Decent DVD-Ripping Solution For Linux?

supersloshy writes "I'm a user of Ubuntu Linux and I have been for a little while now. Recently I've been trying to copy DVDs onto a portable media player, but everything I've tried isn't working right. dvd::rip always gets the language mixed up (for example, when ripping 'Howl's Moving Castle,' one of the files it ripped to was in Japanese instead of English), Acidrip just plain isn't working for me (not recognizing a disc with spaces in its name, refusing to encode, etc.), Thoggen is having trouble with chapters (chapter 1 repeated twice for me once), and OGMRip has the audio out of sync. What I'm looking for is a reliable program to copy the movie into a single file with none of the audio or video glitches as mentioned above. Is there even such thing on Linux? If you can't think of a decent Linux-based solution, then a Windows one is fine as long as it works."

Comments

DVDFab

[Anonymous Coward]

Try running DVDFab under WINE.

Re:DVDFab

[Anonymous Coward]

I recommend DVDshrink under WINE; very similar program, but I prefer that one myself.

Re:DVDFab

[Belial6]

I say that the solution is a Linux solution since the Author supports the application running on Wine. If the Author supports it, then to me it is as much a Linux solution as any other app that uses external libraries.

Re:DVDFab

[Hal_Porter]

Back when I did this I used DVDDecrypter to strip out protection that DVDShrink couldn't handle.

Re:DVDFab

[Ardrad]

OR you could run a program that actually runs native under linux. Download handbrake. I believe the site is handbrake.fr (google to make sure) you also need VLC for dvd decryption, it works perfectly. I have even ripped Howl's flying castle. and many many more.

Re:DVDFab

[TheWanderingHermit]

That could cause problems. VLC is crippled in the latest Ubuntu. While the VLC people blame Ubuntu on their mailing lists, it turns out that the FFMpeg library uses different names for some codes in their newer version -- and on the latest Ubunut (Intrepid), that version of VLC doesn't use the newer names.

I was on both mailing lists for a while (VLC, FFMpeg) and the latter admitted to changing the names but did have all the codecs available under Ubunut. The VLC people claim some of those codecs are not available under Ubuntu (even with extra repositories), but they're there -- just with different names.

Until Ubuntu gets this straightened out, anyone using Intrepid or following versions will have trouble with video codecs, including ripping DVDs and, in my case, trying to read files from my HD camcorder that were easily readable in Ubuntu Hardy, but which nobody was quite sure how to read (or what settings to use) in Intrepid.

After wasting several days of my life on this issue, I gave up, ordered an iMac, and since switching, have spent more time doing what I want on my computer and less time at the computer overall. I no longer have to spend time trying to make sure the tools taht are supposed to help me are set up properly or if I'm using the right settings.

It's nice to have more time for real life than to be spending time adjusting my tools.

Re:DVDFab

[walshy007]

I think Wine might be the best thing that can possibly happen to Linux. The fact of the matter is that a small project just isn't likely to have the means of producing functional software on multiple platforms (at least not without sacrificing performance to go with Java or some alternative),

Being cross platform on the same architecture really isn't that difficult, so long as you only use libraries that are also supported on those different platforms. It's essentially a design consideration, if you plan things right being cross platform is a case of simply another compilation.

Re:DVDFab

[Cylix]

I'm afraid they are all very relevant option once you understand them.

The reason some configurations work over others falls back to compatibility. For instance, it's perfectly reasonable to use wav, mpg or ac3 for the audio encoding, but not all players actually support wav.

Another interesting tidbit is the support for analogue closed caption. This relies on the dvd player decoding a cc file and generating the captions on the fly. A very large chunk of players do not implement this despite it being part of the specification. Mastering or re-mastering a dvd has many options which can sometimes be a bit intricate.

With that said, MythTv's built in ripper is fairly simplified. Select the chapter, audio and quality and then boom. (Though I have varying degrees of success at times)

Re:DVDFab

[hairyfeet]

What it sounds like he wants is Fair Use Wizrd. if he buys the full version it rips to iPod, cell phones, etc otherwise it rips to DivX.

