> On Jan 25, 2015, at 05:15 PM, William Spencer <[email protected]> wrote: > I have a single copy of a non-commercial and unavailable DVD that appears to > be copy-protected. I want to make a copy for myself that I can watch on both > the TV and the computer just as though I’m looking at the original, meaning > including whatever chapters might exist.
> To do this, I think I have to go through a conversion process…Disk Utility > refuses to make a disk image (this is why I think the disk is > copy-protected). So what’s the simplest way to do this? Simple is relative. The key is in understanding the individual steps required, I think. 1. Physically clean the DVD with water and a soft cloth! Better to make a clean rip than waste time listening to the DVD drive re-read track after track after track, hoping to get it right. 2. Prepare to break the encoding/protection. Until this is done, other tools will simply t-rex (flap their wee hands uselessly). Do this by installing and launching Fairmount. <https://github.com/pmetzger/Fairmount <https://github.com/pmetzger/Fairmount>> 3. Mount the (now dry) DVD and wait a minute or three for Fairmount to do its magic. 4. Rip the whole DVD using MacTheRipper. 5. Test the rip by opening and playing the resulting Video_TS folder with VLC. 6. (optional) Transcode the desired title(s) in the Video_TS to something else. An mkv file containing h.264 is usually preferred because it supports chapters and embedded subtitles etc. My current fav tool for this is Handbrake, but sometimes I wing it with raw ffmpeg commands. <http://handbrake.fr/ <http://handbrake.fr/>> Technically, you should be able to skip steps 4 & 5, going directly to 6 and transcoding right off the optical media, but I’ve not had good luck with that. Handbrake and Fairmount don’t always seem to get along; Handbrake crashes etc. So I’ve found that doing things one step at a time works best. Also, transcoding with Handbrake from a Video_TS folder on your hard drive is much faster than re-reading the DVD. That makes it easer to re-transcode after changing settings and such. HTH, - Dan. -- -- You received this message because you are a member of the iMac Group, a group for those using Apple iMacs and eMacs. The list FAQ is at http://lowendmac.com/imac/list.shtml and our netiquette guide is at http://www.lowendmac.com/lists/netiquette.shtml To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To leave this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/imaclist --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "iMac Group" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
