DVD Ripping Q's from a dinosaur

Mac
#1

G’day,

Ok, I get it… I’m old and out of touch… I went and upgraded to a newer shiny Mac (a few years ago… my shiny 2nd hand early 2009 iMac), and now don’t know how to do something as simple as rip a DVD… for free…

I have a Region 1 DVD that my Cube and Mac Mini cannot play, even via VLC… but it will play in VLC on my Early 2009 iMac. I attempted to use Mac The Ripper on the Cube and Mini, but the result could not be played. I can’t use Mac The Ripper on the iMac (not the free PPC version anyways)…

Can someone please point me in the right direction here, cos I keep going round in circles (typically ending at the same place - the “trial” version of the “new” Mac The Ripper, that only rips 5 minutes…) Can you defeat the built in Region issues with the DVD drives inside the Cube/Mini to allow Mac the Ripper to rip… or do I need to find something (free) to use on the iMac.

I am wanting to rip the disc “in full”, not just use Handbrake to extract the components.

Thanks

cosmic

#2

You Could try ripit
http://thelittleappfactory.com/ripit/
Pretty sure you get 5 free rips before you have to buy it.
Not sure if it will do Region 1

I bought Video Converter Ultimate for my DVD rips.
Excellent Software, very fast.
I have setup old 5.25 DVD drives for the different regions, so if I want to put a Region 1 DVD into iTunes, or want to convert to mp4, mpv, I play it on my Region 1 DVD Player, then use VCU to put into iTunes.
Of course you also need the relevant cable to hook up the naked DVD drive to your computer, easy to buy on eBay.

#3

I only ever use Handbrake. Its free, give it a try
https://handbrake.fr

#4

The thing is I don’t want to lose ANY quality in the transfer… (If we can now afford 4TB drives, I figure - time to make use of that space and stop giving up quality…) which is why I’d prefer ripping the disc in full. As far as I know, Handbrake only offers options to convert the files to mp4/etc???

#5

MakeMKV will do a transfer of DVD video to your hard drive without any video or audio conversion (original quality).

However you’ll need a player capable of playing MKV files to view them.

There are Mac, Windows and Linux versions available.

MakeMKV

#6

RipIt will make an uncompressed image that can be played with Apple’s built in DVD Player.

#7

I bought a RipIt licence some years ago but I got the impression the developer(s) gave up on it. As time went on, more and more new DVDs would fail and there never any updates.

#8

I’m trying RipIt now… But am concerned - It had 2 options - “Download” or “Buy $25”. I clicked the first, and it gave me an app to use… and it’s ripping… but only expecting to take 1 hour… Mac The Ripper use to take HOURS and HOURS…

So - is it going to only rip half the DVD or something stupid, then hit me up for $$$???

#9

I don’t remember it doing anything dodgy like that.

#10

First rip done - works well. 9 left before requiring payment…

#11

I own ripit. It can’t do any modern DVDs as it hasn’t been updated in years. Not worth paying for.

Honestly ripping s DVD to an ATV2 preset in handbrake looks pretty much identical to a DVD on my 46" LCD TV.

#12

Well, I’ll give it a go for now, as it does seem to be ripping what I’m after… (Bought a bundle of Simpsons DVDs off eBay, only to find out that the S1 box set was Region 1…) I have been planning to also start ripping the rest of my DVDs too, so if it really starts to become an issue, I’ll revisit…

#13

Doesn’t say much for the developers that they still offer it for sale.

#14

I got it as a freebie with some bulk deal ages ago, I have still preferred Handbrake.

#15

I use Mac DVDRipper Pro, which is a paid application that is kept up to date by the developer. It works brilliantly.

1 Like
#16

If you do not want to lose any image quality then choose your handbrake settings accordingly. Handbrake is that powerful that you can rip losless if you so choose to. There is literally no other tool you need.

#17

G’day everyone,

So - almost a year on… and I’m back at square one.

Most of the library I was talking about above have been ripped using Handbrake, with slightly above normal settings for quality. In some spot tests, this seemed to be perfectly acceptable - comparing the DVD itself, with the rip, all good…

BUT… Now I’ve actually sat through a number of these m4V files, I’m seeing what I originally was concerned about with Handbrake - You’ll be watching a scene, and suddenly there is a drastic change in the brightness. Worse in dark scenes, but given we’re talking about Doctor Who - there’s plenty of dark scenes…

I noticed someone refer to changing the container only to ensure loss-less transitions… but - how do I best achieve that with a DVD that contains multiple VOB files for the 1 “movie”?

Thanks

cosmic

#18

MakeMKV for ripping, and use l33tmeatwad’s AMVtool for encoding. It’s meant for high quality h264 encodes in MP4 containers with fast paced animation, but that just means it’ll easily handle anything else. Default settings should work for you.

Do not use Handbrake. It is bad bad bad bad.

If you really want full lossless, because you have TBs of space, you might consider encoding to UT Video or HuffYUV, which are lossless, but for that, I’d recommend a different process. If you don’t mind storing in AVI, Avidemux 2.6 works well for this.

Please note, that unless your DVD is very recent, in that it is progressive and not interlaced, and the transfer quality is top notch, you might need to us filters to make the footage suitable for editing with.

#19

Thanks @kionan. I’ll have a look at those options.

Kinda frustrating as I had thought that the settings I’d used with Handbrake were going to give me an agreeable solution, but then as noted, the light/dark issue that I’d actually encountered previously with that app roared its head in some of the footage, so - totally unacceptable. (Yes, all in all, it’s still better than the quality of the files I was using… but still - I didn’t pay a thousand ++ to get all the DVDs, to then have inferior copies to watch.

And yes, all of classic WHO DVDs are interlaced. The “Restoration Team” aimed to restore every episode as best as they possibly could, which ultimately included taking the 16mm film prints and re-interlacing them. (!) (See the Doctor Who thread on this site for more info.)

#20

Oh lord. Can you post some screen shots or even a small bit of video from the VOBs for me to look at? It’ll help me better suggest how to deal with it. Interlacing over poor deinterlacing might well make the source unfilterable, sadly.