Rip DVD on Mac OS X Leopard and Tiger

Want to convert your DVD movies for iPod, iPhone, Apple TV, Zune, PSP and a lot more mobile devices on Mac operation system? Wondershare DVD Ripper for Mac is a great solution for Mac OS users who want to convert their DVD to almost all video formats for most popular mobile devices, complete with options to select DVD audio track and subtitle, crop DVD video, trim DVD length, and set video effects and so on. To rip a DVD movie, you can download Wondershare DVD Ripper for Mac and follow the steps below:


Step 1: Import DVD Movies

Click the Load DVD button, select the folder of your DVD movie, and click OK. If the movie is on your disc drive, you can just select the drive and click OK. Or click the Load IFO button, open the folder of your DVD movie, and you will find two folders in it: AUDIO_TS and VIDEO_TS. Open the VIDEO_TS folder, select all the IFO files, and then click OK. After the movie is loaded, you can see all the chapters and titles in it, and then you can check the ones you want to convert. If you want to convert the whole movie, you can just keep all the titles or chapters checked.

Step 2: Output Settings

After your DVD movie is loaded, you can start to set output settings:

1. Select an output format from the Format drop-down list. Just select an format according to the device you want to put
2. Click the Settings button to set encoding settings including video resolution, frame rate, bit rate and video encoder, audio encoding settings including sample rate, channel, bit rate and audio encoder.
3. Name each title/chapter in the Output Filename field, and select the subtitle and audio track for the titles/chapters.

Note: You can check the "Merger into one file" option to join all the selected DVD titles/chapters into one file instead of creating a separated file for each title/chapter.

Step 3: Start Conversion

Click the Start button to start the conversion. And all you need to do now is to wait for the conversion to be finished. The remaining time will be shown on conversion window for your reference.

Tip 1: Trim Movie

If you just want to convert a clip from your DVD movie, you can click the Trim icon to capture a clip. In the Trim window, you can trim the length of the current title/chapter by either dragging the Start Time and End Time sliders or setting the time parameters in each corresponding field.

Tip 2: Crop Video

If your DVD video has black sides, you can use this Crop function to remove them. Click the Crop icon to open the Crop window, and set the video crop area by dragging the crop frame or setting the four crop parameters (Top, Bottom, Left and Right).

Tip3: Movie Effect

If you want to change the original video effect, you can click the Effect icon to set the video brightness, contrast, saturation, and even audio volume. You can also choose to apply a special effect to your movie video from the available effects including Gray, Emboss and Negative.

Since the late 1990s when the first DVD discs appeared on the scene, it has brought profound impact upon the way we live and think. Nowadays, we may more or less own some DVD discs, which may be those purchased from stores, those received as special gifts from friends, those taken by your camcorder or even those you burn as data backup.

The protection of DVD discs is commonplace in many people's eye. However, we are likely to have overlooked the fact that overtime, DVDs can become scratched, damaged and even completely unusable. Odds are that we use a brand new DVD disc smoothly for the first time, and the next time we play it, it fails to work normally. I am sure no one is willing to see this happen. As a matter of fact, we can avoid the frustrating situation if we pay attention to the following tips:

1. Handle discs by the outer edge or the center hole. Keep dirt, foreign material, fingerprints, smudges, and liquids from the disc and wipe them with a clean cotton fabric in a straight line from the center of the disc toward the outer edge.
2. Store discs upright (book style) in original jewel cases that are specified for CDs and DVDs and not store discs horizontally for a long time (years).
3. Leave discs in their spindle or jewel case to minimize the effects of environmental changes. Store in a cool, dry, dark environment in which the air is clean -- relative humidity should be in the range 20% - 50% (RH) and temperature should be in the range 4°C - 20°C. Do not expose recordable discs to prolonged sunlight or other sources of UV light.
4. Use a non solvent-based felt-tip permanent marker to mark the label side of the disc. Do not write or mark in the data area of the disc (area where the laser reads).

Protecting your DVDs is essential of course, while maximizing their value is of greater importance. Therefore, to make a step further, you can do more to backup and enhance them.