Does it run in Wine? Hell if I know, you Linux guys can answer that. but it sounds like he wants a butt simple way to rip to a single video file in the format of his choice. Fair Use Wizard does EXACTLY that. But if you are ripping DVDs and want something butt simple, spend the money as Fair Use Wizard is worth it. DVDFab and the other can be complex or not convert to the format you need. As you can see here Fair Use Wizard converts to pretty much anything and it has the simplest layout I have ever seen. It is what I recommend to my customers when they ask about converting DVDs. So try it, they have a light version for free that converts DVD to DivX that will let you see if it is right for you. But from the sounds of it this is EXACTLY the tool you are looking for.

Re:DVDFab

[cayenne8]

Ripping is simple.

dvdbackup -> mkisofs -> growisofs

Rip them...create .iso image.....burn to a dvd.

With dual sided dvd's so cheap these days, why bother 'shrinking' the dvd? I keep dual layer and single layer blanks around. I look at the size of the .iso image, and choose the size disk I need.

Re:DVDFab

[jedidiah]

Alternatively:

      To extract content: mencoder -dumpstream

      To compress content: mencoder or handbrake

Re:DVDFab

[godefroi]

It's funny. People like to talk about "DLL Hell" on windows, but they fixed it over there, everyone just keeps a copy of everything they need in their folder.

Linux, on the other hand, has "lib Hell" where you have to be really careful about upgrading an app because it might bust another one, and maybe your old app won't compile right against the new lib, and maybe the dependency tree is 12 deep, and maybe your package manager works right, or maybe not. It's much more fun this way.

Re:DVDFab

[Gilmoure]

Latest version of Handbrake (.0.9.3) has all the options but it also has a decent selection of presets. So far, haven't had any real problems with it, with almost 400 DVD's ripped. Only that Neemo movie was a little tricky. Had to pick the correct track to rip, to get audio to sync.

Re:DVDFab

[spitzak]

Breaking existing applications has not been a problem at all, because the libraries are versioned. You may be confused by the result of replacing/upgrading the operating system, as this often deletes all the "old" libraries and thus gets you into the situation below where your software stops running.

The real problem Linux has is that the given library version are not included with the programs, and thus to install a given program you often have to download and install a whole bunch of libraries. To make it further annoying often those libraries require even more libraries. I agree with lots of people here that it is an endless hopeless mess. Repositories are basically ways of automating this but don't solve the basic problem.

I usually give up I often symbolically link whatever version number I have to the version number the program is looking for. Who knows how safe this is, but it has worked for me.

Linux can certainly work the Windows way by including the library in the same directory as the executable, and linking with the special switch that makes it look in that directory first for them. That is what we do with our commercial software. I don't know why there is so much resistance to this in Linux but it seems commercial users (such as GoogleEarth) are doing this. Expert end users can remove or hide these files if they want to use the version installed with their system, just like Windows experts do.

Even if people do that, both Linux and Windows have the problem where we don't include some library because we "know" it will be on the system. I would say this has bit us equally on both platforms.

Funny you should ask...

[darpo]

Just this morning, Lifehacker posted about this very topic: http://lifehacker.com/5205221/acidrip-for-linux-rips-dvds-with-two+click-ease

Use Handbrake

[SuperNothing307]

You won't find one better than Handbrake, works great for me. Here's a howto I wrote on the topic: http://spareclockcycles.wordpress.com/2008/12/11/handbrake-for-dvd-ripping-on-ubuntu/

Re:Use Handbrake

[Reddragon220]

Just bumping Handbreak since it's my personal favorite. Here's a nice vid tutorial incase your lazy like the rest of us and don't feel like reading: Methodshop - Handbreak . It is the OS X version but not that far off from what you'd expect to see in Linux

Re:Use Handbrake

[bcat24]

Indeed. Handbrake and libdvdcss are all you need.

Re:Use Handbrake

[Elfich47]

windows users need DVD43 in place of libdvdcss.

Re:Use Handbrake

[forgottenusername]

/agree

I'm really impressed with Handbrake. I actually use it to transcode a bunch of stuff so my ps3 will play it. They have a bunch of really handy presets for various device, such as ps3, iPod video, xbox 360 long with things like tv/animation etc.

