Fire ComcastTV - RIP DVDs

To simplify things I'm going to backup my DVDs to disk so they are playable from xbmc.

• vobcopy looks promising (http://vobcopy.org/projects/c/c.shtml)
• Some apparently very good clues here: http://jaxwell.com/dvd/dvd_howto.html.  How to use vobcopy and make backups.

Addenda: This youtube video is also very helpful (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OPLquAvs7eQ) using Thoggen: http://thoggen.net/
HandbrakeGTK: http://handbrake.fr/

To DO

• Upgrade roku to use http://www.mythtv.org/wiki/ROKU_HD_Frontend
• Finish the tivo slide support
• Setup mythnettv properly
• Finish freenas install
• Improve antenna.  Bow tie is better but could use better still.  Also consider array of fractal and large fractal.
• Remove passwords that popup

This is the key part:
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Tools of the trade

These are the tools you will need to install, with all dependencies. you can find more info on google.com or freshmeat.net:

• transcode
• dvd::rip (optional frontend for transcode. lots of dependencies)
• vobcopy (small simple tool for ripping)
• mplex (part of the mjpeg-tools suite)
• dvdauthor
• dvd+rw-tools

Gathering files from the DVD

First we need to copy our movie to the hard drive from the DVD. Mount the drive, and do a df. If the disk is already less than 4.4G(4482Mb), then its already dvd5, and you can mirror it with vobcopy, then it will be ready to burn! Otherwise, continue on.


Use vobcopy to mirror your entire DVD to your current directory for direct burning: (If it is indeed small enough)

$ vobcopy -m -o .

vobcopy -I to get info

vobcopy -l to copy single large file for default

If the disk is larger than 4.4G(4482Mb), you will need to collect only the main movie title. You can find out some info by reading the DVD with dvdrip. I prefer to gather info via the command line.

Use vobcopy and tcprobe to find useful information: Vobcopy will tell you how many titles, chapters, and angles there are. Note which title has the most chapters, and how many chapters/angles that title has. Use tcprobe to see the audio/subtitle streams of the largest title. Note the audio streams that you wish to keep. Tcprobe will show you the languages of each audio track and how many channels each contains, as well as lots of other information.

$ vobcopy -I

and

$ tcprobe -i /dev/dvd

Use tccat to copy the desired title:

$ tccat -i /dev/dvd -T A,B-C,D > movie.vob

# where
# 
#     * A is the title that you want to rip
#     * B is the chapter that you want to start from (typically, 1)
#     * C is the chapter that you want to end with
#     * D is the angle that you want (typically, 1)
#     * movie.vob is the output file