bluback

A CLI/TUI tool for backing up Blu-ray discs to MKV files using FFmpeg library bindings + libaacs. All rips are lossless remuxes — no re-encoding.

Features

• Lossless remux — stream copy via FFmpeg, no quality loss
• TUI wizard — interactive disc scanning, TMDb lookup, episode assignment, progress dashboard
• Headless CLI — fully scriptable with --yes, --title, --playlists
• TMDb integration — automatic show/episode metadata lookup and naming
• Chapter preservation — Blu-ray chapter markers embedded during remux
• Per-stream track selection — filter by language, format, or manual selection
• Batch mode — continuous multi-disc ripping with episode auto-advance
• Multi-drive support — parallel sessions with per-drive tabs in TUI
• Rip verification — post-remux header and frame validation
• Post-rip hooks — configurable shell commands after each rip or session
• MKV metadata embedding — auto-generated tags (title, show, season, episode)
• Rip history — SQLite database with episode continuation and duplicate detection
• Auto-detection — heuristic identification of specials and multi-episode playlists
• AACS backend selection — libaacs (KEYDB.cfg) or libmmbd (MakeMKV LibreDrive)
• Linux + macOS

Requirements

• FFmpeg shared libraries (libavformat, libavcodec, libavutil, etc.) with libbluray support
• libaacs with a populated ~/.config/aacs/KEYDB.cfg
• A Blu-ray drive (Linux: /dev/sr0; macOS: /dev/diskN)
• Optional: TMDb API key for episode metadata

Installation

From crates.io

cargo install bluback

Pre-built binaries

Linux x86_64 and aarch64 binaries are available on the releases page.

From source

Requires FFmpeg development libraries and clang for FFI binding generation:

git clone https://github.com/cebarks/bluback.git
cd bluback
cargo build --release
# Binary at target/release/bluback

Quick Start

# Auto-detect drive, interactive TUI
bluback

# Specify device and output directory
bluback -d /dev/sr0 -o ~/rips

# Movie mode
bluback --movie -o ~/movies

# Continuous batch ripping
bluback --batch -o ~/rips

# Validate environment setup
bluback --check

# List playlists with stream details
bluback --list-playlists -v

Configuration

Config file at ~/.config/bluback/config.toml. Edit interactively with bluback --settings or Ctrl+S in the TUI. Settings can also be overridden via BLUBACK_* environment variables.

See Configuration for full reference.

Documentation

AACS Decryption

bluback relies on libaacs for AACS decryption. You need a KEYDB.cfg file at ~/.config/aacs/KEYDB.cfg containing device keys, processing keys, and/or per-disc Volume Unique Keys. The KEYDB can be sourced from the FindVUK Online Database.

Discs with MKBv72+ MKBs may require a per-disc VUK in the KEYDB, or the libmmbd backend (--aacs-backend libmmbd) with a registered MakeMKV installation. See the macOS guide for libmmbd setup.

AI Disclosure

Portions of this codebase were developed with the assistance of generative AI (Claude Code). This project was started as a test of Claude Code's limits, but turned out to be a genuinely useful tool.

License

AGPL-3.0-or-later