Top Blu-ray Ripper Reviews: MakeMKV vs. DVDfab vs. ByteCopy

Blu-ray movie are more popular! Also increased are relative products, Blu-ray players, PS3, Blu-ray rippers etc. To protect the expensive Blu-ray Discs from scratching, more and more people are tending to make a backup of their Blu-ray collections. As an experienced user of various Blu-ray ripper tools, the author of this post is pleased to help beginners find their best fit. The following passages take a brief review of three top Blu-ray rippers: MakeMKV, DVDfab and ByteCopy.

MakeMKV Review




MakeMKV is a nice choice for those who feel like to make lossless copy of their Blu-ray and DVD collections. The software does one thing- converting the video clips from encrypted disc into a set of MKV files, preserving most information but not changing it in any way- and does it well. It is very easy to remove unwanted audio or subtitle tracks and pretty fast to back up a Blu-ray. The copying of Blu-ray Avatar took only 86 minutes. All video streams, audio tracks and subtitles are included in resulting MKV file.

Import source: Blu-ray Disc/folder/ISO, DVD

Export file format: .mkv (with original codecs)

To add- MKV (also known as Matroska) is a container file format, in which there can be many audio, video and subtitles streams, allowing the user to store a complete movie in a single file. Practically this means that it is possible to put entire movie with multiple sound and subtitle tracks, chapters and movie thumbnail into single file.

MakeMKV allows for a 30-day trial, and $50 USD is all you pay for lifetime Blu-ray ripping feature. Its DVD ripping feature always stays free, so let’s say thank you to the generous developer of MakeMKV.
  
DVDfab Blu-ray Ripper Review



DVDfab used to stand for an excellent free DVD ripper. Now we know they can do more (and ask for more too). DVDfab Blu-ray Ripper decrypts and rips Blu-ray title to various video files playable on next generation consoles like PS3 and Xbox 360, HD player like WD TV Live, or mobile devices like iPod, iPhone, iPad, etc. Unlike MakeMKV, it exports a lot of video codecs and formats:

Video: MPEG-4, H.264, MP4, MKV, AVI, WMV, M2TS, TS etc.

Audio: MP3, MP4, M4A, WMA, WAV, AAC, AC3, DTS, etc.

So you see the differences here. With MakeMKV you get lossless Blu-ray backupbut only in MKV format; while with DVDfab you lose original Blu-ray quality but get much smaller movie clips in desired format. A preferred feature of DVDfab is their “Lighting speed”, i.e., multi-core CPUs and NVIDIA CUDA support. By taking advantage of CUDA accelerating, the conversion time is greatly shorted.
  
Everyone can evaluate the trial for 30 days before it stops work. To continue using the software, you can buy a one-year license of DVDfab Blu-ray Ripper at $60 USD and $105.6 USD for lifetime license. If you purchase Blu-ray Ripper and DVD Ripper in bundle, it’ll be $93.5 for one-year use and $154 for lifetime. Pretty high price, isn’t it? Especially when you can get a similar Blu-ray Ripper at much lower price?
  
Pavtube ByteCopy Review



You might haven’t heard ByteCopy- as it is released in 2011- but this is absolutely a top choice for those who wannaput Blu-ray to HD media players like WD TV Live and NMT A-210 for playback. So what can it do for you? Basically, the ByteCopy is similar to MakeMKV when it cracks and copied Blu-ray Disc and DVD movie to MKV. However, this app does not only everything (selection of forced subtitles is excluded from the “everything” ) MakeMKV does, but also converts/encodes Blu-ray contents. This feature is a lifesaver for HD media players, as not a HDD player plays 100% of Blu-ray features. E.g. When a BD movie is packed into MKV, WD TV Live can not read the Blu-ray subtitles inlaid. At this moment ByteCopy plays an irreplaceable role- it is the exclusive Blu-ray ripper that converts Blu-ray .sup subtitle to .sub without hurting video and audio quality. When it trans-codes and shrinks Blu-ray contents, CUDA acceleration is employed by default when possible.

