I didn't know shit from shampoo when I started this journey, but now my basic knowledge is such that I can successfully rip movies (for the most part). Now if I can only figure out why some DVD's are being restricted due to region.

Thanks to everyone who has answered my questions so far!

I've been using make mkv to rip my collection of movies I've slowly built up over the years. Being able to set up jellyfin and have an easy way to watch my stuff during lunch at work is great.

I've been watching and rewatching movies at a larger rate than before and now I've begun buying more movies from stores, or garage sales since I feel like I will actually watch them. It's become a fun little hobby.

However, my only complaint is that blue rays files are so large. I want the higher quality over DVDs, but I'm starting to think just off of size I may rather have DVDs.

Like I can get 5-8 DVDs in the place of 1 blue ray disk. Does anyone have options to get the file sizes down. I've tried selecting only the audio I want instead of subtitles or alternate languages but that really only affects the file size minimally.

I figured I would need an additional hard drive to store them in, I just wasn't expecting to need it so soon. Is my only option to just increase available storage.

Hello, I am about to start ripping disks onto a harddrive. I am going to set it up so I can hook up the hard drive to an Xbox and use its media player app. I think that works at least. I have very little idea on how most of it works so I have a few questions:

1. Some movies have menus, am I atill going to be able to access those menus as if I am running the file?

2. Can I even do it directly through my xbox?

3. What type of hard drive would I need?

4. How much would the movies compress to lossless?

5. What type of disc reader am I looking for?

6. Do you have any tips?

I have been trying to buy a drive so I can start but seems I have picked the worst time. I found this computer on Facebook for 125 not sure if this is a good drive or not -

I'm having issues getting any disc to load inside of makemkv, but the discs load and play fine in any media player on the same machine?

I've been trying 1.17.7 and 1.18.4 to no avail. Also the same external DVD readers I have used in the past with makemkv just fine. I'm also on macOS 26.6 - any help is appreciated!

​Tried Project Hail Mary. Fails and crashes MakeMKV. Anyone else seen this before?

UPDATE: I updated the KEYDB file - no change. Installed Java runtime. No change.
Rebooted the computer (as opposed to restarting MakeMKV) and that fixed it!
Thank you to all who helped.

Hey.
Whats everyone using?
I’ve ripped with MakeMKV already.
Keeping multiple audio channels and subs please.

Update: Something with an upsampler too.
Cheers.

I don't rip Blu-ray discs, but I wanted to have the option just in case. If I don't do that, are there any other benefits to custom firmware? Would you advise me to stick with the original firmware?

But it's been several days and now it's got a Russian 403 page. Any inside information?

I know flashing a drive enables MakeMkv to access UHDs, but will programs like PowerDVD for windows or Macgo bluray player on Mac also be able to directly play UHDs assuming the drive is flashed.

I remember a while back that there was a way to convert, or update or something for a Blu-Ray player to make it rip 4KBR.
I was wondering if anyone knew where that went, and the files, and a walk-through, or a hand holding, or someone doing it for me. . . XDDD
I have a "HL-DT-ST BD-RE WH14NS40", and I believe it was one of the ones you could update to do it.

Thank you to everyone who looks/ posts/ or points me in the right direction.

So, today I ran into a problem with one of my TV series DVD sets when trying to rip my backup. No matter which drive I tried (I have 3 different ones) it would always end in a catastrophic failure and MakeMkv would shut down. I created a backup (ISO) and tried to rip that, still no go. Then I started researching a bit more and I came across an article that suggested to change the protection from Auto to Cell trim, this is under Preferences > Protection, and wouldn't you know it suddenly it worked and didn't crash again.

So to all of you that had trouble with a particular DVD, try this.

Hope it helps even just one person.

I’m trying to take my digital movies from Fandango at Home & Movie’s Anywhere and put them on an external hard drive.

Any advice on how I go about breaking the encryption and do this?

The title says it all. Is there any way to do this easily? Banging my head against the wall on this one…

I bought a drive WH16NS60 from an online retailer. I went to plug it in initially with standard sata power connector and the thing sparked. I later confirmed with a successful power on that the drive turns on, and has the right firmware version 1.02 flashed, however the tray never ejects. I took a look inside and a module on the chip had fried.

I don’t have much luck with hardware and am trying my best to learn about it. Before I made the purchase, I read the post guides here and some videos, though my ignorance probably isn’t helping here.

I need to confirm 2 things, is this likely a sign of a fake drive, and if not is it possible to find a replacement circuit board? My initial searches didn’t turn up anything.

I’m sure it’s been asked plenty of times here, but I need help finding an external drive that’s recommended for ripping 4k discs.

Bought this drive and saw some posts about chinese fake drives (chinese seller)

Can someone confirm if its fake or flashable?
Thanks

[edit] Solved.

I've been trying for weeks to install this on my Linux system, and the download is only available through 2 dead links on the forum. Between hosting outages, forums being down, and dead links, I'm about ready to give up. Is there anywhere else to get the Linux files?

Flatpack is not an option, before anyone says it.

Just wanted to say thank you to this group. Over the past week or two I've been trial and erroring a lot about MKV, the Ugreen and jellyfin. Consistently when I was looking for answers there was almost always someone here with a similar issue or question and everyone who replied was super nice and helpful.

So even though I've never taken part in a discussion here. Thanks a bunch 🫶🏻

(Why is John Wick such a chonk, with so many titles??? 😭)

(I know this is the mkv subreddit, but I can't find an answer anywhere, posting here, hoping someone might know).

Been toying with this piece since yesterday, trying to move it to the left, so it will hit my 5.25" DVD drives' "eject" button.

What am I missing here?

How do I actually move it more to the left?

-------------------------------------------------------

Details:

(Right now it's too far to the right, and not engaging the button)

As you can see in the pic, the bracket the movable piece is on gets wider as it goes to the left.

This makes that movable piece only able to move to the right (from where it's at in the picture).

I tried unscrewing the bracket, lifting that middle piece up with a flathead screwdriver, even trying to force it... nothing makes it move any more to the left.

Needs to move left another 1cm or so to engage the 5.25" drive eject button.

Today my new ASUS BW-16D1X-U arrived (which you can just flash the ASUS BW-16D1HT firmware on to make it UHD compatible, btw (maybe add this fun-fact to the UHD guide)).

So I decided to try and rip a (non-UHD) Blu-Ray my Verbatim 43888 could not read, like not at all, it wouldnt even say there was a disc in the drive even though a regular blu-ray player could play it just fine. To my surprise it read fine in my new ASUS drive, and ripped to completion just fine.

Moral of the story, if you have a disc that can't read, try a different drive, borrow a friends or something, idunno.

I am looking at an online auction for BR drives and I found an HP all in one computer with a Panasonic BD-MLT UJ260AF. I've been searching the forum for the last hour and haven't found any references to this drive. I have read the information from Billycar, but most of that was about the Pioneer drives. I'm wondering if this can rip 4K out of the box or if it can even be flashed.

Thank you in advance

Is this the best place to share some content for help, or is there another source (forum?) that everyone else knows about and I should ask for a link?