Easily backup DVDs with a mac???

[atihelp]

I currently have a PC and backup a lot of my DVDs via DVD shrink/DVDfab

We are toying with the idea of moving to Apple products. My high level question is, can you easily backup DVDs on an apple the way I can on a PC?

[redwudz]

You would probably get more specific help with your question in our Mac Forum. Moving you.
I also changed your thread title to better reflect your question.

Moderator redwudz

[HowardNeedsHelp]

MacTheRipper works great!

See http://mac.softpedia.com/get/Utilities/MacTheRipper.shtml

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MacTheRipper

[atihelp]

Looks promising. Looks like this will get it to the PC...will it also author back to DVD?

[HowardNeedsHelp]

I have always used iDVD to convert and burn to DVD which is part of the Mac iLife suite that I think still ships free with each new Mac. If not free, you can buy iLife at any software store. MacTheRipper may do that to? I just have never tried to use it that way since iDVD is so easy. imove / idvd together give me DVD editing options and produce great looking video and are very easy to use.

There is an article about commercial software to copy DVDs to Mac. Here: http://www.dvdcopymac.org/ So, you can see there are various options. I like MacTheRipper because it is free and works well.

[atihelp]

But I'd assume iDVD would only convert your own files as opposed to creating backups of purchased DVDs.

[HowardNeedsHelp]

iDVD burns any movie that you import into it including movies that you have ripped with MacTheRipper or similar copy software, but it does not rip / copy dvds itself. MacTheRipper and dvdsmith, like Yamma said, both copy purchased DVDs. I hope this is clear. Good Luck.