OK, my father in law gave my wife and I a Mac. I dont know a thing about them. I'd really apreciate if someone could tell me a good ripping and burning program for the Mac. Preferably freeware, but I'll take whatever.
MacTheRipper. There's a older freeware version (v.2.6.6) and a better, newer version (v. 3.14m), the latter requiring a gift to support its ongoing development. The older, freeware version can be downloaded via macupdate.com. Info regarding the 3.14m version is available at the ripdifferent.com forums. MTR 3.14m is arguably the best ripper available for the Mac.
HandBrake (freeware) is a flexible tool which some folks use for DVDs having only standard CSS copy protection. (http://handbrake.fr/) ...not good for structurally copy-protected DVDs though.
A combination of Fairmount and DVDRemaster is also an option. (http://www.metakine.com/)
A newcomer called RipIt (http://ripitapp.com) is also available and shows some future promise, though it's in its early stages now.
Fast DVD Copy is another Mac ripper, but IMO its performance isn't exactly stellar... (http://www.fastdvdcopy.com)
Beware of the plethora of web ads for a multitude of other so-called rippers that are all over the Internet.
Do some homework before choosing one. Versiontracker.com and/or Macupdate.com are good places to start for user reviews, along with the ripDifferent.com forums. For older DVDs without ARccOS or similar structural copy protections, you can get by with MTR 2.6.6 or HandBrake, but I would recommend donating some bucks and obtaining MacTheRipper 3.0.14m. The procedures to obtain it may seem a bit strange, but it does the job very well and handles most anything that's thrown to it. (Used in combination with DVD2OneX (next paragraph), it handles virtually everything.)
If you need to compress the ripped output for SL burning, perhaps the best software for this is DVD2OneX (http://www.dvd2one.com), which also cleans up ripped output when necessary and has other uses besides compressing. Roxio's Toast (http://www.roxio.com) is another option for compressing and burning, but it won't clean up a rip like DVD2OneX will. I'd recommend DVD2OneX over Toast for use with ripped output. I'd shy away from Roxio's Popcorn when it comes to rips, should you happen to come across it while researching.
You can easily image VIDEO_TS folders and burn to DVDs with Apple Disk Utility. (You can avoid going through Disk Utility's imaging steps by using DVDImager (freeware) and simply drag and drop a VIDEO_TS folder onto it's icon.)
