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Ripping Blu Rays is way deeper than I expected (programming.dev)

submitted 4 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) by tatterdemalion@programming.dev to c/piracy@lemmy.dbzer0.com

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I didn't think I'd spend hours reading about this today, but some things surprised me:

Just using a Playstation sounds like it won't work or will be a huge time sink.
Blu ray optical drives are way more expensive than I thought
The copy protections on Blu rays are exceptionally annoying, to the extent where there is really only one closed source software -- MakeMKV -- that can work around them. This post goes into some interesting details.
Finding a drive that is known to work with MakeMKV is a pain. There's a brand called Pioneer that seems promising but they have stopped producing bluray drives ~~went out of business last year~~. I have no idea which model works, and it's common that secondhand sellers will swap enclosures and pass it off as a different model.
Sometimes you need to flash the firmware on the drive to make it work with 4K UHD discs.

I was going to try ripping a Blu-ray that I bought recently, since I couldn't find a quality rip anywhere, but I'm pretty turned off from the whole prospect at this point.

Anyway I'm not really asking for a specific reply, I just thought this topic was interesting and I'm curious what people think about Blu rays and optical media in general. Does the future seem bleak? Are we going to be stuck with shitty WebDLs for most new content? Or is physical media here to stay?

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[-] henfredemars@infosec.pub 50 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago)

I think optical media is a dead platform. Hence, there is an apparent lack of interest I think in implementing alternative solutions. I’ve had success with MakeMKV using the docker container approach, but never tried to rip UHD.

The Corpo-inspired future is that you should not get to own any of your media outright. They will decide when you can stream it and to which devices. Piracy is quickly becoming the only viable option if you value your freedom, and it’s a very unfortunate state of things.

[-] tatterdemalion@programming.dev 28 points 4 days ago

I really hope streaming doesn't become the only option, because even with >1Gbps internet, streaming services generally do not deliver as good of quality as I can get from something like a bluray. Even HBO and Netflix have very noticeable lossy compression.

[-] henfredemars@infosec.pub 11 points 3 days ago

Even in terms of story, the content is no longer optimized for quality. It’s optimized for watchability which generally refers to the ease of viewing even when you’re not completely paying attention.

They somehow found a way to even further commercialize and mass produce the moving picture.

[-] hobovision@mander.xyz 7 points 3 days ago

The watchabilty thing actually makes stuff nearly unwatchable for me because I like to, you know, pay attention to the movie I am watching. They have to make the characters so one note and cliche so that half-brains can pick up what's happening in the film. They beat you over the head with everything but don't bother closing up plot holes because they think you weren't paying enough attention to see them.