> On Jan 25, 2015, at 05:15 PM, William Spencer <wspen...@jhu.edu> 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 imaclist@googlegroups.com To leave this group, send email to imaclist+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com 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 imaclist+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
