New and Confused on how to copy DVDs for playback...

[emhob13]

I am on a Intel Macbook with ffmpegxx, handbrake, and mactheripper at my disposal. And before I start, yes, all of my copying/burning/etc. is/will be legal.


My question is how to I convert my original DVDs to make a copy on a blank DVD-R. I also would like the best format to have a copy as a playable file on my laptop. I have a newly bought 120GB Western Digital Passport external harddrive, and want to have the DVD files on my external hard drive so I can take it on the road and watch movies, but also want to be able to have copies of my original DVD's for playback on a DVD player.


Thanks in advance.

[redwudz]

I'll move you to our Mac Forum where you may get more Mac specific information.

And welcome to our forums.

[KMJvet]

You need a burning software too..something like Toast. So MTR rips the DVD to a VIDEO_TS and then you need a software to burn it back to a blank DVD.

[terryj]

once ripped with MTR, you can use a software like ISquint
(or better Visual Hub) that will allow you to take the
Video_TS contents and shrink them down to either
avi or mp4 and you then store those on your Passport drive.

I have an Western Digital 500GB Elements Drive, and I store movies
and tv episodes on it in mp4 format, and use either iTunes
or Miro to play them on my laptop.

[Levina]

I find Popcorn ideal for copying discs. If the disc is not protected you can copy directly without first using MTR.
http://www.roxio.com/enu/products/popcorn/standard/overview.html

[Marnatha]

I hope this is on topic, otherwise tell me and I can create a new thread.....

I too have a similar question. I use Handbrake to copy my movies to my iPOD. I now would like take pieces of disks that I own and slice them up to take a chapter or 2 from this one and a few other chapters from another one.

I assume I have to get the media into a VIDEO_TS directory structure with MTR off the disk. I guess I am asking if Toast, or Cinematize, Video Hub, or something else would work. I downloaded an eval copy of Cinematize 2 (both basic and Pro) and was disappointed. I have also thought of importing this into iMovie but that looks like a lot of work for the computer and I am not sure of the quality I would loose. (just because I am paranoid doesn't mean that are NOT out to get me *grin*)

I am looking for a way to go through different VIDEO_TS directories and combine them into a output to create an ISO for playing from hard disk or burning a DVD.

I am willing to pay money for a good piece of software if it reduces the manual process. Just looking for the good advice on here.

Thanks, Brent