DVD ripping

It’s time to get rid of those DVDs. I consume my media via digital means (HTPC) and hence want all music, picture and films via this interface. Physical media doesn’t fit and I hence want to read them in. I have experimented a lot with this and the below are my conclusions. Please mind – as a native swede I want to have all movies with Swedish subtitles. Targeted at the children, Swedish audio shall be default, but Englihs audio should be optionally selectable. In the suggested settings below, exchange Swedish with the language you speak. If this happens to be English, then you need to apply your own logic.

There are two technical challenges; one is to address the CSS protection of the disks and one is to create an output file in a format that maintains quality but reduces size. Some program handle both these in on pack (DVDFab and MakeMKV). I find DVDFab a bit messy to work with and MakeMKV is quite technical, and requires that you read up before you can take full advantage of it.I would still recommend MakeMKV for the cases of TV series disks, where you want to rip several titles in one go.

But my recommendation is the combination of AnyDVD and Handbrake.

AnyDVD is without doubt the leading program to get rid of CSS protection on DVD. It installs itself as an abstraction layer between the protected disk and the program. The disk exposed to the system is an unprotected one, which means that once it’s in place, you can use any ripping program – even those which cannot handle the protection.

Handbrake is an amazing piece of code that takes away most of the complexities of ripping. It’s powerful without the mess of complexity.

Set-up

Install AnyDVD and Handbrake.

I have created my own profile in Handbrake, forking the “High Profile”. Set MKV as the default filesystem – it’s generally supported, has all the features one could ask for and is a free and open format.

Suggestions for the actual ripping:

Insert the disk, have AnyDVD scan for a while to crack the CSS and once it’s done you can select the disk from the Source menu in Handbrake.

Under “picture”, ensure you have the full resolution.

Don’t mess with “Video filters” (off, default, off, off and dragbar in the extreme left position and greyscale Enbcoding not ticked are my settings), nor “Video” (H.264, Same as source, variable Framerate, Constant quality, RF 20)

Audio; Add the one you want. Details below.  Go for the DTS track if it’s there, 5.1 if it’s there.  I code with FAAC to Dolby Pro Logic II,  auto sample rate, 160 bps and zero on both DRC and gain. This to me is a fair compromise between size and quality. You want all the channels to be there as discrete ones but unless you are a FLAC fanatic, I still suggest compression unless you have a disk sponsor making size totally irrelevant as a factor. In addition to the language’s suggested below, add  Director’s comments if you want that. It’s a limited footprint addition, so why not? It adds potential value to your package.

Subtitles: Add the ones you want.  Details below.

Rename the destination so the file gets a proper name.

Press start and watch is do the work.

If you have more than one optical drive, or if you do the ripping from and ISO/IMG file, you can actually queue up tasks and have it process several disks without any need for human interaction.

Suggested settings

Swedish kids films (Example: Astrid Lindgren)

Audio: Add Swedish audio

Subtitles: Do not add any

English kids films (Example: Disney)

Audio: Add Swedish audio as first and also English. You are likely to be more competent to swap to English than your children are to swap to Swedish, so I suggest Swedish as the default audio, which it will be if it’s listed first.

Subtitles: Add Swedish subtitles but do not tick any of the boxes. This way it’s added but you need to turn it on to see it. Making it default would be annoying for the kids to have the text there with Swedish audio. This is for having Swedish subtitles while watching it with English audio.

Swedish films (Example: Wallander)

Audio: Add Swedish audio

Subtitles: Do not add any

English films (Example:Jaws)

Audio: Add English

Subtitles: Add Swedish and tick the default option.