enjoy the convenience of using software I already know and trust. Likely I’ll end up getting a license. There’s plenty of room here—6.5 out of 12TB used on the NAS—and the prices for larger HDDs keep dropping, so when I need more space it’ll be affordable to upgrade. By then, those HDDs will probably have reached the end of their lifespan.
I encountered that list earlier but had never heard anyone with any background compare them to MakeMKV. I experimented with a few in demo mode, though extracting a Blu-ray disk sometimes proved tricky and other times they preferred minimal control settings, leading to suboptimal results that took hours. MakeMKV handled this well by applying almost no compression, producing files quickly. Acrock looks promising but requires slower encoding instead of letting you handle large raw files. It’s only £5 cheaper than MakeMKV, so I think it’s worth choosing the more reliable option.
Capacity becomes more affordable over time, meaning the longer you retain your existing drives, the lower the price per TB will be when you eventually upgrade. It's also worth noting that data density continues to rise, allowing you to achieve greater storage in each SATA port or drive rack.