How to Rip Blu-ray for Plex: 3 Best Ways with Guide & Comparison

Plex can revitalize old media collections. As a media server, it organizes all your content and offers easy access through a centralized system. As a dedicated disc collector with a large Blu-ray library, I also move my Blu-ray movies into Plex Media Server. This lets me watch them on any device and serves as a reliable backup.

If you also need to rip Blu-rays for Plex, keep reading this blog post. I outline the top three ways to rip Blu-ray discs for Plex while maintaining high quality, so you can enjoy your digital collection without relying on physical discs.

The Best Format for Ripping Blu-ray for Plex

To rip Blu-rays to Plex and watch them on any Plex client, knowing its supported file formats is crucial. While Plex is famous for its ability to handle almost any file, converting your media into "Plex-friendly" formats ensures smooth playback without buffering or quality loss across all your devices. Here is a list of Plex supported media formats (containers).

• Video Formats: MP4, MKV, DIVX, AVI, MOV
• Audio Formats: MP3, FLAC, M4A, WMA
• Image Formats: PNG, JPG, TBN, RAW

Simply knowing which formats Plex supports is not enough. A common misconception is that if a file is on the "supported" list, it will play perfectly. In reality, "supported" does not guarantee original quality playback. To ensure your video runs, Plex automatically chooses between Direct Play, Direct Stream, or Transcoding based on your file's container, codec, and the playback device's capabilities. When ripping Blu-rays for Plex, your priority should be formats that trigger Direct Play. This ensures your high-bitrate movies maintain maximum quality with the highest compatibility.

How to Rip Blu-ray for Plex Easily: 3 Methods Included

After getting familiar with the formats Plex supports, I will walk you through three methods for ripping Blu-rays into Plex-compatible formats, with step-by-step instructions. This will help you learn how to rip Blu-rays for Plex Media Server and choose the tool and workflow that suit you best.

How to Rip Blu-ray for Plex Using DVDFab Blu-ray Ripper

DVDFab Blu-ray Ripper is a reliable tool to rip Blu-rays for playback on Plex. It supports a wide array of high-quality, Plex-compatible formats, such as MP4, MKV, AVI, MP3, and FLAC. DVDFab also gets you a 1:1 ratio ripped Blu-ray content in its original quality. You can customize the output content with various parameter settings. 

Supported OS:

Key Features:

• Remove any Blu-ray copy protection
• Preserves original quality, including 5.1/7.1 surround sound and HD audio tracks
• Adjust resolution, bitrate, and encode settings for optimized streaming across different Plex clients
• Use high-efficiency compression and batch processing for better storage and speed
• Edit content with cropping, trimming, merging, etc., before ripping with the built-in editor

Step 1: Launch DVDFab and load the Blu-ray source

Open DVDFab 13, select Ripper from the left panel, then insert your Blu-ray disc into an internal or external drive. In the DVDFab interface, click Add to load the disc. BookFab Blu-ray Ripper also supports Blu-ray sources in ISO and BDMV folder formats.

Step 2: Choose a Plex-friendly output profile

Click Choose Other Profile to open the profile library, then go to Format > Video and pick a container that suits your playback devices. If you're ripping a Blu-ray for Plex, the MP4 + H.264 (AVC) + AAC combination is highly recommended, as it triggers Direct Play on almost all Plex apps and Smart TVs. If you want to save storage space, you can optionally choose MKV + H.265 (HEVC), which offers higher compression efficiency but may require more modern hardware for smooth playback.

Step 3: Customize your output video

On the main interface, you can use the Audio Track and Subtitle Track drop-down menus to choose which tracks you want to keep. You can also select the title and set a custom chapter range.

Click Advanced Settings to adjust the video codec, resolution, frame rate, and audio options. For smoother Plex playback, it usually helps to keep the original resolution (often 1080p for Blu-ray), set H.264 (AVC) as the video codec, match the frame rate to the source, and use AAC for audio to reduce the chance of transcoding. If you want surround sound, keep a compatible surround track when possible, but be aware that DTS/DTS-HD commonly triggers audio transcoding on many Plex clients. 

DVDFab also supports editing and trimming in the Ripper workflow. You can click Video Edit for cropping, trimming, etc., but keep edits minimal if your goal is pure Plex playback and maximum compatibility. 

Step 4: Start ripping and add the output to Plex

Choose your output folder, click Start, and wait for the rip to finish. DVDFab will show progress details during the ripping process.

After that, add the resulting MP4/MKV file into your Plex library folder and let Plex scan it. Plex will then decide Direct Play, Direct Stream, or Transcode based on the file and the device.

My personal Thoughts about DVDFab Blu-ray Ripper: In my experience, what sets DVDFab Blu-ray Ripper apart are its highly adaptable settings and comprehensive editing features. The option to bypass encryption and add watermarks grants more control and helps protect my content from unauthorized use.

How to Rip a Blu-ray to Plex Using MakeMKV

As an open-source and free program, MakeMKV is another way to rip Blu-ray for Plex. It converts DVDs and Blu-rays to MKV format compatible with the Plex platform without changing the data or quality of the original content. 

