Maddy 🏳️‍⚧️ - ADHD-powered 
This is a general invitation to chat (async, likely) or otherwise connect if you have an interest in disc dumping/preservation of CD, DVD, Blu-Ray, UHD Blu-Ray, and/or game console discs, want to get into it, and you aren't sure where to start, what to do, or what to use.

It's something I've been doing for a long time, and it's something I'm very passionate about. I'm happy to help newbies get their efforts off the ground if they want assistance.

I wouldn't say I'm any sort of authority or 'expert', but I've done this for so long that I'm aware of many quirks and 'gotchas' that come with it, and I'm happy to share my knowledge and experience! ​​

Feel free to boost, if you'd like! ​​
Feb 27 at 7:49pmWeb
Show threadMaddy 🏳️‍⚧️ - ADHD-powered Feb 27
Right off the bat though, I can highly recommend the Redump wiki for most anything related to PC/Mac/Game Console discs.
http://wiki.redump.org/index.php?title=Main_Page (HTTPS appears to be broken at the moment?! ​​ )
Main Page - Redump Wiki

Show threadMaddy 🏳️‍⚧️ - ADHD-powered 4d ago
Oh shit, this reminds me that I gotta get back to an entity that messaged me about the drives they have. I forgot 'cause I had to start fresh with Signal - I forgot to properly transfer things to a new phone. ​​
Show threadTayFeb 27
@maddy I do have a bunch of old game cds I want to dump, I haven't gotten around to it yet; when I do advice would be useful. I'll contact you if I hit any roadblocks.
Show threadMaddy 🏳️‍⚧️ - ADHD-powered Feb 27
@tay That's awesome! I wish you luck, and yeah, feel free to reach out if you want help!
Show threadmakaryFeb 27

@maddy

I wanted to tell you, I find your Plex collection super big and impressive!
BTW, if you don't mind me asking, why Plex over, say, Jellyfin?

Show threadMaddy 🏳️‍⚧️ - ADHD-powered Feb 27
@[email protected] At this point, it's mainly because of the scale the server has grown to, and how easy it is to onboard users. Also wanna get my money's worth out of that lifetime Plex pass before they totally ruin the app/service.

I plan to implement Jellyfin eventually (when I have the energy), but I'm really dreading the potential for issues with metadata matching. We'll see!
Show threadmakaryFeb 27

@maddy

Thank you so much, if you have a lifetime subscription it does make sense

Show threadTeresa 🏳️‍⚧️Feb 28

@maddy @makary Same. I’m planning on eventually moving on from Plex. Don’t like the direction they are going.

And as a fellow ripper I will gladly follow along. One of these days I’m gonna add more storage space. My 50 TB NAS is getting full from 4K Blu-ray rips.

Show threadMaddy 🏳️‍⚧️ - ADHD-powered Feb 28
@AppleFangirl @[email protected] Yeaaahhhh, I feel that. All my HD DVD/Blu-ray/UHD rips are adding up to ~25TB. ​​
Show threadJoan Feb 27
@maddy dumping blu rays is fun 
Show threadMaddy 🏳️‍⚧️ - ADHD-powered Feb 27
@joan Agreed, most of the time! ​​
(damn radial scratches on used discs)
Show threadVaporeon  ☭Feb 27
@maddy I've a few CDs and DVDs, and currently I simply use dd if=/dev/sr0 of=/data/some-path/disk.img, or dd_rescue for a disc that has bad sectors. Would you say that that's appropriate or should I be doing more / doing it differently?
Show threadMaddy 🏳️‍⚧️ - ADHD-powered Feb 27
@vaporeon_ It's a complicated answer, and it largely depends on your goals.
While that method will likely work for your needs in a lot of cases, I'd consider it incomplete, at least in terms of preservation. There's software that will pick up metadata from the disc, read subcode data from CDs, and much much more that a simple DD won't do.

Now, if they're game discs and you're comfortable cracking it or using nocd patches or whatever, yeah, you're probably just fine keeping on as-is.

