[tether]

as far as i'm aware, its legal to copy dvds in order to make yourself a backup - so what software would i use for that? is there any software on the apple OS that'd do the job (i have version 10.1.5 though i'll be getting a new powerbook with whatever the latest version is on it soon).
thanks.

[SoBayJake]

Originally Posted by tether

as far as i'm aware, its legal to copy dvds in order to make yourself a backup - so what software would i use for that? is there any software on the apple OS that'd do the job (i have version 10.1.5 though i'll be getting a new powerbook with whatever the latest version is on it soon).
thanks.

I'm not sure of the specifics, and there are plenty of threads covering this. Are you in the US? If so, circumventing the copy protection of DVDs is a violation of the DMCA, and that's illegal. Write your congressperson.

[TheIceMan]

You'll need 2 applications to do the job:

1.MacTheRipper - to extract the DVD to your computer
2. Popcorn or Toast Titanium - to compress it to fit onto a new DVD

[crooner]

Originally Posted by tether

as far as i'm aware, its legal to copy dvds in order to make yourself a backup - so what software would i use for that? is there any software on the apple OS that'd do the job (i have version 10.1.5 though i'll be getting a new powerbook with whatever the latest version is on it soon).
thanks.

I’m not sure, but I *think* it is illegal to copy even your own DVDs for backup purposes. If this is, indeed the case, I happen to think it is ridiculous.

In any case, you can rip a DVD to your drive with MacTheRipper:

http://www.losprimates.net/mtr/

In order to then burn it to a DVD you'll need something like Toast or Popcorn (from Roxio) or one of the other disc burning software titles.

I just used MacTheRipper (along with Handbrake) to put Casino on my new iPod and I doubt Martin Scorsese would mind. (I did, after all, keep it in widescreen... )

[Philip J. Fry]

I just use Handbrake (the newer version has an awesome queue ability) to convert my DVD's into MP4 format.

[tether]

mp4 sounds like its a small file size. i'd like to copy my dvd collection into files on my computer and store them all together either onto my hd or if space doesnt allow that then onto another disk - i dont need them on dvds - so would Handbrake be a better option for me? are there different formats that produce different quality files? is mp4 a format that'd be handy enough to play on diffferent machines - or to convert to another file type?

[production_coordinator]

Originally Posted by tether

mp4 sounds like its a small file size. i'd like to copy my dvd collection into files on my computer and store them all together either onto my hd or if space doesnt allow that then onto another disk - i dont need them on dvds - so would Handbrake be a better option for me? are there different formats that produce different quality files? is mp4 a format that'd be handy enough to play on diffferent machines - or to convert to another file type?

How large is your DVD collection?

I have an Elgato Eye Home which I paid $100 for. I rip the DVDs to the HD and watch them on my TV.

Quality:
- You can copy the .VOB file and it's about 5GB per DVD (different DVDs have different sizes) the quality is native DVD quality.
- You can transcode that .VOB to a DivX, Xvid, Mp4 bla bla.. file which can be anywhere from 800MB [poor quality IMHO] to 2GB [near DVD quality]

I keep all my new releases in .VOB and after 6 months to a year, I convert them to a high quality Divx.