The venerable DVD is a removable media format that was conceived over 15 years ago. However, it still remains today the ideal format for many uses, although blu-ray is starting to make significant inroads in the field of multimedia playback.
DVDs remain the most popular removable format for Linux distributions, primarily because CDs do not have the capacity to carry a large number of applications, and blu-ray discs and players remain expensive.
This article focuses on selecting the best free software which relies on the DVD format. We select the best of breed Linux software to play DVD multimedia, to create DVD videos, software to write to them, as well as applications that copy video content from DVD media to a hard disk. Furthermore, we also examine software which helps users to catalogue their DVD collection, as well as software which offer a textual version of dialog.
To provide an insight into the quality of software that is available, we have compiled a list of 21 high quality Linux DVD tools. Hopefully, there will be something of interest for anyone who wants to revel in multimedia.
Now, let’s explore the 21 DVD tools at hand. For each title we have compiled its own portal page, providing a screenshot of the software in action, a full description with an in-depth analysis of its features, together with links to relevant resources and reviews.
| DVD Tools | |
|---|---|
| xine | Powerful multimedia program, specializing in video playback |
| MPlayer | Very popular movie player |
| Totem | Official movie player of the GNOME desktop environment |
| VLC | Multimedia player and streamer |
| Brasero | Easy to use CD/DVD burning application |
| GnomeBaker | CD/DVD creation in the GNOME desktop |
| K3b | Sophisticated KDE CD/DVD burning application |
| AcidRip | Ripping and encoding DVD tool using MPlayer and Mencoder |
| dvd::rip | Perl front end for transcode |
| HandBrake | Multithreaded DVD to MPEG-4 converter |
| Thoggen | DVD backup utility ('DVD ripper'), based on GStreamer and Gtk+ |
| DeVeDe | Create video DVDs |
| K9Copy | DVD backup and authoring |
| KMediaFactory | Template based DVD authoring tool for KDE |
| Q DVD-Author | GUI frontend for dvdauthor and related tools |
| GCstar | Manages a movie collection |
| Griffith | Film collection manager |
| Tellico | Collection manager for KDE |
| Gaupol | Subtitle editor for text-based subtitle files |
| GNOME Subtitles | Subtitles editor for the GNOME Desktop environment |
| Subtitle Editor | Graphical subtitle editor with sound waves representation |
 Read our complete collection of recommended free and open source software. Our curated compilation covers all categories of software. The software collection forms part of our series of informative articles for Linux enthusiasts. There are hundreds of in-depth reviews, open source alternatives to proprietary software from large corporations like Google, Microsoft, Apple, Adobe, IBM, Cisco, Oracle, and Autodesk. There are also fun things to try, hardware, free programming books and tutorials, and much more. |