Commercial DVD movies are copyright protected. You are not allowed to copy them to your hard drive. However, we sometimes do need some DVDs for personal use or recreation. In this case, we can turn to a DVD ripping program for help. Here I'd like to share HandBrake with you, since my OS is based on Mac. It can extract any DVD-like source: VIDEO_TS folder, DVD image or real DVD (encrypted or unencrypted) to your Mac within a few steps. Download and install HandBrake and insert the DVD you wish to convert into your Mac's DVD drive. If your Mac's DVD Player application opens, exit the DVD Player application. Open the HandBrake application and select Detected volume and click on Open. Wait as HandBrake detects the titles on your DVD. Leave the default settings or choose the settings you wish. For best quality, select Video: 2-pass encoding. The whole ripping process is within a few simple steps. But since it is totally free, it does have some limitations. Firstly, it only supports MP4 format. If you want to rip DVD to a lot more popular video formats, HandBrake offers no solution. Secondly, I sometimes center on more video editing functions. However, HandBrake frustrates me a lot. Thirdly, not all DVD's are supported by HandBrake. Those with protection methods other than CSS are not supported and must be handled externally with third-party software.

In terms of these three points, I made a Google search for other Mac DVD ripping programs, and Wondershare DVD Ripper for Mac came to my attention, though, unlike HandBrake, it is shareware. What attracts me most is that it supports various video and even audio formats including those utilized by online video sharing sites like YouTube and those compatible with portable devices. Moreover, it offers lots of pretty good video editing functions. For instance, if you want to get a short clip or a wonderful scene from a DVD movie, you can use the movie length trimming function of this program to select the clip or scene to rip in the precision of second.

Sometimes, we may want to burn to a blank DVD disc our favorite DVD movies, video clips, music collection and so forth for backup and enhancement. The built-in burning application for Mac OS would be definitely your best choice. For instance, if you want to burn video files to DVD, simple follow the steps below. Open and launch the Burn application. Firstly, choose a format in the popup. Burn can create four types of video disks. They are VCD, SVCD, DVD, DivX respectively. Here just tick DVD. Secondly, select some video files from your Mac. Most video files are supported except that some protected QuickTime files may not work. Thirdly, drop the selected files in the list. If the files are already the right format they will be added. Otherwise, Burn will ask to convert them to the right format. At last, click on Burn to burn the disk. Note: By clicking on the expand button, you can choose options how to handle recording. Burn will save these options and they will be used for future disks.

This step-by-step user guide is about how to use Wondershare DVD Ripper Platinum to rip your DVD for iPod, Zune, iPhone, PSP, Apple TV, Creative Zen, Xbox, iRiver, Archos, Dell player video, HP IPAQ, Pocket PC, Mobile Phone, General MP3 player and so on.

Step 1: Load the file

You can load your DVD by any of the three methods: load from DVD folder, load DVD Rom and load IFO Files. The default choice is to load from DVD folder. Click the Load file icon to load your movie from DVD folder, or click the small arrow next to this icon to select a method to load your movie.

Step 2: Select subtitle, audio track and output format

a) Regular DVD movie usually has several subtitles, like English, French, German, etc. You can select anyone according to your need.
b) Select Audio track as the same as select Subtitle.
c) Format: this software can convert DVD to all popular formats, it also can extract audio track from DVD and save as MP3 and M4A formats which are fit for digital audio players.

Step 3: Start conversion

If you don't want to set any detailed settings, you can just select an output format from the format drop-down list and click the "Start" button to start the conversion. Then you can just go get a cup of coffee and come back later to check if the conversion is finished.

However, before you start the conversion, you may find the following operations to be very useful:

Trim movie: If you don't need to convert the entire DVD movie, you can just capture a clip from it to convert. See the two pairs of scissors under the Preview window? The scissors one the left are used to set the start time, and the scissors on the right are used to set the end time. Drag them to capture the clip you want to convert. If you want to precisely trim the video, you can click the Trim button on the top of the preview window.

Crop Video: There are always black edges around DVD movies; you can easily remove them with this DVD Ripper. Click the Edit icon to open the Edit window.

Go to the Crop tab, and you can set the output video aspect ratio crop the movie video. The program provides you with three methods to crop your video: select a crop mode from the Crop down-down menu, drag the crop frame around your video, or set the crop values (Up, Down, Left and right).

If you want to change the video effects, you can go to the Effect tab to set the brightness, contrast, saturation and select a pre-set movie effect.

Watching self-made DVDs can be very enjoyable. But the final quality may not be as good as we thought it would be due that the process of making your own DVD might not be very professional. So here comes the question of how to edit a half-prepared DVD movie, say a DVD taken by DVD camcorder, to a high quality DVD.

