Copy home produced DVD's to external hard drive

I have several home edited DVD's, since 2000, which I would like to copy to an external hard drive. How do I do it on my Mac? Any suggestions

Copy how? Copy the entire DVD contents to a hard drive? If so, just drag the contents of the DVD to your hard drive. Make a folder first with the name of the DVD and then drag the contents of the DVD into that folder.

I would like to copy the entire contents (including music and titles) on to an external hard drive. I don't seem to be able to copy the whole contents over, as Audio_TS and Video_TS copy separately and then I can't play them from the hard drive. I want to be able to save them so if the disks get corrupted I have another safe place.

OK, that explains it a bit better. Data DVDs can be copied directly but not music and video ones. You'll need to rip them to the hard drive. Use Handbrake. Handbrake is free.

The application makemkv will do it. It will copy the DVD, titles, menu system, etc... to a folder on a hard disk. You can then launch a media player such as VLC and point it to that folder and watch it just as you would a DVD in a DVD drive. The application will also allow you to select only things from the DVD that you want, or keep everything. NOTE: this just copies a DVD to hard disk, it will not break encryption nor will it copy a commercial DVD to a blank DVD. The resulting folder will be very large ie: 4GB-8GB so make sure you have sufficient disk space. If you use Time Machine, you may wish to exclude the makemkv output folder so you don't bulk up your backups.

We're still not quite clear on whether you mean you'd like to create a movie file of the presentation(s) on the DVD, or an image of the DVD you can use to make copies. If you could clarify, we can offer more suggestions. The Handbrake suggestion might work for your needs, depending on what end result you're looking for.

I have made DVDs from downloaded camcorder film and want to transfer the whole content, including titles, music etc, to an external hard drive so if the DVDs get corrupted, I have another copy saved. I'm a novice at some of the applications, so need clear instructions if you have any suggestions. I went into the Apple shop today, but apart from suggesting downloading an app (not that they knew which one) they didn't have a suggestion.

janwindsor said:

I have made DVDs from downloaded camcorder film and want to transfer the whole content, including titles, music etc, to an external hard drive so if the DVDs get corrupted, I have another copy saved. I'm a novice at some of the applications, so need clear instructions if you have any suggestions. I went into the Apple shop today, but apart from suggesting downloading an app (not that they knew which one) they didn't have a suggestion.

Click to expand...

Did you try makemkv?

Put in DVD
Launch makemkv
It finds loaded DVD
Click the huge box in the GUI
It scans DVD
You select some or all titles
Right side take default folder path or enter a new one
Click button to start
That's about it usually...

Sorry I haven't been in touch lately, been a bit busy.
chas_m, I tried Handbrake and managed to transfer a few of my DVDs. However some don't come up in Finder, then I have trouble ejecting them; some will play even if the name isn't in finder, and some aren't readable.
XJ-linux, Can you tell me where "makemkv" is?
Jan

Here's the download.

MakeMKV - Download

Here's the free key. They offer a new one for free every month while it is in beta status. Just check back in April at the same link or search for "makemkv beta key" on Google.

www.makemkv.com • View topic - MakeMKV is free while in beta

I'm not sure why XJ-Linux keeps pushing "makemkv" -- which does NOT do what the OP asked for -- when in fact Disk Utility (already on the Mac) will -- that is, it will make an image of the entire DVD in a form that is ready to use to make copies (also done by Disk Utility).

chas_m said:

I'm not sure why XJ-Linux keeps pushing "makemkv" -- which does NOT do what the OP asked for -- when in fact Disk Utility (already on the Mac) will -- that is, it will make an image of the entire DVD in a form that is ready to use to make copies (also done by Disk Utility).

Click to expand...

I'm not pushing anything. My suggestion works fine for doing that the OP asked about. Please explain why you think it would not make available the full contents of a DVD in a format usable for copying or viewing from the disk drive at some point..

I've tried Disk utility with little success. My biggest problem at the moment is that the Mac doesn't give a title in the Finder window, even if it starts to play as soon as I put it in the machine. I think I'm just having to accept that I can't copy some of them. I may try "makemkv" when I've got some spare time. Thanks for all your help guys.

I use Handbrake and it is very good. Not sure all DVD's work, however, as sometimes rental DVD's are blocked from copying. I had some work and some not.

I also use a USB to USB cable from BestBuy to transfer the movies to another computer and that means OSX to PC also. It has a software called EasySuite built into it.