A very good mencoder command-line to rip a DVD in very good quality.

This long one-liner will rip a DVD in very good quality to an AVI file. ┌──[[email protected]]─[~] └──╼ ╼ $ mencoder -passlogfile 2passlog.log -oac mp3lame -lameopts vbr=3 -ovc xvid -xvidencopts bitrate=1400:me_quality=6:chroma_me=1:nointerlacing:max_bframes=1:noqpel:hq_ac:trellis:quant_type=mpeg:chroma_opt:bvhq=1:vhq=4:autoaspect:pass=1:turbo -aid 128 -ofps 23.976 dvd:// -o evil_dead_movie.avi┌──[[email protected]]─[~] └──╼ ╼ $ mencoder -passlogfile 2passlog.log -oac mp3lame -lameopts vbr=3 -ovc xvid -xvidencopts bitrate=1400:me_quality=6:chroma_me=1:nointerlacing:max_bframes=1:noqpel:hq_ac:trellis:quant_type=mpeg:chroma_opt:bvhq=1:vhq=4:autoaspect:pass=1:turbo -aid 128 -ofps 23.976 … Read more

How to get DVD playback working on Ubuntu. This is very easy.

To get DVD playback working on Ubuntu, the libdvdcss library is required. This is easily installed and necessary to decode a DVD properly for playback. Install this package to prepare for installation. This also allows automated updates to the library. 4.4 Sat Feb 29 jason@Yog-Sothoth 1: $ sudo apt install libdvd-pkg4.4 Sat Feb 29 jason@Yog-Sothoth … Read more

How to play a DVD on Fedora 25 with libdvdcss.

How to enable encrypted DVD playback on Fedora 25 Playing a DVD on Fedora 25 is not too difficult. I already had the extra repositories added to enable multimedia playback support, but I could not play a DVD. So I downloaded the libdvdcss library. http://download.videolan.org/pub/libdvdcss/1.4.0/. Then I built and installed it. darkstar% tar -xvf libdvdcss-1.4.0.tar.bz2darkstar% … Read more

Play a DVD with Smplayer on Ubuntu 16.04.

To play a DVD on Ubuntu 16.04, you will need to install the Libdvdcss library to enable encrypted DVD playback. This is very simple. Firstly, download the required library: https://download.videolan.org/libdvdcss/1.2.12/libdvdcss-1.2.12.tar.bz2. Then move to the Downloads directory and extract the tarball. jason@jason-desktop:~$ tar -xvf libdvdcss-1.2.12.tar.bz2jason@jason-desktop:~$ tar -xvf libdvdcss-1.2.12.tar.bz2 Then move to the directory to compile the … Read more

How to install libdvdcss on Fedora 20 to enable DVD playback.

The libdvdcss library is used to playback encrypted DVD disks on a Linux operating system. Download the tarball here: http://www.linuxfromscratch.org/blfs/view/svn/multimedia/libdvdcss.html. Then we need to unpack the tarball. [homer@localhost libdvdcss-1.2.13]$ tar -xvf libdvdcss-1.2.13.tar.bz2[homer@localhost libdvdcss-1.2.13]$ tar -xvf libdvdcss-1.2.13.tar.bz2 Then enter the directory. [homer@localhost libdvdcss-1.2.13]$ cd libdvdcss-1.2.13/[homer@localhost libdvdcss-1.2.13]$ cd libdvdcss-1.2.13/ Then begin the compilation process. [homer@localhost libdvdcss-1.2.13]$ ./configure … Read more

New optical technology will allow storage of one Petabyte on a single DVD.

New technology that will revolutionize data storage has been developed. This allows the storage of one Petabyte or 1,000 Terabytes of data on one DVD disk. This is far more than the 50 GiB that a standard dual-layer Blueray disk can fit. This would mean that you could put an 8K resolution movie on a … Read more

Re-installing the GRUB2 bootloader using a chroot with Linux Mint 14.

The Microsoft Surface tablet due to the implementation of the UEFI Secure Boot is not being very cooperative in terms of allowing the installation of Linux. This could be a very good portable tablet for running Linux on the move but if you can not overcome the limitations of the Secure Boot system then Linux … Read more

How to rip a DVD on Ubuntu 12.10 Quantal Quetzal. The Acid::Rip application explained.

I was trying to install the Handbrake application on Ubuntu to rip a couple of DVDs and I had no luck as the dependencies were broken. So I installed the Acid::Rip package instead and that gave me a nice front-end to the mencoder DVD ripping and transcoding application. All you need to do is set … Read more

Quick Linux primer, some useful commands to get started with Linux Mint 13.

If you are just getting started with Linux, then this will be helpful. If you are moving from an Ubuntu installation to a Linux Mint one, then you will need to download an ISO image from here: http://www.linuxmint.com/download.php/ then burn it to a DVD. The command below will use the wodim command to burn the … Read more

Fedora 17 Linux distribution available for download. How to add non-free codecs and MP3 support.

The Fedora 17 Linux distribution has been released with Gnome Shell 3.4.1, Gimp 2.8 and software rendering available for the Gnome Shell desktop, negating the need for the Gnome Shell fall-back desktop if your hardware does not offer proper hardware rendering for the Gnome desktop. Various non-free codecs such as MP3 support, Adobe flash and … Read more