How to start ripping dvd's

Handbrake is probably your best bet. Search the forums and/or the MacRumors Guides and you'll find oodles of info....

MacTheRipper to rip them to your hard drive. Handbrake to convert them to AppleTV format.

swiftaw said:

MacTheRipper to rip them to your hard drive. Handbrake to convert them to AppleTV format.

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That's the process I personally use too, though you can also just use Handbrake to rip and convert them in one step. Usually I rip them to the HDD too because I like having the full DVD rip for playback on my Mac Mini that's hooked up to my TV, and then I use Handbrake to convert for my iPhone and/or iPod.

Dingo Dave 69 said:

Cheers guys, can someone also let me know where the best place is to get artwork for my DVD's?

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Amazon?

Dingo Dave 69 said:

Cheers guys, can someone also let me know where the best place is to get artwork for my DVD's?

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Hands down the best place to get large format DVD and TV artwork:

www.impawards.com

I'll second (or third?) the call for MacTheRipper and Handbrake. If you're doing a lot then I'd recommend ripping a bunch to your hard drive and then queuing up a bunch to do overnight or something.

JonHimself said:

I'll second (or third?) the call for MacTheRipper and Handbrake. If you're doing a lot then I'd recommend ripping a bunch to your hard drive and then queuing up a bunch to do overnight or something.

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Clarification for a newbie : I don't understand the benefit of the 2 step process (ripping + handbrake) as opposed to doing directly in 1 step from handbrake ?

Thanks,

w.

AFAIK, MTR rips the DVD but it will not fit back onto a DVD as it is too large, so HandBrake compresses this. I think it is the same on a PC, you rip and then shrink the movie.

Terwal said:

Clarification for a newbie : I don't understand the benefit of the 2 step process (ripping + handbrake) as opposed to doing directly in 1 step from handbrake ?

Thanks,

w.

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The rip process is very quick, maybe 10-15 mins, but the transcoding takes a LONG time (depending on the spec of your Mac it can be several hours). So my workflow is to rip a number of DVDs with MTR while I'm around to swap discs, then queue them all up in HB to encode while I'm asleep or at work. I can get a lot more DVDs done that way than using a 1-step Handbrake process.

Dingo Dave 69 said:

Cheers guys, can someone also let me know where the best place is to get artwork for my DVD's?

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The third stage of my workflow is to use MetaX to apply artwork (automatically retrieved by MetaX from Amazon) and other metatags.

When you use Handbrake, are you guys just using the default Apple TV settings?

What sort of file size do you end up with for a typical 90 minute movie?

Is there any PC software capable of doing this? Thanks

I'm very interested in all this! Once I use 'MacTheRipper', is there a way to import it into iTunes, or do I need to run it through handbrake first?

ascender said:

When you use Handbrake, are you guys just using the default Apple TV settings?

What sort of file size do you end up with for a typical 90 minute movie?

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I use the default AppleTV settings, though with the 2-pass option enabled. A typical movie probably comes in a smidge under 2GB.

ansalmo said:

I use the default AppleTV settings, though with the 2-pass option enabled. A typical movie probably comes in a smidge under 2GB.

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Thanks! I'll get started this afternoon.

stvfisher said:

I'm very interested in all this! Once I use 'MacTheRipper', is there a way to import it into iTunes, or do I need to run it through handbrake first?

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iTunes does not accept VIDEO_TS folders. Handbrake is needed first to convert it to a format that iTunes will recognize.

Yes, I know there is as I used some, but when I tried Parallels to check it is having a fit and is unable to Open disk image!! I hate Parallels!!

Anywho, I think the PC apps you need are DVD Decrypt and DVD Shrink

gazfocus said:

Is there any PC software capable of doing this? Thanks

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mr_matalino said:

iTunes does not accept VIDEO_TS folders. Handbrake is needed first to convert it to a format that iTunes will recognize.

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Thanks for the response. So if I don't plan on putting the movies on my ipod or an apple TV, is there any reason to convert them to an iTunes recognized format?

I also want to start ripping my DVDs (most of which are TV shows) to my Mac before buying an TV. However, I have experienced a few problems - firstly when ripping some episodes of The O.C. Season 1, I have noticed that the audio is out of sync with the video - to the extent that it is unwatchable. Anyone else experienced this and know a fix for this problem?

I am also having trouble with the aspect ratios, I would prefer that all DVDs were converted to widescreen as I hate the black vertical bars, so I have experimented with using the anamorphic option for my 4:3 DVDs. However, I have read on the forum that 4:3 content should not be converted to 16:9 - why is this? Finally, anyone know on settings for 1.85:1 and 2.5:1 in order to display without black bars?

nebsta said:

However, I have read on the forum that 4:3 content should not be converted to 16:9 - why is this? Finally, anyone know on settings for 1.85:1 and 2.5:1 in order to display without black bars?

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You shouldn't convert 4:3 to 16:9 because you're either going to stretch it sideways, making everything look fat, or you're going to crop the top and bottom of the screen.

Also, you shouldn't remove black bars from 1.85:1 or 2.35:1 matted/Cinemascope movies. They're there because the director decided that was the framing he wanted for the film. 16:9 is just as arbitrary ratio as any for TVs, it's just CLOSER to the typical film than old 4:3 screens. If you do so, you'll either be cutting off the sides of the picture or stretching the film vertically, which looks just as silly as a side-stretched 4:3 image.

Respect the director's intentions. Watch the film as it was made. As a bonus activity, look for framing/shots that justify the choice.

A question about saving art work. When you have a Movie on a network drive that isn't saved on your computer itunes will not save the artwork for that movie. I am sure it is something simple but haven't figured it out.

Tomasmekean said:

A question about saving art work. When you have a Movie on a network drive that isn't saved on your computer itunes will not save the artwork for that movie. I am sure it is something simple but haven't figured it out.

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So if I alias all the movie files and pop them onto my media server, they won't have artwork, is that right?

Thanks for all your help with this, its a very useful thread. I got ripping last night and my ATV arrived this afternoon. I have to say, I'm very impressed with the quality of the DVD rips I'm doing with Handbrake. While its not the quickest process, I have to say that the results are making me think its time to buy a couple of bug external HDDs and rip a lot more DVDs than I'd originally planned to.

Terwal said:

Clarification for a newbie : I don't understand the benefit of the 2 step process (ripping + handbrake) as opposed to doing directly in 1 step from handbrake ?

Thanks,

w.

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By making it a two step process, you can have several benefits:

1. Less time-of-activity for your DVD drive. (While MTR uses the DVD drive for 15-20 minutes, Handbrake will keep it active for hours, through the entire encode cycle.)
2. You can rip a bunch of DVDs and then "batch" them by adding them to Handbrake's queue. This lets you process them, say, while you're busy doing something important, like sleeping.
3. Handbrake's ability to defeat DVD copy protection is less sophisticated than MTR's.