📀 DVD Auto-Ripper

A fully automated DVD ripping pipeline powered by MakeMKV. Insert a disc, walk away — the script detects it, rips it, renames the output to a clean Title Case filename, organizes multi-part discs, and ejects the tray when it's done.

✨ Features

Feature	Description
Auto-Detection	Dynamically finds any connected optical drive (USB or SATA) — no need to hardcode /dev/sr0
Live Dashboard	Real-time terminal UI showing current status, progress bar, success/fail counters, and errors
Progress Bar	Parses MakeMKV's robot-mode output to display [########-------] 55% during rips
Smart Naming	Converts raw disc labels like THE_DARK_KNIGHT → The Dark Knight.mkv
Unlabeled Disc Fallback	Uses a timestamped Untitled_Disc_YYYYMMDD_HHMMSS name when a disc has no usable label
Multi-Part Support	Discs with multiple titles are automatically numbered _Part01, _Part02, etc.
Disk Space Check	Refuses to start a rip if less than 10 GB is available, preventing partial rips
Overwrite Protection	Refuses to replace existing rips with the same cleaned title
Auto-Eject	Pops the tray open after every rip (success or failure) so you can swap discs
Per-Disc Logging	Each rip generates its own log file for easy troubleshooting

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📋 Prerequisites

1. MakeMKV

MakeMKV must be installed and makemkvcon must be available in your system PATH.

Install on Ubuntu/Debian:

sudo apt install makemkv-bin makemkv-oss

Verify installation:

makemkvcon --help

Note: MakeMKV is free while in beta. If MakeMKV prompts for registration, use the current beta key from the official MakeMKV forum page or purchase a permanent key.

2. System Utilities

These are typically pre-installed on most Linux distributions:

# Verify all dependencies are present
which lsblk eject tput blockdev df findmnt

Tool	Purpose
lsblk	Detects optical drives and reads disc labels
eject	Opens the disc tray after ripping
tput	Controls terminal output for the dashboard (part of ncurses)
blockdev	Checks if a disc is physically present in the drive
df	Checks available disk space before ripping
findmnt	Verifies /media or /mnt storage paths are actually mounted

3. Hardware

• An optical DVD/Blu-ray drive (internal SATA or external USB)
• The drive must be recognized by the system as a rom type device in lsblk

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⚙️ Configuration

All settings are stored in config.env. This file must exist in the same directory as the script.

config.env

# Root directory where all rip data is stored
DRIVE_ROOT="$HOME/Desktop/DVD-Rips"

# Final destination for completed .mkv files
DEST_FOLDER="$DRIVE_ROOT/MakeMKV"

# Temporary working directory.
# Cleaned up after successful rips; retained when partial files need inspection.
BASE_TEMP="$DRIVE_ROOT/temp_rip_work"

# Minimum title length in seconds. Titles shorter than this are skipped.
# Examples: 900 = 15 min, 1800 = 30 min, 3600 = 60 min
MIN_LENGTH=900

# Minimum free disk space in GB required before starting a rip.
MIN_SPACE_GB=10

# Set to 1 only if DRIVE_ROOT under /media or /mnt is intentionally not a mount.
ALLOW_UNMOUNTED_DRIVE_ROOT=0

Variable	Default	Description
DRIVE_ROOT	$HOME/Desktop/DVD-Rips	Root path for all rip-related storage
DEST_FOLDER	$DRIVE_ROOT/MakeMKV	Where finished .mkv files are saved
BASE_TEMP	$DRIVE_ROOT/temp_rip_work	Temporary directory during active rips; retained for partial files after unsafe failures
MIN_LENGTH	900	Minimum title length in seconds to include in the rip
MIN_SPACE_GB	10	Minimum free space required before starting a rip
ALLOW_UNMOUNTED_DRIVE_ROOT	0	Allows /media or /mnt paths that are not mounted; keep disabled for external drives

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🚀 Setup & Usage

Step 1: Clone or Download

git clone https://github.com/your-repo/DVD-Auto-Ripper.git
cd DVD-Auto-Ripper

Step 2: Make Executable

chmod +x auto_rip.sh

Step 3: Configure Paths

Edit config.env to match your system:

nano config.env

Make sure the DRIVE_ROOT path exists, is mounted when using an external drive, and has sufficient storage space.

For the default example path:

mkdir -p "$HOME/Desktop/DVD-Rips"

Step 4: Run

./auto_rip.sh

The dashboard will appear immediately. Insert a DVD and the script will take it from there.

Step 5: Stop

Press Ctrl+C at any time to stop the script. If a rip is in progress, MakeMKV will be interrupted and the temp directory for that disc will remain (it will be cleaned up automatically on the next run for the same disc).

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🖥️ Dashboard

When running, the terminal displays a live dashboard:

================================================
 📀 DVD AUTO-RIPPER DASHBOARD
================================================
 Status:       Ripping: The Dark Knight [########-------] 55%
 Last Activity: 14:32:07
------------------------------------------------
 📊 STATS: Success: 3 | Fail: 0
 ⚠️  Last Error: None
================================================

 💿 New Disc Detected: The Dark Knight
 ⏳ Ripping in background... Please wait.

Status Messages

Status	Meaning
Waiting for disc...	Idle — polling the drive every 10 seconds
Detecting: LABEL	A new disc was found, cleaning the name
Ripping: Name [Starting...]	MakeMKV has launched, waiting for first progress update
Ripping: Name [####...] XX%	Actively ripping with real-time progress

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📁 Output Structure

$HOME/Desktop/DVD-Rips/
├── MakeMKV/                        # Finished rips
│   ├── The Dark Knight.mkv         # Single-title disc
│   ├── Persuasion_Part01.mkv       # Multi-title disc
│   └── Persuasion_Part02.mkv
└── temp_rip_work/                  # Working directory
    └── logs/                       # Per-disc log files
        ├── rip_The Dark Knight.log
        └── rip_Persuasion.log

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🔧 Troubleshooting

No MKV files were produced

• Check the log file in $BASE_TEMP/logs/ for details
• This usually means no titles on the disc met the MIN_LENGTH threshold
• Try lowering MIN_LENGTH in config.env (e.g., from 900 to 300)

Drive not detected

• Verify the drive is recognized: lsblk -d -o NAME,TYPE | grep rom
• If using USB, try unplugging and re-plugging the drive
• The script will automatically recover once the drive reappears

"Disk full" error

• The script requires at least 10 GB of free space on $DRIVE_ROOT
• Free up space or change DRIVE_ROOT to a different volume

"DRIVE_ROOT appears to be under /media or /mnt but is not mounted"

• The configured storage path looks like an external drive path, but the drive is not mounted
• Mount the drive before running the script
• Only set ALLOW_UNMOUNTED_DRIVE_ROOT=1 if you intentionally use a normal local directory under /media or /mnt

"Destination already contains files"

• The script refuses to overwrite existing .mkv files with the same cleaned disc title
• Rename or move the existing output before re-ripping the same disc

"MakeMKV failed"

• Check the per-disc log in $BASE_TEMP/logs/
• If partial .mkv files were produced, the temp directory is left in place for inspection instead of being deleted

Progress bar stuck on "Starting..."

• The --progress=-stdout flag is required for MakeMKV to output progress data
• Verify your MakeMKV version supports this flag: makemkvcon --help

Parts are numbered in the wrong order

• The script sorts multi-title output by file modification time (oldest first)
• This matches the order MakeMKV ripped them, which corresponds to the disc's playback order

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📝 License

This project is provided as-is for personal use. MakeMKV has its own licensing terms — please refer to makemkv.com for details.