"Is it legal to copy Blu-ray discs to a hard drive?

How can I rip and copy Blu-ray to USB Flash Drive?

How do I copy Blu-ray movies from a disc to my laptop?

What is the best Blu-ray copy software?"

A series of questions on Blu-ray copy are posted on Quora.

1. Blu-ray vs DVD

There are a lot of confusions out there about the difference between DVD and Blu-ray. Although they all look the same by their appearances, there are a lot differences between them in storage, resolution, player compatibility, and many others. So, how to decrypt  Blu-ray calls for your attention.

1-1. Storage

Gigabyte is used as a unit to describe the storage capacity of discs. A single-layer DVD can hold about 4.7G or nearly 5G of data which is also why such discs are called DVD5. Comparatively, a double-layer DVD is able to hold about 8.7G, or nearly 9G of data, which is why such discs are called DVD9.

In contrast, a standard Blu-ray can hold about 25G of data while a double-layer Blu-ray can hold as much as 50G of data. More storage means more advantages, especially when the movie is very large in size or the video quality is to be very high. Continue reading to find the best Blu-ray decrypter. 

1-2. Resolution

 Image resolution is normally determined by the vertical lines and the horizontal lines of light which constitute the image of videos. 1080P, for example means 1080 vertical lines, and the same goes to 480P and 720P. More lines mean more detailed image and, therefore, better display effect.

A standard-definition DVD has 480 vertical lines, while an enhanced version has about 520 vertical lines. When displayed on a common TV, these discs look good or not too bad. Once their images get blown up on a bigger screen, the picture will become blurry and distorted.

Blu-ray discs are designed for big screen with its 1080P resolution. As a Blu-ray disc can hold no less than 25G of data, it can totally fit such high-quality contents which occupy far larger space than videos of 480P.

1-3. Player compatibility

A standard DVD player is not able to play a Blu-ray disc, while most Blu-ray, due to their backward compatibility, can play DVDs without any difficulties.

Such huge difference between them comes from their different structures. A DVD is read with a red laser which usually have larger wavelength and which, consequently required a wide groove to accommodate. Because the grooves are so far apart, they can hold much less information compared with a Blu-ray disc.

As for Blu-ray disc, it has much thinner and closer grooves to accommodate its shorter and thinner wavelength. This allows the disc squeeze almost five times the grooves and, consequently, storage of a DVD disc.

1-4. Others

As DVD has less storage than Blu-ray, it often has less additional contents such as commentaries, behind the scenes and so on. Sometimes, these additional elements will be included in a separate disc. Blu-ray, on the contrary, seldom worries about the storage problem, so it often tries to include as rich bonus as its capacity admits of, and all of them are included in one disc.

Besides, almost all the 3D contents are now only available on Blu-ray discs. Some DVDs also have 3D contents, but the latest 3D contents come only from Blu-ray discs.

Also, both of them differ from availability. For Blu-ray, only part of the movies have such forms, many older movies are now not available on such form. DVDs, on the contrary, has been developing for many years, so it has enough time to enrich its library and thus contains more movies.

2. Blu-ray Copy Software/Blu-ray Decrypter Recommendation

Here we select three options for your choice. All of them have proved to be dependable and have the ability to get jobs done.

2-1. DVDFab Blu-ray Copy

DVDFab Blu-ray Copy can be your best assistant to decrypt both DVDs and Blu-rays while exporting them with different formats such as ISO, Folder DVD or Blu-ray. To copy a Blu-ray file using this program, you just need a few clicks.

Pros:

Compatible with multiple both input and output formats.

This program supports three both input and output formats. You can input Folder, ISO and DVD or Blu-rays and output Folder, ISO and DVD or Blu-rays. This should satisfy your needs for DVD copy and save your DVDs from being scratched.

(1) Multiple modes available

There are more than 9 modes in this program, namely Full Disc, Main Movie, Customize, Split, Merge, Split, To DVD, To Blu-ray, UHD to Blu-ray. Full Disc means a full copy of the original files. Main moves means main part of the movie without irreverent information. Customize allows you to customize the menu settings. Split can be used to divide one DVD9 into two DVD9. Merge is to combine two DVD5 into one DVD9. Clone/Burn can be used to burn DVD or Blu-ray without any loss of quality.

(2) Easy and fast process speed

The software operates very fast. To copy Blu-ray to hard drive with this Blu-ray decrypter only takes very short time.

