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Ripping Good Time

Submitted by Gabe on

There's something about copying physical media to digital that makes me happy! Sure, I own the DVDs, but do I want to play them? Discs do wear, degrade and don't wear well with time. The machines that play the DVDs and Blue-rays wear down. And don't get me started on the cost of a Blu-ray rippers! Thankfully, DVD players/rippers are inexpensive. I believe I payed $17 for mine on Amazon. 

Well, I did buy an MDisc capable computer DVD player/burner. I hadn't looked up the price of the MD discs., which are in the hundreds for a small number. The discs are made to last up to 50,000 years! Longer than humanity will even care about my media? 

I said to myself for years that I would start copying my tens of DVDs and CDs to digital. I may even begin to convert my records. Maybe. One day. I am motivated today to start ripping my DVDs. My vast collection starts and ends with The Matrix trilogy. I became motivated due to a relative becoming ill and had many days of bed rest with little to do than watch TV.

Tomorrow, I'll explain what I am using to rip and then transcode the files. I am using Debian exclusively, so this will exclude the interest of anyone using Windows exclusively.