[MPlayer-users] can't select DVD titles with mencoder

[Steve Kleene]

I'm new to mencoder (but not to Linux) and am having some problems converting
a DVD to AVI.  I have been recording videos from my lab microscope onto DVD-
RW using a new Sony RDR-VX530 DVD recorder.  The DVD I've made has 99 short
titles on it.

If I run the following:

  mencoder /dev/dvd -ovc lavc -oac mp3lame -lameopts abr:br=128 \
   -lavcopts vbitrate=900:v4mv:vhq:vcodec=mpeg4 -vf pp=de,scale=480:-2 \
   -o film.avi

I get a file "film.avi" that I can play with mplayer.  I'm not sure where it
starts, but it is not track 1.  I have been unable to pull off a given track.
This command, for example:

  mencoder dvd://10 -dvd-device /dev/dvd -ovc lavc ...

gives the following errors:

  libdvdread: Encrypted DVD support unavailable.
  libdvdnav:DVDOpenFileUDF:UDFFindFile /VIDEO_TS/VIDEO_TS.IFO failed
  libdvdnav:DVDOpenFileUDF:UDFFindFile /VIDEO_TS/VIDEO_TS.BUP failed
  libdvdread: Can't open file VIDEO_TS.IFO.
  Can't open VMG info!
  File not found: '10'.
  Failed to open dvd://10.
  Cannot open file/device.
  Exiting...

If I mount /dev/dvd and do a find, I see one directory (DVD_RTAV) with 3
files (VR_MANGR.BUP, VR_MANGR.IFO, VR_MANGR.VRO) below it.  All of these are
readable (mode 777).  Acidrip found the DVD but was unable to show me a
listing of the titles.  Calling lsdvd gave the error "Can't open main ifo!".

This is running under Debian etch with the following installed (from deb
files):

  mplayer 1.0-rc1-0.0
  mencoder 1.0-rc1-0.0
  libdvdread3 0.9.7-2

I'd appreciate any advice on how I could convert selected titles to AVI.
Thanks.