bluback

A CLI/TUI tool for backing up Blu-ray discs to MKV files using ffmpeg + libaacs, with optional TMDb integration for automatic episode naming.

Supports TV shows (sequential or manual episode assignment, including multi-episode playlists) and movies. All rips are lossless remuxes (-c copy) — no re-encoding.

Why not MakeMKV?

MakeMKV doesn't work reliably with USB Blu-ray drives using ASMedia USB-SATA bridge chips (e.g., ASUS BW-16D1X-U). The bridge mangles SCSI passthrough commands needed for disc access. Standard block-level reads via /dev/sr0 work fine, so bluback uses ffprobe/ffmpeg with libbluray instead.

Requirements

• ffmpeg and ffprobe (with libbluray support)
• libaacs with a populated ~/.config/aacs/KEYDB.cfg (containing device keys, processing keys, and/or per-disc VUKs)
• A Blu-ray drive accessible as a block device (e.g., /dev/sr0)

Optional:

• A TMDb API key for automatic show/episode metadata lookup

Installation

From crates.io

cargo install bluback

From source

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

Usage

bluback [OPTIONS]

By default, bluback auto-detects your Blu-ray drive and launches a TUI wizard that walks you through the ripping process.

Examples

# Auto-detect drive, interactive TUI
bluback

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

# TV show: pre-set season 2, starting at episode 5
bluback -s 2 -e 5 -o ~/rips

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

# Dry run (show what would be ripped)
bluback --dry-run

# Use Plex-style filenames
bluback --format-preset plex -o ~/media

# Custom filename template
bluback --format "S{season}E{episode}_{title}.mkv"

# Plain text mode (no TUI)
bluback --no-tui

Options

Configuration

Config file: ~/.config/bluback/config.toml

# TMDb API key (also checked in ~/.config/bluback/tmdb_api_key and TMDB_API_KEY env var)
tmdb_api_key = "your-key-here"

# Filename preset: "default", "plex", or "jellyfin"
preset = "plex"

# Or custom format templates (overrides preset)
tv_format = "S{season}E{episode}_{title}.mkv"
movie_format = "{title}_({year}).mkv"

# Auto-eject disc after rip
eject = true

# Set drive to max read speed
max_speed = true

Filename Templates

Templates use {placeholder} syntax. Available placeholders: {show}, {season}, {episode}, {title}, {year}, {resolution}, {audio}, {channels}, {codec}.

Bracket groups [...] auto-collapse when their contents are empty (useful for optional metadata).

Priority chain (highest to lowest): --format CLI flag > --format-preset > tv_format/movie_format in config > preset in config > "default" preset.

TUI Keybindings

AACS Decryption Notes

bluback relies on libaacs for AACS decryption. You need a KEYDB.cfg file at ~/.config/aacs/KEYDB.cfg containing device keys, processing keys, host certificates, and/or per-disc Volume Unique Keys (VUKs).

USB drive caveat: The only publicly available AACS host certificate is revoked in MKBv72+. Discs with newer MKBs require a per-disc VUK entry in the KEYDB. If ffprobe hangs during disc scanning, check for an orphaned libmmbd.so.0 on your system — if present without a working MakeMKV backend, libaacs can hang indefinitely.

AI Disclosure

Portions of this codebase were developed with the assistance of generative AI (Claude, Anthropic).

License

AGPL-3.0-or-later