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Guys, there's a simple solution for this using Handbrake & DVD Player. FWIW, I've run into the "99 titles" copy protection on about 10% off the DVD's I've ripped. So, chances are you'll run into again in the future. Here's the solution:

1.) Insert the DVD into the disc drive and let it auto play in the DVD Player app
2.) Watch any scene from the main title of the movie (not the previews, bonus features, etc.). If DVD Player launches in full screen, hit ESC to exit to windowed mode
3.) Once the main movie feature is playing, navigate the menu bar (the bar at the top of the screen next to the Apple icon - it will say "DVD Player")
4.) Since I don't have my Mac in front of me, I don't know what the "Title" option is under, but I think it's under the "Features" or "Go" menu
5.) Once you click on "Title", a sidebar will launch showing all 99 titles. The title that's checked in the main movie title. Remember this title #
6.) Launch Handbrake
7.) When the finder launches in Handbrake, hit "Cancel"
8.) Select "File" from the menu bar (top of the screen), then "Open Source (Title Specific)"
9.) Select the source disc, then hit "Open"
10.) Enter the title # you found in DVD Player and hit "Open Title"
11.) Handbrake will scan just the main movie title
12.) Proceed using Handbrake as usual.

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actual its not "nice and simple" using the title specific steps still don't work, I have a copy of thor as well and either way it comes up with "no valid source".

Find the title # via the menu bar at the top of the screen in DVD player, and not using the DVD player controls. Make sure you hit ESC to exit full screen and enter windowed mode so that you can access the menu bar at the top of the screen.
 
Maybe I speak for myself, but most all these guys know HOW to use handbrake...so posting, "How to.." steps and or "it's simple" steps does no good. Thor has a new encryption that no matter what you do via Handbrake, you will get.."No Valid Source", if you have the disc scan or if you choose title specific. It sounds like right now the trail version of Mac Dvd Ripper is the only option. If someone figures out a way via Handbrake please post.
 
I do know how to use handbrake but thor was being stubborn i get the no valid source i had the macdvdripper pro trail to get it to work
 
Maybe I speak for myself, but most all these guys know HOW to use handbrake...so posting, "How to.." steps and or "it's simple" steps does no good. Thor has a new encryption that no matter what you do via Handbrake, you will get.."No Valid Source", if you have the disc scan or if you choose title specific. It sounds like right now the trail version of Mac Dvd Ripper is the only option. If someone figures out a way via Handbrake please post.

You do speak for yourself. Assuming everyone knows how to use Handbrake outside of putting a DVD in, letting it autoscan for the title, and ripping it, is irresponsible. Especially, since this is an Apple TV forum and not a Handbrake forum. FWIW, the Handbrake power users can be found over at the Handbrake forums. There's already a thread on Thor ripping issues (full of constructive replies, unlike yours):

https://forum.handbrake.fr/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=22123
 
Overview

Hi, I came here after doing a search and the tip about Mac DVD Ripper Pro worked for me. I can see lots of little bits of info in this thread and some confused readers, so for those who might be having trouble piecing together all the info here, I thought I'd put together an overview. Hope this is helpful.

First, there are two ways to "rip" DVDs. One way copies the entire disc (minus the CSS copy protection) and the result behaves like an actual DVD. You can access menus, special features, sit through the FBI warnings, etc. The main downside is that the resulting files are as big as the disc itself--typically 4 to 8 GB. Programs like RipIt and Mac DVDRipper Pro do this.

A DVD itself is nothing more than a data disc with a folder named 'VIDEO_TS' which contains all the movie data. RipIt will create a folder with these files and if you launch OS X's DVD Player and choose File -> Open and navigate to this folder, it will play just like an actual DVD. (Or you can name the folder with the '.dvdmedia' extension and double-click it and DVD Player will automatically launch.) Mac DVDRipper Pro creates a disk image (.ISO file) and if you double-click on it, a virtual disk will appear on your desktop, and if you open it you will see the VIDEO_TS folder. This, too, can be played with the DVD Player app.

