From DVD to online Flash video with dvd::rip, FFmpeg, and JW FLV player

Last week I set myself the task of finally figuring out how to convert a DVD to Flash video, then to post it online. Turns out with the latest xubuntu 8.04, dvd::rip, FFmpeg, and the JW FLV player, it's quite straightforward.

Step 1: Convert a DVD to AVI file (.avi)

After a number of tests with dvd:rip 0.98.6 (installed .deb version: 1:0.98.6-0.0ubuntu1) and transcode 1.0.2 (installed .deb version: 2:1.0.2-0.8ubuntu7), I've settled on this configuration:

Storage

• On the fly

Clip & Zoom

• Autoadjust or No modifications (original size)

Subtitles

• Activated for rendering

Transcode - Video

• AVI/Xvid, 50 keyframes,29.97 video framerate
• Single pass encoding, no deinterlacing
• 1 x 850M (for 2hr DVD track)

Transcode - Audio

• MP3 audio @ 128 kbit/s x 44100 Hz (required for .flv conversion)
• Quality 2
• Nice 0 or 19
• No PSU core

I managed to rip a 2hr DVD track in about 4 hrs, resulting in an 850M AVI file. This was using my new Samsung 20X USB DVD-RW drive (TSSTcorp CDDVDW SE-S204N), writing to my Western Digital 160G USB bus-powered hard drive. Considering USB to USB read-and-write tends to be slow, I'd consider this pretty good performance, especially for a 1.6GHz machine with only 1.2Gb of RAM.

Here's the resulting .dvdrip-info file:

Step 2: Convert an AVI file (.avi) to Flash Video (.flv)

The next step is to convert your .avi to .flv using FFmpeg (installed .deb version: 3:0.cvs20070307-5ubuntu7.1+medibuntu1). There are lots of config options for this, but the simplest is this, where file types is determined from the input and output filenames. If your input file includes MP3 audio @ 128 kbit/s x 44100 Hz, you'll be able to convert to Flash Video (.flv):

ffmpeg -i input.avi output.flv

Step 3: Streaming Online

Finally, to post the video online, you can upload host it on your own site using the JW FLV Player. The site includes tons of examples including this one for creating a player with chapter, thumbnails, and decriptions. In addition to video, the player also works with audio files and still images, and can be skinned a number of different ways.