I rip my movies to a hard drive so I can convert them to MKVs.  This provides me flexibility to watch my movies without a Blu-ray player software. This article only focuses on the process of ripping the blu-ray disc to a hard drive and removing the copy protection.

The Blu-ray copying process can be broken down into two steps: the removal of the copy protection and the actual ripping of the movie to a hard drive. If you are just getting started in the Blu-ray ripping world, your first stop should be slysoft.com and check out their free trial of AnyDVD HD.  While expensive, AnyDVD HD is the industry standard for moving copy protection from a disc.  I personally use this software and think its great.  AnyDVD  can work in the background, removing the copy protection on the fly.  This allows you to use other software to actually rip the blu-ray disc without having to make an ISO file.

Right now, there are three legit ways to rip blu-ray movies to a hard drive, which can be done after removing the disc’s copy protection.

1. Eac3to- This freeware is community supported and gets the job done in conjunction with AnyDVD HD.  This is the software I use to convert movies to MKV. Eac3to will create individual audio and video files that then need to be compiled into an MKV file using mkvmerge.
2. MakeMKV – MakeMKV is an all-in-one solution that removes blu-ray copy protection and converts the movie to an MKV file.  I actually tend to use MakeMKV to convert DVDs to MKV files.  MakeMKV does not require the use of AnyDVD.  However, it does not do as good of a job keeping up with the latest copy protection.
3. Handbrake -  This piece of software is free but it does not provide any means of removing copy protection.  This is the software of choice for converting movies to iPod or iPads.

ISO files can be loaded seamlessly with a virtual drive, like Virtual Drive from Slysoft. I must say it works seamlessly if you want to preserve