(3) Useful features

There are a lot of little plug-ins or extensions in this program whose functions vary from each other.  For example, when you copy a DVD disc, you can preview it by downloading a DVDFab extension package. Or you can choose different chapters or titles of the video, instead of being forced to download the full disc. There are still a lot more functions in this program, and they may come in handy when you operate it yourself.

(4) Ability to clone a perfect copy without any loss of quality

Under the Full Disc mode, you are allowed to copy the whole information of the original disc without any loss of quality. Also, the information under this mode won’t be compressed, so you will need to make sure you have enough storage to contain it.

Cons:

(1) Must register as a membership

The functions of free version are limited. For example, a free trial version may not help break certain protections so you can’t play certain output videos. And this version only supports two modes – Full Disc and Main Movie. So you may not choose them freely and as a result of the diminished choices, your use experience will be affected significantly.

To show you the details, I made a list of their available functions so that you can clearly find out the differences between them. Particularly, there are three versions of this program – Full Trial Version, Free Version and Paid Version. Among them, Full Trial Version, like the Paid Version, allows you to use almost every function of this program but with a duration of thirty days or so.

How to Copy Blu-rays:

Step 1: Download, Install and Run

To copy Blu-ray to hard drives or any other medias, you need to make sure that you have downloaded this Blu-ray decrypter first. The installer of this program is now available on the product page of its official website. Click “Free Download”, choose a directory and click “Save”. When the installing process is finished, double click its icon on your desktop, then it will be opened.

Step 2: choose a mode

First, choose a mode before you get started. There are nine modes available at present, and each of them represents what kind of output you want to acquire at the end.

Of them, “main movie”, “full disk”, “Clone/burn” are the most used ones. For the first of them, you can use it to copy the main part of a movie and get rid of the other irrelevant parts at the same time. This could be useful as it can save your space which could be used for other purposes. The second of them, as its name speaks for itself, is used to copy the full disk without any loss of information. The third one, similar with the second, is also used to copy the full disk but without any compression and consequently any loss of quality.

Step 3: Load the source

If you want to do a Star Wars Blu-ray digital copy, for example, now you should load its source. Normally, there are two methods to get your job done depending on what kind of source you are using. If you insert a disc in your drive, then the software will recognize it automatically and show you what to do next. If it is in your computer drive, you can click the plus-shape button in the spacious area of the main interface, and load it from your computer.

Step 4: choose a directory

A directory is a place where you want to store the output file. To do this, you just need to focus on the lower left corner where the directory options are located. If you want to save it in a blank disk, make sure you have inserted in your computer drive, then click the bar frame to choose the option. If you want to save it an ISO file, then click the ISO icon. If you want to save it as a folder, then click the folder-shape button.  When it is done, your Star Wars Blu-Ray digital copy is now ready.

Note: If you want the copy file to output as a Folder, then you may need to download a little plug-in to make it playable across multiple players. The method is very simple, just click the “Advanced Settings” button, then check the button for creating a miniso file. Then, when the job is done, you can mount this plug-in to your virtual drive and play the Folder as you play normal DVDs.

Besides, you can also adjust the settings according to your preferences, needs and others. Click the “Advanced Settings” button we mentioned before, and you will see a couple of buttons which stand for various purposes such as audio option, Cinavia protection disablement, HD Audio Removal.

Step 5: Start the process

Now, you just need one click to get it started. Click the “Start” button in the lowr right corner, and job is done. In the meanwhile, the protections integrated in the DVDs or Blu-rays are broken, so you don’’t have to worry the Star Wars Blu-Ray digital copy file can’t be played by your players.

2-2. DVDFab Blu-ray Ripper

DVDFab Blu-ray Ripper is designed to convert DVDs, Blu-rays and ISOs into videos of different formats, so that they can be played by normal players. Currently, this Blu-ray copy software supports more than fifteen both formats and devices. There are still a lot features in this software which, if you want, are worth being explored.

Pros:

(1) Multiple output formats available

This Blu-ray copy software has a wide range of output formats to make sure the ripped video will have no difficulty in being played by your players. All the popular formats such as MP3, WAV, and WMV are supported by this program. For more details, you can check this article named Rip Blu-ray: Convert Blu-rays to MP4/MKV/AVI/MP3 and More for Enjoying Anywhere.

(2) Diversified settings for meeting various needs

The “Advanced Settings” button contains a lot of specific options for different functions such as frame rate, sample rate, codec, channels, volume. 

(3) Supported almost all the Blu-Ray related protections

As we know, DVD or Blu-ray distribution companied set a lot of protections for these disc which prevent them being played by normal players easily. This software can help you get rid of almost all these barriers and thus address the compatibility issue.

