Making DVDs available For Download (how to ?)

[DEXTERITY]

Greetings,

I hope I'm posting this in the correct forum. I would greatly appreciate anyone's help.


I have a Mac Pro 2 x 2.66 GHZ Dual Core Intel with OS 10.5.7.

I'm trying to figure out the best way to do two things. I have a few dvds on my website that I need to make available for download.

What is the best way to create a preview of some of the dvd's so customers can view them (kind of like you tube).

Also, how do I take a DVD and make an image that I can then upload for a customer to in return download and view on their computer and or dvd player?

A few of my dvd's are too old to keep pressing on dvd, but I do still get request for them. I figure the best way to continue to sell it is via download only. I have the original file for final cut pro for some of them. the others I only have the real dvd we manufactured.

Thank you in advance,


Dexterity

www.dexterity.net
www.reggaeplanet.com

 

[iPhone 62S]

As long as you own the rights to the contents of the DVDs, download Handbrake or MacTheRipper and rip the DVDs then upload the file that gives to your site.

 

[DEXTERITY]

Thank you. yes, we own the rights. However, I'm missing the original files for some of them. I assume I then upload the image mac the ripper creates? Or do I create a quicktime file and zip it? I'm not sure what the standard is when it comes to uploading dvds. thank u

 

[iPhone 62S]

Thank you. yes, we own the rights. However, I'm missing the original files for some of them. I assume I then upload the image mac the ripper creates? Or do I create a quicktime file and zip it? I'm not sure what the standard is when it comes to uploading dvds. thank u

It will give you a video file of the video on the DVD, so you can just upload it.

 

[DEXTERITY]

thanks, appreciate it.

 

[xStep]

If the disks are not encrypted, I'd use Apple's Disk Utility to copy the discs to disc image files. Insert the disc, if DVD Player starts then just quit that. Start Disk Utility in the Applications/Utilities folder. Highlight the disc name and choose New Image.

That will make a disc image with an extension of .cdr that can be opened in the Finder and DVD Player can be used to play it. Likely since this is an image, it will be playable on other operating systems with similar software. You just need to figure out the instructions for your clients.

Mac the Ripper is used to remove the encryption and create a folder with the DVD contents. That result would have to be turned back into an image. Perhaps Disc Utility can do it. Toast can do it.

 

[iPhone 62S]

I forgot, actually, Handbrake gives you the video file, I'm not too sure MTR does... I always use Handbrake myself.

 

[bigdaddyp]

You could also try the program ripit which has a free trial. That is my current favorite program.

 

[xStep]

I just tried a disc image created via the method I mentioned above. Using VLC on Windows XP, I was able to open the file and play it, in a virtual machine via VMware Fusion.

 

[mkrishnan]

I just tried a disc image created via the method I mentioned above. Using VLC on Windows XP, I was able to open the file and play it, in a virtual machine via VMware Fusion.

If you create a disc image using Disk Utility, and/or if you rip it with MTR (since you'd want to make it a single file, you could either put it in a disk image or you could just zip it also), then the video can be viewed as a DVD in VLC, mplayer (both free), in DVD Player on Macs, and in Windows Media Player on PCs if they have MPEG2 codecs (or whatever software they have bundled to view DVDs).

This method would be best if you want them to be able to actually re-burn it as a DVD or if you wanted them to be able to use the menu / navigation features of the DVD. The only caveat is that the disk image files made by disk utility aren't named as ISO by default, and otherwise they might not be recognized by burning programs outside of OS X. This explains how to overcome that issue:

http://www.examiner.com/x-3701-LA-A...c-101-How-to-create-an-ISO-using-Disk-Utility

The images can be burnt by Disk Utility in OS X, or by Toast, by Nero or Alcohol 120% or other common programs in Windows, and by similar free programs like Brasero in Linux.

If you don't need people to burn them, it's probably better to use Handbrake or the like to make MPEG-4 videos of them -- e.g. with H.264 and AAC audio. Those files will be a lot smaller, even if you use a fairly high bit rate for high quality, and anyone who is not planning on re-burning it as a physical DVD would probably appreciate getting it that way.