FFmpeg tutorials for beginners

[69Rixter]

I'm trying to use FFmpeg to rip a DVD. Searched online for tutorials/how-to's and simply couldn't find anything that helped. So, could anyone direct me to a GOO how-to(step-by-step)use the command line to rip DVD's to various formats? I found this this... www.pastebin.com/NQ5pbGr2 for the various "commands" but just don't know how to string them together to achieve what I want to do. Oh....being a newbie [LM 18.2 MATE O.S.]
THANX:
Rick

[JVRaines]

Is your Google broken? I typed in "ffmpeg dvd" and a bunch of tutorials came up on top.

[pandy]

https://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?t=174620
https://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?p=1809116#post1809116

[69Rixter]

Re: JVRaines:

"My" google broken? It's never been my, mine, yours or ours! And I've been through many videos, web pages and so-called tutorials. What I've been through is why I'm here! Somewhere, there has to be a good tutorial that "helps" one accomplish what it is they're after. As yet, I have NOT found such a tutorial. I'm a newbie to FFmpeg and do not know the commands and building of commands to perform the tasks I wish. On a personal note, since you are of no use/help, why don't you refrain from answering any of MY threads.
Rick

[69Rixter]

Hey pandy:

I guess you missed the part where I said I'm a 'newbie" to FFmpeg. I appreciate your offer to help, but the links provided no "instructional" value. You see, I need something that will provided the commands, how to "build" them and why. Are you aware of any such video or instructional page/site?
THANKS:
Rick

[pandy]

Hey pandy:

I guess you missed the part where I said I'm a 'newbie" to FFmpeg. I appreciate your offer to help, but the links provided no "instructional" value. You see, I need something that will provided the commands, how to "build" them and why. Are you aware of any such video or instructional page/site?
THANKS:
Rick

Please allow me Rick to express opinion that there is no better way to learn something than understanding provided reference which i believe is one of its kind jewel directly providing you ffmpeg usage in DVD encoding case - provided script and place where discussion is performed is hard to compete with anything else on this area.

I assumed (perhaps wrongly) that you was on official ffmpeg site where link to wiki with significant number of examples how to practically use ffmpeg is provided https://trac.ffmpeg.org/ .

[hello_hello]

I'm trying to use FFmpeg to rip a DVD.

What's your definition of "ripping a DVD"? What is your desired output format?

I don't use ffmpeg a great deal myself, but it doesn't "rip" DVDs in respect to removing any copy protection (as far as I know), so if you're referring to copy protected DVDs you'll have to rip with something else first, possibly "prepare" the ripped files for encoding, then convert with ffmpeg.

Not to be disagreeable, but the links provided so far appear to be for using ffmpeg to convert to a DVD complaint format rather than converting DVDs to another format.

I found this amongst the ffmpeg documentation:
http://ffmpeg.org/ffmpeg-all.html#Video-and-Audio-file-format-conversion

You can transcode decrypted VOBs:

ffmpeg -i snatch_1.vob -f avi -c:v mpeg4 -b:v 800k -g 300 -bf 2 -c:a libmp3lame -b:a 128k snatch.avi

This is a typical DVD ripping example; the input is a VOB file, the output an AVI file with MPEG-4 video and MP3 audio. Note that in this command we use B-frames so the MPEG-4 stream is DivX5 compatible, and GOP size is 300 which means one intra frame every 10 seconds for 29.97fps input video. Furthermore, the audio stream is MP3-encoded so you need to enable LAME support by passing --enable-libmp3lame to configure. The mapping is particularly useful for DVD transcoding to get the desired audio language.

You'll probably have to be quite specific about the final formats you're wanting to convert to in order to get the appropriate command line help. Not being a regular ffmpeg user myself, if I'm wanting to do something new, by the time I work out the correct command line options and get it working correctly I'm usually starting to have suicidal thoughts.

[69Rixter]

RE: pandy, hello_hello

Thanx for replying. I am aware I must first 'rip' the DVD to a VOB file (or possibly TS video/audio) and then proceed and believe it or not, I can do that! However, that's where my "expertise" expires. What I'm in need of is a guide that will teach the scripting of commands I'd need to convert the VOB into various other formats (.avi, MKV, DivX, mp4...etc). Yes, a site or video that would, basically, hold my hand until I can get familiar with the processes needed to use FFmpeg. I did find these (pastebin.com/NQ5pbGr2) & (fatbellyman.com/webstuff/ffmpeg_common_usage/#two). Now, I believe these to be consistent with what I want to achieve, but need to understand how to arrive at the commands they employed. OK, I'm a babe-in-the-woods at using this program. Why am I using FFmpeg? Because I've not found any other 'ripper" that I'm satisfied with excepting "AcidRip" and I don't think there is support for that one any longer(?). The open source "rippers" I've tried all have had one or more drawbacks with some actually taking as long/longer to "rip" a DVD than to watch it!!! (not to mention names, but VLC) I want to take the video's of my family/grand daughter and make it so I can show them on my/any mobile devices. H-E-L-P
Rick

