I followed http://www.ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=133642 posted by wargames and was able to successfully copy several of my purchased DVD's. I automated the process and wrote a script. So, here is my attempt to make copying a DVD a bit easier. Copy the below text to a new file and name it something like "mydvdbackups.sh" or whatever suits you. Make the new file executable with "chmod a+x filename.sh". I always had problems with dvdbackup until I ran everything as root, then I had no problems copying DVD's. So, it might be a good idea to run this script as root (sudo).

As far as I know, dvdbackup does not do any shrinking. So, a copy of a dual layer DVD movie will need to be burned to a blank dual layer DVD. 

#!/bin/bash
#
# MyDVDBackup script v 0.1 by ardchoille
#
# you must install dvdbackup from the repository
# in order to be able to use this script
#
# this script copies a dvd movie using dvdbackup
# then makes an image of the dvd movie
# and, finally, burns the image to a blank dvd
#
# check to see if this script is being run as root
startstring=`date +%c`
datadir=/home/mydvdbackup
imgdir=/home/mydvdimg
if [ $UID -ne 0 ];then
   echo "You do not have admin privileges to run this script."
   exit 1
fi
#
# check for the dvd project folder
if [ ! -d $datadir ];then
   echo "DVD project directory does not exist, creating " $datadir
   mkdir $datadir
fi
#
# check for the dvd image folder
if [ ! -d $imgdir ];then
   echo "DVD image directory does not exist, creating " $imgdir
   mkdir $imgdir
fi
#
# get devices
dvdreader=`zenity --entry --text="Enter your DVD reader device (ex.
/dev/hdc):" --width=300 --title="DVD reader device"`
dvdburner=`zenity --entry --text="Enter your DVD burner device (ex.
/dev/hdd):" --width=300 --title="DVD burner device"`
#
# copy the dvd to the data directory
dvdbackup -M -i$dvdreader -o$datadir/
#
# get the name of the dvd
dvdname=`ls $datadir`
#
# create the AUDIO_TS directory if it doesn't exist
if [ ! -d $datadir/$dvdname/AUDIO_TS ];then
   mkdir $datadir/$dvdname/AUDIO_TS
fi
#
# create the dvd image
mkisofs -dvd-video -o $imgdir/$dvdname.img $datadir/$dvdname/
#
# go to the directory containing the image
cd $imgdir
#
# burn the image to a blank dvd
growisofs -dvd-compat -speed=2 -Z $dvdburner=$dvdname.img
stopstring=`date +%c`
#
# print information about the project
echo "MyDVDBackup is complete."
echo "MyDVDBackup began: "$startstring
echo "MyDVDBackup finished: "$stopstring
echo "The DVD movie "$dvdname" has been been copied to the DVD in
"$dvdburner
echo "The DVD image is located in "$imgdir
exit

The only change that I can see anyone needing to make is the 13th line, which reads datadir=/home/mydvdbackup, and change that to where you want the dvd project to be placed.

Todo:

1) I'd like to be able to ask the user if he/she wants to continue with the next step in the process but I don't know how to do that in bash. You can see this in the above three TODO lines.

2) Add additional features.

3) Clean up the code if possible. I tried to comment as best I could without adding too much to the script.

The above script isn't perfect, but it works on my machines. Anyone have any advice to make this script better?