This python script uses lsdvd and HandBrakeCLI to automate the process of ripping DVDs. Without any options it will scan the DVD for the longest video track ("title" in DVD language) and rip it at full resolution using h264 and include all of the audio and subtitle tracks. The output will be a mkv file, with the filename derived from the title of the DVD which comes from the DVD's metadata. Since the title provided is only useful half the time at best the script asks for confirmation.
The default audio track is the first English track found. If a different language is preferred (you don't want a crappy English dub on a foreign film) change the preferred language with --alang. When the default language is not English the first English subtitle track is enabled by default. The preferred subtitle language can be changed with --slang. Note that currently audio is "downmixed" to Dolby Pro Logic II and re-encoded (HandBrake's default). Since many DVDs include several surround formats the current situation winds up with several nearly identical audio tracks. In the future I may figure out a good way to guess which tracks are duplicates and which are legitimately different such as an unlabeled commentary track.
At the end of the rip the file gets run through mkvmerge to make sure the default tracks are selected properly and adds metadata tags with the title. (Not many apps actually use mkv metadata but it makes me feel better about myself.)
Note that the last release of HandBrake doesn't have packages available for recent distributions but svn snapshot builds are provided and work just fine as of this writing.
On Ubuntu:: add-apt-repository ppa:stebbins/handbrake-snapshots apt-get update apt-get install handbrake-cli lsdvd mkvtoolnix
Sometimes lsdvd and HandBrake disagree on the number of audio tracks. Recent versions of HandBrakeCLI have a --scan option which could be useful for replacing most or all of lsdvd's use, I'll do it some day. As a work around specify the correct audio tracks with -A.
HandBrake has a feature to scan the DVD for subtitles that should be enabled by default for brief foreign language segments. However so far I have only found one DVD that had a track the scan enabled and even then it didn't seem to do the right thing. The code is still there but disabled. Are there DVDs that this feature actually works for?
In reality a lot of what this script does should actually be in HandBrakeCLI instead. Again, I'll do it some day.
Duplicate audio tracks should be removed. The others should be identified in mkv's metadata. Many but not all DVDs are good about tagging which audio tracks are Director's Commentary.
Go full automagic::
ripSet the title::
rip --title "This awesome movie"Choose only a few chapters::
rip --chapters 1-5Switch default audio to French (--slang en is the default so English subtitles will turn on)::
rip --alang frChoose your own audio and subtitle tracks::
rip --audio 1,4 --subtitles 1,2