Mac simple DVD backup question

[WickEd101]

Hi all,

I have a simple question about DVDs and I'm hoping this is simple enough to get a short answer or to be pointed to the nearest tutorial. I'm not big on the video technology front so I hope I'm not too primitive.

I generally just watch DVDs straight on my Mac or a standalone DVD player without any worries, but recently have decided it would be nice to have a backup of some of my discs. (If you were wondering, it's The Office, because I couldn't stand the idea of losing something I regularly rewatch.)

I used a program called DVD Backup 1.3 for Mac to 'rip' each episode to hard drive. Each took only a few minutes and resulted in a ~950MB file (is this right so far?). Next I would like to be able to (1) play them on my Mac and (2) play them on a standalone DVD player. For (1) I believe ffmpegX is the way to go - I have downloaded and started using this great program, and although a little indepth for me, I have had very good results. Is there a page explaining how to get top results from this program, because there are a plethora of codecs and standards and resolutions and everything else which I don't know how to balance to produce a highly watchable file.

Secondly, with putting them on DVD, I obviously own a Super Drive, so I was hoping these VOB files would be what I would mostly need to get them watchable on a normal DVD player. All I want is the files, not any menus or pictures/features, whatever else programs let you do. Just something basic for my own personal usage.

I run OS 10.3.7 and use Toast Titanium 6. I have seen in this program features to get data straight from VIDEO_TS folders - is that what I'm after?

Thanks a tonne for your help guys!

[JoachimS]

Rip: MacTheRipper
Convert: DVD2OneX
Burn: Toast (Data, UDF, NOT Video!)

This is the way to go.

See also the tutorial at the DVD2OneX site.

Cheers

JoachimS