BluRay Remuxes, BDMV folders, & BluRay disk playback

[Moonee]

So, what's a BD remux anyway?

[DreamScape]

So, what's a BD remux anyway?

Direct copy of the video from the blu-ray disc. No reduction in quality.

[deadman]

So, what's a BD remux anyway?

If you download a full bluray disc the video files are all inside a folder labeled BDMV, in the STREAM subdirectory. They're in the .m2ts format. You can identify the main movie easily enough - it's the biggest file. It can be anywhere between 15 GB and 40 GB depending on the disc.

There are two basic types of bluray rip. One is a re-encode, where the video and audio are re-encoded and compressed to a smaller size. Those 8-10 GB files you see everywhere are re-encoded so the picture and sound (while still very good) are not the same quality as the original bluray.

The remux is simply the original .m2ts file repackaged as an .mkv. In practice you usually open one of the playlists on the disc but you can simply open the movie file in a matroska editor and save it with an .mkv file extension. There. That's a remux. You haven't done anything to the audio or video - it's almost exactly the same size as the original .m2ts, there's a very small size difference caused by the change in container format but the video and audio streams are unchanged, same quality as the disc itself. That's why the remuxes are so big.

[Night457]

If you download a full bluray disc the video files are all inside a folder labeled BDMV, in the STREAM subdirectory. They're in the .m2ts format. You can identify the main movie easily enough - it's the biggest file. It can be anywhere between 15 GB and 40 GB depending on the disc.

While you are answering questions, deadman -- How do you PLAY a BDMV folder as if it were a disc? I have never been able to figure out how to play it in VLC. I can only convert it to .mkv using MakeMKV. Sometimes the BluRay Menu explains what the additional content is, but my slew of generated .mkv's can be bewildering.

Yes, I have looked online for a BDMV playback answer but the "solutions" have me stumped.

[DreamScape]

While you are answering questions, deadman -- How do you PLAY a BDMV folder as if it were a disc? I have never been able to figure out how to play it in VLC. I can only convert it to .mkv using MakeMKV. Sometimes the BluRay Menu explains what the additional content is, but my slew of generated .mkv's can be bewildering.

Yes, I have looked online for a BDMV playback answer but the "solutions" have me stumped.

I'm not deadman but you go to Media -> Open Disc... and click "Blu-ray".

Browse to the BD folder. You might consider checking the box to disable the menu. Depending on the BD, some menus do not play properly on my system (missing dependencies like java)

[Image]

Also note that BD discs are usually region locked. Many you download from here or torrents have had this removed, but if you are trying to insert a physical disc into your own drive you will need to strip that out.

[deadman]

While you are answering questions, deadman -- How do you PLAY a BDMV folder as if it were a disc? I have never been able to figure out how to play it in VLC. I can only convert it to .mkv using MakeMKV. Sometimes the BluRay Menu explains what the additional content is, but my slew of generated .mkv's can be bewildering.

Yes, I have looked online for a BDMV playback answer but the "solutions" have me stumped.

In the early days of bluray there were media players that could play a bluray disc like a DVD. Menus and everything. Just like watching on a set-top player. Then the industry aggressively sued the shit out of everyone and forced even companies like Cyberlink (whose PowerDVD was one of those early bluray players) to remove that functionality. I've tried looking for old versions of software that still had it, but you can't find them anywhere. Like the way Hollywood went nuts for many years getting share links taken down it seems like the industry spent so long pouncing on any attempt to share that software it's become virtually extinct.

If any other member knows where to get a media player that can handle full bluray playback, please let us know!!! I would love to bring it back from the dead. See if it can handle 4K blurays too - the old software wasn't designed for that, but the format of the newer discs is identical to 1080p bluray so it might work.

Right now I use MPC-BE as my primary media player. If I open a bluray folder structure it plays the main movie and other videos in the same order their playlists occur in the PLAYLIST folder. I have yet to find any piece of software that does more than that.

[Night457]

(I do not even have a BluRay computer drive so I can only play physical discs on my player->TV setup anyway.)

THANK YOU DreamScape and deadman. I do not even remember what I tried before, but I will try your solutions for VLC and MPC-BE. (Of course I deleted all BDMVs and kept only MKVs when I could not play the former!)

[DreamScape]

Hmm. I recall PowerDVD and such as being programs you had to pay for.

[DreamScape]

Of course I deleted all BDMVs and kept only MKVs when I could not play the former!

You can always just play the m2ts files

The real problem are those BD discs that mimic the dreaded title 99 copy protection scheme.

[Night457]

Yuck. The whole point was to see what the entire DISK has. I can always use MakeMKV and I usually do regardless, but there are times I rip the content without having seen the disk menu and then I review the videos and say "What the hell is THIS supposed to be about? Who is this guy being interviewed? Is this a short film by the director?" Bonus feature content is sometimes poorly credited on the featurette itself and only the Menu says what it is.

(Note, I moved these posts from the "Innocence" movie thread to a new technical thread. Of course I knew I should have created one in the first place but better late than never.)