Blu-ray ripper review

Trough surfing the Internet for some time, I've collected dozens of Blu-ray rippers developed for Windows and Mac user. With the special intention of figuring out which one is the best of all, I've tested nearly each of them, and finally pushed out this review to show my own opinion about the top 3 Blu-ray rippers summarized by myself. Hope it will be of some help for you, and any comment and criticism are appreciated. Now, let's have a look at the 3 BD rippers one by one together.

No.1 Pavtube Blu-Ray Ripper



Pavtube Blu-Ray Ripper is the best one among all the splitters I have tested. It is an independent DVD and Blu-Ray ripper with Windows 7 support, which is capable of decrypting unprotected and protected standard DVDs and Blu-ray disks without the support of third party software.

With full Blu-ray disc support, it is capable of removing copyright protections of almost all BD discs, no matter BD+, or AACS, even MKB Version > 12 is supported as well. With advanced audio technology, it is capable of reading all audio tracks of a BD disc, including Dolby TureHD Audio and DTS-HD Master Audio, which will never let you miss out your mother tongue in the movie.

Pavtube Blu-Ray Ripper can rip and convert your Blu-ray movies and general DVDs into other popular HD or SD media formats, like AVI, ASF, MPEG, MP4, WMV, MKV, MOV, FLV, SWF, RM, 3GP, AAC, AC3, MP3, OGG, WAV, WMA, M4A, etc., so that you can playback them on your beloved media devices such as iPod, iPhone, Apple TV, Zune, Blackberry, PSP, PS3, Creative Zen, Nexus One, PS3, WD TV, Xbox, etc., or import them to Sony Vegas, Adobe Premiere to make your own movies, or do something else as you like. Moreover, it has a unique option called “Copy”, through which you can directly backup your DVD .vob files and Blu-ray .m2ts files to the hard drive of your PC or an external hard drive, and still keep the format of .vob and .m2ts without any quality loss.

Additionally, this Blu-ray ripper allows user adjusting video and audio parameters like bit rate, frame rate , sample rate, aspect ratio, audio channels, etc., that means you are able to compress the file size of your Blu-ray discs according to your own requirements.

Best of all, it is with the enhanced support for Blu-ray subtitle and audio track conversion. Once you selected on the certain Blu-ray file, it will be able to read out all the subtitle info and audio info included in the BD file, and list them out in a detailed way as below. In that way, you can select your needed subtitle and audio track to do conversion at will.



It is really affordable, only $49 US dollars, the cheapest one of all the BD rippers I've ever seen.

Pavtube Blu-Ray Ripper also comes with a Mac version - Pavtube Blu-Ray Ripper for Mac, whose functionalities are the same with the above mentioned Windows version, and both are in the same retail price US $49, and the only deference lies in that one is for Windows user, and the other is for Mac user (Snow Leopard is supported as well). Besides it, I have not found another Mac program which is better than this one. Maybe it is time for software manufacturers to develop more Blu-ray applications for Mac users.



No.2: AnyDVD HD



AnyDVD HD comes with the same functionality as AnyDVD, but with additional features for full Blu-ray Disc and HD DVD support, including decryption of Blu-ray (BD+ and AACS) and HD DVD (AACS) movies.

By comparison, it lacks some functions that Pavtube Blu-Ray Ripper has, namely, it does not support adjusting customized settings like bit rate, resolution, etc, also changing subtitle and audio track are both unavailable. Additionally, when it comes to multiple output formats and file size compression, it nearly can do nothing about them. So to some extent, it is not as powerful as Pavtube, and that is why I put it in the second place.

Of course, the good thing is that AnyDVD HD is expert in removing all sorts of BD protections, which is the most important feature that some other BD rippers lacked.

It costs 63 euros, equals to $92 US dollars, much expensive than Pavtube Blu-Ray Ripper.