In fact, this is not complicated. All you need to do is the following two steps:

1. Re-edit your DVD movie on your computer.
2. Burn the optimized DVD movie to a new DVD disc.

My OS is Mac, so everything below is based on Mac OS.

Firstly, edit your DVD and put it on your computer. The moving editing tool that I am using is Wondershare DVD Ripper for Mac. This software is actually for converting DVD to many players such as iPod, iPhone, Zune, PSP, mobile phones etc%u2026, but it also has very useful DVD editing functions including adjusting video brightness, contrast and saturation, and choosing to apply a special video effect and so forth. Follow the procedures below to edit your DVD movie:

A. Install this program and launch it. Import your DVD movie, preview each title/chapter and decide which title/chapter you want to edit. You can also click the Trim icon to trim a title or chapter to capture the exact part you want to edit. If you want to edit the whole movie, you can just check all the titles or chapters.

B. Click the Crop icon to crop your DVD movie and select the video area of your DVD movie you would like to keep. If you want to keep the whole original area, you can just skip this step.

C. Click the Effect icon and adjust your video contrast, brightness and saturation to the best level you prefer. If you want to use a special effect, you can also select a video effect for your movie.

D. Choose an output format. There are many output formats from the output format drop-down menu, and most of them will work. I usually use the MP4 format because I may also use the converted movie on my iPod or PSP.

E. After the above settings, you can just select an output format and click the Converter button to convert the optimized DVD movie onto your computer.

Secondly and lastly, burn the optimized movie back to a DVD disc.

This burning tool I use is iDVD. This program offers a great solution to DVD reauthorization. Put the optimized movies under \user\Movies, and the iDVD program will index them. Then follow the step below:

A. Create a project. When you create a project, you should choose an aspect ratio first, either 16:9 or 4:3. For me, I always choose 4:3 because the aspect ratio of my TV is 4:3.

B. Choose a template. iDVD has many menu templates for your choice. Click the template you prefer and it will be applied.

C. Set menu background. Click the Media tab on the lower right part of the interface to switch to the Media window. Drag and drop a movie or a picture to the Drop Zone of the selected menu template as the menu background. If you don't want a background picture or video on your menu, you can skip this step.

D. Add movies. Click the Add button on the lower left of the interface, select Add Movie, and drag and drop the movies from the lower right pane onto your DVD menu one by one. Each time after you drop a movie, you will see a text box where you can rename the movie. You can also choose to add submenus and add movies to each submenu. If you click the Structure button, you can view the structure of your DVD project and find how many movies you have added.

E. After you finished adding movies to your DVD project, you can click the Play button to preview your DVD project and see what it will be like on your TV. If the preview is satisfactory, you can just click the File menu on the top of your screen, and select "Burn DVD" to start burning your DVD movie!

After the above two steps, you will get a highly optimized DVD movie out of the original DVD movies.

Nowadays, we may more or less own some DVD discs. They may be those purchased from stores, those received as special gifts from friends, those taken by your camcorder or even those you burn as data backup. DVDs are an amazing, yet costly investment, which overtime can become scratched, damaged and even completely unusable. DVD discs are read by laser. If a DVD disc is scratched or has dirt on it, the playback may be jumpy, and even worse, the disc cannot be read. Because DVD media is used to archive nearly everything today, it does make you worry, especially when these discs are the only place you have precious, irreplaceable family memories - photos and movies - as well as vital family, personal and company data/documents.

To ensure your precious family and friend pictures, movies, family records and business files have the maximum data life, you should take a look at the following tips:

1. Handle discs by the outer edge or the center hole. Keep dirt, foreign material, fingerprints, smudges, and liquids from the disc and wipe them with a clean cotton fabric in a straight line from the center of the disc toward the outer edge.
2. Store discs upright (book style) in original jewel cases that are specified for CDs and DVDs and not store discs horizontally for a long time (years).
3. Leave discs in their spindle or jewel case to minimize the effects of environmental changes. Store in a cool, dry, dark environment in which the air is clean -- relative humidity should be in the range 20% - 50% (RH) and temperature should be in the range 4°C - 20°C Expose recordable discs to prolonged sunlight or other sources of UV light.
4. Use a non solvent-based felt-tip permanent marker to mark the label side of the disc Write or mark in the data area of the disc (area where the laser "reads").