They have a CLI mode which is useful for scripting.

HandBrake GUI on Linux is now a full fledged port, not just a hacky frontend to the CLI tool.

Job managment is great too, with a real time adjustable queue, ability to pause/resume etc.

One thing I haven't found out how to do is splice AVIs, I use avidemux for that. Which is another amazingly awesome program.

3 people who figure this AV crap out that I have 0 interest in. I just want the friggin' thing to do the thing, man.

Re:Use Handbrake

[sustik]

Handbrake probably works for most people. I also tried x264enc which I prefer over Handbrake.

But presently I do not use either: I use mencoder directly. I write scripts based on
mencoder forum comments and ones that x264enc generated.

I got better results (quality and control) with x264enc. This was end of 2008. Since then I am using my scripts only. I posted one to the mencoder list (search on gmane) which I used to encode over the air HD broadcasts. I extract the closed captions as well and reencode the audio (6 channels if availabale) into ogg. (See oggenc, ccextractor.)

Regarding DVD-s the only issue is the closed caption extraction. I use OSS OCR software (tccat, tcextract, subtitle2pgm) and the quality is far from perfect. I lot of spell checking (ispell) and editing is needed.

Handbrake!

[imac.usr]

Live it, learn it, love it.
http://handbrake.fr/

Handbrake

[broken_chaos]

I find Handbrake works excellently under OSX, and, seeing as it has a Linux/GUI version, it may be worth trying out.

http://handbrake.fr

Mencoder?

[DjangoShagnasty]

Mencoder (mplayer package) works pretty well.

Following the docs gave me decent quality rips without too much hassle.

http://web.njit.edu/all_topics/Prog_Lang_Docs/html/mplayer/encoding.html

Re:Thoggen

[Ian Alexander]

According to the summary Thoggen is having issues with the chapters on his discs.

k9copy + k3b, my friend

[Anonymous Coward]

Through much trial and error I've found that k9copy is the most reliable and functional program for ripping DVDs. You can customize what you want or don't want and it puts everything into VOB that can easily be burned as a video dvd in k3b. Happy Burning! :)

Re:k9copy + k3b, my friend

[NoobixCube]

Seconded. k9copy is the best DVDShrink replacement there is, no contest. You can rip to video files, or to a whole compressed disc image, or a VIDEO_TS folder, and then just burn to a disc the way you'd burn anything.

Rips as fast as your DVD drive....

[rampant mac]

MakeMKV. No loss in quality (think Ogg). Simple, easy and high quality. Hope you have a big hard drive.

Re:Rips as fast as your DVD drive....

[andy19]

According to their site, MakeMKV isn't available for Linux yet.

Favorite right now is k9copy

[physicsphairy]

And to address some of the issues:

dvd::rip always gets the language mixed up (for example, when ripping 'Howl's Moving Castle,' one of the files it ripped to was in Japanese instead of English),

What makes you think it is dvd::rip that has the language mixed up? It is a Japanese movie and it is not surprising that the first audio track is Japanese. Fortunately you can select to rip a different audio track.

Acidrip just plain isn't working for me (not recognizing a disc with spaces in its name, refusing to encode, etc.)

I am betting you set it up wrong, since the disc name really shouldn't effect anything. It could be your ripper program should point at /dev/dvd (or equivalent), not "/mnt/Mounted File System"

Re:Acid Rip

[evilviper]

This is mencoder making its way through the access restrictions on the disk, but encountering a lot of resistance.

If you compiled MPlayer with Dvdnav support, you can specify the title number with dvdnav:// instead of dvd:// and you won't have to wait for your drive to time-out reading endless bad sectors.

And BTW, this almost exclusively occurs on DVDs produced by Sony companies.

Re:Why Matroska?

[BetterSense]

Flexibility. Matroska is wildly popular in anime fansubbing because you can have an arbitrary number of audio tracks (english, japanese, Dolby surround, all the commentary tracks) and subtitles (including multiple versions with toggle-able onscreen translation of text). With the benefits that Matroska provides, it annoys me that people use anything else. You can literally put anything into a matroska container. It surprises me that people haven't found more ways to put malware in them.

Re:Why Matroska?