The other way to rip movies is with a program like HandBrake. This program converts one part of the disk (the movie itself) into a single video file (MP4, AVI, etc.) and it is compressed (like an MP3) but it is nothing but the movie itself--no menus, special features, etc. The nice thing is that the files are smaller--typically from 700 MB to 1.5 GB for a typical 90-minute movie (depending on the quality settings used--again, like an MP3 at 128kbps or 192kbps, bigger files look better.) And if you want to just watch the movie it's great--it opens instantly like any other QuickTime movie with no DVD menus, previews, or notices to wait through. You can also load these files into iTunes, watch them with FrontRow, play them on an iDevice, etc.

Unfortunately, unlike audio CDs and MP3s, NONE of this is legal in the U.S. (The ripping itself would be illegal, except the info on the DVD is encrypted, and breaking the encryption is illegal. That's why iTunes will rip CDs but not your DVDs.) Movie studios use a variety of tricks to keep people from copying discs, and it's a cat-and-mouse game between the makers of DVD protecting software and the makers of DVD ripping software. At any particular moment, any particular disk may or may not be rippable with any particular piece of software.

For the current case (Thor), neither HandBrake nor RipIt work (as of mid-September 2011) but Mac DVDRipper Pro (even the free-for-five-rips demo version) can. It's very simple: stick the disc in and you'll see something like this:
http://pixelcity.com/dvd/dvd1.png
(Different movie, same message--I didn't think to grab screenshots when I was ripping Thor.) When you click "Rip" it will show you a message like this:
http://pixelcity.com/dvd/dvd2.png
Go ahead and accept its suggestion of "Switch to full disc mode" and it'll work.

Still, more remnants of the copy protection remain. The ISO will be the same size as the DVD (about 7.5 GB for Thor) but if you open it and get info on the VIDEO_TS folder, the computer thinks it's over 40 GB, and if you try to drag the folder to your desktop, that's how big it'll be. It will work just fine, though. Double-click the ISO, launch DVD Player, and you're in business.

If you want to rip it and compress it to a single file with HandBrake, there's one more obstacle. Content providers try to make them hard to rip by making it appear that there are 99 "titles" (which are like "tracks" on an audio CD) on the disc but that's actually pretty easy to get around. With the ISO mounted, launch DVD Player (and put it into Windowed mode if it's full screen.) Start playing the movie--get past the menus and into the movie itself. On the app's simulated "remote" screen, click the word 'TITLE' (it doesn't look like a button but it is) once or twice and it will show you which "title" is being played. As others have mentioned, on this disc it is #24 out of 99 tracks. (Shown on the display as "24/99") If you rip any of the other titles you'll wind up with a bad video file--scrambled or missing scenes, out-of-sync audio, etc.

The fine folks who make RipIt will eventually update their software to work with the newest crop of discs. (They are constantly doing so.) One nice thing about RipIt is that they do some of this work for you: if you rip the disc (once they get it working) you'll wind up with a VIDEO_TS folder that is the correct size, and if you then try to rip that with HandBrake, only the correct title will appear in the list, saving you the step of figuring it out for yourself. But, as with anything else, it's good to have more than one tool in your drawer for occasions such as this.
 
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I've used most of the tools and tips mentioned here. Depending on what I'm trying to do, I may use a different tool.

One nice feature of Mac DVD Ripper Pro is that it has a built-in player. If you are looking to extract just the main movie, you can use the feature to "watch" the DVD until you get to the movie portion, then just say rip that portion and you are good to go. It knows the track it needs.

Also, love the automator scripts that are part of the sticky at the top of this thread. Even if you use the different tools and tips in this thread, the automator scripts are great to process the file for iTunes.

Nabby
 
Guys, there's a simple solution for this using Handbrake & DVD Player. FWIW, I've run into the "99 titles" copy protection on about 10% off the DVD's I've ripped. So, chances are you'll run into again in the future. Here's the solution:

1.) Insert the DVD into the disc drive and let it auto play in the DVD Player app
2.) Watch any scene from the main title of the movie (not the previews, bonus features, etc.). If DVD Player launches in full screen, hit ESC to exit to windowed mode
3.) Once the main movie feature is playing, navigate the menu bar (the bar at the top of the screen next to the Apple icon - it will say "DVD Player")
4.) Since I don't have my Mac in front of me, I don't know what the "Title" option is under, but I think it's under the "Features" or "Go" menu
5.) Once you click on "Title", a sidebar will launch showing all 99 titles. The title that's checked in the main movie title. Remember this title #
6.) Launch Handbrake
7.) When the finder launches in Handbrake, hit "Cancel"
8.) Select "File" from the menu bar (top of the screen), then "Open Source (Title Specific)"
9.) Select the source disc, then hit "Open"
10.) Enter the title # you found in DVD Player and hit "Open Title"
11.) Handbrake will scan just the main movie title
12.) Proceed using Handbrake as usual.

