i recently got my macbook and am been looking in the forums for any kind of software that i want. am looking for some freeware programs. can someone tell me if mac the ripper is any good and handbrake. are their any free program like dvd shrink on mac? and are their any free burning software out there? thanks
There are three aspects to backing up your DVDs - rip, extract, and burn. url= http://digg.com/apple/MacTheRipper_3_R14_Released This will take you to where you can download the latest version of MTR. Different contributors to these forums and threads have their favourite pieces of software, but as a newbie, believe me, MTR is the easiest interface, and I think, the best ripper - it's free!. It's so long since I ALSO used MTR to extract Movie Only -(because my burner often wouldn't accept the file as valid, that now I use DVD2One. The updated version (I go back to when it was 1 something and I first began to use MTR) may well be more reliable in that regard. Remember though, if you rip the entire discs, you get all the preliminary stuff, and on some discs, 4 and more previews of other movies. Whether whole disc or Movie Only rip, save it to an empty folder - say you call it NewMovie. Then after ripping, look in the NewMovie folder. It MUST have an AUDIO_TS file in there as well as a VIDEO_TS file or your DVDPlayer, and a burner like TOAST, won't recognize it as a valid file. If it doesn't, it's easily fixed because in fact, the AUDIO_TS file is blank/empty. I presume it goes back to some need in a dark age, that still lingers in codex or something. Just create another folder in the NewMovie folder, and rename it AUDIO_TS. Another important thing : when your burner or extractor software asks you to locate and Choose the file to be processed, go to the folder of the rip eg NewMovie, Click it open, then Click on the Video_TS folder to open it so that the vob files are displayed. THEN Click Choose. Macs have in inbuilt burner utility. I would really recommend the outlay for at least DVD2One, which I find indispensible - it's interface is terrific, it's 100% reliable, and gives the flexibility of even more selectivity in extraction eg a specific episode from a disc with several. I've written some guidelines covering the three aspects (rip/extract/burn) - I'll post the first part for MTR and you can see whether with just the free MTR and Mac burner, it satsifies your needs at the moment. MTR: As a one-off, go into Apple Menu: System Preferences, go to Hardware/CDs & DVDs. Make sure that the second listing, “When you insert a blank DVD” says Ignore. This saves having DVDPlayer open, and worse, start competing with MTR to read the disc. Create a new folder on your desktop e.g. NewMovie 1. Put the DVD to be ripped into your external player/burner and close the tray. 2. Click/Open MTR 3. MTR will whirl and do some preliminary reading and info will appear in different parts. 4. The section you need to bother about is the bottom of the “TV screen” – the greenish window section. a. (i) on the left, Disc RPC will tell you what Region(s) the disc is authorized for b. (ii) on the right, Disc RCE section is VITAL : if/whenever it says “Clear” you can go straight to GO and MTR will prompt you where to save it (the folder you created above) (iii)If Disc RCE section says “Detected” then go down to bottom right to RCE region, and choose the exact same Region as indicated in Disc RPC, from the roll-down menu. Then hit Go. Interested to hear how you go.
Sorry - I wrote those guidelines for someone with an eMac and no internal DVD drive/burner so they bought a peripheral. Ignore that it says 'external burner/player) and use your regular internal DVD drive.
Toast 7 is quite good enough for your needs without the expense of the new Toast 8. eBay has copies going cheaply so keep your eye open - well worth it,
DVD2OneX will automatically compress your file to fit on a disc. Toast will also compress if you check the box, Fit-to-disc, but compared to DVD2One, it is more of a sledgehammer approach - I can see a lot of difference between them in the video quality of the finished result. In other words, DVD2One not only has the features I mentioned earlier, but will also do what DVDShrink would do.
