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dvd_backup

Steve Dibb edited this page Mar 7, 2022 · 6 revisions

Back up a DVD to the filesystem.

Table of Contents

Usage

dvd_backup [path] [options]

Options:
  -n, --name            Set DVD name
  -i, --ifos            Back up only the IFO and BUP files
  -T, --vts <number>    Back up video title set number (default: all)

DVD path can be a device name, a single file, or a directory

See also man dvd_backup

Source

The DVD source can be an optical disc in a drive, a device name, an image of the disc (ISO), or a directory. With no argument, it will use the operating system's default DVD device.

dvd_info
dvd_info /dev/sr1
dvd_info dvd_video.iso
dvd_info ~/Videos/DVD/
dvd_info D:\

DVD Name

By default, dvd_backup will create a directory with the UDF volume name as its main directory. You can get the volume name by running dvd_info --volume.

Override the directory using --name.

IFOs

If you only want to back up the DVD structure, and not the MPEG files (stored as .VOB), you can use --ifos. This is helpful if you want to share the disc information with someone, generally for debugging use.

Video Title Sets

A video title set is a group of tracks.

It is not uncommon for disc manufacturers to sometimes "poison" a DVD for backup by creating fake or duplicate video title sets (VTS). Doing so will make the DVD backup much larger than it should be (say 40 GB instead of 8). It's a tactic used to make ripping more inconvenient.

You can use dvd_info to find the tracks you want, which will display the VTS in its output, and then back up just that one.

As an example, let's say you used dvd_info to display information about track 3:

$ dvd_info -t 3
Track: 03, Length: 00:22:41.133, Chapters: 02, Cells: 03, Audio streams: 01, Subpictures: 00, Title set: 03, Filesize:   934 MBs

You can see that the title set is 3, so back up that title set.

$ dvd_copy -T 3
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