[mythtv-users] Newbie questions: a digital DVD library

[Matt Emmott]

On Thu, Feb 12, 2009 at 2:13 PM, gonzalo diethelm <gdiethelm at dcv.cl> wrote:

> Hullo everyone, first poster here. I have now subscribed to the list,
> hopefully this post will make it.
>
> I recently configured a box as a backend and frontend for MythTV, to
> experiment how I could go about building a digital library which will
> include all my (original) DVDs; TV recording is out (for now). To do my
> testing I used a MythBuntu CD.
>
> My plan is to rip the DVDs on a Windows machine using DVDfab HD
> Decrypter (version 5.2.3.2), since I believe this is the easiest way to
> ensure that I end up with non-protected DVD files that include exactly
> the sound tracks and subtitle tracks I want, with defaults defined
> according to my needs. Then I will import these movies into MythTV,
> probably doing some tests as to whether I will transcode them or not (I
> probably will due to space reasons).
>
> I think I have gotten the hang of how things work, but I have some
> things I have not been able to make work, and some additional questions.
>
> 1. How do I import a DVD movie that is stored on a directory in my file
> system, with the typical VIDEO_TS (and empty AUDIO_TS) subdirectories,
> into MythTV? I tried going to the Archive Files (whatever the option is
> called), which allows me to navigate the file system, but when I
> navigate to my ripped DVD directory it doesn't show any files at all and
> I can take no meaningful action to start the import... Is it possible to
> import DVD movies that have been pre-ripped to the file system?
>

A quick note on DVD ripping - I rip all my DVDs as single ISO files. It
makes life much easier when importing / moving files around. I use XBMC for
playback as I'm not too happy with MythDVD's UI butthat's another discussion
that's been covered heavily already :-) . DVDfab works well for me, you may
also want to look into DVD Shrink, Ripit4me and DVD decrypter, all free. If
a movie won't rip for me in one, usually it will work in another. It's
getting tougher these days, I still have been unable to rip my copy of The
Dark Knight and may have to resort to other-methods-that-won't-be-named-here
to obtain a digital copy.
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