Easy Way to Determine Playlist to Rip Makemkv

It can be difficult to determine what title to choose for the main movie, when trying to rip or copy a DVD …

It becomes especially difficult when certain copy protection mechanisms screw with the table of contents, and applications like DVDFab and HandBrake suddenly show a lot of "movies" on the DVD (I've seen up to 99 titles appear like this). Obviously the DVD does not contain 99 movies, but selecting the wrong title will actually produce a screwed up rip. Parts of the movies are skipped or are not in the right place in the movie.

With a simple trick you can figure out what title to pick (covering Windows, MacOS X and Linux).

Picking the right DVD title

With "normal" DVD's it's relatively easy to decide which of the titles is the actual movie – Simply pick the one with the longest playback time. Sometimes though this can be difficult when a DVD contains multiple titles (TV Series for example), or when a crazy copy protection mechanism screws with the table of contents and makes it appears as if the DVD has multiple titles.

So how do you determine the right track? Simple … let your DVD playback software tell you …

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VideoLAN VLC

VLC, a free video playback program available for Windows, MacOS X, Linux and other Operating Systems, is probably the easiest and most flexible tool to use for this purpose. Download VLC from the VLC Homepage, install it, and start it.

Note: Most Linux distributions come with so called package managers like APT, or Software Centre (Ubuntu), which typically allow you to install VLC straight from their.

Next insert your DVD if you haven't already.

MacOS X

In the main menu, with VLC being the active application, click "File""Open Disc…" (or press COMMAND + D).

VLC MacOS X – Play Disc

A confirmation dialog will open showing the disc type VLC found (if you have only one DVD Rom drive – otherwise a file dialog will appear. In that case select the DVD drive on the left side).

VLC MacOS X – Open DVD

The DVD will now start playback, which typically starts with the menu of the DVD.
Select the movie you want to rip and start watching the movie.

From the main menu you can now determine what title is the real title you need for ripping – make sure the actual movie is playing!
Click "Playback" "Title".

The title in the list with the checkmark in front of it is the active title you're looking for – take note of the title number and playback time so you can find it back in HandBrake or whatever DVD ripping program you're using and that's all there is to it.

VLC MacOS X – What Title is playing

If you'd like to see more detail, visit Hunk's article here.

Windows

In the "Media" menu of VLC, select "Open Disc…" (or press CTRL + D).

VLC Windows – Open Disc

Next select the type of disc you're about to play (DVD), enter the drive letter (VLC will select the first DVD/CD Rom player – or use "Browse…") and click "Play" to start playback.

VLC Windows – Select the Disc

From the usual DVD menu (if applicable) start the featured movie – before proceeding make sure the movie is actually playing.
Once the movie you'd like to rip is playing, select from the VLC menu "Playback""Title".
The title marked (see illustration below) is the title you're looking for … write down title number and playback time of that title so you can find it later in HandBrake or other application you use for ripping a DVD.

VLC Windows – See what title is playing

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Linux

From the VLC menu select "Media" and click "Open Disc…" (or press CTRL + D).

VLC Linux (Ubuntu) – Open Disc

Next select the type of disc you're about to play (DVD), enter the device name and path (VLC will select the most likely device – or use "Browse…") and click "Play" to start playback.

VLC Linux (Ubuntu) – Select the Disc

From the usual DVD menu (if applicable) start the featured movie – before proceeding make sure the movie is actually playing.
Once the desired movie is playing, select from the VLC menu "Playback""Title".
The title marked (see illustration below) is the title you're looking for … write down title number and playback time of that title so you can find it later in HandBrake or other application you use for ripping a DVD.