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dvd_info

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Steve Dibb edited this page Mar 16, 2022 · 16 revisions

The dvd_info program will display DVD content in human-readable, JSON, or OGM chapter formats.

dvd_info can display summary information about a track, and additionally include more details about the audio streams, the video stream, the chapters, the subtitles, and the cells. It began as a clone of lsdvd, and has since added many features.

By default, dvd_info will display information about all the tracks. This can be overriden with the -t or --track option.

See also man dvd_info

Table of Contents

Usage 

Usage: dvd_info [path] [options]

Options:
  -t, --track <number>  Limit to selected track (default: all tracks)
  -j, --json            Display output in JSON format

Detailed information:
  -v, --video           Display video streams
  -a, --audio           Display audio streams
  -s, --subtitles       Display VobSub subtitles
  -c, --chapters        Display chapters
  -d, --cells           Display cells
  -x, --all             Display all

Narrow results:
  -l, --longest		Track with the longest length
  -A, --has-audio       Track has audio streams
  -S, --has-subtitles   Track has VobSub subtitles
  -E, --seconds <secs>  Track has minimum number of seconds
  -M, --minutes <mins>  Track has minimum number of minutes
  -T, --vts <number>    Track is in video title set number
  -L, --valid		Track is marked as valid

Other:
  -i, --id		Display DVD ID only
  -u, --volume		Display DVD UDF volume name only (for ISO or disc)
  -g, --xchap           Display title's chapter format for mkvmerge
  -h, --help            Display these help options
      --version         Display version

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

Track

You can specify the DVD track to view information about using -t # or --track # argument.

By default, all tracks are displayed.

You can display only the longest track by using -l or --longest. Note that if there are two tracks of the same length, it will display the first one with that length.

JSON

dvd_info can print disc information in JSON, for programming languages to use. Use -j or --json as an option.

Matroska Chapters

The ogmtools package includes a program called dvdxchap which will output a list of chapters in a format that can then be used by mkvmerge simple chapter format.

dvd_info provides the same functionality, when the --xchap argument is passed. By default, dvd_info will display the longest track, and the track number can be overriden using the --track argument.

Sample output: 

CHAPTER01=00:00:00.000
CHAPTER01NAME=Chapter 01
CHAPTER02=00:21:34.534
CHAPTER02NAME=Chapter 02
CHAPTER03=00:42:02.234
CHAPTER03NAME=Chapter 03
CHAPTER04=01:03:22.234
CHAPTER04NAME=Chapter 04
CHAPTER05=01:24:04.234
CHAPTER05NAME=Chapter 05
CHAPTER06=01:44:49.234
CHAPTER06NAME=Chapter 06

You can then use mkvmerge to import it: 

mkvmerge -o dvd_video.mkv --chapters chapters.txt dvd_video.mpg

Other Outputs

For shell scripting, dvd_info has two outputs that may be helpful.

Using --id will echo a 32-bit MD5 hash of the IFO and BUP files. This should be a unique enough identifier to keep track of individual discs. 

$ dvd_info --id
22c994ce893d541929117817002846ef

Using --volume will display the UDF volume name. Note that this will only work on a complete filesystem, so either the disc directly or an image of the disc. A lot of volume titles will be similar, so it's not recommended to use this as a unique identifier. 

$ dvd_info --volume
TEENAGE_MUTANT_NINJA_TURTLES
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