Thursday, February 5, 2015

Store Blu-ray rips to an 8-disk ZFS array on a Linux server

Summary: If you’re having no idea to store your blu-ray movies to an 8-disk ZFS array on a Linux server, here is my personal experience.  

store-bluray-rips-on-zfs


Editor’s note: 

As stated, I have a media computer in my living room that I use to watch the ripped movies. My format of choice is an mkv file storing the video as h.265 HEVC, and the audio as AAC with all the subtitles and chapter markers. As usual, I store the ripped files on an 8-disk ZFS array on a Linux server I have in a closet. It currently provides me with 12 TB of space, though that number is likely to increase in the future. Here, In this article, I will sharing my experience for how to put Blu-ray movies to an 8-disk ZFS array on a Linux server. 

My question: 


How to put my Blu-ray movies to an 8-disk ZFS array on a Linux server for watching in my living room?

Fixed up: 
  
I heard about Pavtube ByteCopy because of a promo e-mail from them, since I had bought the Video Converter Ultimate awhile back. I heard about that from the HitFilm forums at first. Then, I downloaded a free trial version and which can easily assist me in ripping my Blu-rays to be used with my in-house media server. I have a media computer in my living room that I'm trying to use for watching all of my content. 

Below is a step guide: Put my Blu-ray movies to an 8-disk ZFS array on a Linux server with easier way

Step 1. Load Blu-ray movie 

At first,hit the “Import” icon to choose load Blu-ray disc from ROM (an external Blu-ray drive is needed),and also can import Blu-ray folder/ISO image files.

The screenshoot like this: 

load-bluray-for-ripping-to-zfs

Step 2. Pick multi-track MKV as output

The second, To output multi-track MKV,choose the format bar to follow "Multi-track Video"- "Lossless/encoded Multi-track MKV (*.mkv)" in the output format list. 

choose-multi-track-mkv

Step 3. Customize profile settings (optional)

Hit on the Settings icon and you can customize audio and subtitle tracks. Uncheck the box for specific audio track and it will not be saved in output MKV file. It can also retain original 5.1 audio on media server.

remove-unwanted-audio-track

Tips: You can also copy DVD to NAS, store Blu-rays to external hard drivecollected DVD movies on my cloud storage and so on. 

Step 4. Rip Blu-ray to multi-track MKV

Before conversion, choose a proper output folder to save the converted Blu-ray movies by clicking the “Brows” button, and then hit the “Convert” button to start converting Blu-ray to multi-track MKV for ZFS on Linux server. 

Tips: 

1. I found this blog have lots of Pavtube ByteCopy functions, hope it can help you out. 

2. If you also want to get these clever ways to replace wasting time or money, you can read more here: 

Best Alternative to DVDFab DVD Copy for Mac OS X Mavericks
Watch Blu-ray ISO movies on Surface Pro 3 with multiple languages
Compress my BluRay collection for watching on tablet/phone when travelling

Monday, February 2, 2015

2016 Best Alternative to DVDFab DVD Copy for Mac OS X Mavericks

Summary: DVDFab doesn’t decrypt anymore? And you may looking for alternatives. Now, get this best Mavericks DVDFab Alternative to rip and copy DVD under Mac Mavericks without any hassle. 

best dvdfab alternative
  
DVDFab DVD Copy is the best DVD Copy software makes perfect 1:1 DVD clone and DVD backup. It can help users to copy any DVD to ISO, blank discs or hard drive and very powerful. However, when you upgrade your Mac system to the new operating system Mavericks, you may be depressed or hopeless since DVDFab failed to work on OS X Mavericks.     Don’t worry? Here I recommend you a great DVDFab Alternative for Mavericks that you can use to rip, copy and convert DVDs to any format and device under Mavericks. 

Just free download this powerful DVDFab DVD Copy for Mac Alternative: 

 

This Pavtube BDMagic for Mac (get 30% off now) can be regarded as the best DVDFab alternative because of its reasonable price, free upgrade service, and frequent maintenance. Its initiative interface and simple operation make both amateurs and professionals capable of easily and successfully accomplish the DVD ripping and copying process. 
Four star features shows below - DVDFab DVD Copy for Mac Alternative? 

