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Introduction
This is a guide written for newbies to the MacOSX and DVD scene. I have tried to write it in a clear and concise way and avoided using jargon wherever possible. Although there are numerous tools out there for the purpose of backing up DVDs under MacOSX, I have chosen to describe the use of DVDBackup, DVD2OneX and Toast Titanium. Depending where you are in the world, the description given here may vary, simply follow it as described and I am sure you will be a master in no time. Piracy is illegal, no matter how tempting, just say no.
You will need the following hardware:
1. RAM - more than 500Mb ideally.
2. G4 or G5 - running Mac OS X v 10.2.2 or later, quicker than 400mHz, otherwise it will take a very very long time.
3. HD space - at least 15Gb for the longer films.
4. Superdrive - can be external as well, which are reasonably inexpensive.
5. Blank DVD media - these can be DVD±R(W) depending on the capability of the superdrive you will use and also on the capability of your usual DVD player to watch them. The write once DVD±R are cheaper of course. Always make sure they are branded and have the write speed advertised - my favourite are Verbatim.
And you will need the following software:
1. DVDBackup 1.3 - freeware program available online.
2. DVD2OneX - shareware program available online.
3. Toast Titanium 6 - commercial software, again available online.
Backing Up DVDs Overview
Essentially, making a DVD copy under MacOS X is pretty straightforward. There are 3 basic steps you need to take. Firstly, you need to extract the DVD onto your HD using DVDBackup 1.3. Secondly, you need to process the extracted DVD files using DVD2OneX so it will fit onto a single side of your DVD media (4.7Gb). And finally you need to burn the processed DVD files onto your blank DVD media using Toast Titanium 6. These steps are detailed below.
Step 1. Extracting the DVD using DVDBackup 1.3
1. Insert the DVD into your DVD drive and DVD player will auto launch. This "authenticates" the DVD and allows the files to be copied. Quit DVD player so the DVD is mounted on the desktop. Make a note of the name of the film as it appears on your desktop, it will be in CAPITAL_LETTERS (and maybe some numbers, e.g. PREDATOR_2) and words will be separated by underscores (NOTE: This description may only apply for region 2 DVDs (Europe and Japan), it is important to ultimately name the disc as it appears on your desktop when you put it into your macintosh).
2. Launch DVDBackup 1.3 and drag and drop the DVD into the empty window or you can also add the files by clicking the "Add DVD Files...". If you choose the latter option choose the ?VIDEO_TS? folder from the DVD disk. A whole host of files with different suffixes (.IFO, .BUP and .VOB) and sizes will appear in the window. Leave all of them there.
3. Select whether you want to change the Region code (no need unless you want to use or send your DVDs abroad), remove Macrovision protection (allowing you to video from your DVD copy), and/or remove the CSS encryption (allowing you to extract the DVD files onto your HD). You will definitely want to remove Macrovision protection and remove CSS encryption so just make sure the boxes are ticked.
4. Press the "Process Files" button.
5. Select a folder where you want to save the ripped files. You select the path in the upper box. By default, in the lower box, the name ?VIDEO_TS? will appear for the folder into which you are going to save the files, this is fine.
6. After you press the "Save" button, DVDBackup will proceed to extract the files onto your HD. First, if you selected to decrypt the files, DVDBackup will scan through and find all the decryption keys. Then, it will copy and decrypt all the files, applying any Region code and Macrovision changes you selected. The scanning should be quick on
most DVD files, but some files have fewer vulnerable sectors and take longer to crack. Also you may occasionally get an error message saying something like decryption failed for a certain file, do you want to continue? Click yes. Invariably, this doesn?t affect your ability to process the DVD in the next stage so don?t worry about it. Once completed go to File/Get Info on the VIDEO_TS folder, if it is less than 4.36Gb you can proceed straight to step 3. You can also check the DVD extraction was successful at this stage by opening DVD Player and choosing File/Open VIDEO_TS folder and selecting the VIDEO_TS folder you have just made, remember to press play once you have selected it.
Step 2: Processing the DVD files using DVD2OneX
1. Launch DVD2OneX and select the ?Source:? directory in the top window. This is the ?VIDEO_TS? folder you just created using DVDBackup1.3 described above. The ?Output:? should be DVD±R(W) so it will fit onto a single sided blank DVD. And ?Copy mode:? should be the Movie only, unless you want the whole disk, in which
case select Diskcopy. However, using Diskcopy you will get all options available on the disk (special features, all languages, all subtitles etc.) and the quality of the film may suffer if it is larger than 4.4Gb, because you will have to compress it to fit it onto the disk.
2. The window will show the available titles and a drawer will open showing the available audio tracks, subtitles and angles. In the title list select the title that contains the main feature (usually the one with the most chapters).
