How to backup DVDs on Mac Os X

Sunday, March 6th, 2005

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I have recently been spending what little free time I have between work and Grand Theft Auto San Andreas backing up our dvd collection after the unfortunate experience of one of our dvds getting too scratched to play smoothly all the way through. (I was lucky, doing a backup of the disk left me with a copy that works much better than the original)

Anyway, since it took me quite a bit of time and trial and error to find the perfect setup for me, I thought I would share my findings with you.

Without further ado, here is my method for backing up dvds in Mac Os X, please feel free to comment, and let me know if you have a better way.

1) Ripping the DVD to hard disk.

The first issue I encounter in backing up my DVDs is that I have both region 1 and region 2 DVDs. I live in Japan, but like to order DVDs from the United States from time to time, and Christmas just wouldn’t be Christmas without Johnny and Jimmy’s annual Simpsons Season box.

The DVD-r drive that comes with my G5 does not have unlimited region switching firmware available for it that can be flashed from the Mac. It would be possible to pull out the drive, mount it in a Windows machine, flash it, and put it back in the mac, but I don’t currently have a desktop windows machine (laptop only) and besides I like to keep my mac hardware away from the shadier elements wink.

That leaves me to figure out how to backup multiple region DVDs on a single region drive. Ideally I would like the backup to be region free, so that I don’t have to worry about what player I put it in. Fortunately MacTheRipper is the perfect application for the job, and better yet it’s freeware! I did have to go through a few steps to get it working nicely for me, so I’ll go into them here:

  1. Open System Preferences (apple menu->System Preferences… is one way)
  2. click on the CDs & DVDs icon
  3. Set “When you insert a video DVD:” to Ignore and while you are at it, set “When you insert a blank DVD:” to Ignore as well.
  4. close System preferences
  5. Go into the MactheRipper preferences and make sure that it is set to not remember save location
  6. When you run mac the ripper and it completes it’s disk scan, look at the DISC RCE indicator in the bottom left of the imitation LCD display. If it says detected you will need to set the RCE Region to the region that the disc is. This can usually be found on the back of the DVD jacket if you don’t know it.
  7. Finally, check that the New Region setting is set to ALL. This is what will make your ripped version of the disk region free.

One thing to note, MactheRipper doesn’t have very good visual feedback that things are happening, so until you get used to how everything works, it can seem like it is frozen. Give it a few minutes, as it takes a while to do things like scan disks.

UPDATE: MactheRipper has been having some stability problems for me, and seems to only really work well long enough for me to burn a couple of dvds per login. I had been using a program called DVDBackup to do this job before, but it needed DVD Player to unlock the disk before it could decrypt it. I’m not sure yet, and this update may disappear very soon if I find out I’m wrong, but it SEEMS like if you scan the DVD in MactheRipper first, then DVDBackup will back it up with no problem.

2) Resizing the video files to fit on a DVD-R

Often the files that result from a direct rip from DVD will be about two times too large to fit on a DVD-R. DVD2oneX will do a nice job of resizing them for you. DVD2oneX seems a bit expensive to me at 49.99 Euros, so I would really like to find a different method of doing this, but haven’t yet. If you know of one, please comment and let me know what it is.

In DVD2oneX, select the source directory (this would be the video_ts folder created in whatever folder you told mactheripper to rip to), slect the audio/subtitle tracks that you want to include (I always include them all, cause who knows when I might want to watch the Simpsons in French), select the output size (there is an option for DVD-R that is supposed to size it to fit on a DVD-R disk, but when I was using toast to burn the disks, I had problems with them not fitting so I have mine set to a User defined value of 4300 MB), set Copy to Disk Copy, set Ratio to Variable (I guess. it seem to work well for me, but I’ve not experimented or bothered to read the manual), and click Start. It will then prompt you for where you want to save the end result. I usually create a folder called small in the same directory as the source files, and copy it there. That makes it easier to remember where everything is, and make sure all that disk space gets cleared back up. DVD2oneX will then scan the files, and then start reducing them to the selected size.

