Rip blu ray with several episodes

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French_guy
Posts: 2
Joined: Sat Jan 05, 2019 3:14 pm

Rip blu ray with several episodes

Post by French_guy »

Hello
I'm trying to rip the TV show "Rome" (i own the blu ray set)
I want to store it on my Unraid server and stream on my TV
What is the easiest way? The "structure" of the disc is a little bit confusing....
Disc 1 has 12 episodes......but I'm not sure which title I should select (see picture)
Is there a good tutorial I could follow?
Thanks
dcoke22
Posts: 2685
Joined: Wed Jul 22, 2020 11:25 pm

Re: Rip blu ray with several episodes

Post by dcoke22 »

The way TV shows are put on disc is sorta all over the map. You don't really know what you're going to find on the discs. As such, one reasonable strategy is to rip everything and then sort through it all.

My own strategy is to first make a decrypted backup of a disc. Then, I open the backup in MakeMKV. Often, if you know for example, there's supposed be 4 episodes on that disc, you'll find 4 titles that are roughly the same size. That's probably the 4 episodes. The other stuff might be FBI or Interpol warnings, previews, or 'extras'. You can rip the 4 episodes and then sort out which episode is which. Some TV shows put the episode title at the beginning of the episode. Others require figuring it out some other way, perhaps based on the writer & director credits of the episode. Whenever you figure out which is which, you can go back to MakeMKV and update the fields to properly name the episodes and any commentary tracks, etc. and rip them again. Ripping from a backup is as fast as your computer storage allows and typically much faster than ripping from disc, hence the reason for making a decrypted backup.
Radiocomms237
Posts: 377
Joined: Mon Oct 18, 2021 12:23 am

Re: Rip blu ray with several episodes

Post by Radiocomms237 »

I have ripped Rome seasons 1&2 but I've been playing 'musical harddrives' in my NAS for a while now and it's on one that isn't mounted ATM (planning an upgrade to a 36-bay rack-mount NAS but still saving up for it). If you're really stuck, just let me know and I'll try to figure out which HDD it's on and retrieve my notes and post the file details?

I play every disc in my regular LG home player before ripping and create a text map of everything on the menu, noting down the title, duration, chapter count, and sometimes the first line of dialogue (if there are multiple titles with identical runtimes).

Then I make a decrypted backup so I can play the segments prior to ripping, this way I have always identified everything before I rip, and even then I still end up ripping some items multiple times if I need to find out what certain subtitle tracks are, for example.

P.S. What picture?
babypuncher
Posts: 20
Joined: Tue Jan 16, 2018 4:22 am

Re: Rip blu ray with several episodes

Post by babypuncher »

Others have already mentioned looking for similarly sized titles ocurring in a quantity equal to the number of episodes on a disc.

For most shows, you can also determine which title belongs to which episode by the number in the playlist file associated with it. 99% of the time, these playlists are numbered sequentially with the intended viewing order.

My process for ripping TV looks like this:

1. Open the disc with MakeMKV

2. Right click the list of title and choose "Unselect all"

3. Go through and select the titles which are most likely the episodes based on their size and similarity. For hour long shows, this ranges from 6 to 10 GB. For half-hour shows this is usually 3-5 GB.

4. Note the source file names for each episode you selected. This will be in the info box under Properties when a given title is selected. This will be a number with a .mpls extension. Note that MakeMKV's sorting does not always present these titles in alphanumeric order.

5. Using these numbers to determine the episode order, fill out the name on the right for each accordingly. The number usually starts with something like 08000.mpls then increments by one for each episode, but I've seen discs where the first episode is a much lower number than the rest.

Once the data is entered I hit rip. I have MakeMKV configured to name the output files using the title I provided, using

Code: Select all

{NAME1}
as my output file name template.

I've had one instance where the playlist numbers did not accurately reflect the episode order. It happened with several seasons in a box set of South Park blu-rays. I was able to suss out the correct order by looking at the segment map in the info box, rather than source file name. These segments correspond to the .m2ts stream(s) referenced in the playlist.
Radiocomms237
Posts: 377
Joined: Mon Oct 18, 2021 12:23 am

Re: Rip blu ray with several episodes

Post by Radiocomms237 »

babypuncher wrote:
Thu Jun 15, 2023 9:24 pm
~ 99% of the time, these playlists are numbered sequentially with the intended viewing order. ~
Hmm, I would've put it at more like 40% of the time that they're numbered (perfectly) sequentially. I'm actually convinced that some disc mastering companies deliberately name the files out-of-order just to piss me off! :twisted:

When I first started ripping my discs I used to stumble around in the dark like that, ripping everything and then guessing which belonged to what, but it's a very inefficient way of doing things, no offense intended.

The other thing is, a lot of TV series I rip is content I haven't seen before, and I want the first time I watch it to be when I'm ensconced on the couch with an adequate supply of snacks and "refreshments", so I don't want to see too much in the way of spoilers while I'm ripping the discs!

So, if you only tick the episodes, how do you get all the "Special Features" (deleted scenes, making of, etc.)?

I know some don't bother, but I like to get everything I paid for off a disc.
dcoke22
Posts: 2685
Joined: Wed Jul 22, 2020 11:25 pm

Re: Rip blu ray with several episodes

Post by dcoke22 »

It has been my experience that they're numbered in the correct order maybe 75% of the time.

I do usually rip the extras as well. Once I make a decrypted backup, I figure out what things are by playing the .m2ts files referenced by the titles listed in MakeMKV. I also usually have the review (if there is one) from blu-ray.com open in a browser window. Lots of their reviews have a good list of 'extras' that makes finding them easier.

Ripping a TV show is a lot more work than ripping a movie, that's for sure.
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