The pity is that AnyDVD HD does not have a Mac version, so Mac users can not find an identical solution from it like that of Pavtube Blu-Ray Ripper.

No.3: Top Blu-ray Ripper



It is capable of decrypting blu-ray disc s and general DVDs to all the popular video and audio formats, like FLV, SWF, MOV, 3GP, 3GPP2, MKV, AVI, MPEG, MPEG4, WMV, RM, etc. Moreover, it supports previewing the movie before ripping, clipping the movie freely, snapshot the images in the preview, automatically shutting down the computer, etc., and supports batch ripping. All these functions are all had by Pavtube Blu-Ray Ripper.

It seems that Top Blu-ray Ripper has nearly the similar functions as Pavtube Blu-Ray Ripper. But why do I put it in the third place? That is totally because of its inferior decrypting ability. Pavtube Blu-Ray Ripper and AnyDVD HD can absolutely decrypt all the Blu-ray files you throw at it, while Top Blu-ray Ripper sometimes can only work on some of them selectively. In another word, Top Blu-ray Ripper can not decrypt all Blu-ray protections, especially BD+, and MKBV > 10.

What’s more, it only supports customizing video size, and audio channels, but not supporting adjusting bit rate, frame rate, sample rate, and other audio and video parameters to allow user optimizing their conversion, and also, changing/selecting subtitle and audio track language are unavailable as well.

The price of Top Blu-ray Ripper is $79.99 US dollars, much higher than that of Pavtube Blu-Ray Ripper, but cheaper than that of AnyDVD HD.

How to rip and convert Blu-ray disc to MKV?

This tutorial is written for those who wanna rip Blu-ray movie off the disc for enjoying on PC and home theatre system. As we know, Blu-ray discs are well guarded by the copy protections such as Blu-Ray AACS encryption, region codes and BD+ copy protection. Although It is not an easy job to remove all these protections to access the movie, Pavtube Blu-ray Ripper is capable of removing the annoying copy protections and make your Blu-ray discs an open resource for your home server. How to convert Blu-ray movie to playable videos for enjoying and meanwhile suffers least quality loss? A good solution is rip the Blu-ray movie to MKV/ HD MKVformat. And you could find below a step-by-step guide for ripping Blu-Ray to MKV:

Step 1. Prepare for the conversion. Download trial version of Pavtube Blu-Ray Ripper and install the application. Connect a BD drive with you PC and insert the Blu-ray disc you want to rip. Double-click the icon to run Pavtube Blu-ray Ripper.

Step 2. Load the Blu-ray disc.
Click on the “DVD Rom” button to import Blu-ray movie from the disc, or click on “DVD Folder” button and browse to your target files. It takes a few seconds to load the whole movie, so be patient. A view log will pop up when loading process completes, you can simply click "OK" to confirm or press Ctrl+O to close it. Now all the M2TS files in file list are checked, right-click and choose "Uncheck All". What you need is the main movie---the one with longest duration. Check it and leave unwanted M2TS files unchecked. You can rename the output file by clicking on the file name in Destination File column. Right below the file list you could find "Subtitle" and "Audio" droplist, where you can set output subtitles and dubbings to the languages you like.



Step 3. Set output format.

Step 4. Start conversion
......

Learn more: http://www.pavtube.com/guide/blu-ray-to-mkv.html

Remove BD+ protections from Blu-ray movies on Mac

BD+ is a technology used to prevent unauthorized copies of Blu-ray discs and the playback of Blu-ray media using unauthorized devices, which is more powerful than the former AACS protections. This article aims to provide a solution for removing BD+ protections from your Blu-ray movies. Follow this way, and then you can take full advantage of your own purchased BD movies in your own ways.

