Q: What is the best way to rip an idvd disc?

Is there any software that would keep my movies in a Idvd formatted project?

No.  All you can do is rip the individual movies from the video DVD and join them together with iMovie or Quicktime Player.  There's no way to get the video DVD menu and links.  You can create a disk image of the video DVD with Disk Utility and save it.  The disk image  could then be mounted and played with DVD player.

If you can make a disk image of the existing disk you can burn another video DVD from it or save and use the disk image to play with DVD Player. 

Put the disk in the optical drive and launch Disk Utility.  Select the DVD disk in the left hand pane of DU (Flash Test in the screenshot) and use the File ➙ New ➙ Disk Image from "DVD disk" menu option

When you rip videos from a video DVD you will lose noticeable image quality.  Handbreak will do the job or look in the App Store for other possible apps.

Or you can go to MacUpdate.com and do a search for "rip DVD" to this these possible candidates.

When you rip a disk you're converting the VOB files in the video DVD disk into  movie files at the cost of reduced quality.

Creating a disk image is "saving" the video DVD to your hard drive in a video DVD format that DVD Player can play as a video DVD, just as if you were playing a commercial video DVD on your Mac.

If at some time in the future you want to burn a new video DVD for someone you can with Disk Utility and the disk image.

I am also having the same issue. I just uploaded Handbrake and tried to rip my first DVD I had created in the past on iDVD (in a slide show format). The final product is just the slide show but not the main menu and effects.

1) I read your earlier post about creating a disc image and saving it on the computer. I have an iMac v10.8.5 with iDVD installed on it but I do not see Disk Utility. Please provide more steps to find it.

2) So this method makes an exact copy of my iDVD disc again and saved to my iMac? I want then to copy it afterwards to an external hard drive also.

3) I also want to import the entire copied DVD into iMovie to incorporate it in a project. Can that be done?

All you can get with Handbrake from and iDVD video DVD is a copy of the movie file(s) created by iDVD for the slideshows, added movies and animated menus in the iDVD project.  Look for the larger VOB files in the VOB folder:

The number of VOB files will be dependent on the number of animated menus, slideshows and movies in the iDVD project.

The Disk Utility app is located in the Applications/Utilities folder.

To save an iDVD project as a disk image use the File ➙ Save as Disk Image menu option.

Hi ~

I'm sorry, I don't quite understand all of your first sentence: "All you can get with Handbrake from and iDVD video DVD is a copy of the movie file(s) created by iDVD for the slideshows, added movies and animated menus in the iDVD project.  Look for the larger VOB files in the VOB folder:" Please explain this sentence further.

Such as, you mentioned "All you can get with Handbrake from and iDVD video DVD…". This part especially I don't understand how it was written. Sorry.

For Disk Utility, how do I open it exactly? I see that you included a screen shot but when I open iDVD the pop up box shows up and that option in the drop down is grayed out until I select something from the pop up box. When I put in the DVD I am not able to see that option in the drop down box.

When iDVD creates a video DVD it converts the slideshows and added movies to .VOB files. When those .VOB files are converted back by Handbrake or other similar apps a movie file is created for each slideshow and movie in the project.

If the project has annimated menus a .VOB file for that menu is created and it will be converted to a movie file.  So all you'll get out off ripping an iDVD video DVD are movie files.

For Disk Utility, how do I open it exactly?

Disk Utility is an application that is located in the Applications/Utilities folder. Go there and double click on it to open it.

Thank you, but I am still a bit confused. So the first part you described are the files that Handbrake extracts from the DVD itself. Are you saying all those files are each of the effects on the DVD separately? Can they be merged back together again in iMovie or someplace else on my computer without using Disk Utility?

And the second part about Disk Utility. That is just another way to copy the DVD exactly to your computer, correct? Or is this the only way and not Handbrake?

I tried to follow the steps using Disk Utility but I got stuck after it created the copy. The system wouldn't let me eject my own disc out of the burner at that point. I was using the eject key on my keyboard and it wouldn't work. So I closed out of Disk Utility and then the eject worked. I then opened up D.U. again but I still could not find a way to play my new dvd copy from my hard drive. I see it there but when I click on it there is a box that opens up with two folders in it. This is where I am unclear of how to proceed. Please provide the exact steps (1, 2, 3…).

Once you extract the slideshows and movies from the video DVD as movie files you an edit them in any video editor you'd like, iMovie, Quicktime Player 6 with QT Pro, etc.

With the disk image open so you can see those two folders launch DVD Player.app and it will play it.

Hi ~

1) With this first option with the copied disc via Handbrake, I see the copied DVD under "Devices" in Finder even though the disc is no longer in the drive. When I click on the disk name "My_Great_DVD" (under Devices), it shows two folders: Audio_TS and Video_TS. I then click on the folder for Audio_TS, but there is nothing in it. But in the folder for Video_TS, there are a bunch of files with different extensions.

       a) Why is the audio folder empty?

       b) And how do I import those files, as you mentioned, from the video folder to iMovie so I can sort them in a new project to replicate my original DVD disc?

2) With the second option using disk image instead, I went back to open Disk Utility within Applications. The box popped up where it shows the Handbrake app on the left. See screen shot below. My copied DVD is there titled: Tower of Terror.

       a) Why are there two folders or files of the same disc title, one with .cdr and the other with .dmg?

       b) And what is the last folder there, decryptedFile.dmg? I don't recall it being there before.

       c) I didn't have any luck with opening the disk image in the DVD player.app. I opened iDVD. What should I do from there to play the disk image below?