  torsocks wget https://apt.benthetechguy.net/benthetechguy-archive-keyring.gpg -O /usr/share/keyrings/benthetechguy-archive-keyring.gpg
  echo "deb [signed-by=/usr/share/keyrings/benthetechguy-archive-keyring.gpg] tor://apt.benthetechguy.net/debian bookworm non-free" > /etc/apt/sources.list.d/benthetechguy.list
  apt update
  apt install makemkv

apt update yields:

Ign:9 tor+https://apt.benthetechguy.net/debian bookworm InRelease
Ign:9 tor+https://apt.benthetechguy.net/debian bookworm InRelease
Ign:9 tor+https://apt.benthetechguy.net/debian bookworm InRelease
Err:9 tor+https://apt.benthetechguy.net/debian bookworm InRelease
  Connection failed [IP: 127.0.0.1 9050]

Turns out apt.benthetechguy.net is jailed in Cloudflare. And apparently the code is not developed out in the open -- there is no public code repo or even a bug tracker. Even the forums are a bit exclusive (registration on a particular host is required and disposable email addresses are refused). There is no makemkv IRC channel (according to netsplit.de).

There is a blurb somewhere that the author is looking to get MakeMKV into the official Debian repos and is looking for a sponsor (someone with a Debian account). But I wonder if this project would even qualify for the non-free category. Debian does not just take any non-free s/w.. it's more for drivers and the like.

Alternatives?

The reason I looked into #makemkv was that Handbrake essentially forces users into a long CPU-intensive transcoding process. It cannot simply rip the bits as they are. MakeMKV relieves us of transcoding at the same time as ripping. But getting it is a shit show.

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[–] evenwicht 1 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (1 children)

What’s the point of spending a day compressing something that I only need to watch once?

If I pop into the public library and start a ripping process using Handbrake, the library will close for the day before the job is complete for a single title. I could check-out the media, but there are trade-offs:

no one else can access the disc while you have it out
some libraries charge a fee for media check-outs
privacy (I avoid netflix & the like to prevent making a record in a DB of everything I do; checking out a movie still gets into a DB)
libraries tend to have limits on the number of media discs you can have out at a given moment
checking out a dozen DVDs will take a dozen days to transcode, which becomes a race condition with the due date
probably a notable cost in electricity, at least on my old hardware

[–] LeninOnAPrayer@lemm.ee 3 points 1 week ago (1 children)

You're on a piracy sub mate. I had assumed the point would be to share with others.

[–] evenwicht 1 points 6 days ago

Well it’s still the same problem. I mean, it’s likely piracy to copy the public lib’s disc to begin with, even if just for a moment. From there, if I want to share it w/others I still need to be able to exit the library with the data before they close. So it’d still be a matter of transcoding as a distinctly separate step.