Audio CDs and CDs with audio tracks are a fucking mess though, and I'd always recommend using something like Exact Audio Copy or another piece of software that uses AccurateRip to verify that your dump matches everyone else's (if it has been dumped before).

I guess a good question would be, generally, what kind of discs are you dumping (or what kind of content is on them), and what are your goals with them?
Show threadVaporeon  ☭Feb 27

@maddy A lot of my CDs are non-game software, e.g. I recently dd'd a Mac OS X 10.0 installation disk, a Knoppix LiveCD, and a disc full of software for Sun Solaris. My goal is indeed to preserve them, so that I can still have all that data (and maybe burn it to a CD-R) even if the disc goes bad.

I also have a few audio CDs, which seem to be new enough that I don't expect them to go bad, but I've used cdparanoia for ripping those.

What software would you use on Linux for the software CDs?

Show threadMaddy 🏳️‍⚧️ - ADHD-powered Feb 27
@vaporeon_ I'd easily recommend Redumper (https://github.com/superg/redumper) as it's one of few softwares I've found that's open source, multiplatform, generally focused on preservation, and still actively maintained.

Though as I alluded to before, CDs are a fuck, and it's sometimes hard to get a proper rip without specific hardware because not every drive will properly dump the lead-in, lead-out, or there's junky error-correction that may need to be defeated (especially if there's disc-level DRM involved). The supported drive section of the readme ( https://github.com/superg/redumper?tab=readme-ov-file#supported-drives ) and below goes over this in some detail. I'd recommend trying the drive you have with the instructions given to see if it's adequate. Otherwise, they do have a supported drive list in a link within the mentioned section!

Otherwise, DVD, HD DVD, Blu-ray* are pretty trivial and should work with Redumper regardless of what hardware you have.

Blu-rays are an exception if a disc requests BEE (Bus Encryption Enable) and your drive supports bus-encryption - then the disc is double encrypted with a drive-specific key and the disc's volume unique key. Not every disc requests this, but if you're for some reason doing an untouched dump of a retail blu-ray in this specific scenario, it's essentially useless unless you can get that drive-specific key. I personally just leave that mess to MakeMKV for the most part.
GitHub - superg/redumper: Low level CD dumper utility

Low level CD dumper utility. Contribute to superg/redumper development by creating an account on GitHub.

GitHub
Show threadMaddy 🏳️‍⚧️ - ADHD-powered Feb 27
@vaporeon_ Also, if you do start dumping CDs with Redumper, you may notice that it takes up more space than usual. For completeness' sake, it usually has an additional file besides the bin/cue or iso for subchannel data, if I recall correctly.
Some software uses subchannel data for copy protection, so it can be necessary to keep it around. I believe CloneCD did something similar.
Show thread魔法☆少女☆アンFeb 27
@maddy my bf recently dumped my Wii U games for me so I can play them on emulator instead ​​
Show threadMaddy 🏳️‍⚧️ - ADHD-powered Feb 27
@mgclgrl I really gotta get around to doing that before the eMMC on my console inevitably dies and I have to do some work on it. ​​
Show threadnarylisFeb 28
@maddy just here to say thank you for doing this. as someone who has had to build up a similar knowledge base on quer own (ask me about the time i almost ended up digging into the linux usb cd driver before concluding that usb controllers are probably a fuck and therefore it was not worth it) i can safely say that figuring out how to get accurate preservation rips of optical discs is a hellish multi-year experience for the uninitiated
Show threadnarylisFeb 28
@maddy (these days i’m just glad redumper solved the cd data track problem properly before i got around to doing so myself. audio cds are annoying enough on their own.)
Show threadMaddy 🏳️‍⚧️ - ADHD-powered Feb 28
@[email protected] Hey, no problem! I’d love to help make the process and experience less daunting one way or another if I can! ​​

I’ve had to re-dump so many discs over and over until we got to the point where tools are these days, like redumper, as you mentioned.

