Something that I’ve been meaning to do is find a way to rip just specific tracks of audio from a DVD. I enjoy commentary tracks on DVDs, but sometimes I want to hear the dialogue from the movie at the same time; especially if the commentators are talking over dialogue that’s important to what they’re saying. Some DVDs allow for movie subtitles while listening to the commentary, but most tend to subtitle the directors’ words.

How could I fix that? By ripping the commentary to MP3 files and playing them on my laptop or iPod while watching the movie with the normal audio settings I’d use for watching movies on the TV. I’ve just tested some suggestions made at An Undisclosed Location (what a great bit of link text…) which pointed me to “hidden” settings in MacTheRipper (free) for pulling off AC3 audio a chapter at a time. Pump that through the (not drag and dropable…) mac3dec which makes the MP3 files I want. I now have individual MP3s of each chapter of the director’s commentary for Boondock Saints; the initial theory of having the individual chapters would be to help with synchronizing the MP3 with the movie, but one big MP3 file should be just as easy to align.