Dvd ripping

[DevilRocks]

Hey,
I have been a windows user for a very long time, but about a year ago i got a mac lappy. Anyways, when i had windows i would use a program called dvd-shrink to back up my movies to the hdd at 4gb. Then i could burn them to a 4gb dvd-r, i have been looking online but i was unable to find anything like this for mac osX. I have seen a few things that might work, but they all want money. I am looking for a freeware.

Any help would be great!

thanks

-Thomas Johnson

[Thank The Cheese]

No free app I'm afraid. DVD shrink is great, and these days is about the only reason why I use my PC.

Anyway, the only DVD-Shrink-like app I'm aware of is Fast DVD Copy. I've used it and it is a really excellent program, but at $99 USA it is an absolute rip-off. That is too much for such a (relatively) simple utility -- especially seeing as there are a couple of freeware apps for Windows.

I think it's because they know they are the only option for mac users, and they are taking advantage of this. That is not based on any research though, so it is just speculation.

There is also Roxio Popcorn, which is $50, but I should warn you that it does not allow you to back up copy-protected retail DVDs. Understandably, a large company like Roxio can't be breaking laws. it's really up to the open source community for apps like these.

I guess a Mac-only free option would be to rip a DVD with Handbrake, and then use Toast or iDVD or something to burn the video back to a disc. That's a pain in the bum though.

[Viro]

This will sound like a silly question, but if you're only interested in making backups of your DVD, why not use the supplied Disk Utility? Just insert the DVD into the drive, launch Disk Utility, select the mounted DVD in Disk Utility and create a new image (select DVD/CD Master option). That will create a DVD master that I assume shouldn't be too difficult to burn to disc.

I've never done it before, as I don't have a DVD burner, but it seems to be happy enough to create an image of one of my Simpsons DVDs.

[DevilRocks]

That does sound like a good idea for making exact copies but if you read a little bit closer you would see that what i meant was to get a program that will shrink 7gb dvd's to 4gb. Because 7gb dvd-r's are expencive and take longer to burn.

[DevilRocks]

That would be a good idea to make an exact copy, but i wanna shrink 7gb dvd's to 4gb. Does anyone have a copy of fast dvd copy, with a cd-key so that i may try it to decide wheather or not i like the full version? Sorry to double post, i didn't know my post went through the first time cuz my comp glitched.

[eric2006]

I don't know a fast way to do this, but here's what I do:
I have my old broken camcorder connected to the DVD player, and my computer. iMovie then recognizes the camcorder as some sort of signal converter box thing, because theirs no tape in it. The movie plays, then it goes through the camcorder and to the computer and iMovie. As I understand it, not all camcorders can do this. Also, it is a rather lengthy process (the length of the movie), and you lose the original menus. It works great for exporting to an iPod video because of iMovie 6's "export to iPod command".

[Khama]

Unfortunatly I know of no free ( At least not a legal free ) way to do this. I do however know of a way this can be done. You will need 2 things.

1) A Copy of "Mac The Ripper" <- do a google search. This is a free download

This program can RIP the DVD's. If you are not concerned with the DVD extras ( Extra Languages, Subtitles, bonus features, etc ) then you can even disable the ripping of that. Shrinking the RIP even more.

2) a copy of Roxio Toast Titanium 7

NOT version 6!! Version 7 has the ability to take the RIP'ed video_TS folders from "Mac The Ripper" and compress it to fit on a 4gb DVD

I have sucessfully used the 2 programs above to make copies of my DVD's. Even a 9GB DVD was RIPped and burned to a 4GB disk with NO PROBLEM!

[baba]

I ripped a DVD with MactheRipper, but it has a warning about 'bad sectors' I haven't seen this before, and wondered how to proceed. I re-ripped with the same result