How about playing DVDs that were converted from BluRay?

[Cut2Riff]

Hi, all!

I understand that the most recent version of RiffPlayer doesn't yet support BluRay movies.  But does anyone know if it will correctly play DVDs that were converted from BluRay discs?   There are several programs out there that will legally perform the conversion, including the tool I own --DVDFab BluRay to DVD converter -- and it works perfectly.  But what I don't know is if the 1-to-1 output is sufficiently identical to the distributed DVD disc so that RiffPlayer will sync and play correctly.

I'll be happy to try it and report back, but first I'd like to know if anyone has already tried this.  Anyone?

Thanks!

[Cut2Riff]

Well, I see a fair number of "reads" for this post (though no replies yet), so as promised, I'm reporting back after trying this out...  

And the answer is:

Yes!  It works just fine!

It took a few distinct steps:

• 1) Rip BluRay Disc to Hard Drive (Slysoft's AnyDVD HD™ rips the entire contents to disk as BluRay/*.m2ts files, whereas DVDFab BluRay Copy™ can optionally rip only the main movie, which is all that's needed and relevant).

• 2) Once on the hard disk, I found that in order to forestall some difficulties, I had to delete some extraneous folders, particularly if a digital copy (DCOPY) folder came on the same BluRay disc (which would otherwise crash Step 3), and perhaps some folders created by the ripper (e.g., "ANY!" folder, etc. - YMMV)

• 3) Convert the BluRay main movie to DVD format (I would only choose DVD-9 to avoid excessive quality loss).  DVDFab BluRay to DVD Converter™ will do this, but there are other tools that can do this as well.  Note that when I tried using that particular converter with the full BluRay disc, it crashed quite spectacularly (probably because of the DCOPY digital copy folder).

• 4) Although it will depend on the specific tool and options you use to perform the conversion in Step 3, you may end up with a DVD Folder with VIDEO_TS / AUDIO_TS subfolders as output on the hard disk (an .ISO image file is the other alternative, depending on the tool). Since RiffPlayer™ seems to require that it at least think it's reading the movie from an optical disc assigned to a drive letter (alas, I can't help you Mac or Linux folks), you will then have to burn the DVD Folder either to an actual optical DVD-9 disc or to an .ISO file.  Since it's extremely easy to end up with a useless coaster (or ISO) if your burner tool fails to select the second-layer transition point properly, I very strongly recommend the only burner software I've ever found that always does this correctly, Elby's CloneDVD2™, currently only sold and maintained by SlySoft™.  ImgBurn™and even Nero 10™ sometimes just can't get this crucial decision right.  (Again, of course, YMMV)

• 5) Load the DVD9 disc you burned into your DVD drive, or load your .ISO file into a virtual DVD drive (two excellent freeware virtual DVD drives are (1): Virtual CloneDrive™ (available at SlySoft.com) and DVDFab Virtual Drive™ (available at DVDFab.com).

• 6) Launch the RiffPlayer™, choose "Preferences" (the screwdriver icon), and specify the correct drive letter for either your physical DVD drive or your virtual drive.  Then load the RiffTrax MP3 file, watch & laugh!  (I found I had to try a few Video Codecs (Options->View Info and Properties->Video Codec) before I found one that didn't cause the video to "roll" like crazy, but once that was done, Disembaudio synched up perfectly and everything worked great!

Thank you, RiffPlayer developers and also for the inimitably hilarious talents of the Master Riffers!

p.s.:  Neither Rifftrax nor myself endorses the use of any DVD or BluRay ripper on any disc you do not own.
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