MPlayer and MEncoder are amazing tools not only for watching but also for backing up DVD content. This HOWTO demonstrates how to create a very high quality rip with next generation video (H.264/x264/MPEG-4 AVC) serveral audio tracks (Vorbis in this case, can be other formats like AC3, MP3) and subtiles (vobsubs) in a Matroska container. In order to install the necessary applications you will need the multiverse repository (https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Repositories/Ubuntu).

1. Install needed applications

2. Rip DVD to harddisk

• 1 is the stream you want to rip.

3. Rip subtitles

• 1 is the stream we extract the subs from
• slang is the desired language (en, de, fr, etc.)
• title is the basename of the vobsub files, in this case title.idx and title.sub

4. Convert audio to PCM

In case you want to keep the original AC3 audio step forward to 6.1!

• title.vob is the stream we already ripped in step 2
• audio1.wav is the name of the resulting PCM file
• -aid 128 chooses the first audio track

If you would like to rip another audio track (e.g. commentary or different language) repeat the above with the next track number (-aid 129 would be the second track) and save as audio2.wav.

5. Normalize audio

Repeat on audio2.wav etc. if you have more than one audio track.

6. Convert audio into Ogg Vorbis

• -q5 is the desired quality of the first track. Wikipedia: Many users feel that Vorbis reaches transparency (sound quality that is indistinguishable from the original source recording) at a quality setting of -q5, approximately 160 kbit/s. Additional audio tracks can be encoded accordingly with lesser quality in order to save disc space.

6.1 Keep original Dolby Digital AC3 audio

In case you do not want to compress audio but keep the original AC3 track simply extract it from the VOB with

7. Encode video

This example uses the two-pass-method and presumes progressive PAL video. Read here how to deal with telecined, interlaced and NTSC video.

First, we have to get rid of black borders around the movie. Hence we playback the file with the cropdetect filter.

Move a little forward in the movie using the arrow-up key and let MPlayer find the correct settings for you. If you are finished quit MPlayer and copy the part -vf crop=720:432:0:76 from the console. Of course your values might differ from this example.

Now create a file which runs the first and second pass consecutively.

Paste the following into that file and adjust the cropping values with the ones you got from the procedure above

Since MEncoder is not able to save directly into Matroska containers we encode the video in raw format convert it later into .mp4 and finally mux everything (video, audio, subtitles) together with mkvmerge. Interested in what all those options mean? If everything fits your needs save videnc.

Encoding of MPEG-4 AVC video is a time consuming matter. On my AMD Athlon64 3000+ a 90 minute movie takes about 3 hours for the first and again about 5 hours for the second pass. Best is to let your machine work over night while you sleep.

Run videnc

8. Mux video into MP4 container

Good morning! ;)

If encoding went fine we are ready to put that x264 file into an MP4 container

You can already verify the result by playing it in MPlayer.

9. Muxing it all together

Start up the MKV files creator

and simply drag & drop your files into the Input files box

• title.mp4
• audio1.ogg
• audio2.ogg
• title.idx (not title.sub!)

You might have noticed that we did not scale the video during the encoding process. That is because Matroska handles the aspect ratio itself. Simply define the languages and track names in the Tracks box and choose the correct aspect ratio. Choose an output filename (the default would produce title.mkv) and hit Start muxing.

Changelog:

• 9. Oct 2006 – fixed encoding parameters
• 9. Oct 2006 – added telecined, interlaced, NTSC

Todo:

• Encode to a certain file size