Saturday, September 20, 2008

A Linux solution for copying and burning DVDs

The following are my experiences with copying and burning DVDs on Linux. To summarize the experience in a phrase : "It was a walk in the park".

Operating System Ubuntu 8.04

Tools of the trade
  • k9copy (for copying DVDs)
  • brasero (for burning DVDs)
Installation
Installation in ubuntu for the above packages is as simple as
$ sudo apt-get install k9copy
$ sudo apt-get install brasero

Procedure
  • Insert DVD into tray and open k9copy.
  • Choose File -> Open. This will load the DVD and show the chapters and titles as shown below. Select all the titles that you wish to copy.
  • Select Action -> Copy. You will be prompted for a location where the final iso file will be saved. Make sure that you have disk space atleast 2 times the size of DVD.
  • Leave all the options in the below pane as is unless you know what those options mean.
  • Once the copy starts you will be able to view the progress in the right-side pane.
  • The copy process creates a folder called dvd and an iso image in the location specified earlier.
  • You can remove the folder dvd as it is not required during the burning process.
  • Now to burn the iso image, open brasero and select the option for burning iso images.
  • Insert and blank DVD and start the burn process.
  • Enjoy !
In my experience, i have copied 4 DVDs and burnt around 12 DVDs and the whole process took slightly more than half a day. There were absolutely no errors and the original DVD quality was maintained in all the copied DVDs.