# Overview

> What freemkv is, how the recovery model works, and how the toolchain fits together.

Source: https://freemkv.org/docs/overview/

<div class="discord-callout"><strong>Need help or stuck?</strong> Join the <a href="https://discord.gg/yu7xMGTyek">freemkv Discord</a> for community help and support — the fastest way to get a hand with rips, drives, and decryption.</div>

freemkv is a Rust toolchain for optical-disc backup. Its goal is to **recover 100% of readable data from any optical disc, automatically**, then decrypt and mux the result to MKV.

"Readable" is the bound: **if a sector can be read off the disc, freemkv reads it.** Not best-effort: everything the drive can physically recover, pursued through transient errors and marginal media.

If you just want to rip a disc, the **[CLI reference](https://freemkv.org/docs/cli/)** has every command, run the **[autorip service](https://freemkv.org/docs/autorip/)** and let it do it on disc insert, or open the desktop app — pick titles, press Rip.

## The recovery model

Disc recovery runs in two phases:

- **Pass 1, sweep.** A sequential read of the whole disc, tolerant of bad sectors. When a sector won't read, freemkv records the range and skips ahead instead of aborting, so one bad spot never costs you the rest of the disc.
- **Pass N, patch.** Targeted retries on the bad ranges from the sweep: multi-attempt, with a per-sector recovery timeout, cache priming, and bisection of unread ranges to find the good middle of a partly-damaged region.

Once the map is clean (or an accepted-loss threshold is reached), freemkv muxes: decrypt the disc and write the titles to MKV. See **[How recovery works](https://freemkv.org/docs/how-recovery-works/)** for the full model.

## Formats and decryption

| Format | Encryption | Keys |
|---|---|---|
| DVD | CSS | None (keyless) |
| Blu-ray | AACS 1.0 | Required |
| 4K UHD | AACS 2.0 / 2.1 | Required |

DVDs decrypt with no setup. Blu-ray and 4K UHD need decryption keys you provide; see **[Decryption Keys](https://freemkv.org/docs/decryption-keys/)**. 4K UHD covers both AACS 2.0 and 2.1 discs, and both decrypt the same way — from the keys you supply, not from the disc's variant data.

## The toolchain

freemkv ships in three ways, all built on a shared core.

**freemkv CLI**: manual, scriptable control. Every input and output is a `scheme://` stream URL:

```bash
# rip a disc to MKV — main title (the default)
freemkv disc:// mkv://Movie.mkv

# inspect a disc
freemkv info disc://

# remux an existing ISO to MKV — main title (the default)
freemkv iso://Disc.iso mkv://Movie.mkv
```

freemkv rips the **main title** by default (one file), for any source —
`disc://` or `iso://`. Add `-t N` to choose a specific title, or `-t all` to
rip every title on the disc (one file each, to a directory); run `freemkv info
disc://` to list titles with durations.

Available for Windows, macOS, and Linux. See the **[CLI reference](https://freemkv.org/docs/cli/)**.

**freemkv desktop app**: the same binary, opened as a window instead of run as a command — pick titles and tracks, choose an output format, and watch live progress. Available on macOS, Windows and Linux (GTK4 + libadwaita, as a portable AppImage; Flathub listing on the way). See the **[macOS](https://freemkv.org/docs/platforms-macos/)**, **[Windows](https://freemkv.org/docs/platforms-windows/)** or **[Linux](https://freemkv.org/docs/platforms-linux/)** pages.

**autorip**: a service (Windows, macOS, Linux) that watches your optical drives, runs the full pipeline on disc insert, and exposes a web UI. Insert a disc, get an MKV, repeat. See the **[autorip service](https://freemkv.org/docs/autorip/)**.

All three compose libfreemkv, the core library that handles drive access, sector reads, AACS/CSS decryption, and MKV muxing, plus freemkv-engine, which layers recovery and the rip loop on top of it. See **[Components](https://freemkv.org/docs/components/)** for the breakdown of every crate.

## Next steps

- **[Install](https://freemkv.org/docs/install/)**: prebuilt binaries or build from source.
- **[Platforms](https://freemkv.org/docs/platforms-windows/)**: per-OS setup, file locations, and drive access (Windows, macOS, Linux).
- **[CLI reference](https://freemkv.org/docs/cli/)**: every subcommand, flag, and stream URL.
- **[Decryption Keys](https://freemkv.org/docs/decryption-keys/)**: what Blu-ray and UHD need.