1. You can either copy a movie with the full disc information, or copy just the movie. 

2. You can also convert your Blu-ray to a variety of computer formats, suitable for playing on mobile devices or your computer. 

3. The program will also enable you to shrink your movie to take up less room on your portable device – very handy for when you want to take them on a trip. 

4. It operates on OS X Leopard and above.

How to use DVDFab Mavericks Alternative to Rip, Copy & Edit DVDs?

Step 1: Load DVD file to your best DVDFab Mavericks Alternative


dvd copy for mac

Step 2: Choose video format and set presets

Step 3: Convert DVD movie with DVDFab Mavericks Alternative

Another Alternative to DVDFab DVD Copy for Mac OS X Mavericks - Pavtube Bytecopy for Mac

If you're looking for a DVDFab alternative to rip DVD movies to popular video/audio files, you must be disappointed with DVDFab for some reason. Here we will introduce you the Pavtube ByteCopy for Mac to rip DVD to any regular video/audio formats, including MP4, MOV, MKV, FLV, WMV, AVI, MPEG, VOB, WMA, MP3, OGG, WAV, FLAC, etc.You can also import your files directly from the disc and preserving your audio tracks without any loss is one of the hallmarks of the program. You can choose which tracks you want to keep for the final version, too, if there are some tracks you don’t want to keep. For more details you can take this Review

dvdfab alternative on mac

Updated on 6th, April, 2016

Read More:

Thursday, January 29, 2015

Watch Blu-ray ISO movies on Surface Pro 3 with multiple languages

Looking for a way to convert existing Blu-ray ISO collection to Surface Pro 3 so that you can watch them with multiple languages? Simply follow this article to get it done!

Equipped with 12 inches, 2160 x 1440 pixel-free resolution, 3:2 aspect ratio, Surface Pro 3 exceeds our expectations about tablet display and makes itself an ideal device to watch movies.

Surface Pro 3

Generally speaking, a Blu-ray movie will contain multiple tracks and subtitles, that will give us wonderful audio enjoyment and allows us the select the language we need. If you just create some Blu-ray ISO image files and want to get them into Surface Pro 3 for amusement meanwhile switch to the desired language during playback? This tutorial is about how to convert Blu-ray ISO to Surface Pro 3 in MP4 format easily and fast with keeping multi-tracks.

At first, Pavtube ByteCopy is your great choice to rip Blu-ray ISO files to Surface Pro 3 compatible MP4 format as well as multiple audio tracks saved for Surface Pro 3, after converting, you can freely transfer and watch Blu-ray ISO movies on Surface Pro 3 with any language by switching to the desired one. Below is how.

Rip Blu-ray ISO to Multi-track MP4 format for Surface Pro 3 viewing

Part One. Convert Blu-ray ISO to Multi-track MP4 for Surface Pro 3

Step 1. Free download the Multi-track Blu-ray ISO Converter (Mac users can download here), install and launch it. Click the “ISO/IFO” button to import source Blu-ray ISO files.



Step 2. Choose “Multi-track Video > Multi-track MP4 (*.mp4)” from the “Format” drop-down list as output format.



Tip: This profile extracts more than one audio track from source Blu-ray ISO movies in saved MP4 files. And you are allowed to remove unwanted audio track by unchecking the “Check” box in front of each audio source.

Step 3. Hit the “Convert” button on Pavtube ByteCopy main UI to start ripping Blu-ray ISO to Multi-track MP4 for Surface Pro 3. Once the conversion process finishes, open output folder and locate the created multi-track MP4 movie for video transferring.



Part Two. Stream and watch Multi-track MP4 movies on Surface Pro 3

Step 1. Install multi-track player on Surface Pro 3. When typing in the keyword “multitrack player” in Windows Store, many free or charged apps would show up, choose one and install on your Surface Pro 3 (Here recommend you to use VLC Player).

Step 2. Then add created multi-track MP4 movie to this multi-track player.

