• Is it legal to copy Blu-ray discs to a hard drive?
  • How to copy Blu-ray movies from a disc to my laptop?
  • What is the best Blu-ray copy software?

These are a series of questions on Blu-ray copy are posted on Quora. In this article, we will go over these most concerning questions in order to help you find your solutions.

How to Copy or Rip Blu-rays

Top 3 Ways to Copy Blu-ray on Windows and Mac

If you're a movie lover with a large collection of Blu-ray discs, you might want to make the most of them by making backups for watching on other devices. With the right software, coping Blu-ray can be easy and stress-free. Now, let's take a deeper dive into the best ways to copy Blu-ray on Windows and Mac.

Way 1: Copy Blue Rays with DVDFab Blu-ray Copy

DVDFab Blu-ray Copy

DVDFab Blu-ray Copy

It is a full-featured Blu-ray copying software that effectively removes any Blu-ray copy protection and copy Blu Rays to another Blu-ray disc or hard drive. Maintaining the original quality, it allows users to copy any Blu-ray movie to various output forms, including Blu-ray AVCHD disc, ISO image, or folder. The software can also convert 3D Blu-ray to 2D or Blu-ray SBS 3D. 
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💻Available on: Windows 11/10/8.1/8/7 & Mac 10.10 - 13

With its user-friendly interface, DVDFab Blu-ray Copy enables you to customize your Blu-ray copy through five key modes – Full Disc (Copy all the BD content with or without compression), Main Movie (Copy the main movie title of BD with or without compression), Customize (Copy any titles/chapters you desire from the BD), Clone/Burn (Clone BD in a 1:1 ratio with no quality loss), and Merge (Merge multiple BD content into one BD). It also supports NVIDIA CUDA technology for faster processing speed and even allows you to preview the final output. 

👍Key Features:

  • Remove any copy protection from old or latest Blu-rays to enable backup.
  • 1:1 Copy any Blu-ray disc to blank disc or save it as an ISO file or folder.
  • Copy and burn any ISO files or Folders to Blu-ray disc. 
  • Lossless backup a disc to BD-50 or compress it to common BD-25.
  • Copy any 3D Blu-ray disc and better preserve the 3D effects.
  • Support batch Blu-ray copying mode.
  • Get faster Blu-ray copying speed with GPU-accelerated technology.
  • Remove Cinavia and copy Blu-ray as clean audio.

👎Cons: 

  • The trial version only support two copy modes.
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DVDFab Blu-ray Copy also offers a lifetime-free but simplified version - DVDFab HD Decrypter - that can copy most encrypted DVD and Blu-rays to blank discs, ISO files or folders under two copy modes: Full Disc and Main Movie. Besides, this free version can also rip DVD/Blu-rays to MP4&MKV format. Both versions are installed in one DVDFab package for your easy use.

How to copy Blue Rays with DVDFab Blu-ray Copy:

Step 1: Launch DVDFab and load your source Blu-ray.

Free download, run DVDFab 13, and opt for the Copy module when it runs. Insert the BD disc into the attached Blu-ray drive, then the software will recognize it automatically and show you what to do next. You can also click the Add button or drag & drop an ISO file or folder onto the main UI.

Step 2: Choose one copy mode and customize the output Blu-ray.

First, choose a mode before you get started. There are nine modes available at present, and each of them represents what kind of output you want to acquire at the end.

How to Copy Blu-rays with DVDFab Blu-ray Copy Software:

Then, you can define the volume label and change other Blu-ray copy options including output size, titles, chapters, audio tracks and subtitles.

How to Copy Blu-rays with DVDFab Blu-ray Copy Software:

Besides, you can also adjust other Settings according to your preferences. Click the "Advanced Settings" and you will see a couple of buttons which stand for various purposes such as audio option, Cinavia protection disablement, HD Audio Removal.