[leonsk]

As stated above by @hello_hello ffmpeg doesn't rip DVDs so it's not a "ripper" and if you know you have to rip the DVD first and know how to do it why do you want to know how to rip it with ffmpeg ?
If you have already ripped the DVDs why don't you use a GUI to convert them to a format that can be played on your mobile device ?
As for the GUI to convert the ripped DVD I can suggest these :
MeGUI
StaxRip
HandBrake
...

[hello_hello]

69Rixter,
For the sake of clarity can the definition of "ripping" be the process of decrypting a DVD and copying the contents to your hard drive, while "converting" is the re-encoding step?

As far as conversion speed goes, it depends on the encoder and settings used. FFmpeg doesn't do anything special. Most of the GUI's used by forum members encode with the x264 encoder and store the video in an MKV or MP4 container, and some GUIs still support Xvid, which was the most popular encoder until x264 made it somewhat obsolete. It was generally used to encode mpeg4 video stored an AVI container. DivX and Xvid are the same type of encoder (they encode the same type of mpeg4 video) only Xvid is free.

The command line in my previous post will encode a vob file as Divx5 compatible Mpeg4 video with MP3 audio in an AVI container.
The link takes you to the official documentation which lists and explains the plethora of options. Not always well, and not always in a way a mere mortal will understand immediately, but it's all there. Probably the best way to learn is to experiment yourself and when things don't work as expected ask specific questions. There's possibly ffmpeg tutorials out there, but I've never looked for one.

For x264 encoding I'd have a look at VidCoder. It'll open and re-encode all the common formats and doesn't require the user to be an expert. I'm pretty sure it even has presets for various devices. The presets all use the same x264 encoder, only with different settings according to what a particular device can decode. The x264 encoder is probably the only one you'll need to use (unless you have an ancient device that only supports Xvid/Avi) and all you'll need to worry about is ensuring you use appropriate encoder settings for a particular device, which for VidCoder probably means using the appropriate preset. FFmpeg will encode with the x264 encoder but as I said, it can't do anything special in respect to encoding speed.

[pandy]

Now, I believe these to be consistent with what I want to achieve, but need to understand how to arrive at the commands they employed. OK, I'm a babe-in-the-woods at using this program. Why am I using FFmpeg? Because I've not found any other 'ripper" that I'm satisfied with excepting "AcidRip" and I don't think there is support for that one any longer(?). The open source "rippers" I've tried all have had one or more drawbacks with some actually taking as long/longer to "rip" a DVD than to watch it!!! (not to mention names, but VLC) I want to take the video's of my family/grand daughter and make it so I can show them on my/any mobile devices. H-E-L-P
Rick

Well... there is no complete guide to ffmpeg as ffmpeg evolve constantly and frequently guides 2 - 3 year old can be outdated.
Easiest from my perspective is to support your detailed questions - we can go step by step (where i can help as from my perspective ffmpeg sometimes is poorly documented and at worse source code need to be analyses to understand options or parameters, also environment can be important (Windows behavior can be slightly different than on Linux).

Re-coding speed may be related to non ffmpeg dependent things - your HW may be too slow when compared to used encoder settings...
In my opinion you should focus on single goal - some common denominator - nowadays H.264 as video codec up to HD resolution seem to be widely supported even on cheap decoders.

[69Rixter]

RE: pandy

Thanx for your reply. OK, you got it..."there is no complete guide to ffmpeg as ffmpeg evolve constantly and frequently guides 2 - 3 year old can be outdated." TY. I don't understand why folks have to get so testy, crass, or snide in forums.(trolls) Your answer was all I needed and was direct, to the point, and civil. So, now, I get it...FFmpeg is just what I can/wish to make of it and I need to learn it's abilities/drawbacks on my own with/by experimenting with it. (??) I'm am using "Factory Format" now, to convert MKV to either .avi or Mp4. Still, I've D/led MKV that is much smaller than I can achieve with with MKV/Factory Format?? OK, I'll keep playing around with it and see what I can come up with.

[hydra3333]

um, why am I seeing your response as 4.5 years later ?