What is the best dvd cloning free software for the mac?

[Jabroni4872]

I have Mac the Ripper, but what is a good easy, and free burning program for the MAC.

I have DVD decrypter and Shrink for the PC and love it. Hoping to find something just as easy.

Mark

[lawnman]

You can burn with Disk Utility.

I suggest you get DVD2oneX (Not Free) if you are going to back up your DVD collection. You can burn with it but it uses OSX to burn with.

What version of MTR?

[orsetto]

If your version of MTR seems to be working for most of your DVD rips, and all you need is the burning part, OSX built-in Disk Utility should work to burn a DVD image saved by MTR. (The default non-Apple burning choice for OSX is Toast, which unfortunately costs money and has its share of detractors.) MTR and Disk Utility will clone many older or home-recorded DVDs on a Mac, but newer DVDs may be easier to clone using Windows-based options. The Mac market for DVD backup software seems to have completely dried up, with an awful lot of obsolete shareware/freeware floating around. For whatever reason, a greater variety of up-to-date "freeware" DVD backup options are available for Windows. Since you have access to a Windows box, perhaps you should just use that. Another alternative is to run Windows-based cloning software directly on your Mac, using Windows emulation or Bootcamp.

DVDs are now being rejiggered much more often than in the past, making the freeware/shareware solutions less useful than they once were. Over time I've found the "paid" cloning software keeps pace with the changes faster, and seems more reliable.

[Jabroni4872]

I have MTR 3.0

[Jabroni4872]

Am I doing something wrong if I am saving the ripped file as an Mpeg 4?, that might be the cause of my problem. I ripped it to Mpeg 4 then I burned it, but it does not play on a standard DVD player.

-Mark

[tomlee59]

Only rip; don't rip and convert. A DVD uses MPEG2, so if you rip/convert to MPEG4, you have to convert back into MPEG2 prior to burning. Aside from taking time, there's quality loss with each conversion. If you're starting from a DVD, just rip, and rip alone.

You may benefit from reading "What is DVD" (see the far left-hand side of this page).

[Ai Haibara]

Am I doing something wrong if I am saving the ripped file as an Mpeg 4?, that might be the cause of my problem. I ripped it to Mpeg 4 then I burned it, but it does not play on a standard DVD player.

Most DVD players will generally only play DVD-Video discs (rip the discs as tomlee59 mentions, copying them exactly as-is to another blank disc). If the player allows you to browse the contents of a disc, it might also allow you to play MPEG1/2 and MP3, among some other formats.

DivX/Xvid/MPEG4-capable players will usually only play that type of video in an AVI container (and .divx, if the player's Ultra-certified).

[lawnman]

If your version of MTR seems to be working for most of your DVD rips, and all you need is the burning part, OSX built-in Disk Utility should work to burn a DVD image saved by MTR. (The default non-Apple burning choice for OSX is Toast, which unfortunately costs money and has its share of detractors.) MTR and Disk Utility will clone many older or home-recorded DVDs on a Mac, but newer DVDs may be easier to clone using Windows-based options. The Mac market for DVD backup software seems to have completely dried up, with an awful lot of obsolete shareware/freeware floating around. For whatever reason, a greater variety of up-to-date "freeware" DVD backup options are available for Windows. Since you have access to a Windows box, perhaps you should just use that. Another alternative is to run Windows-based cloning software directly on your Mac, using Windows emulation or Bootcamp.

DVDs are now being rejiggered much more often than in the past, making the freeware/shareware solutions less useful than they once were. Over time I've found the "paid" cloning software keeps pace with the changes faster, and seems more reliable.

You have no clue what you are talking about. There have been very few DVDs that I haven't been able to rip with MTR 3.0 R14m. You have been on the dark side (windows side) smoking crack to much. The only one that has stumped MTR lately is LeatherHeads and it wasn't much of a movie any way.

[orsetto]

You have no clue what you are talking about. There have been very few DVDs that I haven't been able to rip with MTR 3.0 R14m. You have been on the dark side (windows side) smoking crack to much. The only one that has stumped MTR lately is LeatherHeads and it wasn't much of a movie any way.

Don't make assumptions and be so quick to throw insults: this is exactly the sort of reflexive hostility that makes the Windows camp think we Mac users are psychotic idiots, and respond in kind. You do us no favors with that attitude.

I've been a Mac graphics user and administrator since 1991. Most of my work is done easier and more efficiently on my MacBook, Mini or even my old TiBook G4 667 which I recently overhauled down to the last screw. But just as there are several things Windows sucks at and always will, there are some things that are more of a pain on the Mac compared to Windows. DVD backup software is one of them. If the original poster had no Wintel access whatsoever, I'd recommend screwing around with Mac DVD backups, but he specifically mentioned having both platforms easily available. For something as menial as DVD backups, if I have both boxes sitting there available and the Windows box has better freeware, I'll use it. If nothing else, it saves wear and tear on the hard-to-service slot-burners installed in most of our Macs. Why overheat your Superdrive for repetitive grunt work if you don't have to? If someone drops a Wintel in a corner nearby, why not beat on it for the crap jobs it was meant for? Especially if updated software for that sh*t job is easier to obtain? Sheesh. It isn't 1996 anymore, people- the Mac is no longer in eminent danger of demise: far from it. So it's not disloyal to use other tools if they happen to be sitting in your office. Or your son's room.

[air]

RipIt is really good and defiantly faster then Mac the Ripper