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Rip DVDs and transcode movies in Linux with Arista Transcoder

Rip DVDs and watch them on your iPod, PS3 or other device, or transcode downloaded movie files to other formats using Arista Transcoder on Linux.

There are many tools available for ripping DVDs and converting, or transcoding, video files to other formats in Linux, but many of them are quite challenging to use, particularly for the less technical user. However, Arista Transcoder handles all of these tasks, looks great and is dead easy to use.

Here's our simple guide to setting it up on Ubuntu 9.04 Jaunty Jackalope and transcoding your first files. If yuu want more power, check out our Handbrake tutorial.

Step 1
First add the PPA for Arista to your sources.list file. You can either do this by editing the file at /etc/apt/sources.list with Gedit using the sudo command, or you can enter this one-liner command to add the appropriate line to the end.

The command you need to paste into your terminal is: sudo sh -c "echo 'deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/danielgtaylor/ppa/ubuntu jaunty main' >> /etc/apt/sources.list"

Step 2
This PPA is signed with a special key, so you'll need to add its key using the apt-key command: sudo apt-key adv --keyserver keyserver.ubuntu.com --recv-keys A1B03D01

Step 3
Now you've got your PPA in the sources.list as a repository and its key stored in the APT system, you'll be able to download Arista using either Synaptic, or using this one-liner: sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install arista

Select Y when prompted and it will install Arista and the Gstreamer plugins it needs as dependencies.

Step 4
Arista should now be installed, so you can start it up by entering arista-transcode, or by selecting it from the Applications > Sound & Video menu.

Step 5
Arista Transcoder is a very simple application without a lot of confusing settings. It doesn't allow you to tweak the output settings. Instead, you simply choose your input source and select the device you'd like the transcoded file to play on.

First, select the item you want to transcode. I'm going to go for a video file to transcode to another format, but you can also select a DVD. If you do that, you'll need to install libdvdcss2 which is available via Medibuntu. I've selected the file Groove.mp4.

Step 6
Now select the device you'd like the file transcoded for. I'm going for PDA Generic and leaving the Preset option on Normal. You could also choose from Apple iPod, Cowon D2, Computer, DVD Player, Nokia N Series, Sony NWZ-818, Sony PSP or Sony PS3.

Step 7
Then click the Add to Queue button and select where you'd like to save the transcoded file to. You can name it whatever you like.

Step 8
You should now see Arista Transcoder spring into action and start transcoding your file. There's a real time preview to show you the quality of the file that's being generated. If you want to transcode lots of files, you can simply set them up, add them to the queue and leave your machine to crunch away at them overnight.