Hi.

I have been searching here and there for days a program which would do the job of the DVD Shrink in linux.

Using linux existing tools seems to be quite complicated even to install.

Usind DVD Shrink with wine is almost a chimera because you have problems in every step.

I am not a programer, but my question is, why don't somebody implement a DVD Shring-like app for linux?

Best for you all.

I guess I can't really offer anything useful, except to say that DVD Decrypter and DVD Shrink both work splendidly through Wine on my platform, so it definitely can be done. In point of fact, they are both a bit more efficient: Decrypter doesn't pound my harddrive like it does in Win32, and Shrink's Deep Frame Analsyis about 5-10% percent faster (I get about 135/sec), which is pretty amazing considering Wine is supposed to gobble up a lot of power (and sometimes does with other apps).

All I can suggest is to use a pretty recent build (I use 20050111), and install Decrypt/Shrink locally. Rip the dvd in question to an ISO using normal Linux methods or Decrypter, then mount it somewhere for Shrink to read it from.

I wish I could tell you that it took a great deal of trial and error on my part to get these programs to work, but I can't. The whole process was pretty much fire-and-forget. But if you have any questions go ahead and ask and I'll do my best to answer them, and maybe somebody else will chime in who's Wine adventures with DvD Decrypter and DvD Shrink were a bit more of a learning experience.

Great website that I found back in the dark days of windows was Doom9.org. Cater for everything dvd/vcd/avi related. Good place to start.

Yesterday I almost break my system completely!!!

I tried to install VideoDVD::RIP and when I installed a Perl rpm everything messed up and I had to make a new install of the OS in my computer.

Well, after the install I deleted the .wine folder and created a new one using winesetuptk. Then I added the DVD drive (E:\) as a PATH in the winesetuptk.

Afterwards I edited .wine/config file and changed Windows=win98 to Windows=winxp.

After that I installed DVD Shrink and voila!, it worked and I was able to create an ISO correctly.

So I think my main problem is over.

Anyway, I have two questions:

1.-Which program could I use to just create a mpg or an avi from a DVD?

2.- What is DVD-Decrypter for?

Thanks a lot!

Hello


1.-Which program could I use to just create a mpg or an avi from a DVD?
mplayer has a program called mencoder which can convert a dvd to an mpeg/avi file. I have used it, found it very slow and the command line arguements are complicated.
From the man page this is the option
mencoder dvd://2 -o titel2.avi -ovc lavc -lavcopts vcodec=mjpeg:mbd=1:vbitrate=1800 -oac copy

There are quite a few more options depending on what you desire.

2.- What is DVD-Decrypter for?
I am not sure but was told that DVD-Decrypter has a few uses. One use is that many dvd's will have a region code on them. If your drive is not set to that region then you can not play the dvd. Furthermore your drive has a limited number of times it can change its region option.
DVD-Decrypter will copy the entire dvd 'unshrunk' (if that's a word) to your hard drive. This also allows dvd shrink to analyse copied information and shrink it as you like. This will also prevent your drives' region code from being changed.

Thanks a lot! [/B][/QUOTE]

On mplayer/mencoder... I've found both to be extremely useful, but I have to admit, I am rather used to the command line I'm quite happy with it though... handles subtitles beautifully and does a rather nice job... I've been using VirtualDub under Windows, but definitely prefer this...

If you go with mencoder I'd also reccommend the two pass encodings with either mpeg4 or xvid...

bitrate=2000

mencoder -cache 8192 -ofps 23.976 \ # cache loading from DVD and drop FPS to 23.976
-vf pp=lb \ # deinterlace by blending frames
-ovc lavc -lavcopts vcodec=mpeg4:autoaspect:vbitrate=$bitrate:vpass=1 \
-oac mp3lame -lameopts cbr:br=160 -af volnorm \
dvd://1 -o pass1.avi

and extra options for subtitles if you need them...

-aid 129 # Choose audio track... mplayer -v dvd://1 to find possible tracks in the output
-sid 0 # Subtitle ID 0
-ifo vts_01_0.ifo # ifo file for subtitle info/font

When that's done, run the exact same command, except change vpass=1 to vpass=2, and your output (-o) to something else...


-oac ...... can also just be replaced by -oac copy if you want the AC3 info instead of reencoding it...


Toss me an email if you're interested and I'll send you some scripts I've been using along with help on using it... also how to configure mplayer in the first place to use mp3lame, xvid and subtitles...

-Tim
timothy.renner@gmail.com

Check out k9copy, it is great.