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DVD Archiving with Beyond Media

When I discovered the excellent DVD Library plug-in to Beyond Media through the SnapStream forums, I immediately decided it was a great way to get my DVD archive online. Not only does it make DVD titles more readily accessible (especially for multi-disc releases) but not having to handle the DVD discs significantly reduces wear-and-tear on them over their lifetime. But soon after starting to archive our DVDs on my HTPC's hard drive, I realized this method lacked automation, and began my quest for "an easier way". This webpage documents the eternal laziness reflected in my efforts to develop a fully-automated "one click of the remote" DVD archival method using freeware tools and bit of scripting.

DVD Ripper: ripdvd.cmd

My first pass at a solution focused on finding a command-line, batch-mode DVD ripper. DVD Decrypter was the answer. In short order, a very simple DVD Decrypter batch script was born that did the job nicely:
REM DVD ripper script using DVD Decrypter batch mode

echo Ripping DVD to hard disk...
"C:\Program Files\DVD Decrypter\DVDDecrypter.exe" /MODE FILE /SRC Z: /DEST "C:\DVD_LIBRARY\[DISC_LABEL]\VIDEO_TS\" /START /CLOSE

DVD Decrypter inserts the DVD's volume label (title) in place of [DISC_LABEL]. The program is quite flexible, and supports a handful of parameters not shown here -- pass it the "/?" option to see the entire list. When executed, this batch file invokes the DVD Decrypter GUI, rips the DVD found in the source drive (Z: in my example script), then auto-closes on completion of the rip. I use AnyDVD to throttle down DVD drivespeed so it doesn't whine while watching a DVD, so in my case, the rip proceeds at a 3-4x rate. No matter -- speed isn't the point of this exercise.

I then created a shortcut to the newly created ripdvd.cmd batch file and dropped it in:
C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\SnapStream\Beyond Media\Shortcuts

which enables that script to appear as a menu item in Beyond Media. You can drop a PNG image file with the same filename as the shortcut into the IconCache subdirectory, and BM will use it as the icon for that menu item. Coincidentally, I chose the yellow-and-black radioactive icon for my "Rip DVD" menu item before the DVD burning plugin was released for BTV.

Here's the obligatory screenshot showing off the finished product from within Beyond Media:

Once the DVD has been ripped to disk, DVD Decrypter exits automatically, and it's simply a matter of searching for the new title in DVD Library, which I still do manually, so I can ensure it makes a correct title match and selects the proper cover art.

A few hints to smooth things out a bit:

  • Disable popup-warnings about possible RCE or Region protection within DVD_D's Settings, which ruins the "Look Ma -- it's fully automated!" mood with a silly modal dialogue box that must be clicked.
  • Make sure your destination directory for the DVD images is a subdirectory of your DVD Library installation, which ensures that freshly ripped DVDs (mmmm - they're still warm...) will be detected by DVD Library the next time you run an update.

Transcoder: rip_compress.cmd

I was perfectly happy with the automated DVD ripper solution. That is, until ClamsTheCat made this post on the SS forum:
New plug-in idea: DVD Rip and Compress via remote from BM?

"Now the question is, how difficult would it be to use these outside programs to make a simple interface for ripping and compressing a movie? I know that not 100% of movies will always work without effort like this, but I think a good 95% or more could."

"Any thoughts? I have had several successful tests doing this via batch file and simple windows applications (browsing to the drive I want to rip, then clicking go). I am wondering how hard it would be to take it to the next level."

So with a little encouragement from cfaslave, I poked around and discovered HandBrake and HandBrakeCLI. Since I've had some pretty negative experiences with Windows ports of Linux tools, and am generally biased towards the Linux-based tools for manipulating video, I was pretty skeptical about yet another Cygwin-based application. But I felt I needed to give it the old college try, and I was pretty surprised by the result of a few days' work:

With the DVD Decrypter + HandBrakeCLI combination, I am able to take a 7.5GB DVD image ripped from media, compress it to a single XviD AVI using 2-pass transcoding preserving the AC3 (5.1) audio track, yielding a final filesize of about 2GB, all in about an hour -- using just the remote control from the couch.

The process is as follows:

  • Insert DVD into HTPC DVD drive
  • Select "Transcode DVD" menu item in Beyond Media:

  • DVD Decrypter fires up to rip the DVD to a VOB structure
  • HandBrakeCLI fires up to transcode the main movie to AVI
  • Once finished, run a DVD Library update, behold! Freshly transcoded DVD goodness
Here's what you'll need to set this up:

  1. Download BM_DVD_Transcoder.zip (3.34mb) and extract
  2. Read README.txt
  3. Adjust "User-defined" variables within rip_compress.cmd to taste
  4. Create a "Transcode DVD" shortcut for the rip_compress.cmd script and place it in BM's Shortcuts directory
  5. Copy "Transcode DVD.png" to BM's Shortcuts/IconCache directory
  6. Restart BM, toss in a DVD, and give "Transcode DVD" a try

This is as close as I've gotten to a fully automated DVD archiving and transcoding utility that could be run from BM using just the remote. It works for most DVDs I've tested, but there are certainly cases where it will crash and burn. I acknowledge there's quite a bit more work that _could be_ done to enhance, polish and expand this function.

Anyway, if you try and like these scripts, drop me a PM, or add your comments to this thread on the SS forum.