Ripping DVDs on Ubuntu Linux

Ubuntu contains a number of DVD backup applications (aka "DVD rippers"). To rip encrypted DVDs, you must install libdvdcss2 the same as you would to play encrypted DVDs (see Playing DVDs).

Ubuntu 12.04 up to 15.04:

sudo apt-get install libdvdread4
sudo /usr/share/doc/libdvdread4/install-css.sh

Sadly, Ubuntu recommends you reboot (lame).

Libdvdcss2 may not be enough for playing DVDs produced by Warner Bros (they have a JACKET_P folder as well as a txtdt file). It would require libudf to be installed on the system.

This list of Utilities is a fork of the information found on the Ubuntu Community page RestrictedFormats/RippingDVDs omitting anything requiring windows emulation and the addition of software discovered independently. Also, utilities are reviewed when possible.

The reality is that under Ubuntu you cannot rip anything. Recently some new copy protection schemes are being used that there is no current Linux DVD utility to decode and rip. Copy protection schemes such as ARccOS or RipGuard cannot currently be ripped on your Ubuntu Linux system.

There are several different utilities targeted at ripping DVDs:

Thoggen (universe)

Rips DVDs and encodes them into Ogg files with Theora video and Vorbis audio.

AcidRip (multiverse)

sudo apt-get install acidrip

AcidRip DVD Ripper rips DVDs and encodes them. Remember to change /dev/dvd to /dev/cdrom. One click ripping and encoding.

AcidRip is an automated front end for MPlayer/Mencoder (ripping and encoding DVD tool using mplayer and mencoder) written in Perl, using Gtk2::Perl for a graphical interface.

k9copy (universe)

k9copy is a Qt based app that will make an exact copy of a DVD as an ISO file or as the normal DVD folder structure on the destination drive. It can also shrink and/or encode your DVDs to different formats such as AVI/MPEG-4, MPEG-2, Flash Video (FLV), Real Video and QuickTime.

dvd::rip (multiverse)

A DVD ripper that can also encode the ripped DVD to VCD/SVCD or AVI/MPEG-4 and split the file into 700MB chunks on the destination drive.

ogmrip (multiverse)

An application for ripping and encoding DVD into AVI, OGM, MP4 or Matroska files using lots of audio and video formats (Vorbis, MP3, PCM, AC3, DTS, AAC, MPEG-4 ASP, MPEG-4 AVC, Theora). OGMRrip calculates cropping parameters and scaling factors and supports multiple audio and subtitles streams encoding.

HandBrake (third party)

HandBrake is a DVD to MPEG-4 converter. An i386 and amd64 binary is provided on the HandBrake website for Linux users. HandBrake for Linux supports encoding in MPEG-4, including H.264.

Handbrake on Linux was voted the best DVD ripping utility by this weekly poll in 2010.