Friday 26 November 2010

EZ DVD Ripping!

Hey all, I just thought I'd let you know what I'm doing. I started yet another project. I fully intend on finishing this one though!

So recently I bought a new external hard drive, 640gig for 60 quid, not too shabby... My old external started ticking and I have all my movies on there in pure DVD goodness. I'd heard a lot about making DVDs into .avi's and how good they can be. I had, however, seen how bad they could be. As I filled my old hard drive up pretty quickly, I decided that by making the movies into .avi's I'd also be saving space and ultimately money. So I started investigating.


I saw AcidRip, a seemingly good way to get my DVD's to .avi's in an efficient manner. It does the job reasonably well, actually I'm doing it a disservice, it manages very well. Unfortunately I was faced with this:
AcidRip

Now I'm no DanRabbit but this seems a little...complex. I do understand that there are a lot of settings to be configured but this is essentially using a command line program. So why not automate it? My first thought is that for most people the information presented is both confusing and unnecessary. When looking at it I think, "What is the chase and how do I cut to it?" - Chris Griffin.
Yesterday, I came up with this:
EZ DVD Ripper
Now, it's very much a work in progress, there's some backend, but it may as well be a mockup. I'm working on the encoding bit now, trying to get the best results for those three options. I acknowledge that this is not for everyone but I can't be the only one who finds excess options frustrating.

This is where I'm at for now, I'll keep you posted on further information. I'm still thinking of any other useful information that should be given to the user. I should have something reasonably functional by the start of next week I reckon. That's not to say that weekend frolicking won't get in the way...

-Dave

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Thank you so much! Just read about this on ombubuntu and I had to come check it out. I have been dying to start "digitalizing" my dvd collection but every option out there is confusing as heck for me to understand. This looks promising and I can't wait to see how it turns out. : ) thanks again!

Locke said...

Be sure that it will rip .iso as well as proper mounted DVD's.

My wife is faced with the same dilemma; A pile of movies on the hard drive ripped as .iso's, and she wants them encoded to divx. If she were encoding from DVD, she could handle it, but because these are already ripped to disc, she is being blown away by the complexity.

I look forward to this project. Easy is good.

Unknown said...

In you're application, make sure to keep all the video track, audio track and subtitle by default.

I find it very annoying when a rip application is keeping only one track and removing subtitle.

To extend your problem .. you should look into a way to rip Blue-Ray.


Which tools do you plan to use for trans-coding ? ffmpeg or mplayer?
Which codec do you plan to use by default? divx, h264 ?

A while ago, I wanned to provide a simple tools to convert any video or DVD into iPod's compatible video(h264+AAC). The main goal is the simplicity. Might give you some ideas : https://mvpod.homeip.net/

- It provide a simple interface to select multiple files.
- Very basic options : resolution, codec, quality
- Handle a job queue
- Provide a preview
- Provide basic video information about the source and the destination

Anonymous said...

Sounds great I am happy to do some testing if you need help.
andrew at toogoods.co.nz

Unknown said...

Hi thanks for the endeavour - I try to exhort the values of linux to my 'windows based' friends & clients, but one of their complaints is the video tool complexity.

I applaud the attempt to create a more user friendly tool, have you had a look at DVD decrytor or its 'big brother DVDfab?

Something similar native on Linux would be excellent, i.e. one button ripping to disk, main move to disk and converting to single file (eg move.avi).

I'd love to test what you come up with!

Philbo.

Anonymous said...

Hi There,

Is this application already operational? As I cannot find it in the Ubuntu software center. All available applications are much to difficult to use.

BR - RB

Anonymous said...

Any news here?

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