from DVD to hard disk: any clues?

[milanbranch]

Hi everybody. Here's my problem.

During the years I've copied my old VHS cassettes into DVDs. Now I would like to copy those DVDs into a hard disk. I tried but to no avail.

a) the DVDs copied from a VHS original cassette are read by my Mac; the DVDs copied from a VHS cassette that was recorded from a tv program are not even read by my Mac. So the first question is: does anyone knows how to make those DVD readable by the Mac? Maybe VLC can do the trick?

b) once solved this problem, and for the DVDs that the Mac already reads, how can I make a copy onto the hard disk? I tried simply using "duplicate" or creating a disk image with Disk Utility but it doesnt work because it only copies the DVDs onto another DVDs...

Someone suggested me to use MacTheRipper and MovieGate but either I'm dumb, that is possible, ore they are not the right tools...I failed to do the trick...

Please, help me!

 

[simsaladimbamba]

How To Make Copies of DVDs

How to backup/copy/rip video DVDs to your HDD and transcode them to another format.

How-To: Automating DVD & Blu-Ray (Backup, Encoding & Tagging) for Mac OS X 10.6
​

a) VLC is capable of reading video DVDs, as is DVD Player, built into Mac OS X and to be found in the Applications folder. Have you taken a look at the DVDs inside Finder and seen if they have a VIDEO_TS and AUDIO_TS folder? If so, what is inside the VIDEO_TS folder?
You can take screenshots if you want.

b) Disk utility can make a copy of a non-copy-protected video DVD and stores it on the Desktop without further burning. The first link should explain it.

 

[rhkamra]

A) What simsaladimbamba said. If it has standard audio_ts and video_ts folders and .vob files within the video_ts folder, you should be able to use tools to view and export the footage. When I have worked with corrupt DVD's which won't play in VLC or DVD Player in the past, I have had to open them in MPEG Streamclip and export the VOB files as quicktime movies.

B) It depends on what the purpose of putting them on your hard disk is.

If you want exact replicas, mactheripper is the best tool for archiving the DVD as DVD9 (single layer) replica. Meaning it pulls the DVD contents off just as they exist on the DVD--included both audio_ts and video_ts folders and support files within. You will have to use DVD Player or VLC to playback these DVD files.

If you want to have a compressed digital format which is only for playback, I would use Handbreak and compress the DVD's to an MKV container with mpeg4 codec.

If you want these DVD's to be editable movie files for Final Cut Pro or iMovie, I would use MPEGStreamclip and convert the DVD's to ProRes or Apple's Intermediate Codec (File > Export > Quicktime Movie after opening the DVD).

 

[milanbranch]

thank you for the replies. The DVD are all without protection as they have been creted by me. When I create a image disk, the final result is identical to the disk, so I guess I can read it with DVD player, is it right?

 

[simsaladimbamba]

thank you for the replies. The DVD are all without protection as they have been creted by me. When I create a image disk, the final result is identical to the disk, so I guess I can read it with DVD player, is it right?

Yes. DVD Player can also read a VIDEO_TS folder, as can VLC Player.

 

[GanChan]

I have a follow-up question, since I'm trying to do the same thing. If I use Mac the Ripper to archive the DVD files as a replica, can I assume that if I need to re-burn these files onto a fresh DVD someday, I would just drag them back onto a blank disk?

 

[simsaladimbamba]

I have a follow-up question, since I'm trying to do the same thing. If I use Mac the Ripper to archive the DVD files as a replica, can I assume that if I need to re-burn these files onto a fresh DVD someday, I would just drag them back onto a blank disk?

You can't use Finder to burn a video DVD, you either need Roxio Toast Titanium and its video DVD template or Burn and its video DVD template to burn proper video DVDs from your backed up AUDIO_TS and VIDEO_TS folders.

 

[milanbranch]

with utility disk I created files .dmg on my hard disk. what can I do to transform it in avi or mpeg?

 

[vaxt]

Use handbrake to convert directly from DVD to mpeg4

http://handbrake.fr/