discuss ripping or copying unprotected movies or homemade DVDs.

Please discuss ripping or copying unprotected movies or homemade DVDs.

I have a few of my hockey games recorded on dvd . I also have a imac with a dvd burner. I would like to make copies of the dvd. Is this even possible? Also I am a total rookie when it comes to this so please take it easy on me. Thanks.

I also tried to search for this info but I am not familar with the lingo on this BB so...

OK, you can use handbrake to pull video files off of those homemade dvds. Bring them off as 100% constant quality and set the settings to mp4.

You can do some fun things with your video in imovie. Then idvd can burn them.

Copying discs

The simplest, easiest, surest way if you're on completely new ground is with an invaluable piece of software called Toast. Whilst version 8 is current, there is not a great deal of practical difference with Toast 7, and that goes for under $20 on eBay, and similar on Amazon.
Specifically for you, it has a Copy button, and guides you through inserting your original disc, which is reads and stores, then to put in a blank disk, another Click, and a message telling you when it's done and ready to remove from your drive.
Otherwise:
1. insert the original disk in the drive and wait till it mounts.
2 Click on its icon to open it, and drag (all) the files to a new empty folder on your desktop.
3. This is where it gets less simple, as the files you see may be VIDEO_TS and AUDIO_TS files; or some other format since a hockey game would have been shot on a camcorder as DV, and may well have used something like iDVD to burn the DV file to the original disk. (Warned you it starts to get complicated!.)
4. You may waste a blank disc, but: the Mac OS /Utilities has a Burner, which you can run, choosing the video file you've just copied to your hard disc. I've never used it as I use Toast. If you have trouble (and waste the disc); or want to preempt wasting it, post another thread asking for help to use the Mac Burner utility, or if anyone knows of better, free burning software you could download.
Interested to know how you go- particularly the format (names) of the files on your original disk and how they went with Mac Burner if you try that.