having problems copying a dvd

[Sergio de Almeida Lenzi]

Hello

Thanks Roland for the parameters in the mplayer/mencoder...

To make things easier.. I recomend to create a profile 
in the directory ~/.mplayer/mencoder.conf with the content:
=========================================================
[pal]
oac=lavc=yes
ovc=lavc=yes
lavcopts=vcodec=mpeg2video:vrc_buf_size=1835:vrc_maxrate=6000:vbitrate=4000
Lavcopts=keyint=15:trell=yes:mbd=2:precmp=2:subcmp=2:cmp=2:dia=-10
lavcopts=predia=-10:cbp=yes:mv0=yes:aspect=16/9
lavcopts=vqmin=1:lmin=1:dc=10:vstrict=0
lavcopts=acodec=ac3:abitrate=192
lavcopts=lumi_mask=0.2:dark_mask=0.15:scplx_mask=0.2:tcplx_mask=0.1
vf=scale=720:576,harddup=yes 
af=lavcresample=48000
mpegopts=format=dvd:tsaf=yes
of=mpeg=yes
srate=48000
channels=2
ofps=25

[pal_cinemascope]
profile=pal
vf=scale=720:432,expand=720:576,harddup=yes 
==========================================================

Or using the options from Roland....
extract the stream (as Roland said...)  mplayer dvd://1 -dumpstream
-dumpfile dvd.mpg
crop detect...   mplayer -vf cropdetect dvd.mpg

and then finally encode with mencoder using the profile above and
Roland's example...

mencoder -profile pal -vf crop=704:416:10:80 dvd.mpg -o film.mpg

the result will be a high definition video with 1024x576 PAL (25 fps)
16:9 aspect with audio AC3 192Kbps (plays using HDMI)
in any dvd player... or in your computer.
if the source (dvd.mpg) is in 2.35/1 ratio use -profile pal_cinemascope
and mencoder will adjust the aspect for the video.