No-click DVD ripping?

Here's a fully-automated DVD ripping solution I've put together. It is still a little rough around the edges, but will create an accurately named MKV file with associated metadata and resources such as cover art. As much as possible I've used existing applications, and have used some automation tools to glue those together. The script is based on Adam Pash's original DVD Ripping script, but takes the filename from Yammm and adds some additional steps to ensure the settings for ripping are consistent.

Note these instructions are for Windows XP as I don't have a Windows 7 box with an optical drive

The overall process is as follows:

• Use Yammm to automatically retrieve the ID from themovidb for any DVD loaded into a drive.
• Use EventGhost to watch the directory that Yammm populates with metadata and launch an AutoHotkey script.
• Within the Autohotkey script, invoke DVD Shrink to rip the DVD contents to the hard drive.
• Once the DVD has been ripped, invoke Handbrake to create an MKV file.

Follow these instructions to download and configure each application to automate the ripping process.

Set up AutoHotkey

Download the AutoHotkey installer from the download page. You could download the zip version instead, but you'd need to make sure you've configured your PATH environment variable so you can invoke AutoHotkey from the Autorun launcher.

• Save the file to your PC.
• Double-click to launch the installer, at the Open Executable File dialog select OK.
• At the Open File - Security Warning dialog select Run.
• Select Next > on the first page of the dialog, select I Agree on the next.
• Ensure the Main Program and Script Compiler options are selected and select Next >.
• Enter a suitable location to install and select Install.
• Once installation is complete, select Finish.

Download the autodvdrip script

Download this script and save it to your PC, for example to c:\autodvdrip\autodvdrip.ahk

Install DVDShrink

Download DVD Shrink from Softpedia.

• Save the Zip file to your PC.
• Open the zip and double-click on dvdshrink32setup.exe.
• At the File Download - Security Warning dialog select Run.
• Select Next > on the first page of the dialog, agree to the license agreement and select Next >.
• Install to C:\Program Files\DVD Shrink and select Next > (*if you change the location, you'll have to edit line 5 of the ahk script to point to your preferred location instead).
• Select Next > twice more using the default options.
• Once installation is complete, select Finish.

Install Handbrake

Handbrake is used to convert the ripped DVD files to the final format.

Download Handbrake, we only need the CLI for this process, but you may as well get the GUI version (Windows XP/Vista/7 - GUI).

• Save the file to your PC.
• Double-click to launch the installer, at the Open Executable File dialog select OK.
• At the Open File - Security Warning dialog select Run.
• Select Next > on the first page of the dialog, select I Agree on the next.
• Enter a suitable location to install and select Install.
• Once installation is complete, select Finish.

Install Yammm

We use Yammm to automatically retrieve metadata for DVDs. One of the configuration options allows you to retrieve the metadata when a DVD is inserted. The script will then find that metadata file and use the name for the final file. It will also retrieve artwork and some other gubbins.

Download Yammm.

• Save the file to your PC.
• Double-click to launch the installer, at the Open Executable File dialog select OK.
• At the Open File - Security Warning dialog select Run.
• Select Next > on the first page of the dialog.
• Enter a suitable location to install, decide whether to enable Yammm for all users or just you and select Next > then Next > again.
• Once the YammmConfig dialog is displayed, select the DVD tab.
• Check the Create a Placeholder folder for new DVDs when inserted option.
• In the Create folders for new movies in this location section, select Change.
• Navigate to your Movies location (e.g. c:\Movies) and select that folder, select OK.
• Select the Library tab.
• Select Include a folder...
• Navigate to your DVD location and select that folder, select OK.
• Select the Metadata tab.
• In the Create the following meta information files section, check the file types you want metadata to be produced in.
• Select Save then Exit.
• The installation is now complete. Select Close to close the dialog.

Set up EventGhost

We use EventGhost to monitor the "Movies" location. If it detects any file changes it will obtain the latest dvdid.xml file and check to see if a rip is required. It assumes that the latest dvdid.xml has just been downloaded by Yammm, and will use that to rip a DVD if the script hasn't already been run on that disc. When the script is run it creates a .dorip marker file in the directory to indicate that the DVD has been ripped. This isn't particularly elegant, so I'm happy to hear of a better alternative.

Install EventGhost

Download EventGhost

• Save the file to your PC.
• Double-click to launch the installer, at the Open Executable File dialog select OK.
• At the Open File - Security Warning dialog select Run.
• Select Next > on the first and second pages of the dialog.
• Enter a suitable location to install and select Next >.
• Choose a name for the Start Menu item (default is EventGhost) and select Next >.
• Uncheck Create a desktop icon (unless you really want to keep it and select Next >.
• Once installation is complete, select Finish.

Configure EventGhost

• Save this EventGhost Script to your file system (e.g. c:\autodvdrip\autodvdrip.xml)
• Launch EventGhost.
• Select File->Open.
• Browse to the EventGhost script and open it.
• In the right-hand pane, you should see a Python Script item, expand it if is not already, then right-click on the child Python Script item and select Configure Item.
• In the editor window, there are 6 lines directly below the comment #Set these to the locations relevent for your setup. Ensure these values are correct for your PC. Remember to use double back-slashes (\) as the path separator. The lines set values for the script to launch AutoHotkey to control DVD Shrink and to invoke Handbrake.
  • autohotKeyPath: Fully-qualified path to AutoHotkey.exe (needs to be escaped with \"s if the path contains spaces).
  • autoHotKeyScriptPath: Fully-qualified path to the autodvdrip.ahk file.
  • dvdDrive: Path for the DVD drive, e.g. D:\ (remember the double back-slashes, this is used to control DVD Shrink).
  • moviesDirectory: Fully-qualified path of the movies directory, This has to match the path defined for the Movies location in the Yammm setup.
  • handbrakePath: Fully-qualified path to the Handbrake executable (e.g. \"c:\Program Files\Handbrake\HandBrakeCLI.exe\")
  • handbrakeSettings: These are the default presets for the 'High Profile' preset modified to output mkv and with the --longest switch to select only the main movie. These settings are obtained from HandbrakeCLI by running HandbrakeCLI --preset-list. If you need you can tweak these settings to your requirements.
• Once you've made all the changes, select OK.
• We also need to modify the Directory Watcher plugin below the Autostart item (thanks to Simondo for pointing this out).
  • Right click the Directory Watcher icon and select configure item.
  • Change the Watched Path: to match the moviesDirectory value as above and select OK.

We now want to configure EventGhost to launch on startup so the DVD drive is monitored.

• From within EventGhost, select File->Options.
• Check Autostart EventGhost on system startup and Minimize to system tray on close.
• Select OK.

Try it

If all the steps have been followed (and there aren't any errors in these instructions...), you should now be able to put a DVD in the drive and some time later have an MKV file and its associated metadata appear in your media library as if by magic.

TODO items

There are a few issues with this setup that I'd like to refine.

• The EventGhost-Yammm integration is a bit flaky. It would be neater if Yammm could be invoked directly or invoke the script when metadata is found.
• If there is no entry in themoviedb.org for the film, then the ripping process won't launch.
• Once Handbrake completes a command prompt is left lying around. It could be closed, but I'm wary of clashing with user interactions.
• The VIDEO_TS and AUDIO_TS folders are left lying around. Once the MKV is created they aren't really needed and could be deleted

Update I've updated the EventGhost script to escape the paths containing spaces with escaped quotes after reviewing the issues in this question. If any path is used containing spaces it needs to be escaped like this: "\"c:\\path with spaces\\some file.txt\"".