3) Creating a disk image to burn to DVD-R

If you have Roxio Toast, you should be able to get by without this step, but I found that I had a lot higher success rate burning from a .img file. DVD2oneX has a Create Image option, but it causes the program to die a nasty death for me, your results may vary.

I use DVD Imager, a brilliant piece of freeware, to creater .iso files from my newly shrunk video_ts folder. Here’s the steps I follow:

  1. open my small directory in the finder
  2. run DVD Imager
  3. drag the video_ts folder inside the small folder into the DVD Imager application window
  4. make sure Prompt for new destination is selected
  5. click Create Image
  6. select a location for saving the image
  7. type in a name for my disk image (something like SIMSPONS_5_1) and away we go

Sidenote: Tod says, “You need dvdimager because dvd video has a special format. The table of contents has to be specially constructed so that certain files appear at certain fixed sector positions.” You should listen to Tod, he’s a very smart guy.

4) Burning your disk image to DVD-R

I use the Disk Utility included with Mac OS X to burn the image to DVD-R. Here are the steps I follow:

  1. Open Disk Utility (Applications Folder->Utilities->Disk Utility
  2. Insert a blank DVD-R into the drive
  3. Click Burn in Disk Utility
  4. Select the image to burn
  5. burn it

5) Test the DVD

This step is easy, just stick the DVD in any DVD Player that can handle DVD-Rs (most of them that I have encountered) and see if it’ll play. It should be region free so it shouldn’t matter what region your DVD player is equipped to play.

I hope this was helpful. If you have any questions, comments, or additions please comment and I’ll update as necessary.

By UltraBob at 10:13 AM Link to this post here!
23 comment s


  • on April 28th, 2005 09:46 PM JF said:

    Thanks for the help. A very helpful website, without which I would be very stuck. I followed your directions right down to the last detail and the finished product is great. Thanks again. JF

  • on May 2nd, 2005 07:14 PM Chris said:

    very helpful thanks ! I’m using mactheripper(to rip) + roxio popcorn (to shrink) on a g4 powerbook, works great !
    However although I set the save location on mactheripper (an external hard drive) I have this bad feeling it is saving on my powerbook as I’ve gone from 25gb of free space to 10gb in two days and I’ve ripped two dvds recently but I just cant find where these files are ? any ideas , all was working fine previously this being the first two rips since installing osx tiger.

  • on May 2nd, 2005 07:18 PM chris said:

    also if you want to watch different region dvds only on your G5 rather than rip just use VLC (http://www.videolan.org) this will open the video_ts file on the dvd and allow you to watch the vob files. VLC plays every file you can think of and is great, safer than flashing the firmware on your drive.

  • on May 2nd, 2005 11:52 PM UltraBob said:

    Hi Chris,

    Thanks for the feedback.  Mplayer will also play dvd files reqion free so I’ve been using that, but I’ll have to check out VLC to see if it will handle subtitles and dvd menus better than mplayer.

    About finding the results of your rip, yes them not being where you told it to save them is a bad sign.  I’d search your hard disk for taletell things like folders named VIDEO_TS. 

    I just did a finder search follwoing the instructions below, and got results back very quickly.

    1) Go to the finder
    2) Select find from the menu (File->Find...) or press command-f
    3) Search in Everywhere (you may have to select more than one hard disk here)
    4) Search for items whose:
    Name contains VIDEO_TS
    5) click the ‘+’ to add one more search requirement
    6) Kind is folder
    7) Click Search

    Hope this helps

  • on May 6th, 2005 07:15 AM Marty said:

    Has anyone tried this procedure on the Mac Mini? I cannot read anything outside of my set region (region 4) using MTR, VLC or DVDBackup (even after tricking dvdbackup into thinking that the DVD is OK, by loading the dvd into MTR and/or DVD Player first and letting that application barf)! It seems I am totally stumped with the Mini, whichever way I try! I even tried a remote mount to my Linux laptop and then tried DVDBackup, but it still wants it to play and “authorise” in DVDPlayer, or something else which checks the region coding! Tricking DVDBackup allows me to get past the initial error, but then it gets partially through the backup and bombs, with a bad sector error (I think - it’s been a couple of weeks, so I may be getting my 500 different errors mixed up.... wink Anyone managed to get around this BS region coding issue on a Mini yet? Thx.

