Rip and Burn Blu-ray 4K UHD Disc in 2024
This is year 2024, why do you still need to burn Blu-ray UHD yourself? Cannot you just play iso file directly?
Yes you can with limitation.
From my limited knowledge, there is still no way to recognise those Dolby Vision 4K UHD Blu-ray disc rips as is (they will be recognised as HDR10 only). Btw, I am using a special version of Kodi on Nvidia Shield Pro (see later section for details). The experience is also various from time to time. Sometimes the Java powered Blu-ray menu doesn’t work well (slow motion etc). But skipping the menu to just play the main feature directly normally works fine (except the Dolby Vision recognised as HDR10 issue mentioned above).
My hardware list (prices all in AUD):
- TV: TCL-75" 75C635 QLED 4K Google TV, supports Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos ($1099.99 from Costco, 11/2022)
- Soundbar: JBL Bar 9.1 True Wireless Surround with Dolby Atmos ($755.37 from JB Hi-Fi, 12/2022)
- Blu-ray 4K UHD Disc Player: Panasonic DP-UB450GN ($219.21 from JB Hi-Fi, 12/2022)
- Media Player: Nvidia Shield TV Pro 4K 16GB ($122.77 from eBay, 1/2023)
- Blu-ray Internal Drive: Pioneer BDR-213JBK with BDR-213U firmware ($269 bought from https://uhdenableddrives.com/ following https://forum.makemkv.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=20&t=18747 for MakeMKV compatibility)
How to Rip Blu-ray 4K UHD Disc to ISO?
TL;DR: MakeMKV
You need a Blu-ray UHD driver equipped with “UHD Friendly” Libredrive firmware. You can follow an official guide here: Ultimate UHD Drives Flashing Guide Updated 2024
When ripping 4K UHD Disc with MakeMKV, you may also be failed with error “The volume key is unknown for his disc”. There is an additional step to send the AACS dump file to svp@makemkv.com for the support to be added. For details: UHD FAQ
How to Burn Blu-ray 4K UHD Disc from ISO?
TL;DR: ImgBurn
Before start, note that it might be NOT economic to do this way. 50GB double layers BD-R costs ~AUD $2 each, 100GB triple layers BD-R XL costs ~AUD $5 each.
But as I mentioned, I cannot find a way to play Dolby Vision as is.
Also I only tested against my own hardware (my Blu-ray Disc Player can recognise the disc I burned without any issue), YMMV!
If you burn from extracted files (BDMV and CERTIFICATE folders), you can use “Create image from file/folders” option to create the ISO file first (or “Write files/folders to disc” directly). The file system would be UDF, with UDF revision 2.50.
Bonus: How to Play Blu-ray 4K UHD ISO?
TL;DR: Special version of Kodi on Nvidia Shield Pro.
The latest version of Kodi (v21 Omega, at the time of writing) supports Dolby Vision out-of-box but only in MP4 containers.
You would need Maven’s Kodinerds build instead.
Ironically, you cannot play Genuine Blu-ray 4K UHD Disc on PC, but you can play ISO file (if you rip it via MakeMKV). I have tried both PlayerFab and CyberLink PowerDVD 23.