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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."
Just this morning, Lifehacker posted about this very topic: http://lifehacker.com/5205221/acidrip-for-linux-rips-dvds-with-two+click-ease
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/
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
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! :)
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.
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.
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
Climate Progress - Hell and High Water
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.
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.