Step 3. Open this multi-track player, open the source multi-track MP4, and choose wanted language during movie playback.

Tip:

If you don't need multi-track format, you can learn how to put Blu-ray ISO movies onto Surface Pro 3 here. Just have a try! And read how to convert DVD, Blu-ray and Digital Copy for Surface Pro 3 playback.

View Pavtube Special Offer page to get more Money-saving Tips:

Monday, January 26, 2015

Compress my BluRay collection for watching on tablet/phone when travelling

Have some Blu-ray collections and want to watch them on tablet/phone when travelling? Read this simple tutorial to downscale and compress Blu-ray for easier playback on tablet/phone.

Blu-ray movies are on the verge of conquering the whole world, more and more people own Blu-ray Discs, here in this article you're going to be recommended with top 10 best popular Blu-ray movies, and you will get the best blu-ray ripper software which can help you to backup and rip blu-ray movies to video formats in smaller size for viewing on tablet/phone when travelling.

Compress BluRay collection for watching on tablet/phone

Top Blu-ray movies recommended:

X-Men: Days of Future Past, Godzilla, Muppets Most Wanted, The Amazing Spider-Man 2, Transformers: Age of Extinction, Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Noah, Non-Stop, Robocop, 300: Rise of an Empire

There is a major issue that most of the Blu-ray users are plagued with. The Blu-ray films are hard to backup onto tablet/phone due to the copy protection and of course never easy to carry around because of the large size. For this I intend, you need a Blu-ray Ripper for you to compress file size of a Blu-ray movie into tablet/phone supported format for watching freely.

Formerly, I considered DVDFab as well, but it seemed quite expensive, but now luckily I found this alternative to DVDFab with reasonable price as well as effective functions- Pavtube BDMagic which can not only reduce the size of the Blu-rays for you at super speed and high quality exported movies for watching on my 1080p tablet and 720p phone, but also make lossless copy of BluRay collection with the "Copy entire disc" option of this Blu-ray Ripper.

Guide: How to downsize Blu-ray collection for tablet/phone with best quality

Step 1. Load Blu-ray Movie

Launch the Best Blu-ray Ripper(Mac version is here) and click "Load file(s)" to load original Blu-ray discs.

You need a Blu-ray Disc drive (either external or internal) to read Blu-ray Disc. Click the main file of your Blu-ray to select the subtitles for Blu-ray movies in the "Subtitles" option.

the Best Blu-ray Ripper

Step 2. Choose the suitable output format

For storing, the MP4 is the most compatible format for portable devices like tablet or phone. You also can choose the preset output format for spacial devices such as iPad, Samsung.etc. Other places to store blu-ray are a PC/Mac, an external hard drive, an SD card, cloud services, etc.



Step 3. Compress Blu-ray file size

Before conversion, you can go to the "Settings" to set the parameters for your movie. To compress the file size, adjust the parameters to be smaller.

Note: Some quality will be lost if you compress them to be much smaller. So Pls ensure the movie quality before adjust the parameters.

Step 4. Rip Blu-ray collection to minimize the file size

Click the "Convert" button on the main interface to start compressing the file size of the Blu-ray

Once the conversion finished, you can get the ripped video as you wanted by clicking "Open" button. Sharing your movies with families and friends on tablet and smart phone when travelling is easy for you now!

Thursday, January 22, 2015

How can I get my TiVo recordings to PS3 for playback?

This article offers a brief instruction about how to get TiVo recordings to PS3 for playback with ease by converting Tivo to PS3 compatible video files.
 
It must be a huge waste to just play HD games on your game console, like PS3, Xbox and Nintendo Wii. Apart from their main purpose, you can also regard PS3 as a Media Player.

converting Tivo to PS3

As we know, the PS3 can support MPEG-4, H.264, MPEG-1, MPEG-2, AVI, Motion JPEG, AVCHD(.m2ts / .mts), DivX, WMV, VC-1 formats. Thus, if you have some Tivo recordings and want to stream via PS3 Media Server without problems, the easy option is to convert TiVo recordings to PS3 compatible video files.