Export file format: .mkv

Video: H.264/MPEG-4 AVC, VC-1, MPEG pass-through; H.264, Xvid, MPEG, VC-1 encoded

Audio: Dolby Digital, Dolby Digital Plus, Dolby TrueHD, DTS Digital, DTS-HD high-def, DTS-HD MA pass-through; Dolby Digital 5.1, DTS, AAC, MP3 encoded.
  
(More thumbnails and user guide)

Trial and Download

ByteCopy for Windows

Requires Windows XP, Vista or Win8/8.1 (32bit and 64bit).

ByteCopy for Mac

Requires x86 Mac OS X 10.5 or later.

Pavtube ByteCopy rips Blu-ray in 2 ways, lossless copy and lossy conversion. In trial version lossless backup runs 7 times only; for loss conversion, a watermark is put on the screen. A full version is offered at $42 USD. The purchase includes a lifetime license and unlimited upgrades.

Compare: MakeMKV vs. DVDfab vs. ByteCopy

MakeMKV and ByteCopy are good for lossless Blu-ray and DVD backup, while DVDfab focuses on Blu-ray trans-coding to portable devices like PS3, Xbox, etc.

Q: Which Blu-ray ripper keeps Blu-ray movie structure (including chapters)?
A: MakeMKV and ByteCopy

Q: Which Blu-ray ripper keeps multiple audio tracks and subtitles?
A: MakeMKV and ByteCopy

Q: What about the ripping speed of the three Blu-ray Rippers?
A: MakeMKV = ByteCopy (lossless copy) > DVDfab

Q: Which en-decodes Blu-ray with NVIDIA’s CUDA support (GPU computing)?
A: ByteCopy and DVDfab (Tip: CUDA works only when exporting H.264 encoded videos)

Q: Which does better on Blu-ray hacking/cracking?
Not a Blu-ray ripper is able to crack all the Blu-ray Discs as decryption always falls behind encryption. So it’s a question of upgrade and tech support. All the three updates their software along with the come up of new BD+ keys.MakeMKV and ByteCopy charge free for updates while DVDfab asks you pay extra money for the updates.

MakeMKV and ByteCopy are similar, you can compare their features with Pavtube ByteCopy vs. MakeMKV (comparison chart).

More Tipics

The advantages of MKV format for Blu-ray Ripping
1:1 Blu-ray to MKV ripping in 2 steps
The best Blu-ray backup method: Blu-ray to M2TS or Blu-ray to MKV

Convert Blu-ray to Apple ProRes 422 HQ for FCP 6/7 editing on Mac Mavericks

Summary: This article will tell you how to copy Blu-ray to Apple ProRes 422 HQ for FCP 6/7 editing on Mac Mavericks.

I am a travel enthusiast and like shoot a lot of video on every journey, which is a very meaningful thing for me. These video for me is very meaningful. When I came back home, I would to clip these video through FCP X editing on Mac Mavericks, this process make me so happy. Sometimes I like to make the micro-film. Of course, the movie is my favorite, beside that I collected a lot of movies, Blu-ray dics, sometimes I go to edit some of these classic movies.

Final Cut Pro (FCP) is a professional non-linear editing software application for Mac users. The software logs and captures video onto a hard drive (internal or external), where it can be edited and processed. But, since Final Cut Pro only accepts DV, HDV, P2 MXF (DVCProHD), XDCAM, and 2K film formats. When I edited my Blu-ray to Apple ProRes 422 HQ on Mac Mavericks with using FCP 6/7 editing, I failured. I think if I convert Blu-ray to Final Cut Pro natively supported ProRes codecs, I can add Blu-ray films into FCP. 



Due to this, I searched online for a blu-ray ripping software to convert Blu-ray movies to FCP for editing on my Mac Mavericks. I searched for "was capable of converting blu-rays" and Many similar problems and solutions came up. I've tried Handbrake, because it is free. However, Handbrake can not convert the movie which Protected. My problem wasn't completely solved until I tried Pavtube ByteCopy for Mac, which is easy to use. I really appreciate its profile of backing up blu-ray movies to FCP without quality loss. Beside, it could have worked on all my movies. And for different versions of FCP like FCP 6, FCP 7, FCP X (I am using version of FCP X), he can be a good operation. Compared to other software, Pavtube price is reasonable, but also provides free lifetime upgrades. Now I can enjoy my favorite, at the same time I can copy those movies to my other devices like iPod, iPhone, iPad and so on.

