Using a cache with a DVD

Usually encode2mpeg needs to read several times the source video:
If the source video is on a DVD disk, encode2mpeg requires a significative amount of time just for disk access.

For example a transfer of a DVD to a DVD with chapters, video copy, 2 audio channels copy and 1 subtitles like:
encode2mpeg -o NOCACHE -dvd dvd://1 -mpeg -encode 0:0:1 -multiaudio 128,129 -addchapter copy -addsub 0 -imageonly
requires about 1h56m.

The same transfer with cache support:
encode2mpeg -o ADDCACHE -dvd dvd://1 -mpeg -encode 0:0:1 -multiaudio 128,129 -addchapter copy -addsub 0 -imageonly -cachedvd /var/tmp/cache /media/cdrecorder
takes instead 1h23m. There is a 25% time reduction. The time gain is not always the same, it depends of the options. Under certain conditions, you could increase the time required instead of reducing it.

However the BIG advantage is in successive transfers. Once the DVD is cached, a new transfer will proceed as fast as possible:
encode2mpeg -o USECACHE -dvd dvd://1 -mpeg -encode 0:0:1 -multiaudio 128,129 -addchapter copy -addsub 0 -imageonly -dvd-device /var/tmp/cache/<TITLE>
takes now 0h51m. The time reduction now is 55%. Again, with certain options, the time gain could be irrelevant.

Cache options

To cache a DVD on the hard disk add:
-cachedvd <cache dir> <dvd mount point>
Once you have cached the dvd on the disk, you can use the cache content for succesive run adding the option:
-dvd-device <cache dir>/<DVDTITLE>
You can save the content of the cache to a DVD disk with:
-savecache
or, if you want to create only an iso image, use:
-savecache iso
In order to remove the cache content from the disk at the end of a run, add, together with -cache or -dvd-device, the option:
-removecache
If you want to execute only cache operations (create/save/remove cache) add:
-cacheonly 

Example

encode2mpeg -o DISK -cachedvd /var/tmp/cache /media/cdrecorder -savecache -removecache -cacheonly
will do only a verbatim copy of a DVD

Raid DVD

Most DVD movies are on a DVD9, their size is bigger than 4.38GB so they will not fit on a single layer DVD. It it possible however to store a DVD9 on two single layer DVD and watch (on a pc) the movie as if it was stored on a single disk.
Add to encode2mpeg the option:

-savecache raid
or, if you want to create only the iso images, use:
-savecache raid iso
When using -savecache raid, encode2mpeg needs root access in order to use loosetup and mdadm and will ask for the root password.

Once you have the two DVD, or the two iso images, you need to mount them. Together with encode2mpeg you will find the script mountdvdraid that is able to mount two disks together:
mountdvdraid /media/dvd /dev/sr0 /dev/sr1

will execute something like:

losetup /dev/sr0 /dev/loop0
losetup /dev/sr1 /dev/loop1
mdadm -B /dev/md0 -l linear -n 2 /dev/loop0 /dev/loop1
mount -o ro /dev/md0 /media/dvd

and
mountdvdraid /media/dvd
will do the reverse operation.
After the mount operation, the full content of the original DVD is available in /media/dvd and you can watch it with your favorite player.
For practical reasons, you need to have two dvd drives in your pc, but also with only one drive you can mount the two disks. Just dump one dvd on the hard disk (dd if=/dev/dvd of=image) and later mount the disk image and the second dvd (mountdvdraid /media/dvd image /dev/dvd).

IMPORTANT:

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