[HOW TO] Play Encrypted DVDs on Xubuntu

If you try to play an encrypted DVD on Xubuntu (most likely using the default player, Parole) you'll get an error message:

To play encrypted DVDs, we need the libdvdcss2 package. Here's how to install it in Xubuntu.

Install

Open a terminal window. First we need to enable Medibuntu repository:

sudo wget --output-document=/etc/apt/sources.list.d/medibuntu.list http://www.medibuntu.org/sources.list.d/$(lsb_release -cs).list && sudo apt-get --quiet update && sudo apt-get --yes --quiet --allow-unauthenticated install medibuntu-keyring && sudo apt-get --quiet update

Then we install libdvdcss2:

sudo apt-get install libdvdcss2 -y

That's it! You can now play encrypted DVDs on Xubuntu.

References

Medibuntu

[HOW TO] Rip VCD in Xubuntu

VCD (Video Compact Disc) is a CD that contains video and sound compressed as MPEG.

This MPEG file can be extracted using the vcdxrip tool from the vcdimager package.

Install vcdimager

Open a terminal window and run:

sudo apt-get install vcdimager -y

Extract MPEG track

This step depends on the source of the VCD (CD-ROM, *.bin, *.ngr, ...). The general command form for extracting the MPEG file we'll use is:

vcdxrip -p --nofile SOURCE_OPTION IMAGE_FILE

Where IMAGE_FILE is something like /dev/sr0, videocd.bin, videocd.ngr, ... and SOURCE_OPTION is one of the following (between parenthesis is the description, don't type it):

• -b (bin image file)
• -c (cue image file)
• -N (Nero image file)
• --toc-file ("toc" image file)
• -C (CD-ROM)

Extract example for bin image:

vcdxrip -p  --nofiles -b videocd.bin

The program will extract the MPEG as avseq01.mpg.

References

Rip VCD to .avi? at Ubuntu Forums
What is VCD?

[HOW TO] Encode Video for Android in Xubuntu

HandBrake is a video transcoder and it comes with some presets that provide quick access to some common settings.

For Android there are two built-in presets: one for small screen devices and another one for devices with bigger screen. Bellow you'll find how to use them, both from the command line and the graphical interface.

USING HANDBRAKE CLI

Open a terminal window and run one of the following two commands (!important use capital 'zed'):

# Android Small Device (screen size <= 480x...)

HandBrake -i video_in -o video_out.mp4 -Z "Android Mid"

# Android Big Device (screen size >= 720x...)

HandBrake -i video_in -o video_out.mp4 -Z "Android High"

USING HANDBRAKE GUI

The same task can be accomplished using HandBrake with graphical interface. Just select "Android Mid" or "Android High" from the device preset list after selecting the source file.

Related Posts

Install HandBrake in [X]Ubuntu 12.04 (deb)
Install HandBrake in [X]Ubuntu 11.10 (ppa)

References

Using HandBrake CLI

Install HandBrake in [X]Ubuntu 12.04 (deb)

As I mentioned on the previous post, HandBrake is a GPL-licensed, multiplatform, multithreaded video transcoder, and it can be installed in Xubuntu 11.10 via ppa. However packages for Precise are yet to be released. Luckily, if you manually download the deb files you'll be able to install them correctly.

Install

First, open http://goo.gl/zIohH in your web browser and download the version you're interested in (handbrake-gtk is the version with graphical interface and handbrake-cli is the version for command line interface), also make sure you download the correct version (i386 or amd64) for your Xubuntu installation (type uname -m on terminal, if you're unsure).

Once downloaded, click the deb files to open and installed them via "Ubuntu Software Center" or open a terminal window and run:

sudo dpkg -i handbrake-*.deb

References

official HandBrake releases for Ubuntu

Install HandBrake in [X]Ubuntu 11.10 (ppa)

HandBrake is a GPL-licensed, multiplatform, multithreaded video transcoder.

Personally I use it to transcode some videos so that I can see them on my Android smartphone. It has already some presets with enconding settings specific for iPhone, iPad and Android.

It includes one with a graphical interface and one with command line interface. I find them both very useful. For instance, even though we can create a queue of jobs with the graphical interface I use the version with the command line interface when I want to automate some other things with a shell script.

Install

Open a terminal window and run:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:stebbins/handbrake-releases -y && sudo apt-get update

If you only want to install the version with graphical interface, type:

sudo apt-get install handbrake-gtk

If you want to install the version with command line interface, type:

sudo apt-get install handbrake-cli

If you want to install both versions, type:

sudo apt-get install handbrake-*

References

official HandBrake releases for Ubuntu