  • on May 7th, 2005 09:14 AM UltraBob said:

    Hi Marty,

    I think you may have missed the following steps:

    1. Open System Preferences (apple menu->System Preferences
    2. click on the CDs & DVDs icon
    3. Set “When you insert a video DVD:” to Ignore and while you are at it, set “When you insert a blank DVD:” to Ignore as well.
    4. close System preferences

    Please give that a go, and let us know if it works after you’ve done that?

  • on May 9th, 2005 12:18 AM Marty said:

    I assume that the missing step you are referring to is step 3 from the main body:
    3. Set “When you insert a video DVD:” to Ignore and while you are at it, set “When you insert a blank DVD:” to Ignore as well.
    ??

    If so, then yes, that is done and no, it makes no difference - I still cannot rip or copy non-region 4 coded DVD’s.

  • on May 10th, 2005 01:39 AM Marty said:

    Let me clarify a bit…
    I have the cd/dvd preferences set to ignore. I insert a region 1 DVD and load MTR (my mac mini dvd drive is set for region 4). I set the save location to my movies directory. I let it scan the DVD and it shows the RCE as being clear and the region as 1. I set the New region to All and let it rip. It runs through and appears to rip everything OK, but once done comes back with:

    This disk has bad sectors. All though the rip is complete the rip may not playback. Please check prior to burning.

    As a side note, this happens with ALL of my region 1 dvd’s and none of my region 4’s (i have tried multiple of both)

    The ripped files will not playback using DVD Player or VLC. DVD Player takes about 10 seconds to load the Video_TS folder and then appears to play the DVD, but I get no picture and no sound. If I try to scan forward, DVD player crashes.

    In VLC, I get the following error when trying to play back the Video_TS folder:
    An error has occurred which probably prevented the execution of your request: Main: Strem chained failed for std{access=file, mux=ts,url=""} main: cannot start stream output instance, aborting.

    Hope this is a bit clearer....
    Thx.

  • on May 28th, 2005 12:53 AM Woody said:

    PM Marty - I am having the exact same problem, the only differrence is my mac mini is set to region 1 and I have a number of region 2 discs I’m trying to play/backup. I’m making some attempts to adjust the settings in MTR and my mini (see everyone’s comments about changing settings to ignore) - I’ll post my comments if I get it to work.

    Woody

  • on June 10th, 2005 03:15 PM floop said:

    I"m having identical problems with my mac mini, but i’m region 3 and get the errors with region 1 or 4 discs.  bleh.  i sure hope somebody releases a dvd firmware hack soon.

  • on June 11th, 2005 10:59 PM Kevin said:

    Chris-
    on mactheripper is says the save loaction near the lower middle of the window

  • on July 11th, 2005 11:34 PM Marty said:

    On Bob’s recommendation, I tried fastdvdcopy. This program allows you one free burn before purchase. Unfortunately, it was also unsuccessful on the Mac Mini! It gets stuck on the first screen trying to analyze the DVD with “Time Remaining: less than 1 minute(s)”. I have emailed velan (the makers) and let them know that it doesn’t work on the Mini, but don’t expect too much response.

  • on July 16th, 2005 04:44 PM david ferguson said:

    I have a titanium powerbook g4 1.3 ghz, with tiger 10.4.2, everything else up to date. I am unable to get vlc to play any movie that isn’t the current region that my drive is set to (changed it to setting 2 for the summer as I am in europe), so I can’t watch my american dvd’s that i brought with me. I will try mplayer but Im assuming I will get similar results. I don’t want to mess with my firmware and lose my warranty, but is there a way otherwise to watch movies that are a different region? Does the new version of tiger perhaps prohibit vlc and such apps from playing these movies? I have my system prefs on point and everything else set up as it should be… Thanks for the help

  • on July 16th, 2005 04:50 PM david ferguson said:

    ...I also get the same problems with mac the ripper when trying to burn a dvd from a different region, the disc RCE comes up clear and once done burning, i get the bad sectors message and the burned video_ts folder is unusable (seems to load in vlc, but then automatically closes the window once i get past the menu screen). Any way around this?

