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       Lots of content here last updated on January 2012.  Sorry to blow my own horn 
       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 lot 
       for this info and was not able to find anything as comprehensive or up to date.
       
       
       Here are a few useful things to know when working with DVDs.
       
       
  TEXT Method to rip *DVDs with* sector protections (removes ARccOS, etc).  Works most of the time.
  TEXT C source code for use with the above link.
  TEXT Script utilizing mplayer to rip *DVDs without* sector protections (only for CSS encrypted discs).
  TEXT 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 also 
       had a composite input which was useful for capturing and digitizing videotapes.
       
       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; mythtv 
       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 DVR 
       or if you do a lot of time shifting and just want a way to setup recordings and 
       manage them in a GUI.
       
       
  TEXT Setting up the card parameters and capturing video.
  TEXT 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 is 
       (junk, archival, etc) and what device I'll be viewing it on (computer, media 
       center device, portable, etc).
       
       
  TEXT Examples of using ffmpeg2theora to encode videos.
  TEXT Encoding to Ogg Theora using the Internet Archive's method.
  TEXT Encoding to Webm format with ffmpeg.
  TEXT 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.
       
       
  TEXT Using ffmpeg's x11grab method to capture video/audio on your desktop.
  TEXT Info about ffmpeg, mencoder, and mplayer and the encoding/decoding available to them.