Ripping DVD's to play on mac

[collink]

Hi guys im brand new and looking for a bit of advice trying to sort something for the other half on his macbook pro.
hes doing a tonne of travelling for business and has a regular windows operated laptop with NO disk drive...needs to be able to use the mac to copy dvds to a memory card/device and play while away.

ive used MTR and copied a t.v. DVD all saved in a file some .VOB files but says the following when attempt to open the file...

The document “VTS_01_5.VOB” could not be opened. VLC media player cannot open files in the “VOB File (DVD Video)” format.

anyone who could offer some advice would be gratefully received!!!

please bare with me if i ask a lot of follow ups...not good with software a im sure you guys can tell!!

thanks in advance for any help!!
kate

[rumplestiltskin]

Best solution: Make sure you have the latest version of VLC installed on the MBP. Then install Handbrake. Use Handbrake to rip the DVDs to H264/MP4 (use the AppleTV preset as a starting point). The entire movie will be in one file. Use only the AAC audio and turn off the extra audio tracks (as these aren't necessary to play the file on the PC). Install Quicktime on the PC and he'll be able to play the movie with QuickTime Player.

[collink]

thank you so so much! im lost in this world!!

will be trying that 2moro, i saw handbrake advertised but was unsure which version i was getting from the link! will look for latest version and d.load that.

Thanks again!

[rumplestiltskin]

Make sure you have VLC installed in your main Applications folder and install Handbrake there, as well. Handbrake uses VLC's decryption code to read the DVD.

[terryj]

I guess I must be missing something?

If you rip the tv DVDs to your hard drive, you should get a VIDEO_TS folder
with all the .VOB files in it.

With VLC, you simply set it to navigate to the VIDEO TS Folder, NOT THE .VOB files.
In VLC, go to "Open Source".
Select "Video_TS". click browse, and then with it select on your Hard Drive
( the folder VIDEO_TS, not the .VOB files inside).
Once selected, click Open, then click OK. Then it should start playing.

See Screenshot.

[terryj]

Now, if you are having problems with the FOLDER (VIDEO_TS) not being accessed by
VLC, then there is a problem with the rip of the DVD.
For that, we would need to know what version of MTR you are using,
as only the newest ( v. 4.01 at time of this posting) can handle
current copyguards....

[collink]

No all working fine and managed to get a few ripped for his latest business trip...using VLC instead of quicktime and now have latest version on both computers...so all good!

thanks for all the advice guys...what programmes best for burning...brother in-law now in love with handbrake and as im not burning dvd's dont have a clue eeeekkk!!!

think he wants to play on dvd player!?

thanks again

kate

[rumplestiltskin]

Handbrake is for ripping/transcoding to smaller video files (H264/MP4, for example) so the videos take up much less space on the hard drive. This is how I store all of my videos (no more DVD burning for me). But for eventual burning back to a DVD, MacTheRipper is fine for the ripping process and Toast to burn the VIDEO_TS folder back to a DVD (which it does as a UDF disc). There are other apps, as well, and opinions will be posted soon enough.

[collink]

Yeah thanks im set up for media direct to t.v....and finally have a way of sorting the library as i say its really simple for him to travel he has a 4gb memory stick with him (bigger one on route) and for a 2 day trip has 4 hour long episodes, and 2 movies so will hopefully not be so bored waiting for planes and trying to feel at home in yet another hotel room!! perfect solution eh...clever gf if only i knew all this techno stuff.

i will pass info onto brother in-law as he wishes to burn but until it starts playing around its handbrake for me!! lovely programme.

thanks for the heads up once again guys

[collink]

hi, is there any good software for burning which is free? ive just advised brother in law of Toast, and realised its a paid for programme as he wont be using it much a free one would be a great find!! bet you guys wish you didnt help now huh!!

[Case]

A program called Burn is a free alternative for disc burning.

[rumplestiltskin]

Apple's Disk Utility burns discs, as well. However, authoring it can't do (but iDVD can, and that's free on all Macs).

[From a Buick 8]

Handbrake is for ripping/transcoding to smaller video files (H264/MP4, for example) so the videos take up much less space on the hard drive. This is how I store all of my videos (no more DVD burning for me). But for eventual burning back to a DVD, MacTheRipper is fine for the ripping process and Toast to burn the VIDEO_TS folder back to a DVD (which it does as a UDF disc). There are other apps, as well, and opinions will be posted soon enough.

