Hardware Reference
In-Depth Information
The most recent free version of DVDFab will almost certainly be able to rip any
DVD-Video disc that DVD Shrink chokes on. (The pay version of DVDFab has
many additional capabilities and is well worth considering.)
The free version of DVDFab operates only in file mode, ripping the contents
of a DVD-Video disc to directories and files rather than to an ISO image file.
Although the free version can compress these files to fit a 4.4 GB writable DVD,
we've found that it's better to rip the files uncompressed (using the 100% or
DVD9 setting) and then run DVD Shrink against those files to produce a com-
pressed ISO image file for later burning to disc.
To install DVDFab, download the latest installer from the website and save it to
the hard drive. Double-click the installer file to fire up the WINE installer, and
proceed as described for installing DVD Shrink.
VideoPlayback
VLC Media Player
(Ubuntu repositories)
For watching videos, we need an application to turn our HDTV computer mon-
itor back into an HDTV, without distracting elements like the task bar, menu,
or mouse pointer visible. We also need all of the controls present on a DVD
player—play, pause, next/previous chapter, and so on.
There are many video playback applications available for Linux, but for our
purposes the VLC Media Player is the standout choice. Figure 6-71 shows the
VLC control panel, which offers every control imaginable for playing back DVD
and other video content.
Figure 6-71.
The VLC control panel
Ubuntu does not install VLC by default. To install it, first make sure that you've
installed the Ubuntu Restricted Extras package, which includes several of the
codecs needed to display video in various formats. Then click the Ubuntu Ap-
plications menu and choose Add/Remove. When the Add/Remove Applica-
tions dialog appears, type “VLC” in the search box. Mark the VLC checkbox in
the packages list and click Apply Changes to install VLC.
With one exception, the default configuration of VLC will probably be suitable.
To modify VLC settings, click Tools on the VLC control panel and choose Prefer-
ences to display the Preferences dialog shown in Figure 6-72. About the only
change you may want to make is to mark the Fullscreen checkbox to cause VLC
to come up in full-screen mode by default for watching videos.