  • on July 16th, 2005 11:39 PM UltraBob said:

    david: Did you follow the set of instructions about going into system preferences and making sure that DVD Player isn’t loaded automatically when you insert a disc?  It may be that DVD Player is loading the disc and disallowing it’s use befor eth eother programs.  It may just be that the version of drive that is in your powerbook, and the mac mini that readers reported about above has trouble with this type of stuff.  I have ordered a mac mini with a super drive, and I’ll see if I have the same problem as readers above when it gets here.  If I can find a solution I’ll post it.

  • on July 17th, 2005 02:54 PM david ferguson said:

    Like I said, my system prefs have been taken care of a long time ago, I basically have everything in there on ignore.. When I switch the region code and then rip a DVD everything works fine, so I’m assuming that the drive is reading the dvd before mac the ripper has a chance to because I can’t watch or burn a dvd if the region isn’t correct. This sucks for numerous reasons obviously, as my boss just gave me some concert DVD’s that I can’t watch and he needs them returned soon.... I only have 2 changes left on my region code, and I’m pretty sure I can’t reset the firmware even if I wanted to because my computer is fairly new (titanium from last November) and my matshita dvd drive is the UJ-825 version, which I think hasn’t been cracked or watever yet.. If anyone has any other ideas lemme know.. dave

  • on July 31st, 2005 10:23 PM G said:

    Another one having the exact same problems here and have done all suggested to no avail. Have any of you found a solution or what are you doing in the meantime? I’m trying to rip Dutch discs and the drive is set to American. I’d rather not change it (don’t know if that would help) as I will be traveling lots more in the future. Help help.

  • on August 9th, 2005 05:04 AM j. durborow said:

    i have an imac g5 with a superdrive and was wondering if anyone here has had problems ripping to dvd+r with any of the software used above.  if i am not mistaken i am under the impresssion according to the features on the box the superdrive is capable of burning to all versions of blank media. dvd+r/rw, dvd-r/rw, and dual layer??  or could it possibly be the brand of media?  i have a 50 pack of blank HP dvd+r that i would like to use.  am i out of luck?
    thanks in advance

  • on September 13th, 2005 03:08 AM Mark said:

    What if I don’t specify the RCE in Mactheripper and just leave it as the default which is “OFF”?
    Cheers

  • on September 13th, 2005 03:16 AM UltraBob said:

    That is a good question for the Mac the Ripper manual.  I’m pretty sure they address that question pretty well.

  • on February 26th, 2006 08:12 PM Evil said:

    I have a brand new powermac G5 2.3 ghz ddr2 with supper drive, when i use Mactheripper, i always get bad sector error from the disk i want to back up,
    Its not the normal dummy VOBs but bad sectors, my dvd is mint, so i don’t realy know anything about this error, didn’t get those on the old G4… any clues??

  • on February 26th, 2006 09:58 PM UltraBob said:

    Hi Evil,

    I haven’t heard of any problems on the Powermac G5s yet, but they may have changed the model of the superdrive in the new ones.  Would you mind letting us know what model of drive System Profiler says you have?

    At any rate I’d recommend trying doing the initial scan of the disk with mac the ripper, but actually ripping it with dvdbackup.  These techniques are getting harder and harder because if I remember right, both Mac the Ripper and DvdBackup are off the market now.  Dvd2OneX is still around though and actually has a new version out.  I know because I purchased it yesterday.  It is quite good though the purchase price is a bit steep.

  • on March 31st, 2006 05:13 PM Megan said:

    Thanks for taking the time with this issue. I was hoping to find a solution, but even following your steps, I get this message: “The disc has bad sectors. All though the rip is complete, the rip may not playback. Please check prior to burning.” That’s it exactly---funny spelling, grammar and all! I’m using Mac OSX 4.5. I’ve read that there is a problem running Mactheripper on 4.5. I was hoping for a solution though. Do you know of any other program that will rip on a Mac?
    Thanks so much,
    Megan