Copy protected DVD's?

MakeMKV (free while in beta...and that's been for a while now).

 

Correct, codec inside the mkv is the same as what your source is. mkv is just a container. Since you say your source is dvd, I would assume the format is mpeg2.

 

Correct again, iso is also just a container.

 

Recently I bought 2 DVDs that will not play/mount on my Macbook which is running 10.5.8. Other DVDs play without issue. The DVDs in question are "Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince" and "Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs". Both of these DVDs say "copy-protected". The symptom is that the machine makes a few attempts to load the DVD and then ejects is. Does Apple have a fix that allows mounting of these DVDs for playback?

 

It is not Apple's fault. The studios can create DVDs that have incorrect formatting that will cause a computer to refuse to mount, but will play on a standard DVD player since the players there just ignore some errors and go ahead and play. The studios don't want you even playing DVDs on your computer since that would allow you to somehow break the copy protection.

With Blu-Ray it's even worse - the players need to be updated regularly to deal with new protection schemes. It is not uncommon to buy a new blu-ray disk and find it won't work in older players.