[ph0ust]

hi all. so i have an apple tv, video ipod and all the other apple gear and have decided that for some of my movies (surf, snowboard, etc.) i would like to rip them and stream at home or when i go on trips. however, i know nothing of how to effectively rip a dvd. i have mac the ripper and have ripped a whole bunch of them, but they are all in whatever raw format that the app rips them in. i have handbrake, but it seemed to make an mp4 that my mac can't read.

ultimately, i would like advice on how to do this with as few programs as is necessary, but most importantly... i want to keep the quality (i.e. video and audio) the SAME as it is on the actual dvd. is that possible? i don't care if i buy software... that is fine. i just want to be able to take my movies with me during various travels and not have them sound like crap or look like they are budget copies.

can you help explain copying dvds? is it possible to keep the audio (dd5.1 or dts)? do i need to rip them with something like mac the ripper first, or can i just go straight to h.264? is there a best way to do this? thanks.

[mduell]

If you really mean without losing quality, then it's impossible. Your ATV and iPod can't play the native content on the DVD (an MPEG2-PS stream), and you can't change formats without losing quality.

Handbrake is a good (easy and quality) way to copy your DVDs. Use the iPod preset and it will play on your iPod (obviously), ATV, and computer. I'm not sure what you did last time to make it not work, but you can try the Handbrake forums for help. You could also make a second copy, using the Apple TV preset, that will give you marginally better quality but only work on the ATV and your computer. The combined size of both the iPod preset output file and ATV preset output file should be smaller than the original DVD files, and the quality loss (especially for the ATV preset) is minimal.

[ph0ust]

thanks. so why do people use mac the ripper? is there a benefit to using that and then handbrake to create the single movie file? that is how i made my last copy of a movie and it did not work.

if i rip with mac the ripper, does it keep the movie in its native quality because it hasn't recompressed it?

[besson3c]

The only DVD copy tool that I'm aware of that doesn't transcode is IFOEdit on Windows. However, it doesn't work with DVDs where the movie is well over 4.7 gig.

[mduell]

Originally Posted by ph0ust 

thanks. so why do people use mac the ripper? is there a benefit to using that and then handbrake to create the single movie file? that is how i made my last copy of a movie and it did not work.

if i rip with mac the ripper, does it keep the movie in its native quality because it hasn't recompressed it?

People use MTR (or other similar apps) if they want to have the raw DVD image on disk for burning or other purposes. Ripping with MTR and then encoding with Handbrake should work. I'm not sure what went wrong, but if you describe what you did and what happened in the Handbrake forums, perhaps someone can tell you why.

Yes, just ripping with MTR keeps the DVD quality, and you can play it just fine on a computer. But you can't play it on an ATV or iPod, and it's pretty big.

Originally Posted by besson3c 

The only DVD copy tool that I'm aware of that doesn't transcode is IFOEdit on Windows. However, it doesn't work with DVDs where the movie is well over 4.7 gig.

Mac the Ripper for OSX and DVD Decrypter (among many others) for Windows don't transcode. They just strip off the encryption and give you the vobs (either in the DVD VIDEO_TS folder structure, or as a single concatenated file).

[Gavin]

The trick to getting good quality out of handbrake is to raise the bitrate.
try these settings:
file format- mp4
codecs - MP4 Video /aac audio
video quality - Constant, with slider maxed out all the way to the right
check the 2-pass encoding box

drag the quality slider left to get a smaller file with lower quality. try getting just 1 chapter for testing and rip it several times at different quality settings to find the lowest quality you find acceptable. mid 80s usually gives me a good quality / filesize tradeoff - differs for each DVD.

You need a second copy for the iPod: change the quality setting to Average, set to 1000 or less - ipods can't play higher bitrates.

[mduell]

H.264 video is going to give better quality/size than MPEG4.

[cgc]

How about using DVDBackup 1.3 - Mac OS X - VersionTracker or DVD2oneX 2.1.3 - Mac OS X - VersionTracker

[mduell]

Neither will do what the OP wants. Those are for copying DVDs to blank DVDRs.

[cgc]

Hmmm, well there are ways to make an exact copy on Windows...can you file copy the TS_Folder (or whatever it's called)?

[mduell]

Sure you can. But that's not what the original poster really wants to do. He wants to play it on his ATV/iPod, which won't play a VIDEO_TS folder.

[peeb]

Originally Posted by cgc 

Hmmm, well there are ways to make an exact copy on Windows...can you file copy the TS_Folder (or whatever it's called)?

That's what Mac the Ripper does.