Mac the Ripper and 10.5 OS compatibility?

[MacFanJeff]

Just wondering for those that use "Mac the Ripper" for DVD backups of your owned content if it is fully compatible with 10.5 OS? From what I can tell, the software looks abandoned and has not been updated since 2006. While it may work, I certainly am not comfortable using software that out of date on my new Leopard OS.

Just wondering if anyone knows what's going on and why no new version?

 

[Eidorian]

http://www.ripdifferent.com/

I'm running version 3.0.

 

[aaronw1986]

Just wondering for those that use "Mac the Ripper" for DVD backups of your owned content if it is fully compatible with 10.5 OS? From what I can tell, the software looks abandoned and has not been updated since 2006. While it may work, I certainly am not comfortable using software that out of date on my new Leopard OS.

Just wondering if anyone knows what's going on and why no new version?

The current version is slow, but runs fine on Leopard. A new version is in beta. You can donate to development in order to get access to the beta.

 

[Huntn]

http://www.ripdifferent.com/

I'm running version 3.0.

Hmm. I running 10.5.5 and just tried Mac The Ripper V3. I used Toast to burn the folder to a DVD but did not get a good burn. I'm currently trying Wondershare DVD Copy to see if the results are better. I've also downloaded Wondershare's DVD Ripper which costs twice as much as DVD Copy. Would there be a compelling reason to go with the more expensive copy if all I want to do is make backup copies of DVDs I own?

Thanks!

Mac The Ripper seemed to work well extractin the file except Toast did not get the burn done so I don't know which program to blame. Wondershare's DVD Copy works as advertised as a self contained software not relying on any other program.

Do you by chance have any suggestions for free Mac DVD ripping software?

 

[sickmacdoc]

Hmm. I running 10.5.5 and just tried Mac The Ripper V3. I used Toast to burn the folder to a DVD but did not get a good burn. I'm currently trying Wondershare DVD Copy to see if the results are better. I've also downloaded Wondershare's DVD Ripper which costs twice as much as DVD Copy. Would there be a compelling reason to go with the more expensive copy if all I want to do is make backup copies of DVDs I own?

Thanks!

One suggestion- in the future, use the built in DVD Player's "Open DVD Media..." command to do a test viewing of the rip from your hard drive before burning it. If it has serious issues it will show up there before you have wasted the time compressing and burning it (or at least burning if you are using DL disks to avoid compression like I do).

Edit: And that would seem to answer you next question about which program to blame while we are at it!

 

[sickmacdoc]

The current version is slow, but runs fine on Leopard. A new version is in beta. You can donate to development in order to get access to the beta.

And actually it is not MTR that turns out to be the culprit in the slow ripping that is most certainly true on Macs with the stock DVD drives. Apple has implemented a scheme called RipLock in the firmware of stock drives which the article here says was originally meant to quiet playback by reducing playback rotational speed- but it has the unintentional effect of massively slowing down rips as well.

I just stumbled onto that whole issue recently when researching something for someone else as I did not suffer the slowdown others had noted. That turned out to because I pulled out the stock drive and installed two new OEM Pioneer 116s the day my Mac Pro arrived and they do not have riplock, so ripping a standard DVD takes 6-9 minutes on average.

 

[Huntn]

One suggestion- in the future, use the built in DVD Player's "Open DVD Media..." command to do a test viewing of the rip from your hard drive before burning it. If it has serious issues it will show up there before you have wasted the time compressing and burning it (or at least burning if you are using DL disks to avoid compression like I do).

Edit: And that would seem to answer you next question about which program to blame while we are at it!

How would serious issues show up, what would I look for when viewing the extraction for problems?

When I used Mac The Ripper I ended up with a folder and two other folders inside them sitting on my hard drive. When I dragged them to toast it seemed to think that it was DVD material, but as I said previously I did not get a good burn. Currently I'm having a problem because I wanted to try OSX's burn application to burn the DVD, but every time I put in a blank DVD, Toast auto launches and if I quit Toast, the blank DVD auto ejects. There should be away around that.

I got a good burn with Wondershare's DVD Copy, a self contained, not relying on any other software to backup a DVD. For $29 that's not a bad price. comparison link

 

[sickmacdoc]

Serious issues would be if DVD Player crashes or reports an error during playback, which does happen occasionally with rips. If you can start playing it and fast forward though it successfully, then the MTR rip has been successful.

As far as Toast, if you are in the VIDEO_TS folders tab then just dragging the main folder into the window as you have described is correct- then it is just a matter of whether the VIDEO_TS folder included has valid data.

The automatic opening you described is easy to take care of-- just do into your System Preferences and click the "CDs & /DVDs" pane and you can define what you want the system to do with both types of disks when they are inserted. I just have everything except blank CDs set to "Ignore" for simplicity. It used to drive me nuts that everytime I inserted a movie I wanted to rip it automatically opened DVD Player and started playing it, so I know what you are going through!

