Backup Blu-ray Discs

As more and more devices are released these days with HD capabilities, Blu-ray standard spreads around like wildfire. Software designed to unlock content on such discs is a logical consequence of the phenomenon, and Foxreal Blu-ray Ripper can be used to this purpose exactly.

At $49 the application may seem a bit expensive, but this is a one-time fee, so it also includes all future updates. However, before paying up you can take the program for a test drive and see if it fits your needs. The only limitation of the evaluation edition is that the output result will be marked with Foxreal logo right in the middle.

Working with the software should not give you too much trouble as the interface is pretty intuitive and also features a 4-step tutorial on how to get the job done. You’ll notice from the beginning that the program does not support only Blu-rays, but can also be used to convert DVDs to other video formats.

Foxreal Blu-ray Ripper can extract/convert content straight from the physical disc as well as from a folder on your computer or compressed in an ISO. As soon as you load up the content you can start picking the titles and chapters you want to convert.

If you wish to convert only part of the movie, the application brings the necessary tools to trim down the chapters so that the result of the conversion is what you deem relevant. Editing function included in Foxreal Blu-ray Ripper extend to cropping, applying a text/image/video watermark or adjusting brightness/contrast/saturation.

A set of six effects are at your disposal if you want to change the look and feel of the clip. These include simple Gaussian blur, simple Laplacian sharpen, turning colors to gray, inverting colors or apply an aged tone.

Defining the beginning and the end of the video clipping is an easy task as the application lets you set the two marks as the video plays. You can further adjust the selection by punching in the exact time for the two values. Unfortunately you cannot navigate through the video frame by frame and this may reduce the accuracy of the clipping.

Thanks to the preview function included in the program you can see all your modifications before starting the conversion process. This feature allows you to view both the original clip and the modified one as they both play at once.

The options for watermarking your video with a text of your own cover font, color, size, style and position on screen. One of the best parts is that you can move the mark with your mouse anywhere in the clip you see fit.

Foxreal Blu-ray Ripper brings to the table a plethora of conversion choices that are mainly bent to ready video for specific devices. These profiles make the task a whole lot easier as your input is reduced to picking up the device. However, if none of the presented alternatives works for you, there is always the possibility to create your own custom profile (although we doubt there isn’t a profile perfectly adjusted to your needs).

The entire procedure is fairly simple. You just need to pick up the desired output format and make the modifications for video (codec, resolution, bitrate, framerate) and audio (codec, sample rate, bitrate and channels). Details about the entire task are offered in the lower part of the “Profile Settings” screen.

The application is perfectly able to prepare Blu-rays and DVDs for a plethora of devices which cover Apple releases (iPod, iPad, iPhone, Apple TV), Sony equipment (PSP and PS3), as well as Blackberry units. Moreover, there are plenty of other profiles available that take care of other mobile devices. Also, you can simply convert the video to play on a computer, in which case “Common Video” bunch of presets should be of help.

Foxreal Blu-ray Ripper automatically detects the various audio tracks and subtitles available on the loaded disc and allows you to make the desired selection.

We tested the application on a batch of five Blu-ray discs and in all cases it managed to give us access to content and allowed its conversion to a different format. Also, 1:1 copies were possible with the least effort.

The support for Nvidia’s CUDA technology made things a bit easier for us as the impact on CPU was quite low, requesting only 22% of its total power and only 120MB of RAM. However, our test was done on a quad-core system with 8GB of RAM.

On the downside, when we accessed editing functions to prepare the video just the way we wanted, the clip preview was extremely choppy and made trimming and any other task very difficult.

When we tested the application for DVD ripping, on a less powerful, CUDA-less machine (2GHz Dual Core with 3GB of RAM), the values were not over the top at all. CPU rose to an average of 75% and around 1200MB of RAM was required for the operation. In this case, however, everything went smooth and the review ran as it should, displaying our modifications as we made them, with no impact on video rendering.

The Good

It installs in a jiffy and puts at your disposal a nice, intuitive interface. You can use it for ripping both Blu-ray discs as well as DVDs and extract the desired audio track and subtitle.

Editing functions it comes with allow you to watermark the output result with text, an image or a video clip. Also, you can change the looks of the outcome product by applying one of the six effects available. Original audio track can be replaced with a different one.

It brings to the table a myriad of profiles ready to convert your video for all popular mobile devices; you can also create custom profiles.

The Bad

When we tried to edit the Blu-ray disc video preview was extremely choppy and turned trimming into quite a difficult task. You cannot navigate the clips frame by frame.

The Truth

Foxreal Blu-ray Ripper did a great job on our test computers, with minor glitches here and there in the case of Blu-rays. With DVDs we did not encounter problems and everything went smooth.

The $49 price may label the application as expensive, but it is a one-time fee as future updates of the application come for free.