Gramage's DVD copying guide - v2 
Thanks to knight for the idea, and various usefull tidbits about MacTheRipper. I could have done it without you, but it would have sucked more 

Note: This guide is for copying DVD video from commercial DVD discs on to DVD-R media. This process is illegal if you do not own the movie you are copying. I am not responsible for what you do with this information. Also, you won't find any information here on how to convert DVD video into other formats, such as DivX. 

The amount of information in this guide might seem a bit overwhelming at first, but once you've done this a few times it will become second nature, and you won't need the guida anymore. 

Right, now that we've got that out of the way, let's begin 

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Important: Never delete any files untill you are sure the finished DVD works. If you burn it, remove the files from your HD, and then find that the DVD doesn't work, you'll have to start from scratch. 

Step 0: Requirements 

A SuperDrive or other DVD-RW drive. 

At least 12 gigabytes of free HD space. A freshly ripped DVD will need around 8gb, and the compressed version will need around 4.5gb. 

Apps for ripping: 

DVD Backup 
http://www.macupdate.com/info.php/id/10757 

-or- 

MacTheRipper 
http://www.macupdate.com/info.php/id/14414 

If you plan to use MacTheRipper to rip your DVD, skip step 1a. If you use DVD Backup to rip, skip step 1b. 

Apps for encoding/compressing: 

DVD2oneX 
http://www.macupdate.com/info.php/id/11518 
Cuz I'm a nice guy, here's a serial for v1.3: Name "Pablo/nop", number "555555-1968-4901-1625-0707-5771-0535-1355" 

Apps for burning: 

Toast Titanium 6 
see here: 
http://macserialjunkie.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=28261 

-or- 

Disc Utility (in the utilities folder on any OS 10.3 mac, was called Disc Copy in pre-panther OS's) 

Blank DVD Media: 
I use 4.7gb DVD-R's. 4.7gb DVD-RW's should work as well. If you have a Dual-Layer DVD burner (lucky @#$%), I believe you can use the Dual Layer DVD-Rs, and skip Step 2. Do not use DVD+R's. 

Important: If you have a 1x or 2x DVD burner, do not use 4x media. Not only would that be a waste of money, but I have heard that doing so can ruin your burner. If you have the latest firmware updates this problem should be resolved, but I'd check with the manufacturer before proceeding. 

Step 1a: Ripping with DVD Backup 

Insert the DVD you want to rip. Make sure it opens in DVD player. If it doesn't automatically, do it yourself. Once it has played for a few seconds, you can quit DVD player. 

middynisk wrote: 

Just a note for the sake of completeness. From what i've read in the past, launching DVD Player 'authorises' the DVD; It means that the machine checks and clears it's region code as being valid so you can manipulate it as you wish. If you don't launch DVD Player, it won't check. 

Launch DVD Backup. Make sure all 3 boxes on the right are checked, and "New Region" is set to "Region Free". Drag the DVD's icon from the desktop to the DVD Backup window. Then click "process files". In the save dialog, just tell it to save to anywhere you want. That part doesn't really matter. 

Important Info: 

MacRAND (on the DVD Backup page @ macupdate)  wrote: 

: DVDBackup has worked perfectly well before OS X Panther 10.3 updates. 
If you are "up to date" in Panther, running DVDBackup 1.3 with very recent DVDs with CCS protection may either 
(a) crash DVDBackup consistently, or 
(b) seemingly work, but results in a "dead" DVD that does not play - a total "coaster" 
However, it may still work in Jaguar 
Hope the designer can fix this bug for Panther and new upcoming Tiger, because it used to work great. (6/11/2004, Version: 1.3) 

Step 1b: Ripping with MacTheRipper 

Note: MacTheRipper is a bit more complicated that DVD Backup, but it is also much more advanced. I think the small extra effort of learning it is worth it. 

When ripping with MacTheRipper, you don't need to open the disc with DVD Player as you would with DVD Backup. 

Insert your dvd, and launch MacTheRipper. It will find your disc on its own. 

If you wish to disable UOP's (pats of the disc you cannot skip, such as the FBI warnings), click on the UOP's button. On the sheet that slides down, make sure only the bottom left button ("Disable DVD UOP's") is checked. Note: Disabling UOPs can damage disc navigation on certain discs. This has never happened to me, but it might. 