(4) Ultra-fast Blu-ray Conversion Speed

This Blu-ray copy software operates very fast. A Blu-ray Conversion task, under ordinary conditions, only takes a couple of minutes which is much faster than common solutions. This could be good news to you as it will save you a lot of time which could have been wasted in the conversion process.

Cons

(1) Must register as a membership

Like DVDFab Blu-ray copy, this program also has free version and paid version. The former, compared with the latter, has a very limited range of available functions, which will definitely influence your usage experience and make it heavily discounted.

To make their differences clearer, I made a list of them. The Full Trial Version allows you to access most functions but with a discounted experience. The Free Version provides part of its functions and the Paid Version gives you access to its all functions.

How to Decrypt Blu-rays:

Step 1: Download, Install and Run

You can find the installer of this Blu-ray decrypter on the product page of its official website. Click “Free Download”, then choose a directory for this installer, and click “Save”. When the installing process is finished, double the icon on your desktop and it will be opened.

Step 2: Choose a format

The first step of converting videos with this Blu-ray decrypter is to choose a format. As we said, there are more than eight formats supported by this program, you can choose among them according to your needs. Also, as you can tell from its main interface, you can choose the device you want the output files to be compatible with.

Step 3: Load the source

Now you can insert a disk to continue, or you can click the plus-shape button in the spacious area of the main interface if the import file in stored in your computer.

Once the source has been loaded, there should be a title which is separated by a few elements including Title, Runtime, chapter, audio and subtitle. Adjust them as you like, or you can also click the “Advanced Settings” for further adjustment.

Step 4: choose a directory

On the lower-left corner are a couple of options which you can use to choose a directory for the output file. As you can see, there are four options the first three of which represent two different output choices, the third for refreshing the information of your optical drive or movie server, and the forth for uploading your converted videos to websites including YouTube.

Step 5: Start the process

The last step is to click the “Start” button on the lower right corner of the main interface to get it started. Once it is done, the Blu-ray decrypter will process it immediately and there will be a progress bar indicating where you are in the whole conversion process.

When the conversion process comes to an end, you can click the folder-shape icon to check its location or click the play button to play it with Player 5.

2-3. VideoSolo BD-DVD Ripper

VideoSolo BD-DVD Ripper is also among the top recommendations. As a professional DVD ripper, it is totally competent for such tasks and can give you a satisfying result.

Pros

(1) Easy to use

The software has very simple and clear operation procedures, so you don’t have to worry about you will have a difficulty in using it.

(2) Decryption Ability

According to one of its reviews, this software is able to decrypt almost all of the protections either of DVDs or Blu-rays. If this is true, then it is certainly very marvelous, because very rare products can do that like this Blu-ray decrypter.

(3) Output format

It is said this program supports more than 300 video and audio codecs.  With such great amount, it will definitely guarantee your player is compatible with the output files.

(4) Built-in video editor

This program has a built-in video editor, which can be used to do many things such as adding watermark, changing video length, add video effect, and change your video to 3D mode.

Cons

(1) Limited trial functions

If you use a trial-version, the you will be limited to very few functions. The video length can’t exceed 5 minutes and your upgrade function will also get affected.

How to Copy Blu-rays:

Step 1: Download, Install and Run

Search it with your explorer, then download and install it in your device. When the installing process is finished, open it by double clicking its icon on your desktop.

Step 2: Load Disk

Click the “Load Disk” button on the higher left corner, and import the source in the software.

Step 3: Choose the output format

Click the “Profile” option, and choose an output format. Also, you can choose the device model which you want your output files to be compatible with. The software now supports more than dozens of device models, so you don’t have to worry about the compatibility issues.

If you want to adjust its settings more specifically, you can click the “Settings” button to do that. It will direct you to a dialogue box where a lot of detailed settings are included such as Frame Rate, Resolution, Video Bitrate, Sample Rate, Audio Bitrate, and 3D settings.

Step 4: choose a directory

Click the “Browse” button to select a directory for the output files.

Step 5: Start to convert

Click the “Convert” button on the right lower corner to get it started.

3. Conclusion

Based on the above introductions, we can basically get what we want for Blu-ray copy. Although there are still many software that are able to do such tasks as well, we believe the three, especially the first two product are the best choices you ever have. For any Blu-ray copy task, you can turn to them rest assured that they will get your job done perfectly.

Further, if you want to know how to download music form websites, you can turn to DVDFab YouTube downloader, a music download software which is better than most of similar products such as Videoder Video Downloader. You can use it to download online music and convert videos into audios.