I actually have to go back and re-dump my Xbox/360 collection ‘cause they’re all in Xbox Backup Creator’s default iXtreme-compatible format, rather than redump style. I think I have more games for 360 than anything else, so I’m super not looking forward to the time consumption of that effort. ​​
Show threadnarylisMar 6
@maddy well, i might have a couple new ones for The List just days after saying hi: for one thing, i *think* i might have a encountered a nearly silent error reading a second layer from a dvd ca. 2009 with makemkv, but i still need to try mounting and poking at the iso it generated from this disc/drive combo to be sure. (still trying to confirm what's going on with this odd rip tho, so the final diagnosis of the weirdness i'm seeing is still subject to change pending a final poke with a plextor)
Show threadnarylisMar 6
@maddy correction: it’s not a dual-layer problem, but it’s definitely a case where makemkv’s “dvd structure protection removal method” option does the wrong thing and either removes good cells from either end of the titles in question or concludes there’s too many fake cells and ignores the titles entirely as a result depending on the option selected (none of them workaround the issue alas). vobcopy chokes and ends up seeking to non-existent sectors so there’s probably *some* truth to the matter that some of the nav information is broken.

accessing and concatenating the raw vobs on the iso works at least, even if that’s a matter of crossing one’s fingers and hoping that the titlesets match the expected titles while looking for a way to shim chapters back in after the fact.

what a pain!
Show threadnarylisMar 7
@maddy okay, you're gonna love this one: if i'm interpreting my results correctly, all of makemkv's existing structure protection removal methods seem to deal poorly with a reset of the pts coincident with incrementing to a new vob id at a cell *skipped* by sequential entry points through the program tables. the 2008 12-disc network release of the 1970s benny hills annuals is a truly strange place. thankfully 2017 me was thinking ahead and made a specific tool that got me something halfway usable out of the disks, but i don't trust 2017 me enough not to want to double check their work at this point.
Show threadMaddy 🏳️‍⚧️ - ADHD-powered Mar 7
@[email protected] oh shit, I’ve been meaning to get back to you and this thread, my bad! I’ll try to remember to read up and respond tomorrow! c:
Show threadMaddy 🏳️‍⚧️ - ADHD-powered Mar 7
@[email protected] Oh, that all sounds so strange O.o
Are you dumping the disc with Redumper, or are you accessing it with MakeMKV directly? Sometimes I find I have better luck poking at an ISO, but I've also seen MakeMKV decode DVDs really strangely.

I personally don't spend much time with DVDs, so unfortunately, I don't really know of anything else that's good for converting them to something like MKV. Maybe Handbrake would do it? I think they have a passthrough mode for audio and video codecs.
Show threadnarylisMar 7
@maddy i haven't tried poking at the discs with redumper yet. so far i've tried using makemkv to try to dump the titles directly, and then trying to access a backup image made by makemkv itself. i also tried the ancient tool that is vobcopy in an attempt to see if that could at least pull the titles off without remuxing into matroska, but that seemed to mangle the titles for some reason i haven't been able to put my finger on.

fortunately, as i said, i wrote some custom tooling back in 2017 before i'd finally acquiesced to using makemkv to grab my dvds (and, more importantly, my blu-rays) which used libdvdread directly to navigate and dump video content from a dvd as part of a larger project to try to recreate dvd menus as itunes extras packages, and for some reason *that* tooling worked fine once i fixed nine years' worth of stale code, at which point i identified a probable cause for makemkv's strange behavior. it might be annoyingly high-touch, but i'm happy i've managed to get *something* working at least.

now i just have to figure out why this *other* set of dvds of a chinese opera that i tried to rip right afterwards seem to be split weirdly by makemkv.
Show threadnarylisMar 7
@maddy (phew. that one seems a bit more of a straight forward situation where the discs rely on the dvd structure to automatically jump to another title to continue the main program. annoying, but nothing mkvmerge can't fix)
Show threadSpongeFeb 28

@maddy

Any advice for non digital formats such as Cassette or VHS? (other than avoid easycap devices :p )

or a good bluray drive for ripping rec?