----------



Find the title # via the menu bar at the top of the screen in DVD player, and not using the DVD player controls. Make sure you hit ESC to exit full screen and enter windowed mode so that you can access the menu bar at the top of the screen.

The steps above offer no solution to this problem.
 
Thor ripping

It's cool to make amazing dvd like this. Normal ripping software, HandBake, DVDFab cannot break it. They showed heap of data contains in one DVD and it confused those software to see its real movie. I'm now using MacDVD Ripper Pro (Trial) and ripping only main movie: Chapter 11. Let's try this one guy. I think it works since I saw the same chapter as shown in DVD Player. HB after this.:D
 
Pirates Caribean 4 problem

It's cool to make amazing dvd like this. Normal ripping software, HandBake, DVDFab cannot break it. They showed heap of data contains in one DVD and it confused those software to see its real movie. I'm now using MacDVD Ripper Pro (Trial) and ripping only main movie: Chapter 11. Let's try this one guy. I think it works since I saw the same chapter as shown in DVD Player. HB after this.:D

HandBrake will not touch Pirates 4 either , crashed 3 times so far
 
VERIFIED to work for a Mac...

- Download & install HandBrake, Fairmount & VLC
- Mount Thor DVD in Fairmount
- Copy Thor VIDEO_TS to desktop
***This may take a while. I set it before I went to bed last night around 12:00AM. It said it would take about 3 days. When I woke up this morining 5:00AM it was done. Said there were over 1,100 bad sectors.
- Open the VIDEO_TS folder as your source in Handbrake and rip away
- I think the correct track was 24 for my disc but I'd double check in DVDplayer
- Played the m4v on my 55" sony via appletv this morning 8:00AM. Looks great!

I tried every other method and this one works 100% on my Macbook Pro. A little insane that the DVD file size is over 44GB, isn't it?! Anyways, just choose title 24 in HB and burn a back-up as usual (I use Toast Titanium). Very handy when you have kids around that destroy DVDs!
 
This has worked for me in the past. I use MakeMKV to rip Blu Rays, but DVDs I usually just encode directly from the disk using Handbrake.

I cannot remember which movie it was, but one of my DVDs was being very stubborn. Eventually I tried ripping it with MakeMKV, and the resultant file coded beautifully in Handbrake.

I agree....

MakeMKV seems to work when alot of others are either painfully slow, or fail - MTR (MacTheRipper) was my weapon of choice, but having tried MakeMKV, probably wont go back

PS - It worked on Pirates... 4 - no problems at all (wouldnt it be easier if they just sold all DVDs with a digital copy as well....!)
 
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I agree....

MakeMKV seems to work when alot of others are either painfully slow, or fail - MTR (MacTheRipper) was my weapon of choice, but having tried MakeMKV, probably wont go back

PS - It worked on Pirates... 4 - no problems at all (wouldnt it be easier if they just sold all DVDs with a digital copy as well....!)

Agree, I used MakeMKV on both Thor and Captain America....no problems. HB would not touch either.
 
Great post. I never knew about the title selection option in handbrake. Using this method has worked with every DVD I've tried to backup so far, most of them new ones. Only thing I'd change is in step 9 select the VIDEO_TS folder on disk instead of just the disk itself just to avoid confusing the program if there's extra stuff on it. Thanks.


Guys, there's a simple solution for this using Handbrake & DVD Player. FWIW, I've run into the "99 titles" copy protection on about 10% off the DVD's I've ripped. So, chances are you'll run into again in the future. Here's the solution:

1.) Insert the DVD into the disc drive and let it auto play in the DVD Player app
2.) Watch any scene from the main title of the movie (not the previews, bonus features, etc.). If DVD Player launches in full screen, hit ESC to exit to windowed mode
3.) Once the main movie feature is playing, navigate the menu bar (the bar at the top of the screen next to the Apple icon - it will say "DVD Player")
4.) Since I don't have my Mac in front of me, I don't know what the "Title" option is under, but I think it's under the "Features" or "Go" menu
5.) Once you click on "Title", a sidebar will launch showing all 99 titles. The title that's checked in the main movie title. Remember this title #
6.) Launch Handbrake
7.) When the finder launches in Handbrake, hit "Cancel"
8.) Select "File" from the menu bar (top of the screen), then "Open Source (Title Specific)"
9.) Select the source disc, then hit "Open"
10.) Enter the title # you found in DVD Player and hit "Open Title"
11.) Handbrake will scan just the main movie title
12.) Proceed using Handbrake as usual.