3. From the drawer:
3.i. select the audio tracks to include in your copy. It is recommended to include only those audio tracks you really need, like the English audio for example. If there are two English audio tracks only choose the first one because the second one will be the directors commentary or some such.
3.ii. do not select any of the subtitles unless you are hard of hearing or it is a foreign film (e.g. Das Boot, La Haine) or a mixed language film that makes use of subtitles for specific parts of the film (e.g. Once Upon a Time in Mexico, The Last Samurai). For the foreign language films you will want to select English subtitles. In the case of
mixed language films there will be two or more subtitle options in English, usually the last one is the one you want where the subtitles are only written in the parts where the actors speak in a foreign language and certainly not the first option where English subtitles will be shown throughout the film.
3.iii select the angle you want to keep (often there isn?t a choice), but if there is, the first one is the one you want. This feature is mostly used by studio's to display texts and credits in different languages according to the audio language you have chosen.
4. Once you are happy with the options you have selected, click the Start button. At this point you will be asked to select the destination directory. Choose make a ?VIDEO_TS? folder and save it into a different directory to the one you made using Backup 1.3, otherwise it will overwrite it. The files will be processed and saved to your HD ready to be burnt onto a blank DVD. You can also check this VIDEO_TS
folder by launching DVD Player and choosing File/Open VIDEO_TS Folder. What you see is how it will look once you have burnt it onto DVD. If there is anything wrong then now is the time to go back and reprocess the DVD. This is particularly important in the case of a mixed language DVD where you may have processed the wrong subtitle set.
Step 3: Burning the processed DVD files using Toast Titanium 6
1. Launch Toast Titanium 6 and choose Data/Advanced/DVD-ROM (UDF).
2. Make sure your Superdrive is shown at the bottom right of the screen and is burning to a DVD as opposed to CD.
3. Click on the New Disk button in the bottom left hand corner and name the disk exactly as it was when you first put the original DVD disk into your DVD drive. This is a very important step.
4. Then drag and drop the processed ?VIDEO_TS? folder only that you made using DVD2OneX into the Toast Titanium 6 window, again it has to be that exact name for it to work.
5. Then click record, insert your blank DVD±R(W) media and choose to burn at your desired speed (which will depend on your superdrive and the media you are using).
Once finished you will have a DVD movie, which is a copy of your original and will play on most DVD players (make sure the media you use is compatible with your usual DVD player before you start). It will contain the opening sequences of the film companies, like Paramounts stars spinning round the mountain or Warner Brothers pan across the studios, and then will cut straight into the film. Enjoy.
Notes
? Extracting, processing and burning a single DVD takes a total of about 2 hours on my setup (iBook G4 800 with 768Mb RAM and a 4x burner).
? To keep track of things make a folder for the film named exactly as the DVD is when you first put it in and it is mounted on your desktop (different region DVDs may vary). This is meant for your own reference. Inside this folder make a further folder called ?Ripped Film? (or whatever you want). When you create a ?VIDEO_TS? folder using DVDBack 1.3 save it into the ?Ripped Film? folder, and when you make another ?VIDEO_TS? folder using DVD2Onex save it into the DVD_NAME folder. That way if you are doing several rip and burns in one sitting you will know where you are in the proceedings.
? ALL THE FILES YOU SELECT MUST BE FROM THE SAME DVD. Do not mix files from different DVD disks.
? The bigger the film then the more the quality will suffer when you process it to fit onto a single sided DVD using DVD2OneX. The rule of thumb is that 30 min of film will take up 1 Gb of disk space without undergoing any compression. Therefore, you can produce a perfect copy of a <2hr film on a 4.7 Gb DVD disk. Films longer than this will have to be compressed to fit onto a single sided DVD and quality will suffer as a result. However, you would be surprised at how good a compressed movie looks, to the point of finding it difficult to distinguish between the original and the copy.
? Dumping and deleting large data blocks (as you will be if you want to record several DVD?s in a short space of time) is bad news for your Apple system and can rapidly cause severe fragmentation problems. For that reason I recommend either (i) partitioning 25-30Gb of HD space to use exclusively for DVD purposes, (ii) use an external HD
exclusively for DVD purposes or (iii) regularly run a disk tool on your HD to ensure everything is OK (which you should do anyway).
? If the film is black and white, it takes up far less space than if it were in glorious technicolour. Check the size of the DVD files once you have ripped them using DVDBackup 1.3. If they are less than 4.36Gb in total you can skip step 2 and burn the files straight onto DVD±R(W) without having to process them using DVD2OneX.
? If the film makes use of foreign language, be certain to select the appropriate subtitle options. For example, The Last Samurai, Once Upon a Time in Mexico, Lord of the Rings are all mixed language films and you will have to select a language subtitle option to appreciate what is being said in the foreign language.
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