I have a buch Video TS files that i want to get into Itunes for use on appleTV, it sounds like handbrake is what i need to use. If i convert them to H264/MP4 you noted that the file size would be smaller, would i also lose quaility. I assume the H264/MP4 will work on appleTV

[Case]

I have a buch Video TS files that i want to get into Itunes for use on appleTV, it sounds like handbrake is what i need to use. If i convert them to H264/MP4 you noted that the file size would be smaller, would i also lose quaility. I assume the H264/MP4 will work on appleTV

If I remember correctly, HandBrake has an Apple TV preset. "Now with 21 essential vitamins and minerals, including Apple TV support!"

[jman98]

I have a buch Video TS files that i want to get into Itunes for use on appleTV, it sounds like handbrake is what i need to use. If i convert them to H264/MP4 you noted that the file size would be smaller, would i also lose quaility. I assume the H264/MP4 will work on appleTV

In theory ANY conversion from one lossy codec (MPEG-2 on DVD) to another (H.264) will cause quality loss. But the few examples of Handbrake encoded files that I have seen were well done. Just try it and see what you think. It's possible that you won't notice any difference.

[rumplestiltskin]

I have a buch Video TS files that i want to get into Itunes for use on appleTV, it sounds like handbrake is what i need to use. If i convert them to H264/MP4 you noted that the file size would be smaller, would i also lose quaility. I assume the H264/MP4 will work on appleTV

In theory ANY conversion from one lossy codec (MPEG-2 on DVD) to another (H.264) will cause quality loss. But the few examples of Handbrake encoded files that I have seen were well done. Just try it and see what you think. It's possible that you won't notice any difference.

Yes, Handbrake does a fine job. I usually use H264, 350MB/hour (with 128kb audio), for SD and it works fine. Try that as a starting point and remember that Handbrake will do live preview so you may see what changes in your bitrate (etc.) will have on your transcoded material.

[BIFFtheSTIFF]

i'm curious, what happens if i have a dual layer dvd? how can i compress it to fit on a single layer dvd? or would toast do it?

[rumplestiltskin]

Toast will not do this if the original DVD is a commercial, encrypted disc; you'd have to use something like Mac the Ripper first to get the content to your hard disk without the encryption.

[From a Buick 8]

i'm curious, what happens if i have a dual layer dvd? how can i compress it to fit on a single layer dvd? or would toast do it?

Once you get the Video TS folder on your HD, then use DVD2OneX to compress to a file size that will fit on a single layer DVD.

[lawnman]

If the Video_TS file has to be compressed too much then you might get artifacts with playback. If all you need is the movie then do a Movie Only with DVD2oneX.

[From a Buick 8]

If the Video_TS file has to be compressed too much then you might get artifacts with playback. If all you need is the movie then do a Movie Only with DVD2oneX.

Even better I found that in most casses when you strip out the movie only there is little to no compression needed.

[BIFFtheSTIFF]

ok but how can i even rip a dvd? mactheripper u have to pay for. and i dont want handbrake or whatever its called because it encodes the vobs to mov or h2 something or whatever. i just want to rip dvds like how dvddecryper or dvdfab hd7 would do on a pc.

[rumplestiltskin]

ok but how can i even rip a dvd? mactheripper u have to pay for. and i dont want handbrake or whatever its called because it encodes the vobs to mov or h2 something or whatever. i just want to rip dvds like how dvddecryper or dvdfab hd7 would do on a pc.

Uh...you pay for MTR, that's how you rip a DVD if you don't want to use Handbrake. Seems like you're solidly rooted in the 20th century, though.

[BIFFtheSTIFF]

and whats wrong with that? i didnt have to pay anything when i was on my pc. i used dvdfab hd 7 to rip my dvds and put them as backups. or dvdshrink. why should i have to pay?

[From a Buick 8]

and whats wrong with that? i didnt have to pay anything when i was on my pc. i used dvdfab hd 7 to rip my dvds and put them as backups. or dvdshrink. why should i have to pay?

What mac do you have, if it is an intel mac you can run bootcamp and still use those products.

You can try Ripit or MTR but yes you will need to shell out some money for those. I am sure the folks behind dvdfab and dvdshrink would also like some cash from the people who use them.