Supported OS: Windows XP or later, Mac x64 or ARM64 Mac OS X 10.7 or later; Linux

Pros:

• It can read some Blu-rays protected by AACS or BD+ 
• MKV can preserve multiple audio-video track 
• It supports metadata integration with the ripped file while preserving the chapters
• It supports the fastest file conversion with a quick file detection option
• It can maintain HD-quality content in the ripped file

Cons:

• It supports only one MKV format as the output 
• The output file is very large.
• It won't let you customize or edit your content

Step 1: Launch and start MakeMKV on your computer. Then, put the Blu-ray disc of your choice into the drive > and set "Source" to the drive. 

Step 2: Move to the "File Tab" > click "Open Disc" > select "Blu-ray" > MakeMKV will scan the uploaded disc. Next, you will see multiple files, such as audio, subtitles, the main movie, etc. 

Step 3: Here, you have to keep those elements in the file that will be useful for Plex and uncheck those factors that are not required in Plex. You must also ensure that you check the "Title" that contains the main movie. 

Step 4: Go to the "Output Folder" > choose your needed destination to save the output file > select the "MakeMKV" option to complete the Blu-ray disc ripping process. 

My personal thoughts about MakeMKV: I find MakeMKV appealing due to its free and open-source nature. It's a decent choice for occasional use, but for extensive Blu-ray ripping, I think it falls short. The limited parameter settings and editing options, combined with its single output format, can be restrictive when you need more flexibility.

How to Rip Blu-rays for Plex with Handbrake

Handbrake is a open-source and free tool lets you rip Blu-ray to Plex with the most common audio-video file format support. It also offers lots of customization and video filters. However, Handbrake doesn't rip any encrypted Blu-ray discs or files. You'll need to remove the protection from any encrypted Blu-ray using any third-party software, and after that, Handbrake can rip the decrypted Blu-ray disc. 

Supported OS: Windows 10 and later & macOS 10.13 and later & Linux

Pros:

• Explore multiple built-in device presets
• Convert Blu-ray to digital formats, like MP4, MKV, and WebM
• Save time with batch scanning
• It allows chapter markers with chapter & range selection option
• You can customize the video quality and subtitles
• Customize it with versatile video filters such as denoise, deinterlace, color space, cropping, etc. 

Cons:

• Handbrake can't rip any encrypted Blu-ray discs
• Only three output video formats are supported

Step 1: After installing open the HandBrake app on your system > select "Load Blu-ray" / "Load Disc" on the upper left side > once you hit any of the buttons a pop-up window will appear on the screen. 

Step 2: Here, you will find the folder you need to rip > after file importation, start changing the file's output profile > select "Profile" on the right side > a pop-up window will be prompted to select the output format.

Step 3: Go for the one that fits your needs. For example, select the format that is compatible with Plex. Select the "Rip to Video/Audio" option, and you will get the exported file in the application folder. 

My personal thought about HandBrake: Despite being a free tool, working with HandBrake is quite challenging because it doesn't support decryption. For decryption, I always have to depend on other third-party software. Limited output format support is another drawback that I have found quite disappointing. 

Comparison of Three Ways to Rip Blu-rays to Plex

To decide the best tool to rip Blu-ray to Plex, you must take a quick glance at the most compact and comprehensive comparison table among these three tools with their highlight points. 

Apart from side-by-side feature comparison, I also performed a real test on a Windows 10 X64 system equipped with 16GB RAM, an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 Ti 8GB GPU, and an Intel i7-6700 CPU clocked at 3.40GHz. The movie used for the test was 2012, which has a runtime of 2 hours and 36 minutes, and the source file size was 33.43GB.

Compression Mode Comparison

🏆DVDFab Blu-ray Ripper Excels in Speed and Output Quality

• DVDFab completed the movie conversion in just 7 minutes and 45 seconds, about 43 times faster than HandBrake. It also preserved full HD resolution and 5.1 AAC audio, providing a superior audio-visual experience compared to HandBrake.

Lossless Mode Comparison

🏆DVDFab Leads with Smaller File Size and Faster Ripping

• DVDFab Blu-ray Ripper completed the ripping process in just 7 minutes and 4 seconds, outpacing MakeMKV. Plus, DVDFab produced a smaller file size, highlighting its efficiency in creating high-quality backups while maximizing storage space.

How to Stream Your Blu-ray Files on Plex Media Server

Now that we've covered how to rip Blu-rays for Plex, the next step is adding that ripped Blu-ray content to your Plex server. First, you should create a folder and keep all the ripped Blu-ray files that you want to stream on Plex in that folder. Next, follow the given instructions:

Step 1: launch the Plex web app on system > hit on toolbar symbol > start with settings menu > select the correct Plex Media Server. 

Step 2: Under the settings menu, move to the "Manage Section" > select "Libraries" > hit "Add Library" > select the library type from the available options, such as movies, music, TV Shows, Photos, etc. 

Step 3: Give a name to the library > select your preferred language and based on that language the library content related information will be gathered from the Internet. 

Step 4: Select "Next" > hit "Browse for media folder" > select the folder that has the ripped Blu-ray files > select "Add" to add the folder > finally select the "Add Library" option. Now, you are good to go to stream ripped Blu-ray files to Plex. 

Conclusion

Now that you know how to rip Blu-ray for Plex playback, it's time to choose one tool that matches your needs to build your Plex media library. DVDFab provides a fast, all-in-one workflow for decryption and conversion. MakeMKV is a solid free option for 1:1 lossless copies, while HandBrake is effective for transcoding decrypted files. Remember, when ripping Blu-ray for Plex, you'd better select a compatible format (MP4/MKV) to achieve a stable "Direct Play" experience across your devices.