[civilizedINTENSITY]

The Matroska Multimedia Container is an open standard free container format, a file format that can hold an unlimited number of video, audio, picture or subtitle tracks inside a single file.[1] It is intended to serve as a universal format for storing common multimedia content, like movies or TV shows. Matroska is similar in conception to other containers like AVI, MP4 or ASF, but is entirely open in specification, with implementations consisting mostly of open source software.

Re:Why Matroska?

[Randle_Revar]

First of all, Matroska is an open spec, and most implementations (including the reference implementation, libmatroska) are Open Source (lgpl for libmatroska).

Mkv supports B-frames, Variable bit rate audio, Variable frame rate, Chapters, and Subtitles. Not all containers support all of these, and AVI only supports any of those with workarounds, modifications or just nasty hacks.

The mpeg container can't do chapters or subtitles, and obviously only holds media in the mpeg (1 or 2) format.

MP4 has limited chapter and subtitle support and only deals with mpeg media (basically 1, 2, and 4 ASP/AVC).

Ogg/ogm is designed for simplicity, streaming and specifically for Vorbis and Theora (although most/all other codecs can be used), while Mkv is meant as a completely general-purpose distribution container, and wants to replace avi, asf, mp4, mov, etc.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matroska
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_container_formats
http://www.matroska.org/technical/guides/faq/index.html
http://xiph.org/container/
http://www.hydrogenaudio.org/forums/lofiversion/index.php/t10426.html

Disney vs The Teaching Company

[AliasMarlowe]

The problem with Disney is they screw up the discs so it looks like there's ~100 titles, all with close to the correct running time.

I've used that technique with our Disney DVDs, and it works fine.

The Teaching Company seems to take the opposite approach. They have only one title which contains the FBI warning, 43 seconds long. That's it, there are no other titles listed. There are many chapters listed in the structure, but not contained in any title, and with bizarre lengths. They are also in random numerical sequence and don't correspond to the chapters/lessons as viewed.

I'd really like to find a solution which reads the DVD structure the same way it is read while being played - i.e. using the information in the stream and/or menus, not just the structure as given in the table of contents. All of these DVDs play fine in VLC or mplayer or anything else, just the contents information is obfuscated making them near-impossible to rip.

Handbrake

[cybereal]

Available in a linux flavor, I ripped 462 movies for my private use (streaming from my 1tb hdd to an apple tv) from DVD last fall. At the time Handbrake used its own decoder which didn't always work for certain types of highly standard breaking locking schemes (read: broken dvd's). However the recent version, at least for my mac, has no troubles as it is using VLC player for the dvd decoding engine.

I found the best success using constant quality, around 59% plus a bunch of other handy settings I found under the "best settings and why" section in the forums for handbrake.

I strongly recommend this avenue as the results are magnificent AVC encodes in iTunes, iPod, iPhone, PS3, etc. compatible container and they are literally indistinguishable from their DVD counterpart (save a few exceptionally difficult to rip movies like Pi). Good software, and free too.

You have 2 choices - both under Windows

[Zontar_Thing_From_Ve]

What nobody will tell you is that to prevent some older, free ripping tools from working, some studios (mostly for DVDs released in region 1 - USA and Canada - but also sometimes seen elsewhere) use a copy protection method called ARCCOS or something similar to protect their DVDs. The only rippers I know of that can defeat this are DVDFab HD Decrypter (they have a free version available) and AnyDVD (don't know if there is a free version or only the commercial version). Both are updated regularly to deal with new variations in ARCCOS. ARCCOS uses deliberately placed bad sectors on the disc to thwart copying. It's quite complicated, but it relies on a difference between how standalone DVD players and PCs read discs to thwart copying attempts. DVDFab and AnyDVD get updated because they are produced in countries that are currently free from MPAA enslavement. I am unaware of any programs other than those that can correctly rip DVDs and those only work on Windows. I don't keep up with Handbrake as it's mostly for Mac fanboys (but they do have a Windows version), so I have no idea if Handbrake is actually able to deal with ARCCOS or not. The people I know who use it do not rip DVDs that I know to use ARCCOS, so I have no idea if Handbrake can even deal with ARCCOS correctly or not.