I personally have never tried Wondershare myself since I have not had problems with MTR through the years, but maybe someone has and can share the info.

 

[Huntn]

Serious issues would be if DVD Player crashes or reports an error during playback, which does happen occasionally with rips. If you can start playing it and fast forward though it successfully, then the MTR rip has been successful.

As far as Toast, if you are in the VIDEO_TS folders tab then just dragging the main folder into the window as you have described is correct- then it is just a matter of whether the VIDEO_TS folder included has valid data.

The automatic opening you described is easy to take care of-- just do into your System Preferences and click the "CDs & /DVDs" pane and you can define what you want the system to do with both types of disks when they are inserted. I just have everything except blank CDs set to "Ignore" for simplicity. It used to drive me nuts that everytime I inserted a movie I wanted to rip it automatically opened DVD Player and started playing it, so I know what you are going through!

I personally have never tried Wondershare myself since I have not had problems with MTR through the years, but maybe someone has and can share the info.

Thanks for the info! I'd like to see if Mac The Ripper can produce a good extraction. So I'll try it again and then see if I can spot any problems. I'm still on my DVD Copy trial.

Maybe you can confirm something- If you have an extraction that looks like folders, in Toast should you be dragging it to the "Copy" tab in Toast or something else? Any other Toast settings a DVD burning novice should be aware of for burning DVDs? Thanks!

 

[sickmacdoc]

Thanks for the info! I'd like to see if Mac The Ripper can produce a good extraction. So I'll try it again and then see if I can spot any problems. I'm still on my DVD Copy trial.

Maybe you can confirm something- If you have an extraction that looks like folders, in Toast should you be dragging it to the "Copy" tab in Toast or something else? Any other Toast settings a DVD burning novice should be aware of for burning DVDs? Thanks!

No, dragging it to the copy tab won't work as that is for burning additional copies of a physical disk.

In Toast 9 (and I believe it was the same in Toast 8) you need to click the "Video" tab, then select "VIDEO_TS folder" from the video tasks. Then you can drag your MTR folder into the window or click "Add" at the bottom of the screen and navigate to the MTR created folder.

Nothing else really needs to be done for burning VIDEO_TS folder to disk other than that. The default settings elsewhere should work fine- the only problems you might run into would be related to your DVD burner if it happens to have problems burning to certain brands/types of disks but that is not a Toast issue.

Good luck with your trial!

 

[Huntn]

No, dragging it to the copy tab won't work as that is for burning additional copies of a physical disk.

In Toast 9 (and I believe it was the same in Toast 8) you need to click the "Video" tab, then select "VIDEO_TS folder" from the video tasks. Then you can drag your MTR folder into the window or click "Add" at the bottom of the screen and navigate to the MTR created folder.

Nothing else really needs to be done for burning VIDEO_TS folder to disk other than that. The default settings elsewhere should work fine- the only problems you might run into would be related to your DVD burner if it happens to have problems burning to certain brands/types of disks but that is not a Toast issue.

Good luck with your trial!

Thanks! By your description, it was operator error on my part trying to burn the DVD with Toast. I'm using an older version of Toast v6. My choices under the Video tab is DVD Video. I'll try that and see what happens.

 

[sickmacdoc]

Thanks! By your description, it was operator error on my part trying to burn the DVD with Toast. I'm using an older version of Toast v6. My choices under the Video tab is DVD Video. I'll try that and see what happens.

Sadly enough I don't expect that to work-- as DVD-Video (at least in relatively modern versions of Toast) is used to make a menued disk (similar to the results with iDVD for example) from a collection of files (like a bunch ove .avi files).

Update- so I did some searching with my friend Google for "VIDEO_TS Toast 6"-- and it turns out that in Toast 6 there is an update (version 6.07) which adds a "DVD-VIDEO from VIDEO_TS" (see here ) option that does not exist in prior revisions to Toast 6 which would be what you want- so if yours does not show that option you will need to get the free updater from Roxio's site (if it is still available for download that is).

That search also mentioned that compressing DL disks (which most commercial disk are nowdays) to fit on a standard single layer disk was a function that was not introduced until Toast 7. It was further refined and sped up in Toast 8 and the current Toast 9.

 

[TheZA]

I have Toast Basic, or maybe it's Toast Lite, that came with my external burner. Never use it. If I rip an easy rip with Mac The Ripper, I create an image with DVD Imager and burn either with Simply Burns or with Disk Utility. DVD Imager and Simply Burns are freeware and are Leopard compatable. I've recently heard about folks having burn failures with Toast. I've never had a burn failure with Simply Burns if I can get an image either with either DVD Imager or DVD2OneX.