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DVD transfer on MAC

D

dangerouslymood

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jan 20, 2010
4
0
Hi! I am new to MAC and new to this forum. I have been looking for this answer but can't quite find it...please help. If this double posted, sorry, my computer (PC) at work is giving me problems! LOL

I have some old VHS that i transfered to DVD on a machine made for that. The DVD will play on my MAC and I have tried to copy the DVD to another DVD but the new DVDs will not play on the MAC or on DVD player...I followed the directions I found in the "help section" of the MAC--it had me copy the disc image in Disc Utility and then burn the DVD...i think the file type comes up as a dmg...??

Is there another way to do this that I am missing? I was told you could do this with the MAC and that was a major selling point for me!! Thanks!!
 
When you copied your DVD, how exactly did you do it? A playable DVD is different from a data DVD. You need to keep the VIDEO_TS folder structure intact, and you need to burn it as a UDF (universal disk format). You can use software such as Roxio Toast for this.
 
When you use Disk utility to copy a video or data DVD to your HDD, you also need to use Disk Utility to burn the resulting .dmg file (Disk IMage).
The file alone is useless, if burnt to a DVD that shall be played back on a video DVD player, as a video DVD has a certain structure, as the spice weasel already mentioned.

Also MRoogle (my signature) will give you plenty of threads about how to properly copy video DVDs, even a web search engine will spit out a guide or many more.
 
spinnerlys said:
When you use Disk utility to copy a video or data DVD to your HDD, you also need to use Disk Utility to burn the resulting .dmg file (Disk IMage).
The file alone is useless, if burnt to a DVD that shall be played back on a video DVD player, as a video DVD has a certain structure, as the spice weasel already mentioned.

Also MRoogle (my signature) will give you plenty of threads about how to properly copy video DVDs, even a web search engine will spit out a guide or many more.
Click to expand...

I did use disk utility to copy the DVD to the computer and then to burn it to a dvd...should I be using something else to burn it so it will play? I have had some people on another forum recomend Handbrake or Toast..? I thought this was something that could all be done with the computer already. Thank you
 
I don't think Disk Utility has the ability to burn video DVDs in UDF format. I could be wrong, though.

I'd use Roxio's Toast. It's very simple to use.
 
It's Mac, not MAC.. Anyhow, in Disk Utility, you need to change the drop down for Image Format to "DVD/CD Master" instead of "read/write (DMG)". The resulting file will be a single file with a .cdr extension that Disk Utility can burn to blank DVDs that are exact copies of the original.
 
Sonicjay said:
It's Mac, not MAC.. Anyhow, in Disk Utility, you need to change the drop down for Image Format to "DVD/CD Master" instead of "read/write (DMG)". The resulting file will be a single file with a .cdr extension that Disk Utility can burn to blank DVDs that are exact copies of the original.
Click to expand...

Sorry

And thank you. i will try that this weekend...bummer that i already converted about 8 disks before realizing it!! LOL
 
that change did not work in disk utility...it showed a successful burn but then when i put the dvd in the dvd player it showed error and when i inserted on the computer it showed "blank disk"....guess i will have to go buy the toast thing...
 
There's a lot of voodoo that goes into authoring DVDs. Here's how I would do it (keep in mind that all of these steps may not be necessary). Actually, there's a couple of ways.

1. Use Toast to do a straight copy of the DVD. Nothing gets stored on the HDD and the copy is an exact duplicate of the original. Keep in mind that this will only work with non-copy protected stuff.

2. Use MacTheRipper (aka MTR; 2.6.6 is still free/shareware) to rip the original DVD onto your HDD. Then use Toast to burn it as a DVD (I think the Option is DVD from VIDEO_TS folder). The copy may not be an exact duplicate, but it'll work just fine.

3. Use MTR to rip the original DVD to your HDD. Use DVDImager (freeware) to create a burnable DVD image. Then use Disk Utility to burn the image onto a DVD. (Note - I'm not sure what settings to use on Disk Utility, but I know that this works as I've done it in the past).

The bottom line is that you can do this with free software, but Toast is much easier. No need to get the latest version (unless you want to). I think Toast 6 is the oldest version that works on OS X. I know that Toast 7 works with SL as that's what I have.
 
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