[SuperHard]

After reading the previous threads on DVDBackup and DVD2ONE I thought this would be a great way to put a 4GB home movie on a DVD - currently iDVD only allows buring a ~2GB movie.

My goal is to burn the DVD, not just play them on the computer. Am I right in thinking that the most DVD-player compliant way to burn the movie is to use the MKISOFS tools, which allows DVD2OneX, to create a disc image.

My question is, how do I install MKISOFS? I don't have Fink, nor do I know what it is, but it seems necessary to the process of installing *.tar files - is that correct?

Would someone be so kind as to post a link to instructions or suggest an alternate way to do what I'm trying to do.

Many thanks!!!

Some related links:
http://forums.macnn.com/showthread.p...ight=dvdbackup
http://www.macosxhints.com/article.p...30323150105346 http://forums.macnn.com/showthread.p...hlight=DVD2ONe

[SuperHard]

It seems possible to use Disc Utility to make a DVD disc image, and place the DVD2OneX files in the image to create a DVD-R disc. (And then I don't have figure out Fink and MKISOFS, though if I did, it seems the process would be more streamlined).

However, in Disc Utility, the only DVD image option available (in Format) is 2.6GB DVD-RAM, the 4.7GB DVD-ROM is grayed out. Why is that?

Under what conditions is the 4.7GB DVD-ROM available?

Thanks again!

By the way, I am using OS X.3.2.

Ah-ha! I only had 6GB free on my hard drive, once I emptied the trash and had >9 GB free, I now have the option to make a 4.7GB DVD image. doh!

[SuperHard]

Well I've managed to answer my own questions, so I'll post what I learned, though I'm sure this obvious to many of you.

Installing MKISOFS is quite easy, the instructions are in the help section of DVD2ONE, I just missed them the first time around.

What I discovered is that the app DVD IMAGER, which is where DVD2ONE instructs you to acquire MKISOFS is also an excellent app, and in many cases can obviate the need for DVD2ONE. For example, in my tests of making a copy of one my commercial DVDs, I used DVDBackup to extract the DVD to my hard disc. The entire DVD is 8GB, so to make a complete copy of it onto one DVD, requires using DVD2ONE or else some sort of compression. However, the particular DVD I used contained a widescreen and full-screen version. If I omit one the versions (i.e. extract languages, subtitles, and only the wide-screen version, while omiting the full-screen version, it was reduced to 3.7 GB). This is fantastic! I get the full resolution DVD and the languages and didn't need any compressioin or DVD2ONE. Not all DVD's will be less than 4.5 GB but probably with many are, for these, no image quality loss is necessary.
The next issue is burning this to DVD as a DVD movie and not data files. OSX cannot do this; many people use Roxio's Toast which does this quickly and easily, although it costs ~$100. The free app, DVD IMAGER, will save you here because it makes a DVD ".img" file easily - you just drop the "VIDEO_TS" folder onto the DVDIMAGER app icon. When its done, you have .img file, which you then burn to DVD using OS X Disc Utility app. Voila! A full-resolution DVD that should play in every DVD Player - it played in a Toshiba and a Sony DVD player, no problem, with menus and subtitles, etc. In case your curious, the menu does allow you to select the "full-screen" version, even though the data for it is absent. So, when I selected to play the "full-screen" version, it just stopped. Pressing play again, returned me to the menu.

Have Fun.

[filmerp]

SuperHard-
how did you take out the full-screen version of the film while keeping the menus? I was under the impression that DVD2One gave you the choice of either doing a full disk copy or movie-only without menus.
Also, is there a way to take out forced trailers that play before the menu while keeping all other features?

[SuperHard]

Well, that particular movie was organized quite simply. It had 4 sets of TS folders (e.g. TS_1*; TS_2*, etc). In each TS folder are Vob files, which you can play using VLC. By playing the vob files, I could see that TS folders 3 and 4 were identical, differening only by the format (4:3 or widescreen). Then I realized if I ommitted TS_folder 4, the first 3 TS folders added up to <4.3 GB. Now, DVDBackup lets you select which files to copy to your harddrive. I selected only the first three, and it worked wonderfully. The menus work just fine, and are presented with the option of the 4:3 format, even though that movie is absent. When I select that to play 4:3 on the menu, nothing happens, as if that selection is just ignored and then I select widescreen and it plays.

However, I've since noticed that most movies have more complicated organization, and it is not always so obvious what can be deleted. Anyway, you can test it all out before burning a DVD, by importing the whole DVD via DVDBackup. Then make various TS folders containing different sets of TS folder content. Drop those TS folders in DVDImage, and then play the resulting DVD in DVDplayer. If it works as you'd like, then burn it with DiskUtility. However, this isn't a panacea, some movies, even when you omit one format version and additional languages are still >4.3GB. In that case, you need DVD2ONE or suffer some sort of compression scheme.
Cheers!

I just re-read your post, so let me add: The menus are generally in TS folder 1. You'll see what I mean when you open a DVD in DVDBackup, there is a lot of flexibility. I haven't used DVD2One yet, though I don't yet know of another app that does what DVD2One does, so I'll probably use that app for movies I really need a second copy of (i.e. Braveheart, Alien). Maybe DVD2ONE breaks menus, but if you use DVDImage and include the menu files, you'll get intact menus. Good luck, and happy backup-ing.

[typoon]

If you want to Make a copy of a DVD why not use Fast DVD Copy? I've used it and it makes really nice copies for movies and stuff and compresses it to a 4.7 GB DVD.