patrick-ames / dvdripper

Rip DVDs quickly and easily from the command line. Originally created by Xenomachina. Modified by Me.

DVDRipper

Rip DVDs quickly and easily from the command line. Originally created by Xenomachina. Modified by Me.

Features:

• With minimal configuration:
  • Encodes videos in mp4 files with h.264 video and aac audio. (compatible with a wide variety of media players without additional transcoding, including PS3, Roku, and most smart phones, smart TVs and tablets).
  • Preserves all audio tracks, all subtitle tracks, and chapter markers.
  • Intelligently chooses output filename based on a provided prefix.
  • Generates one video file per DVD title, or optionally one per chapter.
• Easy to read "scan" mode tells you what you need need to know about a disk to decide on how to rip it.

Why I wrote this:

This script exists because I wanted a simple way to back up DVDs with reasonably good compression and quality settings, and in a format I could play on the various media players I own including PS3, Roku, smart TVs, smartphones and tablets. Using mp4 files with h.264 video and aac audio seems to be the best fit for these constraints.

I also wanted it to preserve as much as possible: chapter markers, subtitles, and (most of all) all of the audio tracks. My kids have a number of bilingual DVDs, and I wanted to back these up so they don't have to handle the physical disks, but can still watch their shows in either language. For some reason HandBrakeCLI doesn't have a simple “encode all audio tracks” option.

This script also tries to be smart about the output name. You just tell it the pathname prefix, eg: "/tmp/AwesomeVideo", and it'll decide whether to produce a single file, "/tmp/AwesomeVideo.mp4", or a directory "/tmp/AwesomeVideo/" which will contain separate files for each title, depending on whether you're ripping a single title or multiple titles.

Using it, Step 1:

The first step is to scan your DVD and decide whether or not you want to split chapters. Here's an example of a disc with 6 episodes of a TV show, plus a "bump", all stored as a single title.

$ dvdrip --scan /dev/cdrom
Reading from '/media/EXAMPLE1'
Title   1/  1: 02:25:33  720×576  4:3   25 fps
  audio   1: Chinese (5.1ch)  [48000Hz, 448000bps]
  chapter   1: 00:24:15 ◖■■■■■■■■■‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥◗
  chapter   2: 00:24:15 ◖‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥■■■■■■■■■‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥◗
  chapter   3: 00:24:14 ◖‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥■■■■■■■■■‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥◗
  chapter   4: 00:24:15 ◖‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥■■■■■■■■■■‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥◗
  chapter   5: 00:24:15 ◖‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥■■■■■■■■■‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥◗
  chapter   6: 00:24:14 ◖‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥■■■■■■■■■◗
  chapter   7: 00:00:05 ◖‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥■◗

Knowing that this is 6 episodes of a TV show, I'd choose to split the chapters. If it was a movie with 6 chapters, I would choose to not split it.

Here's a disc with 3 2-segment episodes of a show, plus two "bumps", stored as 8 titles.

Reading from '/media/EXAMPLE2'
Title   1/  5: 00:23:22  720×576  4:3   25 fps
  audio   1: Chinese (2.0ch)  [48000Hz, 192000bps]
  audio   2: English (2.0ch)  [48000Hz, 192000bps]
  sub   1: English  [(Bitmap)(VOBSUB)]
  chapter   1: 00:11:41 ◖■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥◗
  chapter   2: 00:11:41 ◖‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■◗

Title   2/  5: 00:22:40  720×576  4:3   25 fps
  audio   1: Chinese (2.0ch)  [48000Hz, 192000bps]
  audio   2: English (2.0ch)  [48000Hz, 192000bps]
  sub   1: English  [(Bitmap)(VOBSUB)]
  chapter   1: 00:11:13 ◖■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥◗
  chapter   2: 00:11:28 ◖‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■◗

Title   3/  5: 00:22:55  720×576  4:3   25 fps
  audio   1: Chinese (2.0ch)  [48000Hz, 192000bps]
  audio   2: English (2.0ch)  [48000Hz, 192000bps]
  sub   1: English  [(Bitmap)(VOBSUB)]
  chapter   1: 00:15:56 ◖■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥◗
  chapter   2: 00:06:59 ◖‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■◗

Title   4/  5: 00:00:08  720×576  4:3   25 fps
  audio   1: English (2.0ch)  [None]
  chapter   1: 00:00:08 ◖◗

Title   5/  5: 00:00:05  720×576  4:3   25 fps
  chapter   1: 00:00:05 ◖◗

Given that these are 2-segment episodes (it's pretty common for kids' shows to have two segments per episode -- essentially 2 "mini-episodes") you can choose whether to do the default one video per title (episodes) or split by chapter (segments / mini-episodes).

Using it, Step 2:

If you've decided to split by chapter, execute:

dvdrip.py -c /dev/cdrom -o Output_Name

Otherwise, leave out the -c flag.

If there is only one video being ripped, it will be named Output_Name.mp4. If there are multiple files, they will be placed in a new directory called Output_Name.

Limitations:

This script has been tested on both Linux and Mac OS X with Python 3, HandBrakeCLI and VLC installed (and also MacPorts in the case of OS X).

Usage:

dvdrip.py [-h] [-v] [-c] [-n] [--scan] [--main-feature] [-t TITLES]
          [-i INPUT] [-o OUTPUT] [--mount-timeout MOUNT_TIMEOUT]

Optional Arguments:

-h, --help            show this help message and exit
-v, --verbose         Increase verbosity.
-c, --chapter_split   Split each chapter out into a separate file.
-n, --dry-run         Don't actually write anything.
--scan                Display scan of disc; do not rip.
--main-feature        Rip only the main feature title.
-t TITLES, --titles TITLES
                      Comma-separated list of title numbers to consider
                      (starting at 1) or * for all titles.
-i INPUT, --input INPUT
                      Volume to rip (must be a directory).
-o OUTPUT, --output OUTPUT
                      Output location. Extension is added if only one title
                      being ripped, otherwise, a directory will be created
                      to contain ripped titles.
--mount-timeout MOUNT_TIMEOUT
                      Amount of time to wait for a mountpoint to be mounted