Hardware Reference
In-Depth Information
Second, many people rip their purchased DVD-Video discs to place-shift or
format-shift the content. For example, they may rip videos to lower-resolution,
highly compressed files that match the screen resolution and storage capacity
of their cell phones. Or, as in our case, they may rip their DVD-Video discs to
the hard drives of their media center systems.
Although there are several DVD ripping apps available for Linux, such as K9copy,
none of them are as good as the corresponding Windows applications. Fortu-
nately, that's not a problem, because the best Windows DVD ripping applica-
tions install and run perfectly well under Ubuntu Linux.
The great-granddaddy of DVD rippers is DVD Shrink 3.2.0.15, shown in Figure
6-69, which was last updated in July 2004, just before the MPAA attack lawyers
shut it down. Despite its age, DVD Shrink is still many people's first choice of
DVD rippers. It does what it does quickly and well. When set to use deep analy-
sis for maximum quality, the resulting videos are often indistinguishable from
the originals.
Figure 6-69.
The DVD Shrink main screen
DVD Shrink is extremely easy to use. After you install it and configure it as you
wish, you can simply put a protected DVD-Video disc in the drive and click
Open Disc. DVD Shrink runs a quick preliminary analysis and then returns to
the main screen. If you want to back up the DVD without any changes, simply
click the Backup button and let 'er rip. If you want, for example, just the movie,
you can click Re-author and eliminate unwanted structure elements.
You can also make some minor changes that may have major quality benefits.
For example, you can opt to eliminate the soundtrack in alternate languages, rip
only stereo sound rather than stereo plus 5.1 sound, or eliminate the director's
