HOW TO RIP DVD IN UBUNTU

I've been mucking around now for a while trying to work out the best way to rip and encode DVDs.

I tried using Handbrake for a while to rip and encode, but what I really want is something that just does it in the background. On the mac, RipIt is a great tool for ripping the DVD to the HDD allowing you to go back at your leisure and encode it.

What i really want is a solution that will autorip on DVD tray-close (like RipIt on the mac) and then a cron that will encode. This is a post about how I get on.

First, we'll need to add restricted formats:

• sudo apt-get install libdvdread4
• sudo /usr/share/doc/libdvdread4/install-css.sh

Now, install dvdbackup

• sudo apt-get install dvdbackup

Create a directory to put the ripped DVDs into and enter it and execute the command to rip the DVD:

• mkdir Ripped
• cd Ripped
• dvdbackup -M

You can also use the -F option rather than -M to just get the main feature, but I had bother with using handbrakeCLI to encode after doing that. Also use the -v flag to give a bit more output.

And, to eject, just use the command

• eject

So, now we need to work out how to do that automatically when a DVD is inserted into the machine. In the perfect world, we'd do that using the terminal only so that it could run flawlessly on a headless server.

Handbrake

We need to install handbrake from a PPA.

• sudo add-apt-repository ppa:handbrake-ubuntu/ppa
• sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install handbrake-cli

Then, it's a simple hop skip and a jump to a simple CLI command to encode the ripped disc using a preset for "Film"

• HandBrakeCLI -i 21/ --main-feature -o 21.mp4 --preset="Film"

Amazingly, this encoded the film at, on average, 280fps (granted, I'm running a quad core AMD monster), but still! I'd tried this on the Mac, using the GUI version and was getting an encode with an average fps of about 9!