Required software:

Pavtube Blu-Ray Ripper for Mac

Pavtube Blu-ray Ripper for Mac is a powerful tool specially designed for Mac users to rip, convert, backup and edit both Blu-ray and DVD movies. The source file could be from Blu-ray disc, DVD, Blu-ray and DVD folder, ISO and IFO image file. The ripper is capable of decrypting region codes, and almost all copy protections, including AACS, BD+. Besides backup movies to hard drive, it also supports output other popular audio and video formats to playback on your beloved portable devices such as iPod, iPhone, Zune, Blackberry, PSP, Creative Zen, Xbox 360, Apple TV etc.

Well, following is the solution:

1. Download and install Pavtube Blu-Ray Ripper for Mac, after that, launch this program and click "DVD Folder" or "IFO File" to load BD movies into this program.



2. If you just want to rip the main movie, you can tick the file with the longest duration time only. Afterwards, click on the pull down menu of "Subtitle" and "Audio" to select your wanted language. The preview window is able to show the effect of your dynamic switching on subtitle and audio track in real time.

3. Click the drop-down list of "Format" to select output format, and if you want to retain the original quality to full extent regardless of the output format, you can choose "Copy", and then "Directly Copy".

4. Click "Settings" button to adjust audio and video parameters like codec, aspect ratio, bit rate, frame rate, sample rate, and audio channels.



5. Click "Convert" button to start BD ripping and BD+ copy protection removing. As long as the ripping work is finished, you can click "Open" button to get the output files which are in your desired format and without neither AACS nor BD+ copy protection.

Additional Tips:

Generally, Blu-ray media has a large file size because of its high definition quality, so the ripping time will be longer than that of standard DVDs. To avoid waiting around, you can click "Option" button to tick off the checkbox "Shut down the computer after conversion". Do remember clicking on "OK" button to save your settings.



If you are a Windows user, you can free download this Blu-ray ripper to remove BD+ protections on your PC.

How to convert TiVo files to MOV, MPEG, AVI, MP4, FLV, WMV, and VOB on Mac

As we all know there is no certain software developed for Mac users to transfer and replay TiVo DVR recorded files as "TiVo Desktop" doing on Windows. But if you want to do format conversion between TiVo file and other video formats on your Mac directly, what is your method? My way is to use Pavtube Video Converter for Mac to achieve my goal. Once you are sure you have the same requirement as I do, follow these steps to find the solution.

Requirements:

- TiVo recordings: they can be from your own TiVo DVR or from the DVR of your friends

- TiVo Media Access Key: it is a specific 10-digit number assigned to every TiVo account holder. If your TiVo source file are from your friends, then ask him/her for it.

- Pavtube Video Converter for Mac

Step 1: Launch Pavtube Video Converter for Mac and click "Add" button to load TiVo files

In the first attempt, a dialog window will pop up as below, just click "OK" button.



After that, the following window will allow you to enter your Media Access Key, just insert it, and click "OK" button to confirm. What you should do next is clicking on "Add" button to load your TiVo files again. Or you can directly drag and drop the file into this program. Meanwhile, suppose you want to let it alone and do something else during the conversion, you can tick "Shut down the computer after conversion".



Step 2: Select output format

Click on the drop-down list of "Format" to select output format. This utility supports a wide range of output format, including MOV, MPEG, AVI, MP4, FLV, WMV, VOB, and customized formats for iPod, iPhone, PSP, PS3, Apple TV, BlackBerry, etc. Question about new videos on youtube discussion about take part in.



Step 3: Do advanced settings

Click on "Settings" button to adjust audio and video parameters like codec, aspect ratio, bit rate, frame rate, sample rate, and audio channels. If you are not good at this step, you can totally skip it. By the way, if you wanna combine multiple files to be as a single file, you can tick the checkbox "Merge into one file" in the main interface.



Step 4: Click "Convert" button to start conversion

Once finished, you can get the output files via clicking on "Open" button with ease.

How to rip DVD to MKV with AC3 audio to watch over WD TV?