Along with some help from third party program, it can be done effortlessly. Searching online, more than one people recommend Pavtube Video Converter Ultimate to change TiVo format to PS3 acceptable one.


This video app works as the best software to convert TiVo files to PS3 friendly MP4 format with least quality loss. Moreover, this program also comes with optimized format presets for almost all popular multimedia devices. With it, you should be able to open, play, edit, upload the new file without any hassle. And you could get wonderful output files and never worry about out of audio/video sync. If you are running on Mac, please turn to the mac version.

How to convert and play TiVo shows via PS3 

1. Load TiVo files

Start up this program, and then click “Add Video” to import all .tivo files. You can also import DVD VOB for converting.

Tivo to PS3 Converter

Tip: When first loading, Pavtube TiVo Converter will ask you to input your Media Access Key. Simply press “Option” button and switch to “TiVo” tab to enter your Media Access Key, and click “OK” to confirm.


2. Select output format

Click the "Format" option, and choose "PS3 Video(720P) MPEG-4(*.mp4)" from "PSP/PS3" profile list. If you want to keep 1080p resolution as source movie, you can choose PSP/PS3 > PS3 Video(1080P) MPEG-4(*.mp4) for PS3 Media Server.

PS3 video format

3. Start TiVo to PS3 Conversion

Tap the Conversion button on the main interface to start transcoding TiVo to PS3.

The process will be finished soon. After the conversion, you can easily find the encoded TiVo video clips in the destination folder by clicking "Open" button for streaming and sharing to your other devices via PS3 Media Server.

Additional Tips: 

1. If you haven’t got TiVo files ready on your PC, follow the steps: Launch TiVo Desktop Plus software on your PC. Connect TiVo to your home network, and then the TiVo Desktop will provide you with a list of shows for transferring to your PC. Then please transfer the TiVo TV shows you want to PC. Once all the shows you selected have been downloaded from your TiVo, they will appear in the Now Playing list in TiVo Desktop.

TiVo Desktop Plus software

2. As you see, this TiVo to PS3 Converter also allows you to turn Blu-ray and DVD to play on PS3 and other media server like Plex for watching with the best quality.

3. If you transfer the Tivo file over 4GB to PS3 from HDD, you have to split Tivo file to smaller size for PS3 due to the limitation of FAT32 file system which PS3 supports only.

Monday, January 19, 2015

Rip & Copy Blu-ray movies to Asus VivoTab 8 tablet

The following article will provide a solution to VivoTab 8 BD playback issue as well as how to successfully watch or play Blu-ray on Asus VivoTab 8 tablet.

Work or play, the versatile ASUS VivoTab 8 has you covered. It's incredibly slim and light, making it easy to hold and carry in one hand—perfect for providing users extraordinary experience on watching videos. However, every bean has its black. As other tablet PCs, VivoTab 8 does not support direct playback of Blu-rays. To play Blu-ray on VivoTab 8, you need to rip Blu-ray to VivoTab 8 supported video format first.
Copy Blu-ray movies to Asus VivoTab 8 tablet

The Blu-ray to VivoTab 8 conversion only works when one can get a powerful Blu-ray for VivoTab 8 converter. After the conversion, the Windows device can get access to the converted Blu-ray files easily. Therefore, to manage the conversion from Blu-ray file to VivoTab 8 video, Windows users can refer to Pavtube BDMagic while Mac users to BDMagic for Mac.

Overall, with this Blu-ray to VivoTab 8 converter, you can rip Blu-rays and lossless re-encode Blu-rays to MP4 format as compatible size for VivoTab 8. Of course, this Blu-ray ripper can help you convert commercial Blu-ray movies to AVI, WMV, FLV, MOV, etc as well. What's more, it can also enable you to rip Blu-ray for directly playback on other WindowsAndroid, iOS based devices. (Read reviews)

Guide to ripping and putting Blu-ray movies on Asus VivoTab 8

Step 1: Launch the Blu-ray Ripper for VivoTab 8, click "Blu-ray disc" icon to load the Blu-ray files from your computer's hard drive. ISO image files is also supported. After the Blu-ray files are loaded, you can preview them on the right viewing window and take snapshots of your favorite movie scene.

