[mythtvnz] Which image format (ISO, BIN etc) shall I use to rip a Blu-Ray disc?

[Stephen Worthington]

On Tue, 20 Sep 2011 22:02:54 +1200, you wrote:

>Hi,
>
>Which image format (ISO, BIN etc) shall I use to preserve all information 
>from an unencrypted Blu-Ray disc?
>
>I have a Blu-Ray copy of my wedding video (in addition to a DVD) in H.264 
>1080p, to which I own all relevant copyright (so you can feel safe giving me 
>advice). I do not have a Blu-Ray drive, but am borrowing one from a friend. 
>While I have the drive, I want to make an image of the disc that preserves it 
>in its entirety and could be either burnt to a new BR disc (creating an 
>identical copy to the original) or played in MythTV etc.
>
>With the DVD, I made an .iso image. This can be burnt to blank DVDs and 
>plays natively in MythTV.
>
>I have been told that for a Blu-Ray disc I need to use a BIN file image in 
>order to preserve all relevant information of the disc. I have searched quite 
>a lot (see links below) and as far as I can tell, a bin image is a 
>bit-for-bit copy of the disc surface, whereas an iso image is a copy of the 
>*files* on the disc.
>http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20061130153208AA1w2qP
>http://forums.afterdawn.com/thread_view.cfm/7976
>http://club.myce.com/f3/differences-bin-img-iso-images-245082/
>
>As I understand things, if all relevant information on the disc is a file 
>(as it is with DVDs), an iso image is sufficient. If some relevant 
>information on the disc is not a file (such as copy protection mechanisms on 
>Blu-Ray?), I would need a BIN file. I have found that BIN files don't play 
>natively in a lot of the programs that I use.
>
>My understanding is that Blu-Ray is just a collection of files in a UDF 
>filesystem 
>(https://help.ubuntu.com/community/RestrictedFormats/BluRayAndHDDVD). I 
>expect that copy protection outside of that filesystem often stops you seeing 
>the files. For my wedding Blu-Ray, I can see all of the files and play the 
>.m2ts file directly, suggesting to me that the disc is entirely unprotected 
>(as it should be). In this case, should an iso image be everything that I 
>need?
>
>As a number of things don't work properly with Blu-Rays on Gnu/Linux (eg the 
>menus), it is hard to just have a go and test 
>(http://www.mythtv.org/wiki/Bluray).
>
>Failing an answer, I guess that I just do a BIN file as well and hedge my 
>bets.
>
>I'm a member of the FSF, so you don't need to tell me about the evils of 
>Blu-Ray (http://www.bluraysucks.com). (Though I note that most of that 
>doesn't apply to DRM-free Blu-Ray discs like mine.)
>
>Thanks in advance for your assistance.
>
>Thanks!
>
>Aaron

I have never tried it, but my understanding is that with an
unprotected BluRay disk, like an unprotected DVD, you can just copy
all the files to a directory and get VLC to play the directory.
Whether MythTV can also play a BluRay directory, I have no idea.