hpr-knowledge-base/hpr_transcripts/hpr1031.txt

Episode: 1031
Title: HPR1031: Backing up your dvd collection using mencoder
Source: https://hub.hackerpublicradio.org/ccdn.php?filename=/eps/hpr1031/hpr1031.mp3
Transcribed: 2025-10-17 17:40:27

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Bob here and in this episode I'm going to tell you how I back up my DVD collection to
my external hard drive.
The reason I do this is to keep my original DVDs in pristine shape and store it away for
safe keeping.
You know you can't scratch an avi file plus it saves space in the entertainment center
and I don't have to fumble around looking for a specific DVD movie to watch.
All I have to do is to go into my external drive which is hooked to my TV through USB
and just use my remote to quickly find the movie I want to watch.
So to do this you're going to need a computer with a DVD drive and a Linux installed of course
you have to have Linux to do this and then you need a program called Mencoder.
I know it's in all the package managers of all Linux distros.
If it's not in the package manager all you have to do is go to determine it and do
sudo apt-get install Mencoder.
So get it, install it and you're ready to start backing up.
So in this episode I want to copy the movie Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire to an
avi file.
So how am I going to do this?
Well, I put the movie in, movie player wants to start, wants to know if I want to start,
I hit cancel.
Then I go to the terminal and then what you're going to do is type in Mencoder, space DVD,
colon, forward slash, forward slash, one, space dash, AL, A, N, G, space, E, N, space, dash,
V, F, space, C, R, O, P equals 640, colon, 480, colon, 0, colon, 0, comma, SCALE equals
640, colon, 405, space, dash, OVC, space, X, V, I, D, space, dash, X, V, I, D, E, N,
C, O, P, T, S, space, B, V, H, Q equals 1, colon, C, H, R, O, M, A, underscore, O, P, T,
colon, Q, U, A, N, T, underscore, T, Y, P, E, equals M, P, E, G, colon, B, I, T, R, A, T, E,
equals 30, 0, 0, space, dash, O, A, C, space, MP, 3, L, A, M, E, space, dash, L, A, M, E,
O, P, T, A, S, space, B, R, E, equals 96, colon, C, B, R, colon, V, O, L, equals 6, space,
dash, O, dash, and the name of the movie, dot A, V, I, and then just hit enter.
And then Mencota should start to process it.
On a faster computer, it doesn't take very long.
This is a two hour and 15 minute length movie.
On my laptop, it takes about 36 minutes.
When it's done, I go to my home folder, and there I have it.
I have Harry Potter, and the Goblet of Fire, and it is 1.4 gigabytes.
This is an easy way to back up your DVD movies.
In the next episode, I'm going to talk about how to copy television shows with multiple
episodes on a DVD.
There's an easy way to do this using VLC to find out that the chapters and the episodes.
So if you like this, listen to the next episode.
Thank you very much.
I'm also going to include the Mencota code I just told you about in the show notes.
All you're going to have to do is copy and paste it to try it out yourself.
Just remember to take the Harry Potter AVI out and put your own AVI in there.
Thank you.
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