Next, click on the New Region button, and check all the boxes if they are not allready. 

Also, make sure De-Macrovision (below the UOPs button) is checked. Macrovision prevents DVD's from being copied to VHS tapes through a VCR, and will cause visual distortions if your DVD player is hooked to your TV through your VCR. 

If, in the LCD-looking screen at the top, it says "Disc RCE: -detected- ", click on the RCE Region menu and set it to the region the disc was purchased/rented in. 

1 North America 
2 Japan, Europe, South Africa, Middle East 
3 Southeast Asia, East Asia 
4 Australia, New Zealand, some Pacific Islands, Central and South America 
5 Indian Subcontinent, Former Soviet Union, Africa 
6 China 

Now, click on "Mode". 

If you want the whole disc, movie, menus, extras, etc, then click on the first menu below and select "FULL DISC EXTRACTION". Now you can click "Go!" and proceed to Step 2 when ripping finishes. For more options, keep reading this Step. 

If you want just the movie, no extras, select MAIN FEATURE EXTRACTION (Note: Menus will still be enabled, instructions on disabling menus is further down). 

I do not reccomend choosing any of the other options, they are for exctracting specific parts of the disc, specific title sets, etc. Unless you know specifically which title set you want, it just makes things harder. 

For additional options, including disabling menus, open MacTheRipper's preferences. 

Leave "Enable PGC Mode in Titel / Chapter mode" checked. If you find that DVDs burned from mactheripper rips are not playing properly, try unchecking this option. 

Leave "Enable ForceRead Mode" unchecked unleas you are having trouble ripping the DVD (eg, a scratched disc). Note: Do not leave MacTheRipper unsupervised while ripping with this option checked. If it encounters an unreadable part of the disc, it will continue retrying forever, untill it burns out your DVD drive. If the disc is too scratched to be read, give up and get another copy. 

Leave "Disable File Overwrite Warning" unchecked. This will warn you in case you accidentally tell MTR to save the rip into a folder allready containing a VIDEO_TS folder from another DVD. That can be quite annoying. 

For File Size Calculation Method, setting it to "Pre Scan" will pre-calculate all the title set filesizes in advance, which causes a short delay when launching MTR. Setting it to "Real Time" will calculate all filesizes on the fly, removing the startup delay but causing many shorter ones. "Disabled" will disable filesize calculating. 

Check "Don't remember save location" if you plan on ripping multiple discs in a short time (by ripping a second while encoding the first, then burning the first while encoding the second). This will prevent any accidental overwrites if you have "Disable File Overwrite Warning" checked. 

When you are satisfied with the settings, click "GO!", the disc will rip. I ripped "Mononoke Hime" (133min film, 7.46gb) in 46 minutes with this app. 

Overall, I like MTR more than DVD Backup. I find the interface nicer, and it has more features. DVD Backup is good for those who get confused by all the options (aka n00bs )

Step 2: Encoding 

Note: I will not be including instructions for the app "DVD Remaster". I find the quality is below DVD2oneX's, and the guy is charging for open source code, which I think is just plain BS. If you really want to use it, sorry, but you'll have to figure it out yourself.[/i] 

When ripping is done, find the folder VIDEO_TS made by your ripper of choice. If it is less than 4472mb, you can skip this step. 

Open DVD2oneX. For source, select the VIDEO_TS folder created by the ripper. For Output, set it to DVD±R(W), or 4472 mb. You can set it to 4450 if you want to be safe. Sometimes, toast will give you an error saying that 4472mb won't fit on the disk. It's never happened to me, but it has to others. 

If you ripped the whole disc, but want just the movie, no menus/extras, set Copy to "Film". If you want all that stuff, set it to "Disk Copy". If you used MacTheRipper and did a Main Feature Only extraction, select Disc Copy. 

Note: If you want to use Disc Utility to burn, instead of Toast, make sure "Create Disc Image" is checked. You will beed an additional 4472mb of HD space for this. 

The Join Feature: 

airwave wrote: 

Copied from DVD2One's homepage: 

The join mode is a very powerful new feature of DVD2one V1.3. It can be used for many things: 
Joining a movie that has been spread over 2 sides of a disk (aka "flipper") or even over 2 disks. 
Joining of different episodes of a (tv) series on 1 disk. 
Adding a music video, documentary or featurette after the main movie. 
Adding an intro (for instance THX or Dolby) before the main movie. 
Or any combination of the above possibilities ! 