How to Copy Blu-rays with DVDFab Blu-ray Copy Software:

Step 3: Select an output directory and tart to copy Blu-rays

Finally, select your output directory as a blank disc, ISO file, or folder, and click the Start button. You can get detailed progress information or cancel the Blu-ray copy task anytime you like.

How to Copy Blu-rays with DVDFab Blu-ray Copy Software:

Way 2: Copy Blu-ray Disc with Blue-Cloner

Blue-Cloner is a Blu-ray copy software compatible with all Windows systems that effectively that can easily copy Blue Rays and 4K UHD movies. It offers diverse features including perfect 1:1 Blu-ray copy, complete movie copy, movie-only copy and split copy. This Blu-ray decrypter can also permanently remove Cinavia watermarks from audio tracks, enabling the backup discs to be played on various devices like PS3, PS4, Xbox One, DVD Players and more.

💻Available on: Windows 7/10/11

👍Key Features:

  • Copy Blu-ray movies to blank discs or as Blu-ray folders or ISO image files.
  • Bypass some Blu-ray protections and remove Cinavia watermarks.
  • Allow copying entire Blu-ray disc excluding unnecessary extras.
  • Enable duplicating just the main movie, smartly detecting the primary content. 
  • Divide a large Blu-ray movie into two smaller discs with option to retain menus.

👎Cons:

  • Unable to select the preferred title, subtitle, or audio to retain.
  • Unable to copy 3D Blu-ray movies or preserve 3D effect.
  • The trial version allows for 1 Blu-ray copy only.
  • Some users have reported on Amazon that the program installation process is complicated and often fails.

How to copy Blu-rays with Blue-Cloner:

Step 1: After installation, launch Blue-Cloner. You will by default be presented with the Express interface. If it's not visible, locate and click on the "Switch to express" icon at the top right corner.

Step 2: Insert the Blu-ray movie you want to copy into your Blu-ray drive. The software will recognize the disc and show the movie name and size in a scrolling bar. Once the source Blu-ray movie is detected, click the "Start" button to initiate the copying process.

Step 3: When data reading is finished, you will be prompted to insert a blank disc. If you're using two drives – one for reading and one for burning – you can insert the blank disk before starting the task. After placing a blank BD-R/RE, the software will initiate the burning process.

Step 4: The completion screen will be displayed once the burning process is fully completed. Enjoy your cloned Blu-ray movie.

How to Copy Blu-rays with Blue-Cloner:

Way 3: Copy Blue Rays with BurnAware

BurnAware is another reliable Blu-ray copy software known for its user-friendly interface. Compatible with most Windows OS versions, it clearly outlines every step to copy a Blu-ray movie. Besides copying CD, DVD, and Blu-ray movies, it can also extract audio files, recover data and create image files. Not only does BurnAware back up your videos directly to your hard drive, but it also allows you to view them on any computer without loss of data.

However, BurnAware is unable to directly copy a Blu-ray disc. The process is quite intricate: Initially, the disc is copied to generate a temporary ISO image on your hard drive. Subsequently, this ISO image is burned onto a new disc. 

💻Available on: Windows Vista 7, 8, 10, 11

👍Key Features:

  • Copy discs to ISO and BIN disc images
  • Back up multisession discs, ensuring none of your data is lost.
  • Recovery from damaged or unreadable discs
  • Burn ISO images onto multiple discs simultaneously.

👎Cons: 

  • "Copy disc" is only available in Premium and Professional editions.
  • It can only copy unprotected Blu-ray discs.
  • The package includes additional software.
  • It doesn't support selecting titles, audio tracks, or subtitles.

How to copy Blue Ray movies with BurnAware:

Step 1: Open the Main Window and select the Copy Disc icon to display the project layout in a new window. 

Step 2:  Choose your source drive where the data to be copied is located.

Step 3: Identify the destination drive in which the copied data will be stored.

Step 4: Initiate the copying process by clicking the Copy button.