Show threadMaddy 🏳️‍⚧️ - ADHD-powered Feb 28
@[email protected] Analog formats are a fuck. At least for VHS, I'd recommend into proper head cleaning techniques (nothing with fabric - it can get caught) and the Domesday Replicator project. I haven't dug deep into that rabbit hole myself, but YT channels like Tech Tangents have gone over the project. It's usually used for LaserDisc, but it also works for VHS preservation, from my understanding.

As for Blu-ray, any computer-compatible Blu-ray drive will work with software like MakeMKV (which you can keep using for free on Linux, Mac, Windows with the free Beta key in the forums). I prefer to do a complete decrypted dump of the disc (file > backup in the program when the disc is inserted), and then I make the MKV for my media server from that decrypted disc dump.

I then backup the original decrypted dumps to LTO tape for future if I need them, and I tend to keep the original discs around as well.

UHD requires certain drives, which are a pain in the ass to find in certain areas (especially in Canada, both online and in retail stores, for example). Retail stores like Best Buy and Micro Center in the US are still receiving stock of them, and would be the ideal way to go rather than paying scalpers 4x what the drives are worth.

List of compatible drives can be found here - https://forum.makemkv.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=16&t=19634
Show threadSpongeFeb 28

@maddy

Thank you for the list of UHD drives!! Another couple questions; First is, will a non-UHD drive rip a UHD movie in lower quality, or will it not rip at all? 2nd is I have ripped with MakeMKV before, and ive also used dd to just clone DVDs entirely. I feel like I like cloning with dd better due to the fact I can just drop the iso file on an NFS connected to kodi and have the original intended experience (Special features, interactive menus, shitty java games, just liking archival), and theres less work sorting through files that are ripped. Do you know if that sort of thing works with blu-ray drives? Ive been hesitant to buy one for that reason.

Ive heard about the Domesday replicator before!! but it seemed so hard and expensive i bowed out after reading a couple docs 😭. Do you think itd be worth reconsidering?

Show threadMaddy 🏳️‍⚧️ - ADHD-powered Mar 1
@[email protected]
1. Drives outside of the list in that forum post will not read retail UHD Blu-rays at all, even if it states it will read/burn BD-XL discs, which UHD Blu-rays are based on.

2. You shouldn't DD Blu-ray discs because of bus encryption. Some discs have a BEE (bus encryption enable) flag, which will trigger bus encryption on any drive that supports it, adding another layer of encryption to the disc. Unless you have the key your drive encrypted it with, your dump is totally useless, and I've not found a way to extract bus encryption keys myself. The easiest way I've found to dump complete Blu-ray discs is by using the Backup feature within MakeMKV and making sure that "Decrypt" is checked. Regardless of what drive you have, MakeMKV should be able to work around these protections. Again, UHD Blu-ray is special and requires specific hardware. Regular Blu-rays are trivial in comparison, especially with MakeMKV. I don't know if Kodi will support the menus and such, but all the content from the original disc will be there in a decrypted backup. You can do an untouched (encrypted) backup if you prefer, but it will only be easily decryptable by MakeMKV as the way it stores the data needed to decrypt the contents seem to be proprietary to MakeMKV. I prefer decrypted backups since it won't matter what software handles it, as long as it can handle a Blu-ray structure.

3. As for Domesday Duplicator, if you care to get the highest quality dump possible of a VHS or LaserDisc, it currently seems to be the way to go.
Show threadMaddy 🏳️‍⚧️ - ADHD-powered Mar 1
@[email protected] Also, while DD is generally fine for DVD discs, I'd recommend switching to Redumper as it will not only give you an ISO, but it'll give you a more complete overall dump of the disc, including metadata about disc properties, and it'll list the CSS keys in the log. I've also had pretty good luck with its error correction.
Show threadSpongeMar 1

@maddy

Thank you for the detailed responses, they are greatly appreciated!! I hadnt heard of redumper, ill look into it. Good thing backing up my physical media has been more of a backburner project for me lol.

