VortexBox 1.8 Expands DVD Ripping Capabilities

VortexBox 1.8 has been released, two months after the previous update. The latest version adds better support for DVD ripping, which was introduced in the previous release, and comes with the latest version of the SqueezeBox Server.

"We are pleased to announce the release of VortexBox 1.8. In the last release we added DVD movie ripping now we made it better. VortexBox now identifies the DVD and names it accordingly," the official announcement read.

VortexBox 1.7 introduced support for DVD ripping. Previously, the Fedora-based Linux distro was used as a music server, mainly for home networks.

Now, apart from the jukebox capabilities, VortexBox can also make copies of your DVDs to make it easier to manage and view them, on any device connected to the network.

"VortexBox can also create an mp4 mirror of your DVD with a Windows Media Center xml file. This works great for viewing movies in Windows Media Center," Andrew Gillis explained.

"You can now select the length the DVD tracks you want ripped. This is great for TV show DVDs where you want to rip all the tracks greater then a certain length," he added.

Along with the expanded DVD ripping functionality, VortexBox 1.8 comes with SqueezeBox Server 7.5.3 and other updated packages. It also includes a number of bug fixes, as is the norm.

About VortexBox

VortexBox is a Fedora-based Linux distribution that turns any computer into a media streaming server or jukebox.

It automatically rips Audio CDs to MP3 and FLAC files and fills in ID3 tags and cover art. The ripped files can then be streamed to a network player such as Logitech SqueezeBox, Linn or Sonos, and even to a Windows or Macintosh system.

As of VortexBox 1.7, it can also rip DVDs as MKV or MP4 video files. For installation, VortexBox requires an empty hard drive, it doesn't work on a hard disk partition.

VortexBox 1.8 is available for download here on Softpedia.