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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?"
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.
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.
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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
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.