Follow me! Simple operation to achieve our objective!

Step 1. Download and install this Pavtube ByteCopy for Mac, load disc. 

Note: you need an external Blu-ray drive to make your Mac recognize Blu-rays firstly. Insert your discs, launch Pavtube and click the top left icon, you will find it detects your disc and shows the name automatically. Just click it to load. 



Step 2. Choose format for editing on FCP X. 

Click the "Format" icon; you may notice there're two options of ProRes 422 HQ. One is inside the "Final Cut Pro" the other is inside >Multi-track Video". The only difference between these two presets is that the former is common one-track preset while the later could keep all your audio tracks (languages). I'd prefer the Multi-track one. 



Step 3. Customize V&A settings. 

Let's move to "Settings" icon (right besides "Format"), you will find two tabs one for Video and the other for Audio. On Video tab, you can change target video quality as there are three levels for you to choose. 

In the Audio tab, we can check the audio tracks we need as below: 



Step 4. Start conversion. 

Back to main interface and hit "Convert" to start ripping Blu-ray to multi-track ProRes 422 HQ. After it completed, click "Open output folder" to quick locate the converted MOV files. 

More Topics

Mac Blu-ray Conversion-keep multiple audio and subtitles
Lossless backup Blu-ray to MKV for WD TV playback with chapter marker and DTS audio
Blu-ray to iPhone 6 - Rip Blu-ray to multi-track MP4 for watching on iPhone 6 with VLC

Only four steps- Backup Blu-rays to NAS with preserving chapters

Description: Do you want to save Blu-ray discs on hard drive media center? Do you want to know how to losslessly backup Blu-ray movies to your handheld devices. Pavtube ByteCopy can solve those doubt easily.

If you have an Blu-ray disc, you must know that it was at first more vulnerable to scratches which depend on the Blu-ray Disc data layer is closer to the surface than DVD, so that we can’t carry it with us, which brought a lot of inconvenience. Maybe you have many favourite Blu-ray movie collection, but you can't watch; Maybe you want to copy them onto NAS device for playing on Sony blu-ray player, In this way, we must face another ticklish question---How to backup Blu-ray movies losslessly with preserving chapters?. 

Don’t worry! Pavtube ByteCopy is exactly the tool to solve the problem. Now, I will show you how to use it. The operation is very easily understood, I am sure you are very easy to learn. Another good news, if you are Mac user, you can try Pavtube ByteCopy for Mac. Now let’s go!

Copy Blu-ray movies to hard drive media center

Firstly. You must download and install on your Windows/Mac

After opening you will love this interface, simple and clear. Pavtube ByteCopy for Windows/Mac is an excellent BD/DVD backing up tool that can convert Blu-ray movies and DVDs to MKV container format retaining multiple audio tracks and multiple subtitles without transcoding and quality loss, as well as preserving chapter markers. Meanwhile, this app is regarded as a great BD/DVD ripping program to help users convert BD/DVD collections for new how tablets and smartphones including iPad mini, iPad Air, iPhone 5S, Samsung Galaxy Tab, Kindle Fire HDX 7, Google Nexus 7/10 and more.

Secondly. Load your Blu-ray from disc drive to the app.

Tip: The software helps you to choose the main movie automatically. If you have more information to copy, you can choose by yourself.

  

Thirdly. Click the “Browse” button to set output folder where you want to save the copied Blu-ray movie. 

Pavtube ByteCopy allows users lossless backup Blu-ray to MKV with multiple audio tracks and subtitles as well as original chapter markers preserved. Choose “Lossless/encoded Multi-track MKV(*.mkv)” from “Multi-track Video” option.

 

Tip: This specific profile could allow you to choose the audios you want as well as encode them.



Fourthly.Hit “Convert” button to start Blu-ray backing up process losslessly

Pavtube ByteCopy makes it possible for you to copy Blu-rays on your NAS device and easily select your needed tracks, subtitles, as well as chapters when watching Blu-ray movies with Sony blu-ray player.

More topics: 
Rip/Backup DVD to lossless MKV for WDTV player with 5.1 channel
Convert Blu-ray movies for NAS device streaming
Encoding BD to MKV format for streaming to Smart TV