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Archiving DVD's with Linux?

Posted by Cliff on from the putting-your-movies-on-those-spinning-silver-platters dept.

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?"

2 of 45 comments (clear)

  1. Just... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Flamebait

    ..pay for the damn things, rather than copying your friends DVD's. Archiving my ass, you buy DVD's for the better quality and extras, you lose all that when you put it on your hard drive.

    (Ok, the quality's decent, but from what I've never seen a video file, even DivX that compares with a DVD in quality)

  2. A Few Questions and Comments by Jeff+Probst · · Score: -1, Flamebait
    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.

    Question 1: How long did it take you to get your linux box to play DVDs?

    Question 2: How many times did you have to reboot?

    Question 3: How many kernels did you compile in the process?

    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.

    Question 4: How many CDs do you actually own?

    Question 5: How many DVDs do you actually own?

    Question 6: Who are you going to sell your DVDs to when you have copied them to your hard disk?

    Most of the guides out today are targetted towards windows software, which is not an option for me.

    Comment 1: What happened to the copy of windows that came conveniently bundled with your PC?

    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?

    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.

    Comment 3: There are no tools available that are legal for this purpose.

    Why isn't there the equivalent of abcde for DVDs?

    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.