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Help backing up DVDs

someguy

someguy

macrumors 68020
Original poster
Dec 4, 2005
2,351
21
Still here.
Let me start by saying that I am terrible at keeping CD's and DVD's scratch free. They usually begin to skip and stutter within weeks of buying them. For this reason alone, I'd like to backup some of my favorites.

I just bought Benchwarmers and used MacTheRipper to rip it to my iMac. (I plan to play the copy from now on to preserve the original.)

How do I go about getting it on to a DVD so that I can play it in my DVD player?

Thanks. :)


P.S. I searched and did not find anything helpful, but then again, I can't search to save my life..
P.P.S. I'd like to be able to do this without spending any money on software if possible. :)
 
Oh, by the way, this will need to be done in 10.3.9, if that matters. My iMac is has the only DVD burner I have access to. :)
 
someguy said:
I hope so!

Thanks! :)

EDIT: Wait, so what exactly does handbrake do?
Click to expand...
Handbrake won't do what you need. Handbrake is for converting DVDs to another file format, usually mpg4.

What you need is Mac The Ripper, which you already have. Next, depending on your hardware and the size of the ripped DVD, you could need Toast, DVD2OneX, and/or DVD Imager.

Here's a breakdown.

If the DVD you're backing up is 4.3GB or smaller, all you really need is DVD Imager (shareware) to turn the ripped folder into a DVD image. Then Apple's Disk Utility can burn the image onto a DVD-R.

If the DVD is larger than 4.3GB and you have a DL burner, then the above applies again, assuming you want to use DL media.

If you don't have a DL burner and the DVD is >4.3GB, then you'll need to compress the ripped folder with either Toast (or Popcorn) or DVD2OneX. That will compress the ripped folder to 4.3GB and then can be burned to a DVD-R.

Check out ripdifferent.com for more information.

ft
 
Hm. When I insert a blank DVD, nothing happens. The drive makes a kind of bump noise, but nothing else happens. Eventually the disk is ejected on it's own with no message on the screen as to why.

I can burn CD's fine, and it asks what I want to do when I insert a CD, but not a DVD (and yes, the settings are the same in System Prefs).

It has a Superdrive, so is it possible that it just doesn't like the disks that I have?

If it matters, the disks are Philips 16x 4.7GB DVD+R's. Should I have gotten -R's or something?
 
tobefirst said:
Hey, you went offline, so I couldn't send this link. This page from Apple's KB says that the drive only supports – media. I'd try a – disc.
Click to expand...
Yeah, my power went out for the second time today. Somebody must've hit a transformer or something.

Thanks, I looked up some info on the web and found the same basic story so.. crap. I just bought a ton of DVD+R's because I'm a jackass and didn't do my homework beforehand. :D
 
CrEsTo said:
MacTheRipper - Rip
Dvd2oneX - Compress
Toast - Burn

Those are the apps I use
Click to expand...
I think I'm going to rip with MTR, use DVD Imager to great a disk image, and Disk Utility to write to DVD.

Any reason why a copy made this way wouldn't play in my DVD player (other than having the wrong damn disk type)? :)
 
someguy said:
I think I'm going to rip with MTR, use DVD Imager to great a disk image, and Disk Utility to write to DVD.

Any reason why a copy made this way wouldn't play in my DVD player (other than having the wrong damn disk type)? :)
Click to expand...
The only reason that wouldn't work is if your DVDs are larger than 4.3GB, assuming that you have a single-layer burner. I do believe that you have a single layer burner as the G4 iMacs only came with SL burners.
 
ftaok said:
The only reason that wouldn't work is if your DVDs are larger than 4.3GB, assuming that you have a single-layer burner. I do believe that you have a single layer burner as the G4 iMacs only came with SL burners.
Click to expand...
They are 4.7GB disks. Is that alright?
 
someguy said:
They are 4.7GB disks. Is that alright?
Click to expand...
Just to clear up.

1. A blank DVD will say 4.7GB on the packaging, but it really is 4.3GB. That's all the DVD can hold. This is because of the way a computer understands storage space and the way the marketers advertise. Ever notice the fine print "1GB=1,000,000,000 bytes"? A computer understands 1GB=1024^3. This results to a computer reporting only 93% of the advertised space.

2. Most commercial DVDs are larger than 4.3GB because they use 2 layers. If you have a Dual Layer burner, you're OK, but I suspect that you have a single layer burner, hence the need for DVD2OneX or Toast 7 to compress the ripped DVD down to 4.3GB.

ft
 
ftaok said:
A blank DVD will say 4.7GB on the packaging, but it really is 4.3GB. That's all the DVD can hold. This is because of the way a computer understands storage space and the way the marketers advertise. Ever notice the fine print "1GB=1,000,000,000 bytes"? A computer understands 1GB=1024^3. This results to a computer reporting only 93% of the advertised space.
Click to expand...
I know this part, but I did not know if there were actually "4.3GB" and "4.7GB" DVD's available. Just trying to make sure I know exactly what to get as I am just now beginning to dabble in the world of DVD's and such (writing to them, that is. I've been watching them for years, obviously ;) ).

Thanks for the help so far, everyone. :)
 
All the DVD's I rip and covert to images total ~7-8GB and my disks are only 4.3 or whatever. How can I get these to fit on the DVD's I have?

I have ripped just the movie itself (no extras) and brought the file sizes down to around 5GB, but obviously they still won't fit.

Is there anything I can do? Maybe reduce the quality or something?
 
someguy said:
All the DVD's I rip and covert to images total ~7-8GB and my disks are only 4.3 or whatever. How can I get these to fit on the DVD's I have?

I have ripped just the movie itself (no extras) and brought the file sizes down to around 5GB, but obviously they still won't fit.

Is there anything I can do? Maybe reduce the quality or something?
Click to expand...

The DVD's you rip are on dual-layer disks, 8.5 GB.

Use DVD2oneX to compress them.
 
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