All right, this is kind of a new venture for me on Linux. But I am wanting to start converting our DVD collection to digital so I can have a backup of our movies that we have purchased over the years PLUS maybe eventually get rid of the DVDs since things are more digital and streaming now.

I have ripped some DVDs on Windows using VLC with good success. I tried to do a DVD on Linux Mint using VLC and it appeared like it didn't do anything. Just sat there, no progress bar or any indication it was doing anything...I am wondering if I missed a step. I was able to successfully convert a movie in Linux using Handbrake...but any movie since then was a failure. A couple movies I have tried in both Windows/Linux using different software both yield the same result...good video but out of sync audio, either early on in the film or further into it.

I'm kinda feeling like this is a "gamble"...might be successful, might not, just depends on the DVD and if everything else is willing to cooperate.

Anybody out there have any suggestions?

Distro support means a lot here. Some windows rippers work in linux under wine.

I think after you enable support for encryption or in some cases just start the movie in vlc you can then use handbrake.


I'd be there are thousands of web pages devoted to this subject on your distro. https://www.cyberciti.biz/tips/linux...-software.html

This is what archwiki has to say about it: https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php...rive#DVD-Video
I have used dvdbackup, it has been very reliable. Combined with transcoding into a script, why not?

When I ripped my DVD collection, I used handbrake, (at the command line I think - it's been a while).

Thanks for the replies guys...been away from attempting this for a few days. This will give me some options I can try out. I really have ONLY been doing this with the GUI...haven't tried anything via command line yet. I think maybe these next attempts I will try some command line options to see what kind of results I will get.

Something else I've had to look at to is the quality of the DVD disc. I know at least one of these discs had some scuffs/scratches that I couldn't do anything with. I don't know the threshold of DVD disc quality in terms of what can and cannot be read by a player/burner. I can generally tell if a scratch is too bad that nothing can be done. Light scratching is still ok? I guess it just depends and taking that chance to see if it can still read it. Luckily, I think most of our discs should be in mostly good shape.

Thanks for the links jefro and ondoho, I'll check those out!

Does the disc play in any dedicated player? If so then it ought to be possible to copy. I've had one that was damaged and one of the .ts files stopped in mid sequence but rest of movie copied.

This is where command line ripping software shines IMO: you can tell it to try more often to read bad sectors, until it succeeds.
I did this with abcde for audio CDs.

My goto package installation for ripping is MakeMKV, libdvd-pkg (ubuntu / debian. may be something else in other distros), and handbrake. With this combo I have never failed to rip a disk unless the disk is bad itself. First with MakeMKV, then Handbrake to compress.

Been a little while since I brought up this topic. Now got a newer laptop and have played with it some more. Right now I am doing a dvdbackup command and copying it to the laptop's SSD then using Handbrake to convert. So far it's working out pretty well. Wife has me ripping one of her favorite TV shows when she was younger. She has the whole series on DVD. 200+ episodes, so it's keeping me busy.

OP -- I imagine it HAS kept you busy!

Re: DVD scratches -- have you tried the Pledge trick? (spray with Pledge, wipe with a cloth diaper or soft cotton cloth)

In any case, have fun!