Hi all,
someone knows what is happening to the Makemkv site?
Yesterday there was an update of makemkv but the update terminate with errosrs.
Looking at the aur package, I saw that the problem is that the makemkv site is down.
In the alternative download link Forum Makemkv 42158 I see that the post with alternative downloads to be used “until the website goes backup” was posted on 30 July (near one month)
What is going on?
I don’t think there’s anything you can do except just wait it out.
(https://www.videoproc.com/de/blog/is-makemkv-down.htm)
If you just need a tool for converting video-files, i would recomment handbrake.
Thanks @AlexBoldt
About DVD and Blu Ray ripping, I already use Handbrake.
But handbrake is not able to decode most DVD and Blu Ray.
A partial workaround is to make a media copy using DD; normally handbrake cannot read the media but reads the copy.
This not always works.
So I need something that rips the media, so handbrake can do the conversion.
Sadly almost everything I found is for Widows (n removed intentionally) or MacOS
Any suggestion?
Have you tried AUR (en) - makemkv-working? I just built it successfully on my Unstable branch system.
You will need an activation key (apparently):
It’s certainly not looking good for that project, which is a pity as it’s a marvellously useful tool. If the developer has given up then I worry that the temporary activation keys won’t get replaced and it’ll become unusable.
While I have ripped DVDs in the past using Handbrake it’s a lot more faff than the nice simple interface of MakeMKV. Though I may end up having to get used to that…
[Edit]: This forum post suggests a way to work if the keys don’t get updated, though I think it should be possible to avoid having to change the whole system date by using faketime (in the repo).
Hi @scotty65 I’ll try ASAP
The only problem is the activation key that expires in 40 days
Key is valid until 2026-10-01 (40 days 14 hours 2 minutes 50 seconds)
If the site does not come back up there is no way to make it work
They will issue a new key before the end of September:
Fingers crossed. 
If the sole developer has vanished, no one will create new keys.
The developer hasn’t vanished - they released a new key at the end of July.
However, this forum post says that the current issues could be due to makemkv being copyright circumvention technology:
If the developer can’t receive payments, then they may not be able to pay for the site hosting and data usage.
I’ve not needed to use it myself, but I’ve heard good things about this project. GNU licence and free
I may not understand the question here, but can’t the DVD be ripped using Brasero or similar and decode/re-encode with AviDemux?
Hi @bananamangodog
in the past I tried these group of tools
mkvmerge mkvinfo mkvextract mkvpropedit MKVToolNix GUI
that the MKVToolNix downloads; but, in my experience, these tools manage mkv files but they are not able to rip a DVD and make an mkv file
Maybe I’m wrong
Hi @jrichard326
I don’t know which workflow are you using and I’m curious.
In my use case, I’m converting my physical library of DVD and Blu-ray in an unencrypted format to be able to read them in the future.
DVD/Blu-ray readers seems will stop reading old (or newer) media based on their firmware.
In a drive I installed LibreDrive but I fear that the Evil Empire will prevent me from reading the media I bought.
My workflow is (especially for TV seasons with many episodes on one DVD)
Mod edit: Consecutive posts merged.
I doubt they care that much to want to bork people’s optical devices. There hardly exist any longer dvd / blue rays in retail shops or exists dvd rentals. Well, at least not in my neck of the woods.
The general attraction to MakeMKV lies in that several popular copy protection technologies can be circumvented when ripping from BluRay discs.
If not for that “feature”, I’m fairly confident that applications such as HandBrake, AviDemux or virtually any other capable software, would suffice for the needs of most users.
Or dd, which is what I’ve used in the past. Although K3b is a great program for making backup copies of your DVDs etc. to your hard drive. VLC plays these without issue and doesn’t give a flying 
(without the knife) about region coding (Linux software and the Kernel in general doesn’t particularly care either) even if you previously set a drive to a particular region.
ffmpeg mostly and dvdbackup on the most stubborn dvd. Never thought on dd for that purpose.
I’ve used it for backing up old 5¼" and 3½" floppy disks to images on the hard disk. Works well, at least for that. 
Ah, I misunderstood then. I thought you used it for copying dvds
I have done that, indeed. No issues playing the generated .ISOs with VLC.