DOKK / manpages / debian 12 / vobcopy / vobcopy.1.en
VOBCOPY(1) User Manuals VOBCOPY(1)

vobcopy - copy (rip) files from a dvd to the harddisk

vobcopy [-b size[bkmg] ] [-e size[bkmg] ] [-f] [-F fast_factor ] [-h] [-i input-dir ] [-l] [-m] [-M][-n title-number ] [-o output-dir ] [-q] [-O single_file(s)_to_rip ] [-t name ] [-v [-v]] [-x] [-I] [-V] [-L logfile-path ] [-1 aux_output_dir1 ] [-2 aux_output_dir2 ] [-3 aux_output_dir3 ] [-4 aux_output_dir4 ]

vobcopy copies DVD .vob files to harddisk (thanks to libdvdread) and merges them into file(s) with the name extracted from the DVD. It checks for enough free space on the destination drive and compares the copied size to the size on DVD (in case the size is wrong the files keep the .partial ending ). It should definitely work on linux and now on FreeBSD, OpenBSD, NetBSD, Solaris and MacOSX too!

theCSSissue: Due to possible legal issues, vobcopy doesn't include any code to descramble CSS "enhanced" DVDs. CSS is sold by the DVD industry as a "copy protection", though it's more of a "view protection" as it makes DVDs unviewable with unlicensed players. Some people have hacked CSS decryption routines, and one of those is available as a libdvdread counterpart. So if you have such a DVD, have a look at the libdvdread page. If you are positive that it's allowed where you live, you can just install that mentioned library and make decrypted backups of all your DVDs...

vobcopy without any options will copy the title with the most chapters into files of 2GB size into the current working directory.

begins to copy from the specified offset-size. Modifiers like b for 512-bytes, k for kilo-bytes, m for mega- and g for giga-bytes can be appended to the number. Example: vobcopy -b 500m will start to copy from 500MB onward till the end.
similar to -b, this options lets you specify some size to stop before the end.
force the output to the specified directory even if vobcopy thinks there is not enough free space
speed up the copying (experimental). fast_factor is in the range 1 to 64
print the command line options available
provide vobcopy with the path to the mounted dvd drive
write data into one file (needs large file support (LFS))
choose the title with the longest playing time. With some DVDs this gets the main title better than the most chapter method, with others it's worse.
mirrors the whole dvd to harddisk. It will create a directory named after the dvd and copy the ifo, bup and vob files there. The title-vobs are decrypted during this.
specify which title vobcopy shall copy (default is title with most chapters). On the dvd, vts_01_x.vob specify the first title (mostly this is the main feature).
specify the output-directory of the data. "stdout" or "-" redirect to stdout. Useful for pipeing it to /dev/null ;-) If you forget to pipe it to some place, your terminal will get garbled, so remember that typing "reset" and then Enter will rescue you.
all info- and error-messages of vobcopy will end up in the current directory in vobcopy.bla instead of stderr
specify which single file(s) to rip. Parts of names can be given and all files which include the part will be copied. Files can be listed with comma separation. Example: -O video_ts.vob,bup will copy the single file video_ts.vob and all files containing bup
you can give the file a name if you don't like the one from dvd. -t hallo will result in hallo.vob. (stdout or "-" are deprecated now) If you want to give it names like "Huh I like this movie", do it in quotation marks.
prints more information about whats going on (more verbose).
prints the information given on command line into a log-file in the current directory for inclusion into a bugreport.
overwrite all existing files without further questions.
tells vobcopy where to put the logfile instead of the default.
prints information about the titles, chapters and angles on the dvd.
prints version number.
-1, --1st_alt_output_dir AUXILIARY-OUTPUT-DIR1
if the data doesn't fit on the first output-directory (specified behind -o) writing will continue here (and after -2 there and -3 and -4) -> the files will be split according to the remaining free space (try specifying the path _directly_ behind -1, _no_ space in between if you have troubles, this might be even necessary at -o...)

Vobcopy is still under development. So expect some. There *might* be problems for users who's system is not large-file ready. If so, please get back to me.

Robos <robos@muon.de>

Jun 2009 Linux