Has anyone used k9copy to rip a DVD?

I've been trying various pieces of software over this last
weekend and nothing, for Linux, really seems to work.

Today I've been trying to copy 4 "chapters" out of 20 off
a DVD. I've read the k9 handbook and followed the instructions step by step, but once I start the copy it just sits there. Doesn't do a thing. Just sits there.
When I finally click on "stop" it says, "authoring canceled". Cancel what? It wasn't doing anything.


Tried running DVDShrink using crossover, but it crashes.
Yes, I know about the nero burn option. Tried running DVDShrink in XP and it crashes at exactly the same spot.

Tried dvd::rip, acidwhatever, and a couple of others and none of them work.

Found a windows based program that worked very well with crossover, but as it was a demo, it put a watermark in the middle of the image.

VLC will let you copy chapters to mepg2 files, but the quality is not very good.

ManDVD did a nice job of making menus and creating the DVD with the VLC mpeg2 files.

Regardless of what the author(s) say, you canNot rip a DVD with K3b.

Anyone know of a Good ripper what Works with Slackware 12?
Many Thanks.

Perhaps you are missing some dependencies? Did you install dvdauthor, libdvdcss and dvdread? I think k3b might need transcode also. Where did you get your copy of k9copy? Try the one from slackbuilds.org (don't forget to read about/install the dependencies).

k3b works fine for me to copy/backup a dvd. k9copy I use to shrink DL dvd's to single layer, but can also rip. mplayer/mencoder works well to convert dvd titles to, eg. mpeg format. There are in fact many tools which will work for you. The fact that none of the ones you have tried works suggests missing dependencies, as all these tools rely on the same underlying software.

Brian

Thank you for your reply, but no, I'm not missing any dependencies. I went right down the list and checked them off as I went.
At one point I thought the trouble might have had something to do with the ATi video driver as it doesn't behave well with a few programs, so I installed the generic video driver. It didn't make a bit of difference (other than slow things down a bit).
K3b does an excellent job as a CD/DVD burner, but it is also billed as a DVD ripper, and that it is not.
Thx, again.

Your video driver has nothing to do with it. You can rip from the command line if necessary, whithout going into X.

Since k3b and the other tools you mention work for many of us, perhaps you could post the error messages you receive when trying to rip. Also, are you trying to backup, ie. maintain the dvd format, or change the format?

Brian

Maybe I have the terms mixed up?
To "rip" means to me, to take pieces, in this case chapters, off a DVD and copy them to another DVD.
What I'm trying to do is take 4 "chapters" off of one DVD and 10 off another and burn all 14 to one DVD. I'm not interested in changing the format or compressing the data, I just want to put them together on one DVD disk.

K3b will let you copy the .vob files, but there is nothing I can find in K3b that allows me to open those .vob files and subtract the individual mpeg2 files I want. Nor is there anything I can find in K3b that will take the mpeg2 files I "ripped" using VLC and put them back into a .vob file, so they can be read by a DVD player, before burning the new DVD.

No error messages are issue. It is just not possible to do with K3b.

No error message from k9copy. It just sits there and does nothing until I tell it to stop doing nothing.


To bad DVDShrink crashes and burns as it is the best I've seen so far. It would be worth booting to windoze just to run it, but it crashes at the same point in XP as it does when running in CrossOver and I've tried two different versions of DVDShrink. You can even edit chapters you pull out off of the DVD before telling it to re-author. Unfortunately, it is at the point I have made my selections and edits, that it crashes when I click on OK.
I went so far to have a friend in Europe e-mail a copy of DVDShrink that he says works on his XP box. Doesn't work on mine.
Oh, well, I'll keep on trying as time permits.
Thanks.

I have used k9copy successfully in slack 10.something to 12.0
It works but it is not the most intuitive creature and you have to have you configuration settings correct. It may not tell you why it's not working. I also use dvdbackup for ripping complete features

As far as chapters are concerned. I never have and don't remember whether or not k9copy will rip/copy discreet chapters. AFAIK chapters are "bookmarks" and not physical sections of a .vob. It may not be very neat chopping on a chapter.

I spend more of my time copying digital TV movies I've recorded onto dvd's and use gopdit to edit out or copy what I want from an entire broadcast. It will work on vobs just fine.

Ripping is a term which is used in general to mean getting audio and video data off of cds or dvds. k3b can do this, but not the selective ripping that you want to do.

Okay, k9copy will work to do the first part of what you want, ie. select specific chapters and create a dvd iso image of just those chapters, which you can then burn to a dvd. Why this is not working for you is odd, so I ask again how did you install k9copy? I just installed k9copy and dependencies from slackbuilds.org on my Slack 12 computer and was able to rip a few Chapters from a dvd and create a new iso image in dvd format. Must be some install or config problem for you.

The other part of what you want to do, combine chapters from one dvd with chapters from another dvd and create a single dvd from the result is less straight-forward. I think you will need to rip the chapters to mpeg and then regenerate the dvd format version. k9copy can rip the individual chapters to mpegs and dvdauthor can create the new dvd format from the pieces. BTW, most dvd players today can play the mpeg format directly, so depending on your needs you may be able to get away with just keeping the mpeg format and burning them to dvd rather than generating the dvd format (vobs).

Brian

dvdshrink / dvd decrypter + WINE

OK, uninstalled the k9copy package, from, I think, Slacky, downloaded k9copy.SlackBuild, ran it and installed it. Result? Same as before. I pick the chapters I want off of the original DVD, tell it to either copy or encode and it brings up a box to indicate it is going to do it, then does nothing.

OK, that can be all done with ManDVD, which does a very nice job of it, BTW.
Thanks, again for all your help.

Do you get any messages if you run it from cli? What are you using for output device?

Brian

You could also try ripping with mplayer like this:

Adding one or more -v switches should give you a lot of output to see what is/isn't happening.

Brian

Have you gone to k9copy > Settings > Configure k9copy and set anything? For starters it will not do anything if you have not nominated an output directory.

As for joining together the sections you ripped plus others. If they are all the same format (mpeg-ps) and they should be you can put them all together with cat *.vobs > [somename].mpg if they are numbered sequentially in the order you want. I might check audio sync just to be sure then re-encode the newly created mpg with mencoder to be sure it is formatted correctly the entire length and there are no "bumps" where the sections have been joined.

After that I would make up a dvd.xml with 5 min chapter breaks and use dvdauthor to process everything into correct file format and vobs after which mkisofs and growisofs to create the iso and burn it. I've automated most of this with scripts including shrinking if necessary. This method has been fool proof for me

If I want to be fussy about where the chapter breaks were or wanted a menu I'd use qdvdauthor which I've had most success with and seems to get better each release after re-encoding with mencoder.

There are other ways to be sure but perhaps this will provide some useful info.

No. It fires right up with no error messages.
I've noticed that the chapters I pick are not moved to the selection box on the right of the screen. Should they be?
The output device defaults to an iso file.
Thx.

In Settings > DVD there is an option to clear the output directory. Don't tic it and the output directory will remain with all dvd file structure after ripping and creating an iso. Whatever video that has been ripped and processed will be in there.

Mine just shows the Title, not the Chapters.

So when you click on the DVD icon (copy), does it prompt you for a location/filename?

Brian