MakeMKV

ARM rips video discs (DVD and Blu-ray) with MakeMKV. The ripper image builds MakeMKV from the official signed source — no licence is baked into the image, so every ripper container needs a working key at runtime. (Audio CDs don't touch MakeMKV; they're ripped with abcde. Data discs are imaged directly.)

How the key works

Before each disc, the ripper runs a small script that ensures a key is in place, choosing one of three paths, in precedence order:

1. You set it in the UI (recommended). Open Config → MakeMKV key and paste your key (a purchased permanent key, or a beta you grabbed yourself). The ripper fetches it from the backend before each rip — no file editing, and it survives a restart or recreate. A key set here overrides the MAKEMKV_KEY env var below, and you can change it without restarting anything.
2. You supply a key via env. Set MAKEMKV_KEY=T-… in ~/arm/.armctl/.env. Used when the UI key is blank. The script writes it into the container's ~/.MakeMKV/settings.conf.
3. You leave both unset. The script scrapes the current month's free beta key from MakeMKV's public forum thread and uses that. This is the same approach ARM has shipped for years and is fine for DVDs, but the forum sits behind Cloudflare and rate-limits, so the scrape is brittle under load.

The free beta key rotates roughly monthly. Because the refresh runs per disc, a container left running across a rotation self-heals on the next disc — no restart needed.

After setting a key (whichever path), verify it landed:

docker exec armv3-ripper-sr0 grep app_Key /home/arm/.MakeMKV/settings.conf

(The UI path takes effect on the next rip; the env path needs armctl up.)

Buying a key

While MakeMKV is in beta the free key works, but you can buy a permanent key to avoid the monthly rotation and the forum scrape: https://www.makemkv.com/buy/. Paste it into Config → MakeMKV key (path 1 above), or set it as MAKEMKV_KEY.

DVD vs Blu-ray — where the key actually matters

Disc type	Needs a valid key?	Why
DVD (CSS or unprotected)	No	CSS support is in the open-source half of MakeMKV.
Blu-ray (AACS)	Yes	AACS is in the closed-source binary, gated by registration.
UHD Blu-ray (AACS 2.0)	Yes	Same path; also needs a compatible "friendly" UHD drive.
Audio CD	No	Ripped with abcde + cdparanoia, not MakeMKV.

So if DVDs rip fine but Blu-rays fail with App key incorrect, the key is the problem. If every MakeMKV call fails with MSG:5021 … application version is too old, that's a different issue: MakeMKV beta binaries carry a hard ~60-day kill switch and no key overrides it — you wait for the next upstream beta and rebuild the ripper image. DVDs keep working in the meantime. Full failure-mode table in docs/user/MakeMKV-Ripper.md.

Licence

Using MakeMKV means accepting its EULA. The full text is mirrored at MakeMKV EULA. Note in particular that MakeMKV can bypass copy protection to read a disc, and it's your responsibility to comply with the copyright law in your jurisdiction.

Reference

• MakeMKV output codes — the DRV:/TINFO:/SINFO: message fields makemkvcon emits, handy when debugging a scan.
• docs/user/MakeMKV-Ripper.md — the in-repo operations doc: key handling internals, how the image is built, and every failure mode with its log signature.