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Good news. DVD2One for OS X is coming, soon!
Read the forum at their website to get the latest info.
I have worked with several combinations using osex and DVDBackup for the ripping, Virtual PC (which can crash (kernel panic) my system) with DVD2one and DVD X Copy (PC versions). Also under OS X I have used DVD Studio Pro, Sizzle, Transcoder, DiscomVobulator Plus and Forty-Two. I have also used Toast or Disk Copy for the final burn. Disk copy only worked with the packages that actually produced a dvd image file rather than folders.
My personal opinion is that when DVD2One for OS X
becomes available it will be the best native OS X encoding solution. If you are new to the DVD Ripping on a Mac this can maybe save you lots of time with the older methods.
Use osex or DVDBackup to rip, decrypt, and make region free. The output should be a video_ts or dvd folders. It is about a 45 minute process for a 7Gb DVD on my 1Ghz iMac.
Use DVD2one (in Virtual PC) to shrink the size of these folders to fit to one DVD-R (4.36Gb). It takes about 45-1 hour in VPC when it does not crash. Hopefully the OS X release will be as quick as the native PC version which is 20-30 minutes.
Finally use Toast to burn the final image to one DVD-R(W).
I like using DVD-RW which takes about 54 minutes because you can always erase the disc and I have found that I can actually use my comptuter while burning at 1x. If you burn DVD-R at 2-4x, you better leave the machine alone as any other programs on the machine, including screen effects, and energy saver can crash the burn process and ruin the disc. 1x burning is slow, but very stable. If you have money to burn then by all means use 4x DVD-R media and burn in 10-15 minutes. The 1x DVD-RW media is going for about $1 a piece which ain't bad.
I replaced by set top box with a Sony NS315/B DVD player that I picked up on the net for $79 and it plays DVD-RW flawlessly.
What I really like about DVD2One and am looking forward to the Mac version for is that it automatically produces the chapters so there is no messing with DVDSP to try to recreate them. You get the whole movie with chapters and all on one disc. You can also put the entire DVD on one disc, menus and extras and all if you want, but the video quality is maximized if you forgoe the menus and extras. I must say, it is nice to dump all the advertisements at the beginning of the disc.
Looking forward to the Mac version so I can get rid of Virtual PC (nice product but can crash my system hard).
Thanks to everyone for all the help they have given me here and hopefully I can save some newbies some time from all my experience in the last couple months and point you in the right direction. : )
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