For the impatient: the short version …

For those that are impatient and more experienced, you can follow the following steps quickly.
For beginners I recommend to continue reading the following paragraphs which explain a little bit more about what’s happening.

 

  1. Install HandBrake.
  2. Install codecs and libdvdcss (see below).
  3. Start HandBrake.
  4. Insert DVD.
  5. Open the “Source” in HandBrake (the DVD).
  6. Select “Title“.
  7. Click preferred “Preset” – possibly fine tune settings
  8. Click “Start“.
  9. Drink a cup of coffee and eat a cookie – a.k.a. wait and pretend to be patient.
  10. Done.

Tools we need to Rip a DVD

When using HandBrake, we have all we need in one application, for proper working though we need a few extras, libdvdcss being one of them (to decrypt a DVD).

Downloads

Most Linux distributions, like Ubuntu, come with some sorts of package management tool, where APT is probably one of the most popular ones. To install HandBrake for Ubuntu (11+) open a shell and type:



sudo add-apt-repository ppa:stebbins/handbrake-releases sudo apt-get update sudo apt-get install handbrake-gtk sudo apt-get install ubuntu-restricted-extras sudo /usr/share/doc/libdvdread4/install-css.sh



 

This will:

  • Line 1: Add the HandBrake repository to APT
  • Line 2: Update the APT package list
  • Line 3: Install HandBrake
  • Line 4: Get additional tools and codecs (libdvdcss included)
  • Line 5: Install additional tools and codecs

Other Linux distributions might work in a similar fashion – I’ll be the first one to admit that I’m not a Linux expert.