Backup DVD for your media Player

This is Easily done with the fabulous program "Handbrake".

Look at it at this website: http://handbrake.fr/ Its cross platform and works pretty good. It converts any DVD into m4v files that are playable on android and Ubuntu PC's as well as on Windows and Mac, Iphone and others.

Install it by adding a ppa to your system:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:stebbins/handbrake-releases

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install handbrake

But sometimes a DVD isn't easily read. In that case you can convert all separate .VOB files. That has a disadvantage that episodes of the DVD are split into separate files.

To join these files easily without spending te time to reencode them install gpac:

sudo apt-get install gpac

and use MP4box that is a part of gpac.

Joining the m4v files without reencoding them works like this:

MP4Box -cat File01.m4v -cat File02.m4v File-joined.m4v

MP4Box is cross-platform and works on OSX, however I tried this on Ubuntu Linux with H264 videos created by Handbrake for the iPhone 4S.

This works quite fast as the files are not re-encoded.

Rip subtitles from a DVD.

OGMRip

Download and install the OGMRip program using the Synaptic Package Manager or the "sudo apt-get install ogmrip" command.
- Open the OGMRip program.
- Click the "Edit" menu in the main toolbar and click the "Preferences" option.
Click the Advanced tab and choose a location for the temporary path from the drop-down menu. Close the Preferences window.
- Click the "Edit" option and click the "Profiles" option.
- Click the "DivX for Standalone Player" option and click the "Edit" button.
- Click the Subtitles tab.
Choose "SRT text" from the Codec drop-down menu and click the OK button
Select force subtitles only
Place the DVD into the computer's DVD drive.

These srt files can be edited and synced with Gnome subtitles.

in a terminal use the "sudo apt-get install gnome-subtitles" command, or install from the ubuntu software center.
use nautilus to place the .srt file next to the avi, m4v mp4 or other videofile.
rename the files so that the name is exactly the same exept for the extention. e.g. movie-to-transcode.mv4 needs movie-to-transcode.srt
right click on the .srt file and select properties. Set the settings to make gnome-subtitles the default editor for .srt files.
open the .srt file (in gnome-subtitles).
Gnome subtitles should now both open the .srt file and the videofile.

These two programs work from the commandline. They produce IDX and SUB files.

MPlayer/MEncoder

Right-click the desktop and click the "Open in Terminal" option.
Type the command "sudo apt-get install mplayer" to install the MPlayer and MEncoder packages.
Insert the DVD into the computer's DVD drive.
Type the following command to extract the subtitles to IDX and SUB files:
mencoder dvd://1 -oac copy -ovc lavc -lavcopts vcodec=mpeg4 -vobsubout subtitles -vobsuboutindex 0 -sid 2
Replace "subtitles" with the name you want to give the subtitle file.

Transcode

Right-click the desktop and click the "Open in Terminal" option.
Type the command "sudo apt-get install transcode" to install the transcode and subtitleripper packages.
Insert the DVD into the computer's DVD drive.
Type the following two commands to extract the subtitles into IDX and SUB files:
tccat -i $RIPDIR -T $TITLE -L | tcextract -x ps1 -t vob -a 0x21 > subtitles
subtitle2vobsub -o vobsubs-en -i $RIPDIR/VIDEO_TS/VTS_01_0.IFO < subtitles
Replace "subtitles" with the name you want to give the subtitle files.