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Archiving DVD's with Linux?
Ramses0 asks: "Now that I've got my Linux box 100% functional with full DVD support, I want to archive all my media to it's 60gb hard drive. Since I don't have 60gb's of OGGable CD's, I started looking with a lustful eye at ripping and encoding my DVD collection to the hard drive as well. Most of the guides out today are targetted towards windows software, which is not an option for me. The only reference I could find to encoding under Linux is about ffmpeg on the DivX website. What is the best file format to target? DivX? VCD? What tools are available under Linux to encode DVDs? Why isn't there the equivalent of abcde for DVDs?"
That should read: The quality's decent, but I've never seen a video file, even DivX, that compares with a DVD in quality.
Niiice.
I buy DVD's for the movie. The extras are usually really retarded.
Mplayer which is an excellent Linux media player (including dvd support) also comes with an encoder called mencoder which can output Divx;) avi files from your dvds, supports 2 pass encoding and subtitles, and other fun stuff like that. It works (well) for me. Mplayer is a great player in my opinion and it supports almost every file format i've encountered excluding sorenson quicktime.
--Ks9
transcode is a fantastic app. It can convert just about any kind of video stream to any other kind. It supports cropping, resizing, etc etc. Careful with the current prereleases, there are some nasty A/V sync issues. 0.6.0pre1 & 2 work best for me.
It's pretty tough to get right on the commandline, so grab dvd::rip, a nice perl/gtk frontend. Most useful, dvd::rip has a nice gui for using transcode's cluster encoding. That's right, you can build a dvd-ripping cluster. I have a 4-node setup, and it only takes a few hours to rip a dvd, using two-pass DivX 4.02. Careful with the newer prereleases, there are some nasty A/V sync issues. 0.6.0pre1 & 2 seem to work best for me.
I would suggest using one of the MPEG-4 variants (DivX 4.x, or XviD) in two-pass mode. In my experience, this produces very good quality. I rip my movies to one 1.4gb file, which I then split onto two CDs. You might be able to afford slightly larger file sizes, to do AC3 audio pass-through, for example.
If you double or triple your storage capacity, consider just storing the unencrypted VOB files - you'll get superior audio & video, as well as all the alternate audio & subtitle tracks.
What's wrong w/using dd? I know it'll result in some huge files, but you can use them, if with only loopback mounting of the images.
PS: I don't reply to ACs.
DVD is already encoded using MPEG2 compression. And anyone who has ever converted one lossy format to the other knows that the quality ends up being extremely poor (you get the worse of both formats). The other thing is, even at low quality, a 2 hour movie is going to take up at least 1/2GB...and when you're done, you only have a copy that is much worse than the origonal.
Spend you money on a good hardware MPEG Decoder that works under linux. And as for a choice in format, OGG Tarkin will probably be the way to go in the future (once the format is defined).
What I find interesting is that US courts have confirmed one's right to make personal archival copies of copyrighted materials however, circumvention of copy protection required to make the archive copy (in the case of DVDs) is a violation of the DMCA.
A nasty catch-22.
this was posted some months ago:
#!/usr/bin/perl -w$ t=255;@t=map{$_%16or$t^=$c^=(f ((@a=unx"C*",$_)[20]&48){$h$ h+84])}@ARGV;s/...$/1$&/;$
# 531-byte qrpff-fast, Keith Winstein and Marc Horowitz
# MPEG 2 PS VOB file on stdin -> descrambled output on stdout
# arguments: title key bytes in least to most-significant order
$_='while(read+STDIN,$_,2048){$a=29;$b=73;$c=142;
$m=(11,10,116,100,11,122,20,100)[$_/16%8])$t^ =(72,@z=(64,72,$a^=12*($_%16
-2?0:$m&17)),$b^=$_%64?12:0,@z)[$_%8]}(16..271);i
=5;$_=unxb24,join"",@b=map{xB8,unxb8,chr($_^$a[--
d=unxV,xb25,$_;$e=256|(ord$b[4])>8^($f=$t&($d&g t;>12^$d>>4^
$d^$d/8))>8^($t&($g=($q=$e>>14&7^$e)^$q*8 ^$q (($h>>=8)+=$f+(~$g&$t))for@a[128..$#a]}print +x"C*",@a}';s/x/pack+/g;eval
grey wolf
LET FORTRAN DIE!
And a few answers from me...
./configure && make && make install, put DVD in and play. I'd say around 1 hour, with the longest time being buying the DVD-ROM and installing it in my computer.
... alot more.
Question 1: How long did it take you to get your linux box to play DVDs?