How to Copy Blu-rays with BurnAware

Extended Knowledge - Blu-ray vs DVD

There are a lot of confusions out there about the difference between DVD and Blu-ray. Although they all look the same by their appearances, there are a lot differences between them in storage, resolution, player compatibility, and many others. 

1. Storage

Gigabyte is used as a unit to describe the storage capacity of discs. A single-layer DVD can hold about 4.7G or nearly 5G of data which is also why such discs are called DVD5. Comparatively, a double-layer DVD is able to hold about 8.7G, or nearly 9G of data, which is why such discs are called DVD9.

In contrast, a standard Blu-ray can hold about 25G of data while a double-layer Blu-ray can hold as much as 50G of data. More storage means more advantages, especially when the movie is very large in size or the video quality is to be very high. 

Blu-ray vs DVD

2. Resolution

Image resolution is normally determined by the vertical lines and the horizontal lines of light which constitute the image of videos. 1080P, for example means 1080 vertical lines, and the same goes to 480P and 720P. More lines mean more detailed image and, therefore, better display effect.

A standard-definition DVD has 480 vertical lines, while an enhanced version has about 520 vertical lines. When displayed on a common TV, these discs look good or not too bad. Once their images get blown up on a bigger screen, the picture will become blurry and distorted.

Blu-ray discs are designed for big screen with its 1080P resolution. As a Blu-ray disc can hold no less than 25G of data, it can totally fit such high-quality contents which occupy far larger space than videos of 480P.

Blu-ray vs DVD

3. Player Compatibility

A standard DVD player is not able to play a Blu-ray disc, while most Blu-ray, due to their backward compatibility, can play DVDs without any difficulties.

Such huge difference between them comes from their different structures. A DVD is read with a red laser which usually have larger wavelength and which, consequently required a wide groove to accommodate. Because the grooves are so far apart, they can hold much less information compared with a Blu-ray disc.

As for Blu-ray disc, it has much thinner and closer grooves to accommodate its shorter and thinner wavelength. This allows the disc squeeze almost five times the grooves and, consequently, storage of a DVD disc.

4. Others

As DVD has less storage than Blu-ray, it often has less additional contents such as commentaries, behind the scenes and so on. Sometimes, these additional elements will be included in a separate disc. Blu-ray, on the contrary, seldom worries about the storage problem, so it often tries to include as rich bonus as its capacity admits of, and all of them are included in one disc.

Besides, almost all the 3D contents are now only available on Blu-ray discs. Some DVDs also have 3D contents, but the latest 3D contents come only from Blu-ray discs.

Also, both of them differ from availability. For Blu-ray, only part of the movies have such forms, many older movies are now not available on such form. DVDs, on the contrary, has been developing for many years, so it has enough time to enrich its library and thus contains more movies.

FAQs

Is it legal to copy a Blu-ray disc?

The legality of copying a Blu-ray disc varies from country to country. In general, making a copy of a Blu-ray disc you personally own for backup or personal use is often considered legal under fair use laws in some countries. However, if you're interested in making copies for commercial use or distribution, that may be illegal. 

What do you need to copy Blu-ray movies?

  • Blu-ray Drive: You will need a Blu-ray drive that is capable of reading Blu-ray discs in order to copy them onto your computer's hard drive.
  • Computer: A computer with enough storage space to store the Blu-ray disc content is essential.
  • Blu-ray Copy Software: You'll also need specific software (we have mentioned in part1) that can decrypt and copy the content from the Blu-ray disc. 
  • Empty Blu-ray Discs: If you're planning on creating physical copies, you’ll need empty Blu-ray discs to burn the content onto. 

Conclusion

Based on the above introductions, we can basically get what we want for Blu-ray copy. Although there are still many software that are able to do such tasks as well, we believe the three products are the best choices you ever have, especially the Blu ray Copy software from DVDFab. For any Blu-ray copy task, you can turn to them rest assured that they will get your job done perfectly.