4 applications for ripping DVDs on Linux: K9Copy, dvd::rip, acidrip and Thoggen.

K9Copy is a KDE application which allows to transcode and backup your DVDs. K9Copy is one of the big players when it comes to DVD transcoding, together with dvd::rip and AcidRip, allowing to encode DVD ISO images and mounted DVDs too.

Just over a year ago, we offered a semi-easy way to rip DVDs in Linux to video files. Had we been up on AcidRip, we could've saved ourselves about 900 words.

There are a few different programs for ripping DVDs on Linux. The following details my personal experience with four different applications over the last week and a half.

K3b

If you're not currently using the open-source Handbrake application, your life is woefully incomplete. Handbrake is one of the applications that you will continue to use when you die. Angels are using it, even as I type, to rip their DVDs to their hard-drives so that they can save battery life on long trips (to Redmond, most likely :-).

Handbrake, the closest thing to entertainment manna we have, has released the newest version of its open-source DVD ripping software, version 0.93. There's just one problem: it no longer rips DVDs. At least, not the kind you'd want to rip.

Piracy notwithstanding, there are some good, valid reasons for making a backup of a DVD. K9Copy, a utility for copying DVDs, receives high marks in many forums, so I took it for a spin -- and found out its reputation is deserved.

Popular open source video transcoder project HandBrake saw a new release this week with a boatload of new features, changes, and improvements. Many of version 0.9.4's changes optimize the application for better picture quality and performance while others make using the tool to rip DVDs a much friendlier experience.