Buy DVD-ROM, install it in computer, download xine+plugins,
Question 2: How many times did you have to reboot?
Once, when I installed the DVD-ROM in the computer.
Question 3: How many kernels did you compile in the process?
None. Why would I recompile it? The DVD-ROM was already recognized, I use iso9660 on the DVDs if I ever mount them.
Question 4: How many CDs do you actually own?
If you count audio CDs, around 4. Data CDs, OTOH,
Don't think of that as if I have a shitload of MP3s: it's not my fault if I prefer TV to music!
Question 5: How many DVDs do you actually own?
One. Blockbuster is your friend. And your friends are your friends, too.
Question 6: Who are you going to sell your DVDs to when you have copied them to your hard disk?
Listen, I got my DVD in a cereal box. A Disney thing. Don't recall the title, and if you want to buy it, drop me a line.
Comment 1: What happened to the copy of windows that came conveniently bundled with your PC?
That's more a question than a comment. Anyway, there was none. It's not easy to have an OS bundled when all the parts come from different places. Should it come with the motherboard? Processor? Processors?
Comment 2: As a Linux Zealot, you will know that DivX is not standardised and therefore you cannot use it, as it is against everything you stand for.
Zealot? Nope. Just a user. Although I wouldn't use it because it usually relies on win32 dlls to work, and it usually means less stability for me.
Comment 3: There are no tools available that are legal for this purpose.
Depends on where you live. You're entitled to backup copies in some jurisdictions.
Now, I want a tool to do the backup for me rather than do it by hand with a hand calculator for the IDCT. Can I?
Comment 4: As you will know, the production of a tool like abcde for DVDs is against the DMCA, and so anyone who creates such a tool is likely to go to prison like Dimitry did.
If he didn't come to the US, he wouldn't have been arrested. As I said, there are some other juridictions with different laws than the US. Jon shouldn't have been arrested for something he did in Norway. A swastika is legal out of Germany and France. A pdf viewer for the disabled is legal in Russia.
What does all this leaves? I don't know. I'll continue to watch rented and lended DVDs on my Linux box, and you'll probably continue to think it is difficult/illegal to do so. Have a good day!
They haven't confirmed one's "right", they have confirmed it is legal under fair use to make backup copys for personal use. There is no "right" to this backup. DVD mfgs are not obligated to make it easy or even possible to make backup's.
In other words, you can make backup copies of any copyrighted works you own, provided you don't violate the DMCA or other laws in the process.
I can smell the ozone comin' offa that one!
Good riposte, er, response!
[sound of cheering, whistles, golf claps]
An excellent review. Cheers.
Try looking at Drip http://drip.sourceforge.net/ and dvd::rip http://www.exit1.org/dvdrip/
Skimming Freshmeat.net is a good idea whenever you need an app.
Everytime you look at porn a devil gets their horns.
Mencoder is easier, transcode is more versatile (I think).
Mencoder is the "encoding" project that goes along with Mplayer, which in my opinion is probably the best-performing media player with the widest support for files and codecs (including Windows Media codecs, using the 'native' Windows DLL's) for linux at the moment, though not necessarily the easiest to use (not difficult, in my opinion, either, just not "clicky-pointy" simple like, say, Xine).
Trans code, on the other hand, has a bewildering variety of options to work through, but has a ton of functionality to go with it.
In both cases, the software handles reading DVD's, and can convert them to other formats. Transcode handles a bunch of different formats and codecs. Mencoder is limited to .avi file format at the moment, but can put a variety of codecs into this avi (including vorbis audio, as I recall). I've also found that you can even use mencoder to "capture" mms:// files for offline perusing or conversion, which is nice, since otherwise I wouldn't get anything but the Microsoft "Download Media Player for Mac or Windows" page whenever I tried to view such things...
For MPlayer/Mencoder, I strongly recommend reading the documentation (the software is great, but the impatience of the people on the mplayer mailing lists with people asking questions that are answered in the documentation are well known) and using a recent set of CVS sources.
Hacker Public Radio is our Friend
I don't know how far along they are yet, but it APPEARS, from lurking on the mailing list, that there is some support for .ogg format media files (i.e. .ogg file with vorbis audio and, say, XVid video), and I BELIEVE they will be adding support for the format for mencoder as well, at some point. Depending on how soon this takes place, this may be an option for people wanting to archive their DVD collections...
(I wouldn't be surprised to see support for the vp3 codec soon as well, since according to a blurb on this weeks' Linux Weekly News, they (that is, the guys the made vp3) apparently posted to one of the ogg development lists about getting a 'vp3 in .ogg' project going. It'll be nice to see some more semi-official work on video in .ogg...)