----------



Find the title # via the menu bar at the top of the screen in DVD player, and not using the DVD player controls. Make sure you hit ESC to exit full screen and enter windowed mode so that you can access the menu bar at the top of the screen.
 
Great post. I never knew about the title selection option in handbrake. Using this method has worked with every DVD I've tried to backup so far, most of them new ones.

One other trick to know about Handbrake. I found this out for Cars 2. Ripit previously failed on it, and someone mentioned handbrake in an earlier thread. It worked, but the extra trick is to select not just a title, but then limit handbrake to specific chapters.

From memory, something like this: title 24, chapters 1-33

The limiting chapters is important, because the credits roll a few chapters before the end of the title, the final chapters are just to confuse rippers. You can tell which ones are real by either viewing the chapters directly using something like VLC or DVD Player, or by looking at the time for the chapter. The fake ones at the end are very short.

Sadly the kids don't seem to be too interested in watching Cars 2 over and over. They're getting to the age where they no longer want to do that. So maybe much less ripping in my future. What's the point of ripping if you're only watching once or twice?
 
Guys, there's a simple solution for this using Handbrake & DVD Player. FWIW, I've run into the "99 titles" copy protection on about 10% off the DVD's I've ripped. So, chances are you'll run into again in the future. Here's the solution:

1.) Insert the DVD into the disc drive and let it auto play in the DVD Player app
2.) Watch any scene from the main title of the movie (not the previews, bonus features, etc.). If DVD Player launches in full screen, hit ESC to exit to windowed mode
3.) Once the main movie feature is playing, navigate the menu bar (the bar at the top of the screen next to the Apple icon - it will say "DVD Player")
4.) Since I don't have my Mac in front of me, I don't know what the "Title" option is under, but I think it's under the "Features" or "Go" menu
5.) Once you click on "Title", a sidebar will launch showing all 99 titles. The title that's checked in the main movie title. Remember this title #
6.) Launch Handbrake
7.) When the finder launches in Handbrake, hit "Cancel"
8.) Select "File" from the menu bar (top of the screen), then "Open Source (Title Specific)"
9.) Select the source disc, then hit "Open"
10.) Enter the title # you found in DVD Player and hit "Open Title"
11.) Handbrake will scan just the main movie title
12.) Proceed using Handbrake as usual.

----------



Find the title # via the menu bar at the top of the screen in DVD player, and not using the DVD player controls. Make sure you hit ESC to exit full screen and enter windowed mode so that you can access the menu bar at the top of the screen.

The problem, at the OS level (on MacOS 10.10.5, and likely earlier and later) and the file-system level, is that the maker(s) of the DVDs have put lots (99-titles?) of files in the VIDEO_TS folder, and many of them are cross-linked. To illustrate this, using the "du -h" utility on that folder, I get 68Gbytes (or so) of data there, but a "df -H" on same folder will give me 7.1Gbytes (or so). There's not room on a DVD for 30-60-80 Gbytes of date, so some of the files are "corrupted" -- on purpose. The directory on a disk is just a file or data area on it, and it can be "creatively" twanged, such as is done here. The trick is to find a way through the messed-up files (in the directory) to get the correct files.

Both VLC and the Mac DVDPlayer apps will play the DVDs correctly, so they know how to navigate them. I've been unable to transcode the DVD to a file in VLC, but I might try this method, too.

Handbrake starts well on "Thor -- The Dark World" and "Star Trek -- Into Darkness", and "The Avengers", but the encodes stop (without errors) after 30 or 100 Mbytes. o_O

RipIt and Handbrake both complain mightily about these DVDs. The fsck_udf utility also complains. The DiskUtility app does, too.

Back to the drawing board ... :(
 
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