Just ripped my first Blu-Ray.

[onehandle]

Ordered a cheap external Blu-Ray drive from Amazon. Hooked it up by USB, inserted a Blu-Ray movie and 'Hellboy' popped up on my desktop. No drivers required even though the drive is 'Windows only.' I can't play the movie because Blu-Ray is a 'bag of hurt' (-Steve Jobs).

Downloaded MakeMKV. Chose my settings, started it and had a MKV file about an hour later. The file plays great in full 1080 HD using Plex. VLC and Perian (via Quicktime) choke for some reason. Other HD files play fine. Maybe a 30GB HD file is a bag of hurt.

When I go to bed, I will setup Handbrake to create a file for my iPhone.

[TommyO]

1. Which drive did you get? Curious minds are, well, curious!

[onehandle]

2. Answers:

I bought the USB ASUS External Drive SBC-06D1S-U from Amazon. $149.91
http://www.amazon.com/Blu-Ray-Combo-External-Optical-SBC-06D1S-U/dp/B003A7X7WI

I have a late 2009 17-inch MacBook Pro 3.06 GHz with 8GB of RAM and the ripping as I said above, took about an hour.

However the conversion using Handbrake to an iPhone 4 optimized file took 3-4 hours.

I got my info on how to do all this from Macworld. Using their instructions, I checked off the one biggest file in MakeMKV's interface, resulting in a 30GB file. The optimized file using Handbrake (I used the Apple TV setting) was about 3GB, but looks great on my Mac and on my HD iPhone screen.

This is the Macworld article that gave me the details on how to do this:
http://www.macworld.com/article/145794/2010/01/bluray_ripping.html

Your mileage will vary.

[TommyO]

3. I received the drive today, and like you said, it works perfectly!

On my MacPro, it's taking between 30 and 45 minutes to copy, and I used Handbrake with some custom settings and it took about 1:15:00 for a 109 minute movie, with a few other things running. Not too shabby. I'm glad you posted this! My brother is about to get a MacBook Pro, so I'll be recommending this to him also so he can load up a few movies on the iPad

[onehandle]

4. I figured your older MacPro would outperform my newer MBP.

On the process itself, I was shocked how easy it was.

I'm sure you noticed that the MakeMKV Beta has a 30 day limit. According to the website, you can just re-download it to 'reset' the expiration date.

Were you able to play the MKV in anything else other than Plex?

[TommyO]

5. It is *VERY* easy, and working like a charm

I did see the time limit on MakeMKV, it's not a big deal right now. I tried a couple of quicktime hacks, and haven't found anything that I like, so I'll use Plex on the Mac, and my AppleTV.

[TommyO]

6. I've found that Boxee also works

What's nice is that it can also use an iPod Touch or iPhone as a remote, a nice little feature since I have a 2nd gen iPod touch floating around. I'm hoping that the upcoming Boxee Box will allow full 1080p streaming from a network share, so I don't have to run it through Handbrake if I want to watch it on either of my LCD TVs.

[onehandle]

7. That would be interesting to know. We're getting the new AppleTV, because...

...well, it's only $99. I'm viewing it as just another convenient connector with Airplay and Netflix. Wish it had Hulu, but that seems unlikely with Apple and NBC's rough history, not to mention the (hopefully not) Comcast merger.

720p... Sigh.

[TommyO]

8. Now that AppleTV can do 720p at 30fps, it's a good solution too

The Boxee Box is now available for pre-order at Amazon, I'm seriously considering ordering it - if it doesn't work, I can always return it.