The join mode is not limited to only 2 titles, but it can join any number of titles on 1 disk. Ofcourse the total size of the titles you want to join has its limits. DVD2one has builtin warning messages to let you know when you go to far. 

The join mode has 2 different modes: 
Seamless. The separate titles are joined in 1 titleset, and will play continuously without interruption. 
Non seamless. Each title is put in its own titleset, and there will be a small delay when the player goes from one to the other title. 

The seamless mode is the perfect mode for joining a movie that has been spread over different sides or disks. DVD2one will examine automatically whether the different titles can be seamless joined together. For this the video, audio and subtitles need to be the same. 

The non seamless mode will work with any title, and can be used in all other cases. DVD2one provides convenient ways to skip through the different titlesets. 

How to use 

The join mode is very simple to use, since it works like a repeated movie-only mode. After selecting the first title you come to a summary screen. Here you can select another title you like to add to the list, or start processing. If you select to join another title, you will advance through the selection screens again. The only difference is when use seamless mode, you do not have to select audio, subtitle and angle. The selection for these items is taken from the title to which the new title is seamlessly joined. 

Advanced Navigation Mode 

This new feature is experimental and may not work correctly with specific dvd players, or may have some unwanted side effects. It is recommended to try it first with a rewritable disk. It adds the following ways to navigate between the different titlesets: 
Right menubutton for next titleset. 
Left menubutton for previous titleset. 
Next chapter at the last chapter of a title goes to the next titleset. 
Previous chapter at the first chapter of a title goes to the previous titleset. 

The menubutton system may interfere with subtitles. Also if a titleset does not have subtitles, a dummy subtitle is added to make this feature to work. 

This part only if doing a no menus/extras copy: 
In the list of stuff below, click on the one with the longest duration. That's the one that's most likely to be the movie, not an extra. In the drawer that slides out,  check the appropriate audio box in the list. Make sure you check it, or you won't get any audio. If the drawer doesn't slide out, click "Audio and Subtitles". 

Before clicking start, create a new folder on the desktop. Name the folder whatever you want (I'd go with the name of the movie you're ripping), but only use capital letters and underscores. 

FINDING_NEMO = good 
FINDINGNEMO = good 
FINDING NEMO = bad 
finding nemo = very bad 

Now, click start in DVD2oneX. In the save dialog, select the folder you just made. 

Step 3a: Burning with Toast 

You should now have a folder called FINDING_NEMO (or whatever) on the desktop. Inside it should be a folder called VIDEO_TS, and an empty folder called AUDIO_TS. If there is no AUDIO_TS folder, make one. Without it, the disc night not play. I have hear dsome success stories with no AUDIO_TS folder, but why risk a $1 coaster? 

Open Toast Ti 6. Choose Data format. In the shelf, under the "Advanced" tab, choose "DVD-ROM (UDF)". 

Drag the FINDING_NEMO (or whatever you named it) folder into toast. 

As a final check, make sure the disc in toast is titled in all caps, with no spaces, and in it are a folder called VIDEO_TS, and an empty folder called AUDIO_TS. I know I'm being a bit repetative here, but these discs are pricey (anywhere from $1 to $5 each), so you don't want to waste 'em. 

Click burn. Cross fingers, because power failures are a b*tch (found that out the hard way). 
If Toast says there is not enough room on the disc, return to Step 3, and set the size to 4450mb. 

Step 3b: Burning With Disc Utility 

Coming Soon... 
I have to free up some HD space, I did not have the additional 4.4gb required for DVD2oneX to make a disc image. I will try to get this step done as soon as possible. 

Step 4: Success? 

All that's left to do now is label the disc, and pop it in your DVD player. 

Lemme know how it goes 

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I also get several DVD via Bit-Torrent. http://search.suprnova.org has a DVD-R section, where you can download DVDs that are ready to burn. That's how I got LOTR ROTK well before it was released 

The only problem when using BitTorrent is that sometimes people fail to label the movies properly, and you end up spending 4 days downloading a copy of Braveheart with only Spanish audio