Blu-ray Ripper for VivoTab 8

Step 2: Click "Format" bar, you can easily find the optimized videos for VivoTab 8 under "ASUS > ASUS VivoTab Series(Windows 8) H.264 Video(*.mp4)". The output videos could fit on the Asus VivoTab Windows tablet perfectly and supplies full-screen playback. (Also learn how to do Blu-ray to Transformer Pad conversion)



Tip:

1. If you like, you can click "Settings" to change the video encoder, resolution, frame rate, etc. as you wish. For watching videos on the Windows based tablet, 720p with 2000kbps is just all right. I found bitrate higher results in big file size, and lower visible quality loss, and vice versa.



2. Before the conversion, you can click "Edit" to edit your videos by cropping, trimming, adding watermarks, etc. What's more, you can choose the subtitles and audio track for the target video on the main interface. 


Step 3: When everything is OK, just press "Convert" button to start to convert Blu-ray to Asus VivoTab 8 mp4 videos.

Bingo! After the conversion, just download and copy the converted video files to your VivoTab 8. In this way, you can watch Blu-ray movies on Asus VivoTab 8 and enjoy the Blu-ray movies!

Also get your DVD and SD/HD videos on your Asus tablets for watching.

Thursday, January 15, 2015

Convert 3D Blu-ray for playing on TV via Amazon Fire TV and Roku 3

This tutorial is about how to convert 3D Blu-ray movies to play on TV via Amazon Fire TV and Roku 3 with ease using a top 3D Blu-ray Ripper.

I have an LG TV (basic model 55"), can I rip my own 3D Blu-ray movies and convert them to a file I could play on my TV via Amazon Fire TV and Roku 3. I'm a Mac user. How can I do this?

stream 3D Blu-ray to TV for playback via Amazon Fire TV and Roku 3

To stream a 3D Blu-ray to TV for playback via Amazon Fire TV and Roku 3, you just need an external Blu-ray drive to hook up to your Mac and a Mac 3D Blu-ray ripper software which has the power to convert 3D Blu-rays into a playable format with TV/Fire TV/Roku on Mac.


Here Pavtube ByteCopy for Mac is such a tool for Mac users(including Yosemite, Mavericks, Mountain Lion, Lion, etc), all all-in-one Blu-ray and DVD tool that helps you convert 2D/3D Blu-ray and standard DVD to Side-by-Side 3D, Anaglyph 3D and Top-Bottom 3D video within a few clicks; of course, you can also rip Blu-ray/DVD to normal 2D for more widely use. (Read the review) Just download the excellent 3D Blu-ray Ripper now and start the 3D Blu-ray conversion.


Convert 3D Blu-rays for streaming to TV via Amazon Fire TV and Roku 3 on Mac

Step 1: Install and launch the top 3D Blu-ray Converter for Mac(Windows version) onto your computer; then click the disc icon to load the target 3D Blu-ray.

3D Blu-ray Converter for Mac

Step 2: Click on the dropdown menu of "Format", and then choose your needed one from the multiple output format presets. You can convert 3D BD to 2D MKV, MP4 for streaming, or choose "MKV Side-by-Side 3D Video (*.mkv)" from "3D Video" option if you have a 3D TV and want to keep the 3D effect. Also you can create 3D SBS MP4 from 3D Blu-ray for watching.

3D SBS MKV format

Tip: Click “Settings” button to do corresponding settings regarding to video, audio. Under “3D” item, you can choose Side-By-Side or Top-Bottom effect. (Read the differences Between Anaglyph 3D and Side-by-Side 3D)

3D SBS MKV settings

Step 3: After you have done all the settings, return to the main interface to hit Convert button to start 3D Blu-ray to TV converting process.

When the conversion is finished, you can stream and transfer the 3D Blu-ray to TV for enjoyment in 2D/3D effect without any hassles using Amazon Fire TV and Roku 3.