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Comment by eadmund | Hacker News Reader

I’ve switched to buying everything on DVD or Blu-ray. It’s the only way to be sure I can watch, for example, Community Season 2 Episode 14 (one of the funniest episodes ever). If you don’t own the physical medium, you’re just renting a stream. No thanks.

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And then ripping them.

When I hit PLAY I want the movie to start — not FBI warnings, not "previews" (ads), etc.

I've been hesitant to do this because DVD is a bit too low quality for my big TV, but I've heard that ripping Blu-Rays on Linux can be a nightmare. Anyone have experience ripping blu-rays on Linux willing to share what it's currently like?

I started ripping on Linux this year and it's honestly been pretty easy, I just use makemkv to rip and it wasn't much trouble to get running. you'll wanna flash libredrive to your drive to rip 4k Blu-rays and iirc it's a pain on Linux but if you've got a windows PC anywhere you can flash it pretty effortlessly and then you don't have to worry about it ever again

Don’t even need a windows PC. You can do USB passthrough with KVM. Just setup a Windows VM, USB passthrough the drive, do it, through the VM away.

The iso can be downloaded officially from MS, activation is not needed for this.

If it takes more than half an hour on Linux just so it in the VM.

I occasionally rip Blu-rays (1080p, not 4K I hear those are more difficult) just using makemkv inside of Docker running directly on my Synology NAS, it's a piece of cake.

Same here. I backup all DVDs to iso. Don't really care for BluRay because ripping/playing them is a nightmare. I then create MP4s and ingest them into my Plex server. I keep my DVDs stored away in the basement, making me 100% legal. Having your own media server is VERY nice. The ripping process is not straight-forware. Almost impossible to automate.

I would ravage this guy's store.

During lockdown I ripped my entire DVD collection using makemkv. It's as close to one click as you'll get and works brilliantly. All my DVDs are stored away now and I play them from Plex in full quality.

My main issue is with ripping TV series. The title to episode mapping is all over the place.

Filebot is very helpful for this. There are free utilities too but filebot is pretty fool proof so worth the cost imo.

> Don't really care for BluRay because ripping/playing them is a nightmare.

What makes you say this? The only issue I occasionally run into is needing to clean 4k BR discs that aren’t reading well.

They might be doing it on linux. I've had the same experience. Supposedly it's possible! I never managed to get around the DRM nonsense.

makemkv->mkv->handbrake->mp4 is pretty straightforward for saving media, especially if you don't mess with handbrake much (I just use one settings profile for everything). _Playing_ bluray directly from disk is a PITA because of needing to set up the encryption keys and extra system libraries.

The part that eats my time is converting the subtitles from an image format (vosub/psg) to a text format (srt), since the image formats have never worked well for me on plex. SubtitleEdit is good but it still takes manual managing.

Edit: I forgot about the annoyance of finding a drive that works with ripping software, iirc there's only a couple that will without flashing firmware

Technically storing ripped DVDs doesn't make the rip legal. However if they try to come after you for that the courts will start questioning the law and so you have a good chance of winning on appeal.

DVDs rot after a while. Can’t be sure you’ll be able to watch them indefinitely. Def recommend ripping it and backing up the copy periodically for archival purposes.

While this is undoubtedly true, the lifetime is almost certainly a multiple of whatever it is on a streaming service. I have working DVDs older than Netflix's streaming service.

Oh I agree streaming is not an alternative if you want to stay in control of your library. Just DVD are probably not great for foolproof long-term archival.

Burned DVDs rot after a while (and quite inconsistently between brands), but pressed CDs and DVDs – such as retail movie DVDs – barely rot at all.

It's true unless there was a manufacturing issue. A notorious example, well-known in the collectors' community, is Warner Bros. HD-DVDs: https://forum.lddb.com/viewtopic.php?f=19&t=840

There have been manufacturing 'incidents' in the past, also with audio CD's. Some of my old Aphex Twin CDs rot because one big UK manufacturer screwed up production in the early 90s.

I would argue internet piracy is a more sure bet than your DVD collection.

I am playing the long game: I want folks to keep on releasing great movies and TV on disc, so I buy great movies and TV on disc.

Sucks how much extra effort it is, while paying, to get the same convince of pirating.

Background info:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advanced_Dungeons_%26_Dragons_...

It's a great episode. And the dark-elf-face joke is not at the expense of any demographic.

Been buying up DVDs and Blu-rays that are cheap of movies I like or have heard a lot about. Experienced the whole no one is streaming it this time so just buying the discs and never looking back has been my thing.

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