Lots of content here last updated on January 2012.  Sorry to blow my own hor
       here, but this collection is quite possibly the most comprehensive and 
       professional Internet-wide collection of examples and explanations of using 
       ffmpeg and mencoder to perform video encoding under Linux.  I've searched a 
       for this info and was not able to find anything as comprehensive or up to da
       
       
       Here are a few useful things to know when working with DVDs.
       
       
 (TXT) Method to rip *DVDs with* sector protections (removes ARccOS, etc).  Works most of the time.
 (TXT) C source code for use with the above link.
 (TXT) Script utilizing mplayer to rip *DVDs without* sector protections (only for CSS encrypted discs).
 (TXT) Encoding DVD compliant video with ffmpeg or mencoder.  Quite possibly the most comprehensive set of notes on the Internet for using ffmpeg and mencoder to produce DVD ready MPEG2 files.  Current to Jan 2012.
       
       
       There was a popular series of NTSC capture cards produced by Hauppauge with 
       model number PVR 150, 250, and 350.  These cards were nice because they did 
       hardware MPEG2 encoding in realtime during the capture.  The 250 and 350 als
       had a composite input which was useful for capturing and digitizing videotap
       
       In Linux the module for these cards works extremely well.  Applications that
       can use the card to view include basically any application that can view the
       /dev/video0 device; mplayer, vlc, tvtime, mythtv, etc..
       
       Sometimes in Linux forums you'll see people ask how to record from these and
       other v4l cards and people will say something lame like "just do cat 
       /dev/video0 > output.mpg". Ummmm...no.  I'm using a professional operating 
       system, I expect fine grain control over which inputs I'm capturing, the 
       bitrate, the codecs, the resolution, the gop size, etc.
       
       The most important part is the recording!  For that you have 2 choices; myth
       and the command line.  I prefer the command line because you can script your
       needs and the method is very low resource.  MythTV is great for a dedicated 
       or if you do a lot of time shifting and just want a way to setup recordings 
       manage them in a GUI.
       
       
 (TXT) Setting up the card parameters and capturing video.
 (TXT) An example of a script to setup parameters and execute a timed recording, can be used in a cron job.
       
       
       What do you do with your MPEG2 videos that you captured?  I don't suggest 
       keeping them in that format unless you're going straight to DVD.  I either 
       encode to H.264, Theora, or Webm.  It all depends on what type of video it i
       (junk, archival, etc) and what device I'll be viewing it on (computer, media
       center device, portable, etc).
       
       
 (TXT) Examples of using ffmpeg2theora to encode videos.
 (TXT) Encoding to Ogg Theora using the Internet Archive's method.
 (TXT) Encoding to Webm format with ffmpeg.
 (TXT) Encoding to H.264 with ffmpeg, including the Internet Archive's method.
       
       
       Here's some random media related stuff that doesn't fit anywhere else.
       
       
 (TXT) Using ffmpeg's x11grab method to capture video/audio on your desktop.
 (TXT) Info about ffmpeg, mencoder, and mplayer and the encoding/decoding available to them.