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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."

6 of 501 comments (clear)

  1. If all else fails... by Flynsarmy · · Score: 4, Interesting

    If all else fails you could just WINE DVD Shrink. It works like a charm.

  2. Acid Rip by StormReaver · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Give AcidRip another try. I have yet to encounter a DVD it couldn't rip. More accurately, I have yet to encounter a DVD that mencoder, the encoding program behind most (all?) of the DVD rippers on Linux, couldn't rip. For some DVD's, it may appear as if AcidRip has malfunctioned, as the entire system can become unresponsive or very jerky for long periods of time, and the system log will fill with sector error messages.

    If you check the size of the video file, however, you will notice that it is slowly growing. This is mencoder making its way through the access restrictions on the disk, but encountering a lot of resistance. It is succeeding, though. For these disks, I let AcidRip run overnight.

  3. Command Line Solution by Mr_2_718281828459045 · · Score: 5, Interesting

    vobcopy -i /folder/to/copy/to -m [executed where the dvd is mounted]
    mkisofs -dvd-video -udf -o desired_iso_name.iso /directory/to/put/iso
    Done.

  4. Re:Why bother? by Hurricane78 · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Unfortunately, most encoders (the people, not the programs) out there seem to be idiots. Most of the time, you still get XviD with MP3, in a AVI container. No chapters, problems with the aspect ratio (because many encoders cut off some pixels on the border, for optimization reasons), and most of all, a totally shitty quality.

    Nowadays, I expect my videos to be in this format:
    - 700-1400 MB size
    - Matroska container
    - H.264 encoded video
    - AC3 5.1 Dolby Digital or better audio
    - no visible quality difference from the original DVD, even for experts
    - includes chapters and other metadata.
    If possible, there should also be
    - Two audio streams. one in my language, one in the original language
    - Subtitles for the original language included in the container.
    - Cover and infos included in the metadata.

    If the original medium exists in a HD format, I want that quality too (of course with a bigger file size).

    No reason to own a home cinema, when you watch YouTube videos on it. ^^

    --
    Any sufficiently advanced intelligence is indistinguishable from stupidity.
  5. Re:DVDFab by digitalchinky · · Score: 4, Interesting

    QT doesn't need a whole bunch of wrappers and libraries to fake a windows environment, DVDFab does. End of story.

    What is it with DVD ripping software anyway, the vast majority of it assumes people are frigging experts at bit rates, codecs, containers, video formats, audio formats, and on and on. Most of it also lets you blindly click away at a hundred options no matter how borked and demented the logic is. While an exceedingly small number of applications might actually tell you your choices wont work out so good, the vast majority of it simply goes off and does the stupid and you only find out it wont work after it's done.

  6. What about The Teaching Company DVDs? by AliasMarlowe · · Score: 4, Interesting

    We have almost 100 DVDs purchased from The Teaching Company (courses in astronomy, geology, math, physics, etc.)
    So far, we have no tool for easily ripping them onto our LAN server (sorry, no P2P). I have tried acidrip, dvd::rip, handbrake, thoggen, and VLC's convert function. None of them can rip these DVDs properly, but we can rip any other DVD we have with any of these tools.

    With a DVD from TTC, all of them just see one title with a length of 43 seconds - the FBI warning. The DVDs play fine in VLC or any other player, but the structure information (IFO file?) is deliberately corrupt or obfuscated, on every single TTC DVD!

    If I use chapter mode in dvd::rip or handbrake, or use convert mode in VLC, then individual "chapters" can be ripped, one at a time. Unfortunately, the chapter structure also appears to be obfuscated. Chapters in the table of contents according to handbrake or dvd::rip vary from a few seconds to 15 minutes in length, whereas the actual chapters/lessons when played are all about 25 minutes. Moreover, to assemble the chapters/lessons as viewed, from the individual "chapters" as ripped, one must combine them in a nearly random non-numerical-sequence order, and often split a ripped "chapter" between two actual chapters/lessons. It's labour-intensive and very annoying, since what we're trying to do is a legitimate fair-use (format shift for play on PCs, DVDs then left on shelf).

    Does anyone have a ripping solution which works easily on DVDs from The Teaching Company, or on other DVDs with an obfuscated table of contents?

    --
    Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities. - Voltaire