I have been using Handbrake for a few years and never had a problem until now. I have a box set of Back to the Future. It refused to RIP the first disk in the series no problem with the others. The disk is in perfect condition and plays through on VLC without a hitch. Has anyone got any ideas?

OS Linux Mint 19
Handbrake version 1.2.1
Dependency,libdvdcss2 version 1.4.2-dmo1 is up to date.

Any ideas?
Thanks.

LQ kind of frowns on doing tasks that may infringe on copy protected content.

I have had to open with vlc before to get handbrake to work. Wonder if VLC can rip a disc?

My understanding is that as I have bought the disks if I copy to HDD to read on the machine without an optical drive. As long as the file is not passed on that should be OK according to Handbrake docs. I can't see anything in VLC.
The only time I had a problem was with a set of "Dads Army" but this was due to deterioration as playback was rough. I ended up buying a new set. This one plays back and the disk looks perfect.
Thanks for your help.

hey bob...

i mean, there are only so many things it can be. the most common one is a failure of the disc. now, since you said it plays, that might not exclude this issue. i have had an issue where the stream on the disc is degraded (i dont know how or if that is the best explanation of what is going on but...) when a ripper copies it for backing-up onto my hard drive, it will still read but the screen will turn green because the copy did not get enough information from the disc. if that failure were at the beginning, this might cause that issue.

i have also had the issue where i cant copy a disc for backing-up purposes because the disc is just bad. maybe it got too close to a magnetic source, i dont know....whatever. in this case i have returned a copy of this disc and gotten a new one and it worked. now i have never tried to play a disc in a player but...i think playback is a easier process than copying because i think they need a constant flow of information and if that is broken, it can fail. so if the stream is degraded a bit it fills in with a green screen but if it is too much, it fails.

at any rate, in the years i have been backing-up my discs, it is rare that this ever happens but it does. i would suggest this advice...

#1 - get a better copier for backing-up purposes. while I LOVE TO DEATH handbrake and would gladly crawl across broken glass to shake the hands of the programmers that designed it, there are better rippers i have found. i am not for certain but makemkv probably does handle dvds too.

#2 - always have a back-up backing-up program for backing-up your discs. dvd::rip is an excellent, EXCELLENT one i have used for years and years in linux. that used to be my main one for a long, long, long time.

if you want to keep handbrake as your primary copier for backing-up purposes, that is cool. i use that to convert my copies for backing-up purposes into more convenient forms but find a back-up as well. if both fail then i would say it is almost certain the disc itself...and that is not that uncommon. personally, i copy my discs to my hard drive for backing-up purposes with dvdfab (only on windows) and use handbrake to convert it into a more storable format. that, eac and gaming are the only reason i use windope these days. in the years and years of experience from gordian knot to autogtk to dvd::rip...i have found that it (dvdfab) and redfox are simply the best and worth the money to buy.

there is no good test to see what is going on. you just have to kind of play it by ear and see what is up...

hope that helps!

Bob

You could try mplayer -dumpstream dvd://1 -nocache -noidx -dumpfile /path/to/movie/dump.mpg. BTW that dvd://1 is title 1 change to fit yours. Then encode the mpg.

I've had very rare success with just Handbrake. Try getting the mkv with MakeMKV. Then compress with Handbrake as needed? The only discs I've had that failed that combo were either too scratched up, or didn't play right in the first place (mastering errors or other stuff out of my understanding)

baldur-1, Thank you for a comprehensive reply. I will attempt to rip with one of your other suggestions. If the worst comes I will be on the lookout for a single disk of "Back to the Future" I don't want to buy the whole set.

jmgibson1981 That's interesting as I have had a good experience with Handbrake perhaps I have been lucky in that respect.

Thanks, everyone for your help. I will post later on my success or otherwise.

Bob...

I would agree 100% with the comments above recommending MakeMKV, it's a great program.


Purely out of curiosity, were I in your situation, I would also try copying the DVD files directly to a hdd, changing the permissions if necessary and then trying to rip them with Handbrake. Just for the exercise :-)

I can also vouch for MakeMKV. It can often rip DVDs that use more than CSS for copy protection and that handbrake chokes on. Note that MakeMKV does not do any transcoding, so the .mkv files it produces will contain mpeg2 video streams. So you'll probably want to use handbrake to reduce the file size by transcoding the video to h.264 inside of .mkv or .mp4 containers.

If the DVD has some real damage that either cause gaps in the output from MakeMKV or that cause MakeMKV to choke, I will use (g)ddrescue to copy as much as possible into an iso image file, then dvdbackup to decrypt it.

if I remember well you can rip it with VLC too.

Well, the good news is that DVD::rip did it than everyone. I am not surprised at VLC it seems to do everything but there is too much there to work it out.