  torsocks wget https://apt.benthetechguy.net/benthetechguy-archive-keyring.gpg -O /usr/share/keyrings/benthetechguy-archive-keyring.gpg
  echo "deb [signed-by=/usr/share/keyrings/benthetechguy-archive-keyring.gpg] tor://apt.benthetechguy.net/debian bookworm non-free" > /etc/apt/sources.list.d/benthetechguy.list
  apt update
  apt install makemkv

apt update yields:

Ign:9 tor+https://apt.benthetechguy.net/debian bookworm InRelease
Ign:9 tor+https://apt.benthetechguy.net/debian bookworm InRelease
Ign:9 tor+https://apt.benthetechguy.net/debian bookworm InRelease
Err:9 tor+https://apt.benthetechguy.net/debian bookworm InRelease
  Connection failed [IP: 127.0.0.1 9050]

Turns out apt.benthetechguy.net is jailed in Cloudflare. And apparently the code is not developed out in the open -- there is no public code repo or even a bug tracker. Even the forums are a bit exclusive (registration on a particular host is required and disposable email addresses are refused). There is no makemkv IRC channel (according to netsplit.de).

There is a blurb somewhere that the author is looking to get MakeMKV into the official Debian repos and is looking for a sponsor (someone with a Debian account). But I wonder if this project would even qualify for the non-free category. Debian does not just take any non-free s/w.. it's more for drivers and the like.

Alternatives?

The reason I looked into #makemkv was that Handbrake essentially forces users into a long CPU-intensive transcoding process. It cannot simply rip the bits as they are. MakeMKV relieves us of transcoding at the same time as ripping. But getting it is a shit show.

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[–] ohulancutash@feddit.uk 1 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago)

Never heard of Ben the tech guy, but that’s an unofficial repo.

The correct installation method is to make from source, as directed on the official forum. Should take about 2 minutes if you’re not familiar with building from source.

MakeMKV is not FOSS and never claimed to be.

[–] liliumstar@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 8 months ago (1 children)

MakeMKV is non-free proprietary software. It just happens to be free while in beta, which it has been forever. There's not a lot of great free software solutions that do the same thing, in fact it's the main (or only) way people extract 4k BDs with the FEL intact.

[–] Draconic_NEO@lemmy.dbzer0.com -1 points 8 months ago

Hopefully when it does drop out of Beta and they start charging people for activation people will be willing to crack it and use it for free.

[–] ertai@programming.dev 0 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Hey I finished my ripping guide and ended up writing my own script which uses only libre software (dvdbackup, lsdvd, mkvmerge and jq). Worked great for my collection of ~350 dvd. Check it out!

[–] evenwicht@lemmy.sdf.org 0 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) (1 children)

thanks!

Though I should mention my original motivation with makemkv was to rip blu-ray discs, which has complications that go beyond DVD. But the DVD guide will still be quite useful.

[–] ertai@programming.dev 0 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) (1 children)

If you find out a way of ripping blu-rays with libre software or find some tools that look like they could be assembled to solve the issue, do share! I don't feel like doing it myself for now because I have only 5 blu-rays but maybe it would be simple to change my existing script to adapt to blu-ray. Have you tried using dvdbackup or lsdvd on a blu-ray? Both programs rely on libdvdread, maybe it works on blu-ray too. In that case I think it wouldn't be too hard to adapt dvd2mkv to blu-ray.

[–] evenwicht@lemmy.sdf.org 0 points 7 months ago (1 children)

I have not tried much of anything yet. I just got a cheap laptop with a BD which came with Windows and VLC. I popped in a blu-ray disc from the library and it could not handle it.. something about not having a aacs decoder or something like that. I didn’t spend any time on it yet but ultimately in principle I would install debian and try to liberate the drive to read BDs.

[–] ertai@programming.dev 2 points 4 months ago

hi, I just found this software that might be interesting to you: https://github.com/beandog/bluray_info the author also made a utility for regular dvd. I have not made any tests.