How best to copy a DVD?

Question

Level 1

10 points

How best to copy a DVD?

Hi. I want to copy a home DVD for members of my family to view on their TVs and I'm confused by the range of options available. These seem to be:-

1. Create a project in iDVD (but I don't want to mess about with themes, etc)

2. Use Disk Utility (Mac shop told me this was only for data discs)

3. Use a combination of Mac The Ripper, Handbrake and Roxio Popcorn (Complicated - and what does this do to film quality?)

The DVD consists of two files: a Video_TS and an Audio_TS (although the Audio_TS seems to be blank). It plays fine on my TV's set-top DVD player (although I can't copy it on that for some reson) and on my Mac's DVD Player.

Any advice gratefully received: I'm new to this ("ripping" and "burning" have just entered my vocabulary) and never imagined it would be so complicated!

Mac OS X (10.6.8)

Posted on Apr 15, 2012 12:17 PM

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Answer 1

wjosten

Level 10

95,321 points

Apr 15, 2012 12:19 PM in response to Richard2468

For non-copyrighted DVD's, all you need is Handbrake to rip. You do need software to burn, like Toast.

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Answer 2

Richard2468 Author

Level 1

10 points

Apr 15, 2012 12:57 PM in response to wjosten

Thank you. It would be good to know why it's necessary to do all this ripping and burning - why isn't there a simple "Copy" facility in DVD Player, for example? But perhaps that's outside the scope of this forum.

As an observation, I've just tried copying the disk via Disk Utility and it's produced a copy that works on my Mac, but not on my TV's player - which rejects the disk as "Unsupported".

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Answer 3

wjosten

Level 10

95,321 points

Apr 15, 2012 1:25 PM in response to Richard2468

Like many things in life, complicated...in the US it is illegal to copy copy protected DVD's. Thus, mfg's, like Apple, are not going to pack their computers will software needed to "rip" or copy DVD's, so they are playable on DVD players. As you found out, all you can make are in essence data DVD's. Thus, we can't recommend any software capable of ripping commercial DVD's(prohibited here). However, handbrake will copy or rip non-protected DVD's. You need to do that in order to have the files necessary to "burn" a DVD that can be played on a DVD player. Once you've got the files, you then need software capable of burning. All of this is necessary because of law. Doesn't need to be this way, but that's the way it is.

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Answer 4

Richard2468 Author

Level 1

10 points

Apr 15, 2012 3:34 PM in response to wjosten

I see. So Handbrake extracts the contents in a form suitable for copying and Toast then makes the copy? What does this process do to the quality of the original?

Does Mac The Ripper do the same thing as Handbrake? And what about VLC and MPEG Streamclip?

Sorry to ask so many questions, but this is all very helpful & informative.

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Answer 5

Courcoul

Level 6

18,558 points

Apr 15, 2012 3:39 PM in response to Richard2468

You may wish to explore the "Unsupported" section in Handbrake, when used with the "Unsupported" section of VLC's libraries. It may just then be able to read the other kind of DVDs.

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Answer 6

fane_j

Level 4

3,697 points

Apr 15, 2012 9:36 PM in response to Richard2468

Richard2468 wrote:

I want to copy a home DVD for members of my family to view on their TVs

If it's really a home-made DVD, then it's not copy-protected and you don't need to 'rip it', only to copy it. Use Disk Utility.

Make sure you have enough free disk space to copy it (rough rule: at least 5G + the size of the DVD).
Insert the DVD, quit DVD Player or any other app which is launched automatically.
Launch Disk Utility.
Select your DVD in the side bar.
Choose File > New > Disk Image from <your DVD's name>.
In the ensuing dialogue, choose Image Format: DVD/CD master, Encryption: none.
Confirm and save.

To burn a copy, also in Disk Utility, choose Images > Burn…, select the image you saved, and burn it. If the original DVD was playable on a DVD player, the resulting DVD should be also.

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Answer 7

fane_j

Level 4

3,697 points

Apr 15, 2012 9:50 PM in response to Richard2468

Richard2468 wrote:

Handbrake extracts the contents in a form suitable for copying

No. Handbrake is a video transcoder, not a copying or ripping tool. See

<https://trac.handbrake.fr/wiki/SupportFAQ#whatisit>

<https://trac.handbrake.fr/wiki/IsIsnt>

'Transcoder' means that it converts the video signal from one type of encoding to another. If the source is protected (as many, but not all, commercial DVDs are), Handbrake can't convert it.

Mac The Ripper do the same thing as Handbrake?

No. This is not a transcoder, but a ripper, ie, an app which breaks the copy protection employed by some commercial DVDs. Note that this is illegal in the USA and other countries.

And what about VLC

VLC is a media player. It is free and compatible with a wide range of formats and codecs, so it's a very useful tool to have. It can also transcode, but it's not very good at that; like Handbrake, it will not break the DVD copy protection.

MPEG Streamclip?

This is also a transcoder. It may be possible to rip copy-protected DVDs with it, but this requires the QT MPEG2 component from Apple. (Even in Lion, which has built-in MPEG2 support.)

None of those are necessary for the task you mentioned.

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Answer 8

Richard2468 Author

Level 1

10 points

Apr 22, 2012 4:12 AM in response to fane_j

Many thanks to all for your helpful replies: I've learned a lot.

The main solution to my problem turnned out to be embarrassingly basic: I hadn't realised there was any significant difference between CD-R disks and DVD-R disks and I was trying to copy onto a CD-R. I think that explained why I could play the disk on my Mac, but not on my Panasonic DVD player. Consequently, once I'd got a DVD-R, I was able to copy the video in a format I could play anywhere, simply using Roxio Popcorn. I haven't experimented to see whether I could get the same result using Disk Utility.

The only thing I couldn't do with the first copy I made using Roxio was make a further copy to the hard drive of my Panasonic. To do that, I had to make another DVD-R copy on the Mac, but this time running the original through Handbrake first and then Roxio.

This probably seems incredibly obvious to all of you, but it's possible there are other innocents out there who might benefit from my experience!

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Answer 9

bspiral

Level 1

11 points

Apr 22, 2012 6:16 AM in response to Richard2468

Don't assume your question is novice - I'm a video editing novice who has learned something from your question. Thanks for being part of the forums.

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Answer 10

Dec 26, 2012 1:27 AM in response to Richard2468

If you're talking about DVDs which are not copy protected and whose copyright holder gave you the licence to copy them, then you may use Disk Utility. Rip & copy DVDs and burn any video to DVDs Once copied, you can play the content using DVD Player.

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