Hacker Public Radio is our Friend
I sense some hostlity here. Perhaps an inferiority complex? Peace!
After ironing out issues between the Adaptec/SCSI firmware and my DVD drive, it took ~2 hours to get my Linux box playing encrypted DVD's (with a little help from the friendly people in #debian).
/etc/lilo.conf; lilo; shutdown -r now; I don't think I needed to update my kernel, but I want USB support for later on, so it's kindof necessary. apt-get install ogle, run the included install-illegal-decss-library.sh script that it told me I needed. Run ogle from the supplied menu shortcut, open and play the DVD. Once you know what you're looking for, it's remarkably simple.
:^)
:^). Including Black Slot-loading DVD, and Black LCD display. Most of it came from directron.com, or harddrive.com. Got Quake 3 and the Matrix Orbital LCD display from linuxcentral.com. Bought all of the $9.99 linux games I could from EBGames, and some of the newer ones from TuxGames. I need to buy the 'Loki Installer' for RTCW because I bought RTCW from BestBuy since couldn't wait any longer after I finally got all my hardware talking to each other.
:^)
;^)
Basically, my process was: Bootable Debian 2.2 CD installation. apt-get install kernel-image-2.4.18-k7; vim
I have 200+ CD's. I had most of them MP3'd before at 192 bitrate, but now I'm using abcde with oggenc -q7 for VBR OGGfiles averaging 200-250kbps since the quality is better. I own 20-40 DVD's. I want to stuff my DVD's to my harddrive because I'm basically a geek with too much hard-drive space.
I bought all my PC parts in pieces following the specifications given by those nifty Spindl3top people (hi lucas
As a technology pragmatist, I recognize that there are a multitude of competing video container formats (mov, avi, mpg) with multiple supported codecs. I don't know which tools are mature on which platform, and what quality/stability issues remain to be ironed out, which is why I asked slashdot in the first place.
Looks like I came to the right place since there are a bunch of high-quality responses and no "check google you dumbass" postings.
--Robert
If you make a copy of your a dvd disc using a dvd recorder, but leave the encryption intact, you aren't "circumventing" any thing. Encryption isn't really "copy protection." This way you can make legal archival copies (fair use). The DMCA is an evil law though...
You want to archive your DVDs to DivX? Why? So that, when you destroy your DVDs, you'll have... vastly inferior copies of them on a single, non-mirrored hard drive which stands an even better chance of failing than the DVDs do?
Hell, I'd be more interested in backing your hard drive up to a DVD-R (or something sane, like DLT or DDS-3) if I were you.
- A.P.
"Remember when the U.S. had a drug problem, and then we declared a War On Drugs, and now you can't buy drugs anymore?"
I'm still using a machine with just a CD drive, so I have not been able to test this myself.
Is the region encoding a matter of hardware or software? I'm an international traveler, and if I get a DVD drive for my machine I would want it to be able to read different region codes.
If this is software based, then I'm certain that the OpenSource decoders already ignore this little detail.
Bob-
The Ludwig von Mises Institute. The reasoning individuals economics
1) There are DVD players out there for Linux now... don't bother.
2) Get a Windows friend to RIP it for you.
3) If you are a pirate, and want to distribute, then, chances are you can just install your pirated version of Windows and do it with that.
Besides, you only need to rip it the first time.
And DivX, of course... What's the point of VCD anyway.
This topic sucks.
the best DVD backups to DivX i've seen used DVD::Rip and transcode under linux to rip the .vob (mpeg-2) and then Virtual Dub with the new DivX 5.01 encoder under windoze to encode. Bit of a long way round, but the improvement in quality between divX4 and 5 is amazing. Looking forward to the linux DivX5 encoder so can dump windope completely.
what a load of shit.. i regularly encode dvd movies to the divx 4.12 format and the quality i get from a 8GB > 1.2GB conversion is great. 2cd's per movie and its about double the resolution of a TV, thus if u watch on tv you dont even notice the differece
> Archiving my ass
I own 60 DVDs. Aboout 20 of them are for my two childs, and the older one if 4 year old.
Should I let him handle the DVDs ? Or should I backup those in DiVX and let him play the DiVXed copies ?
Of course, the big labels would love to see me buying the same DVDs every year, but I wont let this happen.
The famous (and best) DVD Backup Resource Doom9 has a nice guide on ripping DVDs under Linux using transcode, DivX 4 and a bunch of Perl scripts...
Since it's a Doom9 Guide the quality has to be good...
X
Boycot? Blackout? Subscriptions?
I don't care!