Trying to back up my rare, copy-protected, R2 DVD's

[PacificaBren]

I decided to back up some rare, out-of-print, region 2 DVD's I own.

But much to my consternation, I have so far been unable to get them onto my hard drive.

First I tried dragging and dropping the video_ts folder, but I got a message telling me I did not have permission to copy all of its contents.

Then I attempted to generate an ISO image of that disk, but got another message saying I didn't have permission to do that.

This was under MacOS Mojave. I do have another Mac running Windows 10, so if there's a good piece of Windows-only software that would work, I can try that.

Without checking, I assume Windows 10 would similarly refuse to let me drag-and-drop the files or make an ISO. But I can certainly try that.

I didn't even try Handbrake, because we all know the latest versions of it would refuse.


Anybody got any suggestions?

Thanks!

[october262]

I decided to back up some rare, out-of-print, region 2 DVD's I own.

But much to my consternation, I have so far been unable to get them onto my hard drive.

First I tried dragging and dropping the video_ts folder, but I got a message telling me I did not have permission to copy all of its contents.

Then I attempted to generate an ISO image of that disk, but got another message saying I didn't have permission to do that.

This was under MacOS Mojave. I do have another Mac running Windows 10, so if there's a good piece of Windows-only software that would work, I can try that.

Without checking, I assume Windows 10 would similarly refuse to let me drag-and-drop the files or make an ISO. But I can certainly try that.

I didn't even try Handbrake, because we all know the latest versions of it would refuse.


Anybody got any suggestions?

Thanks!

try with makemkv

[DB83]

+1 to the above except that will create a 1 for 1 copy in a mkv container which is not what you might want.

For older disks, dvddecrypter (Windows only) will allow you to transfer all ifo, vobs etc on to your HDD. Whether that still works for Win10 I know not.


Beyond that, only commercial s/w such as DVDFab are required.


BTW Simple copy/paste from disk to HDD will never work since even if you had the complete vobs they would be corrupted.

[Alwyn]

Simple copy/paste from disk to HDD will never work since even if you had the complete vobs they would be corrupted.

Provided the DVD is unprotected, you can can drag and drop the VIDEO_TS folder (that is, all the DVD files/structure), from a DVD to anywhere you like on your PC and play it with a software DVD player such as VLC.

[Alwyn]

DVDShrink is another option to try to rip your DVDs to your hard-drive.

To open a DVD, click Open Disc. For DVD files ie VIDEO_TS folder on HD, click Open Files.

For full disk copy
• Click Full Disk
• Remove files if you wish eg foreign language audio.
• Click Backup!
• Set options as required, including name of disc.

For Main Movie only
• Choose Re-Author.
• ON the DVD Browser tab, drag the main title to the left window
• On the Compression tab:
• Choose no compression (this will give you an unaltered copy with no additional compression)
• Untick all unwanted Audio and subpicture items

• Click Backup!

If you want, Edit>Preferences> Output Files tab and untick 1gb chunks. You’ll then get 1 big VOB.

[PacificaBren]

DVDShrink is another option to try to rip your DVDs to your hard-drive.

To open a DVD, click Open Disc. For DVD files ie VIDEO_TS folder on HD, click Open Files.

For full disk copy
• Click Full Disk
• Remove files if you wish eg foreign language audio.
• Click Backup!
• Set options as required, including name of disc.

For Main Movie only
• Choose Re-Author.
• ON the DVD Browser tab, drag the main title to the left window
• On the Compression tab:
• Choose no compression (this will give you an unaltered copy with no additional compression)
• Untick all unwanted Audio and subpicture items

• Click Backup!

If you want, Edit>Preferences> Output Files tab and untick 1gb chunks. You’ll then get 1 big VOB.

Thank you so much! I'm about to try it right now!

One question: I'd like to generate a perfect disc image copy of the DVD. But when I select "Full Disc," the default compression setting is "automatic," with a predicted output file size of 4.3 gigs. I would think I should choose "no compression" if I want a perfect copy of the DVD, but that yields a projected file size of 5.6 gigs, which is obviously larger than any single-layer DVD would ever be.

So, like, am I degrading the DVD's quality in some way if I use "automatic" as the compression setting?

Thank you again!

EDITED TO ADD:

OK, I read the help file and it seems DVDShrink's emphasis on compression is based on the assumption the user might want to be able to burn the resulting backup onto a standard 4.7GB recordable DVD. Since that's not a priority for me, I have selected no compression. Currently backing up my DVD of "Gamera The Giant Monster" (1965). Thank you for your help!

[Alwyn]

Since that's not a priority for me, I have selected no compression.

That's it.