If you have a WD TV HD Media Player, Pavtube DVD Ripper would be very useful------ it helps you to rip DVDs into all the video and audio formats that are compatible with WD TV. In particular, DVD ripper for Mac could generate MKV HD video with Dolby AC3 5.1 surround sound, which is right what an audiophile requires, and works well with most home theatre system. Is it a nice idea to turn your DVD collections (even your friends DVD collections) into digital movie library on your wide HDTV for watch whenever you like? The following guide focuses on how to rip DVD disc to HD MKV video clips with 5.1 channels. You could download the clean trial version of Pavtube DVD Ripper from here. The trial version provides full access to the functions so that you could test the conversion quality. The application is proved to works stably on Windows 7.

Step One. Getting started
Put DVD disc in DVD-ROM and run DVD Ripper for Mac and the interface below will pop up. Click “DVD Folder” to load in DVD movie. All the contents in the disc will be listed in directory. Expand the directory to check each episode. If you would like to join all the episodes together, check the box of Merge into one.

In the following guide I will show you how to convert M2TS to MPEG with the converter.

Step Two. Adjusting audio and video settings
Right below the file list lays the “Audio” option, where you could adjust the dubbing to your native language. You could view the files in preview window. Then click “Settings” and customize advanced audio and video parameters. Since we’re talking about 5.1 sound, a recommendable configuration could be HD Video-> MKV HD Video and set audio codec to “AC3”, Channels to “6”. Do not forget to confirmyour settings by clicking “OK”.

Step Three. Ripping DVD to MKV and get 5.1 sound
Finally click on “Convert” button to start ripping DVD disc. DVD ripping is time-consuming. You could set auto shutdown in progress window or leave it there and come back later (the ripper will tell you how long it takes).

After conversion what you need is to transfer the converted MKV files to portable storage and have it connected with your WD TV player. Connect the WD TV player with your home theatre system and you will be able to enjoy the ripped movie with 5.1 surround sound.

Convert M2TS to MPEG with MTS/ M2TS Converter

“I wish to convert M2TS files to an alternative format to send to my friends. I simply want to convert them, not edit the files as most information based around. Is there a tool that will do this?” The above question was asked by one of my friends who just bought a Sony HDR-XR100. If you Search M2TS converter in Google or Yahoo you will find there are too many applications to choose from. For me, Pavtube MTS/ M2TS Converter is the best choice, since it supports various output formats and converts MTS and M2TS files with favorable speed. It is featured with certain editing options yet very simple to use. In the following guide I will show you how to convert M2TS to MPEG with the converter.

An easy guide to convert M2TS to MPEG
Firstly, please make sure the M2TS Converter has been downloaded and installed. You may download its free trail version from here. It is clean program with no limitation in function.

Step 1: Import M2TS files
Launch Pavtue MTS/ M2TS Converter and the window below will pops up. Click the Add button on the upper left and navigate to your M2TS files location, select those you want to convert and click Open. Now you can find the selected M2TS videos in file list. You can select any of them and click play button to preview.

Step 2: Set output format and output folder
After you added M2TS files, you can select an output format for each video file and specify a directory on your computer to save the output files. Click the Format bar and follow Common Video to find MPEG-1, MPEG-2 and MPEG-4 in the expanded list. When set output folder, you can either type in save path in Output box or click the icon folder and browse to the destination folder.Question about new videos on youtube discussion about take part in.

In order to set advanced audio and video parameter, please click Settings. Here you can set video size, frame rate, aspect ratio, audio channel etc.

Step 3: Start converting M2TS to MPEG
Click Convert button and the selected M2TS files will be converted at once. If you would like to join several files together, just select these files and check the Merge into one box before click Convert. You may check the converting progress and set auto shutdown in the convert window.

Tip: Footages shot by some camcorders may ends up interlaced. Juggled edges and ghosting occurs when you preview the M2TS files. In that case you can set deinterlace effect to eliminate the combing. Follow Edit->Effect->Deinterlacing.

To learn more information about Pavtube MTS/ M2TS Converter, please click here.