08-19-2005, 12:33 AM

I want to copy movies for my son to use, I'm tired of him scratching all my DVD's. I have an iMac G5 running 10.3.9, single layer DVD burner.

Leo Laporte's radio show gave the following as the cheapest/easiest solution:
I can rip the DVD to my HD with Mac the Ripper, download Quicktime 7 Pro, plus the mpeg2 encoder plug in. Convert the .vob files to mpeg2 with Quicktime Pro.
Export the the now mpeg2 files to iMovie, then burn with iDVD.

Now I trust Leo, I loved the Screensavers, but everywhere I have searched on the net doesn't even propose this as a solution. All I hear about is Toast and Popcorn from Roxio (as a bonus I loath Roxio, was a Nero fan in the PC world).

I dont want to spend the $50 on Quicktime Pro and the mpeg2 decoder if it doesnt work, but Toast costs twice that. Whats a guy to do?

08-19-2005, 03:33 AM

Originally Posted by talleyrand

I want to copy movies for my son to use, I'm tired of him scratching all my DVD's. I have an iMac G5 running 10.3.9, single layer DVD burner.

Leo Laporte's radio show gave the following as the cheapest/easiest solution:
I can rip the DVD to my HD with Mac the Ripper, download Quicktime 7 Pro, plus the mpeg2 encoder plug in. Convert the .vob files to mpeg2 with Quicktime Pro.
Export the the now mpeg2 files to iMovie, then burn with iDVD.

Now I trust Leo, I loved the Screensavers, but everywhere I have searched on the net doesn't even propose this as a solution. All I hear about is Toast and Popcorn from Roxio (as a bonus I loath Roxio, was a Nero fan in the PC world).

I dont want to spend the $50 on Quicktime Pro and the mpeg2 decoder if it doesnt work, but Toast costs twice that. Whats a guy to do?

Check out this thread... Using Mac theripper and toast? is that the way to go to back up my movies?

I would also go the Roxio and MacTheRipper route. Works really well.

09-13-2005, 03:41 AM

G'day Talleyrand,

I had the same problem, I spent days downloading freeware and trial software. I took some advise from this forum and bought Popcorn and its really well with MTR. It gets the job done.

Regards Mark

09-13-2005, 12:50 PM

Talleyrand, How did everything work out?

07-26-2006, 03:33 AM

http://forums.afterdawn.com/thread_view.cfm/125996

07-26-2006, 08:36 AM

Its a pity that Nero does not make programs for Mac, I really did like Nero. Anyway the one you posted sounds the best free route I guess.

12-24-2006, 07:21 AM

Handbrake is another great app for archiving DVD's to mpg

12-24-2006, 04:44 PM

What I do to backup DVD's is:

First: Put the DVD into the drive and open it in DVD player to initialize it.
Second: Use either Mac the Ripper, DVDBackup, or OSEx to rip the DVD onto my hardrive as a VideoTS folder
Third: Depending on how you want the file, I then use either Roxio Popcorn to burn to compress and burn to a DVD or use VisualHub to convert the VideoTS folder to an MP4 file for my iPod.

Hopefully this works for you, the only programs that would cost money are either one of the two you would use in the third step. This method has worked flawlessly (although take some time to do) for over a year now. Hope you can get things figured out. :mac:

12-25-2006, 05:15 AM

I would use handbrake and encode at the highest quality, then burn the mpg file to dvd using iDVD. Its easy and free.