Transcoding optical media in Linux

Obstacle Course

Linux has never been the first choice with multimedia users, although the free operating system offers various software for multimedia applications, including tools for collectors of video DVDs and Blu-ray discs that allow you to back up your media to mass storage devices. Backing up is recommended, because optical data carriers do not age well, and mechanical effects such as scratches or cracks can damage discs and even make them unreadable.

In this article, I look at the HandBrake and MakeMKV tools for transcoding optical video discs. (See the "Not Considered" box.)

Not Considered

Under Linux, no other programs besides those discussed here support the transcoding of Blu-ray media. The dvd::rip [2] program is still around for converting video DVDs, but no one has developed it since 2010. The last major update of OGMRip [3], which was developed for the Gnome desktop, also dates from 2015. The Thoggen [4] DVD transcoder is still available for download but has not seen any updates since 2009.

Legal

If you want to play back self-mastered Blu-ray discs or convert them into other formats, you usually won't run into any problems. Often however, commercial discs will not play on just any old device because of integrated copy protection that restricts the reproduction of commercial optical media on computer systems. Fair Use (US) and Fair Dealing (UK) laws have allowed some form of copying, although the courts have retracted these allowances before under the influence of lobbyists [1]. In the US, ripping copyrighted works is not legal, except in

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