Testing backup DVDs without video and audio
Posted on 2021-10-30 (Updated on 2021-10-30)
After creating a whole host of backup DVDs, you might be faced with a dilema; how to verify that each disk was burned properly. Backups aren't backups until they are tested!
However, verifying even a small DVD collection could take days of watching DVDs manually. Luckily, there is a much simpler way with VLC's command-line interface:
cvlc "dvd:///dev/sr0" --rate 4 --no-audio --no-video --play-and-exit
Here's a breakdown of the command, for those interested in mixing and matching.
cvlc: Use the VLC command-line interface"dvd:///dev/sr0": Use the DVD drive as a DVD video source.sr1would be the second DVD device,sr2the third, etcetera--rate 4: Play through at 4x speed. I'm not sure my DVD drive was able to keep up with this and keep playback going that fast, but it did play much quicker.--no-audio --no-video: Don't actually output any audio/video, just decode it--play-and-exit: Quit when playback has finished
The result is a few lines of text as output; so that you can verify that playback was successful, without a movie distracting you in the background.