dvdrip

Rip DVDs quickly and easily from the commandline.

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