Again, thank you! Your answers have been way more helpful than the hellhole that is modern search engines 😭

Show threadMaddy 🏳️‍⚧️ - ADHD-powered Mar 1
@[email protected] You're very welcome! ^.^
Here's a link to the software's github. https://github.com/superg/redumper
GitHub - superg/redumper: Low level CD dumper utility

Low level CD dumper utility. Contribute to superg/redumper development by creating an account on GitHub.

GitHub
Show threadCIMB4Feb 28
@maddy ooooh i've wanted to preserve some dvds and game disks,,,,,
Show threadMaddy 🏳️‍⚧️ - ADHD-powered Feb 28
@CIMB4 I'd be happy to help you get started! ​​
Show thread airy 4d ago
@maddy ive always wanted to dump my blu-rays but i cant even get them running on my pc in the first place LMAO might be a linux thing im not wholly sure... not to derail though. i have some regular dvds & a ton of cds ive wanted to dump for forever but ive never figured out how
Show threadMaddy 🏳️‍⚧️ - ADHD-powered 4d ago
@airy Dumping Blu-rays tends to be a lot easier than getting them to playback as-is - an annoyance of the format and its copy protections. If you have a Blu-ray drive for your computer, I'd recommend looking into MakeMKV and using the monthly BETA key from their forums to give it a go!

With DVDs, redumper is probably the best way to go, and should work fine on any DVD drive - it will even dump the disc keys and put them in the logs.

CDs are quite a rabbit hole, and if you're simply looking to dump Audio CDs to FLAC (accurately), that tends to be easy enough, but embarrassingly, I don't actually have any experience doing that on Linux! That being said, some of the same methods (redumper) can work for preservation's sake, if you have a disc drive that plays nice. Mixed media (enhanced CDs, audio and data on different sessions on the same disc) discs can be quite a pain and are best handled by compatible drives and software like redumper.

For CDs, you'd either want any of the drives listed here with compatible firmware versions - http://wiki.redump.org/index.php?title=Optical_Disc_Drive_Compatibility:_CD
Alternatively, any drive that can be crossflashed to OmniDrive (http://wiki.redump.org/index.php?title=OmniDrive) would be ideal. I can help you determine if you have a drive that would be compatible if you're otherwise unsure. ​​
Optical Disc Drive Compatibility: CD - Redump Wiki

Show threadnarylis4d ago

@maddy @airy accurately ripping cds on unix platforms has been a dismal proposition for over a decade since i’ve been trying to cobble together a home-grown solution to the problem:

  • cdparanoia does correctly identify issues at rip time but its error recovery mechanisms can reproducibly return the same incorrect checksums in some cases. this means that the approach of tools like rubyripper which simply rip twice and check for matching checksums may nevertheless fail an accuraterip check.
  • speaking of accuraterip, there have been few solutions for actually hitting that database from linux. for the longest time the only option was a command-line tool posted on hydrogenaudio.
  • the situation appears to have improved somewhat of late, as there is now reportedly a tool (rip rip hooray) which claims to integrate both accuraterip and ctdb support (the latter of which has never had linux support before to the best of my knowledge). i can’t speak to the quality of the software though as i haven’t tried it yet.
  • the only other option i could think of is to try running eac inside wine, but i can’t speak to how well that works either, as i’ve mostly fallen back to running it on windows machines when i need to trust it
Show threadMaddy 🏳️‍⚧️ - ADHD-powered 4d ago
@[email protected] @airy Holy moly, that's rough. ​​

I've never tried running EAC under WINE myself - I have a Windows VM specifically for ripping and dumping since besides EAC, there are so many weird one-off Windows-only tools that I end up having to use on occasion anyway.