DVD/ISO to MKV using ffmpeg?

[linux]

I have ripped my DVD collection to disk as ISO files. However, playing DVD ISO files is quite sluggish on my XBMC Atom/ION2 machines.

Playing back encoded 1080p x264 material in a proper container format does not seem to be a problem.

Now I'm looking for a method to encode all the ISO files in batch from the command line under Linux, presumably using ffmpeg or similar. It's important that all the video, audio, and subtitle tracks are included. Quality is more important than storage space.


I'm looking for options to specify to do something like:

ffmpeg -i MOVIE.iso -someoptions MOVIE.mkv

Possibly with a script wrapped around the commands to iterate over all tracks of ffmpeg can't do that itself.

Any ideas?

[Baldrick]

Mencoder is better for dvd iso sources, google mencoder iso to avi for example.

Or MakeMKV, http://www.makemkv.com/forum2/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=224 , it doesn't reconvert the video at all, keeps the video in mpeg2 dvd and audio tracks, subs.

Both available for linux.

[linux]

Thank you for your reply.


I've also been looking at mencoder. My problem is googling for either ffmpeg or mencoder command line options is that most hits is for doing the oposite, e.g. converting downloaded media to ISO for burning DVD's. Or some subset of what I want like extracting a single track etc. I'm looking for a method to extract all tracks like I mentioned earlier.

Also when I've asked questions about mencoder I've been told to use ffpmeg as there is more active development around ffmpeg.

According to

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_container_formats

Subtitles are supported "via third party modifications", hence I would rather use MKV as target format.

I've also tried makemkv previously, but after installing it (emerge mkvtoolnix under Gentoo) I just got a dialog box saying "Application failed to initialize" when entering either "makemkv" or "makemkv --help".


Most descriptions I find have long descriptions on how to extract a single track etc:

http://en.gentoo-wiki.com/wiki/Ripping_DVD_to_Matroska_and_H.264

But I was hoping to find something to find all the tracks and convert them.

[linux]

Figured out why makemkv fails:

"makemkv is jut a GUI for a console program named makemkvcon. It is installed from binary package andis not open source"

I'll have to install the binary....

[linux]

It seems like the command line version of the tool (which is only available as a binary) will do what I want:

makemkvcon mkv iso:DVD_MDHK_PART1.iso all .

Even though it complains about that it "can't find any usable optical drives" it seem to work.

[Baldrick]

And does the makemkv mkvs work better on your machine ?

I don't think it should be any bigger difference than playing the dvd isos though, it's the same video and audio codecs.

[Bonie81]

under linux, HandBrake (gui or cli) is an alternative to consider for mkv batch operation.

[linux]

And does the makemkv mkvs work better on your machine ?

I don't think it should be any bigger difference than playing the dvd isos though, it's the same video and audio codecs.

I think it's due to the ISO player in XBMC. It seem to work fine using the same data wrapped in MKV.

[linux]

under linux, HandBrake (gui or cli) is an alternative to consider for mkv batch operation.

I've seen others using Handbrake with other distro's, but unfortunately there is no handbrake portage entry in Gentoo.

[Bonie81]

I've seen others using Handbrake with other distro's, but unfortunately there is no handbrake portage entry in Gentoo.

yeah, not for Gentoo, it's there for Debian.
but you can compile from source, if you follow distro documentation.

ps: video help has special category for Linux.

[linux]

I also tried to build handbrake (cli version) from source, but it seem to be a problem with my version of automake:

./configure --disable-gtk --force
cd build
make
...
autoreconf-2.68: configure.in: not using Gettext
autoreconf-2.68: running: aclocal  --output=aclocal.m4t
am-wrapper: /usr/bin/aclocal-1.4 is missing or not executable.
            Please try emerging the correct version of automake.
autoreconf-2.68: aclocal failed with exit status: 1

[linux]

according to http://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic-t-846845-start-0.html automake 1.4 should solve the problem, but it only leads to a different problem:

autoreconf-2.68: running: aclocal  --output=aclocal.m4t
aclocal: macro `_LT_DECL_SED' required but not defined
aclocal: macro `_LT_FUNC_STRIPNAME_CNF' required but not defined
autoreconf-2.68: aclocal failed with exit status: 1
make: *** [contrib/a52dec/.stamp.configure] Error 1

This might be the reason why there is no handbrake portage entry...

[Bonie81]

according to http://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic-t...5-start-0.html automake 1.4 should solve the problem, but it only leads to a different problem

i hv gone thru' the link and details. Gentoo is known as tough tux. better to go through gentoo portage documentation for package building guidelines or there is nothing wrong ask/seek help from regular package builders coz open-source community is full of help. i never tried gentoo coz debian made me to fall for debian.

[linux]

Setting the environment variable

 export WANT_AUTOMAKE=1.11

got a step further:

 /bin/sh ../libtool --silent --tag=CC   --mode=compile /usr/bin/gcc -DHAVE_CONFIG_H -I. -I..    -Wall -I/home/petter/handbrake.git/build/contrib/include/freetype2 -I/home/petter/handbrake.git/build/contrib/include -I/home/petter/handbrake.git/build/contrib/include -c -o ass_font.lo ass_font.c
In file included from ass_font.c:35:0:
ass_shaper.h:24:29: fatal error: fribidi/fribidi.h: No such file or directory
compilation terminated.
make[3]: *** [ass_font.lo] Error 1

Next step is to find fribidi.h...

[linux]

[QUOTE=Bonie81;2124513]

better to go through gentoo portage documentation for package building guidelines

But that's the source of the problem, there is no portage entry for handbrake in Gentoo. If it was I could have simply done

emerge handbrake

Also there is not a single maintainer for a handbrake ebuild, just a bunch of users trying to set one up, each one appears to run into different problems depending upon the version they try to build.

[linux]

Next step is to find fribidi.h...

Installed fribidi and got a little step further:

In file included from ass_font.c:35:0:
ass_shaper.h:33:56: error: expected declaration specifiers or '...' before 'FriBidiParType'
ass_shaper.h:39:16: error: expected '=', ',', ';', 'asm' or '__attribute__' before 'resolve_base_direction'
make[3]: *** [ass_font.lo] Error 1

[linux]

I've downloaded HandBrake-0.9.5.tar.bz2 which will compile fine. The git version does not seem to contain any tags or branches and HEAD is probably not stable at all times.