How to install Handbrake on Linux

Handbrake is a powerful open source tool for encoding and editing videos. It includes a graphical control panel to manage encryption and even preview the results. Part of what makes Handbrake popular in the Linux world is its ability to encode DVDs, making it one of the best tools available for DVD ripping.

The legitimacy of DVD ripping may not be recognized in some countries. The purpose of this article is to guide you how to create copies of DVD archives that you own legally, but be sure to know the rules before continuing.

Please note that Handbrake is also available for Windows and macOS.

Install Handbrake

This tutorial is based on Handbrake, but will also need additional tools. VLC developers have created a library, libdvdcss, to decode copyright-protected DVDs for playback. Handbrake also relies on it to decode DVDs, so users will need it too.

Ubuntu

Handbrake is available in Ubuntu, but libdvdcss are not. Instead, Ubuntu provides a script for users to build packages themselves. Don't worry, it's all automatic. Let's start by installing libdvd-pkg.

 sudo apt install libdvd-pkg 

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A menu appears in the terminal asking if you want to continue. Agree with everything and continue. When done, you'll need to reconfigure the package to build and install libdvdcss.

 sudo dpkg-reconfigure libdvd-pkg 

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Finally, install Handbrake.

 sudo apt install handbrake 

Debian

Debian has an excellent multimedia repository, maintained by one of the Debian developers. You can add it to your system, as well as install Handbrake and libdvdcss. Start by downloading the archive key. It comes in a .deb package .

 cd ~/Downloads wget http://www.deb-multimedia.org/pool/main/d/deb-multimedia-keyring/deb-multimedia-keyring_2016.8.1_all.deb 

Install the package to enter the key.

 sudo dpkg -i deb-multimedia-keyring_2016.8.1_all.deb 

Use your favorite text editor to create a new file at '/etc/apt/sources.list.d/multimedia.list'. Open this file and add the following line. Enter 'stretch,' 'testing' or 'sid', suitable for the Debian version.

 deb http://www.deb-multimedia.org stretch(testing/sid) main non-free 

Update Apt and install both packages.

 sudo apt update sudo apt install libdvdcss2 handbrake-gtk 

Fedora

Both packages are available on Fedora through the RPM Fusion repository. Start by activating it on the system.

 sudo dnf install https://download1.rpmfusion.org/free/fedora/rpmfusion-free-release-$(rpm -E %fedora).noarch.rpm https://download1.rpmfusion.org/nonfree/fedora/rpmfusion-nonfree-release-$(rpm -E %fedora).noarch.rpm 

libdvdcss found in the RPM Fusion repo "tainted". Users also need to add it via a package from regular Fusion RPM.

 sudo dnf instll rpmfusion-free-release-tainted 

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It is now possible to install Handbrake and libdvdcss.

 sudo dnf install libdvdcss handbrake-gui 

Arch Linux

Arch Linux has both packages in common stock. Just install them.

 sudo pacman -S libdvdcss handbrake 

Discover Handbrake

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Open Handbrake. You can find it in the 'Multimedia' category on the application menu. When Handbrake opens, everything looks complicated at first, but if you start exploring it, you will find it really simple.

Load source

Start by selecting the source. This may be a source file, but in this case, it is a DVD drive. You can see an 'Open Source' button in the upper left corner of the screen. Click it.

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A new window will open for you to browse to your source. There are several shortcuts to the DVD drive. First, if there is a DVD in the drive, it will appear with the DVD title on the left side of the window. Click it and select 'VIDEO_TS' to open it.

You can also use the ' Detected DVD devices ' drop-down menu at the bottom of the window. If the drive is already selected, you can open it from there. Otherwise, the drive can be found in the drop-down menu. It usually looks like '/ dev / sr0'.

After selecting, the drive will work and start reading the DVD. A progress bar will appear at the top of the Handbrake window when the DVD is loaded. When you're done, you'll see the DVD title listed as the source on the upper left.

Select presets

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Handbrake has presets (presets) with a common frame rate, frame rate and support for certain devices. The user will find a preset list in the upper right corner of the Handbrake window.

Scroll through and see what suits the purpose of use. If you just want to make a copy for the DVD, you can choose the ' Fast 1080p30 ' preset by default. It will create a quality 1080p copy of the DVD. If your DVD is an old standard DVD resolution, Handbrake will use the original size of the DVD and copy it as it is.

Add a title to the queue

Go back to the upper left corner of the screen and see the 'Title' drop-down section just below the 'Source' section along with the DVD title.

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DVDs are divided into titles. These are individual videos on DVD and most of them are just 'junk files' from menus. Selecting the titles containing the desired content depends on the user. The easiest way to do this is based on the title. If the DVD is a movie, the title to choose will have the same time as the full movie. If you're looking for episodes of a TV show, look for titles that are the same length as an episode. Once you've found the right title, select it.

Under the drop-down section of the title, see the heading 'Destination'. There, you can name your file, select the destination for the video, can put it anywhere with enough free space.

After everything is fine, press the ' Add To Queue ' button in the menu at the top of the window. It is located right next to 'Open Source'. If you're processing TV episodes, repeat these steps for each episode and add each episode to the queue.

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Now, the user has all the titles that want to be backed up in the queue and can start extracting. If you want to check the queue again, click the 'Show Queue' button on the top menu. It will display all the titles and output file names.

Click 'Start Encoding' in the top menu to start ripping DVDs. It will take a long time to complete all tasks, depending on the speed of the DVD drive and CPU. When the application has done all the work, it will display a success message. At that time, users can freely take out DVD and / or close Handbrake.

You now know how to back up DVDs or watch the digital version of DVDs on your device. Be sure to understand the relevant laws before doing this and never distribute copied DVDs.

Good luck!

See more:

1. How to install Slack on Linux
2. How to install Spotify on Linux
3. How to install and use TeamViewer on Linux