Quick and easy DVD9 to DVD5 video backup under Linux

[danboid]

Quick and easy DVD9 to DVD5 video backup under Linux

By Dan MacDonald, 6th November 2005

This document describes the basics of copying a DVD9 (dual-layer) video disc onto a DVD5 (single layer) disc under Linux using 100% free software- lxdvdrip playing the central role. There is also a fully graphical tool to do this under Linux called k9copy. I tried v1.0 a few times- it quickly generated some working .vobs of the correct size but it failed to create a working DVD structure for me- its DVDs wouldn't play. I will give it another go when it has matured more. There is another called xdvdshrink too, which I haven't tried yet.

I am no fan of messing around compiling software, not only that but I failed to compile lxdvdrip from source, so this guide relies upon the joys of Debian Linux and its wonderful apt-get package manager which we'll use to get all the required software. Not only do you have easy access to more free software under Debian than any other version of Linux, it also seems more responsive than other distros I've tried. There are many good distributions based upon Debian, my personal favourite derivative being Kanotix- a live/ installable distro with a fantastic online community /IRC support.

OK, so you have a version of Debian installed on your PC. Unfortunately, due to legal issues, lots of Linux video software cannot be included as part of the main Debian repositories and so we have to add an entry to your /etc/apt/sources.list file. Find the right line to add at:

http://debian.video.free.fr/

That page will tell you exactly what line you will need to add to sources.list. Kanotix is based upon Debian sid/unstable so I just had to add the line

deb ftp://ftp.nerim.net/debian-marillat/ sid main

to the end of my /etc/apt/sources.list file.

After adding the appropriate line to your /etc/apt/sources.list, type

apt-get update

then

apt-get install lxdvdrip

After lxdvdrip is installed, you will need to have a look at its configuration file /etc/lxdvdrip.conf and change a couple of settings. For me, all the defaults were fine except for:

dvdbrenner - your DVD burner device. It defaults to /dev/scd0 but I had to change it to /dev/hdc

audio-default - This defaults to a value of 1 (5.1 surround) but I, like most, still only have a stereo setup so I changed it to 0 for 2 channel sound.

speed - This defaults to 4 but I changed it to 8 as that is the max speed most recordable DVD discs can handle. It should drop down to 4x if you disc, drive or growisofs can't do it.

Thats it- you should now be ready to run lxdvdrip! All you need to do now is insert the DVD9 you wish to backup into your DVD burner and then run

lxdvdrip

to start the copy. I haven't worked out why yet but I had to run that command as root, YMMV.

Have fun!

dan

[oldcpu]

Thanks. I have lxdvdrip installed, but I never tried it. Mainly because I never succeeded in getting the frontend kdvdrip to work. Its available here:
http://www.jgese.de/no5/index/menuid/index/menuid/14/reporeid/23
which is great, if one's German is significantly superior to mine. ...

SuSE users can download rpms for lxdvdrip from Packman (for SuSE-9.x and 10.0):
http://packman.links2linux.org/?action=603

After reading your post, I decided that I'm going to have to try lxdvdrip.

[danboid]

Thanks for pointing out that SUSE users can easily get lxdvdrip too oldcpu, but as for using a lxdvdrip frontend I'd say its totally unnecessary. What could be easier than typing 'lxdvdrip', which is all you need to do once its set up? If you're super lazy you could create a shortcut icon to open a console window and run that command I suppose- can't get easier than that!

dan

[wingnut02]

Why not just use k9copy to backup the dvd to dvd5 format, which it does automatically, and burn with k3b?

Set it to use a k3b project instead of the video_ts/audio_ts format...

[netimen]

And can I use a dvd wich is already located on my harddrive and backup it not to a disk or an ISO but to a folder?

[pragen]

Why not just use k9copy to backup the dvd to dvd5 format, which it does automatically, and burn with k3b?

I think the forum post to which you were referring was about 2 years old and the author had a problem with an earlier version of k9copy. That said, I concur k9copy is a good tool to backup DVD's. I use it under openSUSE 10.2 without problems. In the past I have run Windows based DVD Shink under WINE (Crossover Office), which works OK, and I think has a slightly better user interface, but have switched to K9Copy as it's native Linux.

[lpn1160]

I found this link a while back, wrote a shell script and let all the back-end programs do their thing

http://www.linuxquestions.org/linux/answers/Applications_GUI_Multimedia/DVD9_to_DVD5_guide

[betamaxman]

Another great multimedia friendly distro is PCLinuxOS. It is not debian but based on mandriva, however it too uses apt and synaptic for package management. Package formats are really not important at all, and rpm is just as flexible as .deb, the diff is in the management system and the repo structure. APt for rpm is every bit as great. PCLinuxOS has a great (perhaps the best in linux) collection of just about any app you can think of and you can request your favorite app if it is not already included be included.