1.3.3 doesn't access DVDs?

[az2020]

I've been using Handbrake 1.3.0. It detects the attached DVD drive, and displays /dev/sr0 in the file pulldown menu. (If I click that, it populates the chapters tab with the contents of the DVD).

I thought I would try 1.3.3 because I read it might have gpu support (I have an AMD Vega 8, mesa driver. Obs-studio detects it & gives me a VAAPI MPEG encoder which makes a big difference there.). I installed the flatpack. Didn't see any new encoders suggesting detection of my GPU.

But, I noticed that 1.3.3 didn't recognize the DVD drive. When I used "source" to try to access, I got a permission denied. (When I navigated to /dev to try to access it as sr0, it doesn't appear in the navigator even though the file manager shows sr0 is present in that directory).

I saw another post about DVDs. The answer suggested Handbrake no longer works that way? It wasn't clear, and I wanted to ask again. (I googled and didn't see any big news about that. It seems like it would be big news because Handbrake has been widely recommended in the past to encode straight from DVD.).

Thanks in advance. (If it's still supposed to work, I can provide more details about hardware & OS, etc.).

[mduell]

HB hasn't supported commercial DVDs for more than a decade, and poorly authored personal DVDs rarely work well.

Rip disks with something intended for that purpose, like MakeMKV.

[Woodstock]

Also, the flatpak version is "sandboxed", and you have to give it permission to access optical disks. This is a limitation on most package managers.

Even if you enable access, though, it will still have the limitation of not being able to remove encryption from a commercial disk, as mentioned above.

[JohnAStebbins]

DVD decryption has always required an external library that HandBrake does not supply, but is available in many linux distributions. The flatpak version of HandBrake does not include this library, and there is currently no flatpak plugin that provides it.

As mduell points out, we recommend pre-ripping with MakeMKV. MakeMKV is purpose built for ripping (HandBrake is not). And it's available as a flatpak on flathub.

[az2020]

John, Mduell: thank you! I didn't realize flatpack had this sandbox thing. I found "flatseal" in MX Linux's Package Installer>Flatpack repository. I installed that & enabled some things for the Handbrake flatpack. Then I was able to choose /dev/sr0 as a source. The dvd drive spun for awhile as ghb searched for titles. No titles though (maybe the 3rd party library is blocked by flatpak. There were two flatseal "library" sliders that I couldn't enable, saying not supported by that flatpack. Maybe they would have given access to the libdvd [whatever it is].

1.3.0 works great. MX Linux has a "Install Codecs" tool in its MX Tools menu. (Obviously, this depends on each person's jurisdiction. For my purpose, it's allowed. The installer displays a warning.). That was all I had to do with 1.3.0. The reencoded (from DVD) worked great. Maybe 1.3.3 would if it were available on MX to install as a normal package (not a flatpack). I'll pursue that with them. MX emphasizes stability. It takes awhile for new versions to make it into their repro. (Installing things from ppa is robustly discouraged.).

But, I'm definitely going to look at MakeMKV. I've read of people using dbPowerAmp in WINE. I definitely respect you guys saying Handbrake's center of excellence isn't in this area (even if it does seem to work great). I'm getting into this (from googling "how to" articles). I'll look at rip-specific tools.

[JohnAStebbins]

MakeMKV is a good tool to get to know if you plan to create a personal video library. It handles DVD, BD, and even UHD BD (if you have the right drive and firmware updates).

[az2020]

I started to shudder when I found MakeMKV (needs to be compiled.). But, since MX Linux's package installer has a large collection of flatpaks, I looked there. I found it. (Then I worried the flatpak sandbox would be a problem again like it was with Handbrake).

It worked great!. The fob file on the disk is about 900mb. The rip is 860mb. Very fast (I would be sitting here for an hour using Handbrake 1.3.0. I thought even that was great. I was just happy to have something that worked. But, after seeing MakeMKV, that's definitely much simpler/faster to get what I wanted. I was overwhelmed by all of Handbrake's settings, not knowing what's a good balance. MakeMKV seems like a straightforward way to get there.).

Thanks!

[JohnAStebbins]

HandBrake is a transcoder. If you want the output smaller, different resolution, or with a different video or audio codec, you would use HandBrake. If you simply want a copy of the disc, MakeMKV does that better.

[az2020]

HandBrake is a transcoder. If you want the output smaller, different resolution, or with a different video or audio codec, you would use HandBrake. If you simply want a copy of the disc, MakeMKV does that better.

I agree and understand. I didn't mean to disparage Handbrake by comparing how long its rips took compared to MakeMKV. Like you said, it's two different things. I can get the rip fast from MakeMKV, then use that output more easily/quickly to do Handbrake's more intensive work. That will be faster/easier than experimenting with Handbrake directly from the DVD. (The "searching for start time" was burdensom when I all I wanted to do was compare RF=20 vs 22.).

I totally get it now. Separation of duties.

[az2020]

The fob file on the disk is about 900mb. The rip is 860mb.

I wanted to clarify one thing. I was happy they were almost the same size (without having to think about quality settings). But, they're more the same than I said above. I was mixing mb and mib (megabyte, mebibyte. About a 1/2% difference)). MX Linux's file manager shows the fob on DVD being 878.5 mib. The resulting ripped file (in file manager) is 860.3 mib.

I think MakeMKV reported the file on disk in mb, and I rounded that up. I just wanted to clarify that it's not that much different from the DVD to MakeMKV's output. Less than 1% difference.

[JohnAStebbins]

The only differences in size will be metadata related. The actual media streams are copied bit-for-bit by MakeMKV.

[mduell]

In MakeMKV you can also select streams, so it may not have all the audio/subtitle streams depending on your MakeMKV settings.

[oscoder47]

It's a year on but I ran into this problem after upgrading from non-flatpack 1.3 to flatpack 1.5.1. It does not read DVDs correctly. I used MakeMKV to rip and then handbrake to compress and that works, but is there a way to automate this so that the intermediate mkv file is not needed? On top of wanting to have a one-step process to set and forget, it would also be nice to avoid the hard disc writes for a file that will be ultimately deleted after the compressed version is created.

[mduell]

Nope.

The disk writes are trivial.