Blu-ray

Blu-ray is the optical media successor to DVD. As a medium, it is designed to hold more storage. For multimedia, it is intended to store higher quality content than DVDs, such as movies and shows in 720p, 1080p video resolution and higher, plus audio tracks with higher bitrates and number of channels, such as DTS-HD Master.

Similar to DVDs, the file storage format for blu-ray discs is UDF. The content on the discs is also protected with DRM, namely AACS (Advanced Access Content System).

There are a number of applications in portage that can be used to access Blu-ray discs and media, including ones to bypass the encryption.

Device access
To check if a user has been already in the cdrom group:

To add a user to the cdrom group:

As with any time a user is added to a new group, they must either log out and back in as that user, or switch using to gain new group abilities.

DRM
will use to bypass AACS encryption if compiled with the   use flag. It requires a text file that has the keys necessary for decryption. List can be found in various places online.

The key file should be saved to the case sensitive filename at

Disc information
Blu-ray discs have both "tracks", similar to DVD tracks, but also "playlists" as well. This can make it a bit confusing when trying to get information or rip media from a disc. Generally speaking, ripping a playlist will cover a common use case.

libbluray
The package contains a few programs to help display disk information.

Use to list details of a disc:

Use to get details of each title / track as well as the playlists:

bluray_info
The package displays details about the disc as well, with syntax and output format similar to the old  program.

Ripping Blu-rays
Two programs in portage can be used to copy Blu-ray titles and playlists to disc: namely, again, which is open source and command line only, and  which is partially open source and has both command line and GUI applications.

libbluray
The package provides the  command in order to copy a title or playlist to disk. The index number from above will be needed, using as examples bd_list_titles or bluray_info for references.

The container for multimedia files are MPEG2 transport streams, so it should be saved with an m2ts extension. For example:

ffmpeg
Blu-rays can be accessed directly with ffmpeg if it compiled with the  USE flag.

Discs or ISOs can be accessed directly using  syntax.

For example, to copy playlist 800 (which is often the main feature on movies) on your device  to your filesystem:

Scan the disc for the available playlists:

MakeMKV
MakeMKV is a partially-closed source program, and does not require a file to decrypt disc access. It has both a command-line application, makemkvcon and a Qt application MakeMKV.

MakeMKV is free while in beta mode, and a registration key is needed to activate it. You can always get the latest key published from upstream here. A new one is released about every three months.

Command Line
makemkvcon, the command line application, can rip content from three sources: a disc in your Blu-ray drive (a character device on your system, such as /dev/sr0), a mounted Blu-ray filesytem, and a copied Blu-ray image. Documentation for makemkvcon is located on their webpage. No man page is shipped with the package, but a user-created one is available in HTML format here.

Copy the first title from the disc (remember that they are zero indexed) to the current directory:

Copy the first title from a mounted directory:

Copy the first title from an image:

GUI
The program makemkv is a Qt application, and quite self-explanatory once started.

Playback
Packages in portage that can playback Blu-rays include, , ffplay and.

VLC Menu Support
Blu-rays can be played with menu support, if and  are installed.

Screenshots available here and here.

Addendum for Region B Blu-ray
Many Blu-rays are localized. That is, the main feature is in at least three parts:
 * The opening credits (in several languages).
 * The closing credits (in several languages).
 * The feature, less the opening and closing credits.

and may not guess the title needed to rip for the current locale.

Audition the longest/largest titles before making the rip.