More info-->>

Suppose you have a lot of DVDs at hand, how can you save them in you computer with one single DVD taking up several Gs? Suppose you are a big fan of such portable devices such as iPod, iPhone, PSP, Zune, what are you going to do when you want to watch your favorite DVDs on them by bus/subway or on vacation? Suppose you are fond of sharing things say DVD movies on Youtube, Google, Myspace, etc..., what steps are you going to take to upload them there? For Windows users, you may say, that is as easy as breeze, as you can get considerable DVD ripping programs on the Internet after making a single Google search. There are some totally free ones such as Handbrake and Super and others that you have to open your pocket for. In my experience, free programs of this kind are generally poor ones. Since they cost your zero dollor, how come they provide you with satisfactory quality, ripping speed and something like that?

Nowadays, there are increasingly more and more people who switch from traditional Windows to fabulous Apple Mac OS and are fond of it so much. Since Mac OS and Windows are two obviously different operating systems, the DVD ripping program you were previously using is also a thing of past. Although there truly exsit such ripping programs for Mac users, those for Windows are still dominant. Among those several Mac DVD ripping programs, I believe Wondershare DVD Ripper for Mac is one of the best. This all-in-one Mac program is able to rip DVDs including protected DVDs to various video formats such as MP4, AVI, M4V, MOV, 3GP, MPG, FLV and audio formats like MP3, M4A, AAC, WAV, OGG, APE, etc... compatible with iPod touch, iPod classic, iPod nano, iPhone, Apple TV, PSP, PS3, Youtube, Creative Zen, iRiver PMP, Archos, all kinds of video cell phones and digital video and audio players.

So coming back to the beginning, all headaches can be well healed with the help of this program.

Incidentally, if you want to know how to use Handbrake to copy your DVDs, please refer to the tutorial: Rip DVD on Mac Using Handbrake.

1. Wondershare DVD Ripper for Mac is a powerful tool for Mac OS users to copy and record DVD to PC.

2. Wondershare DVD Ripper for Mac is a great solution for Mac OS users to convert their DVD to almost all video formats accepted by most popular portable players such as iPod, iPhone, PSP, Zune, Apple TV, etc...

3. Wondershare DVD Ripper for Mac is able to edit as well. If offers options to select DVD audio track and subtitle, crop DVD video, trim DVD length, set video effects and so on.

4. Wondershare DVD Ripper for Mac can be run on both Power PC and Intel based Macs.

5. Wondershare DVD Ripper for Mac can help you join several DVD chapters/titles into a single file.

General requirements

-> Mac computer with an Intel, PowerPC G5, or PowerPC G4 (867MHz or faster) processor
-> 512MB of memory
-> DVD drive for installation
-> 9GB of available disk space
-> Some features require a compatible Internet service provider; fees may apply.
-> Some features require Apple's .Mac service; fees apply.

More detailed info is available at http://www.apple.com/macosx/techspecs/

In this quick tip I'll introduce you to a nifty free tool called HandBrake to copy your favourite DVDs easily to your computer or favourite portable device.

Backing up or copying the DVDs you own to other formats can be a cumbersome process. Previously most users had to have knowledge of encoders, output file formats, frame rates, codecs, and file sizes before using two or three programs to do this task. Things have thankfully moved forward recently with programs that will copy DVDs to the file formats you want with the click of a button.

HandBrake is a free tool which comes with plenty of features for beginners and intermediate users alike. The open source software can decrypt and convert a DVD into formats that can be consumed on your Mac, PC, iPod, PSP, Apple TV, Television, iPhone, or mobile phone.

To get started you'll have to install the software. At the time of writing the software was up to version 0.9 and available free at the HandBrake Web site. For the purposes of this tutorial we'll be following the Mac installation and use, but PC and Linux users can also use this program.

Download: http://handbrake.m0k.org/?page_id=8

Once installed open the HandBrake application. The application should default to a simple interface like the screenshot below.

Once you've selected the DVD you want to copy or back up insert it into your Mac. Now click on the icon that says "Source" and click your DVD drive. This should gather some information about the DVD you want to copy.

Once this is done you'll need to decide what type of format you should export the DVD to. To do this easily there are some presets which can be found on the "Presets Toggle" bar as shown in the screenshot below.

These presets should be for most beginners wanting to backup their DVDs. If you're not sure which preset to use then the rule of thumb is the larger the screen size intended the larger the file format will be and the longer it will take to copy your DVD. As an example, copying a DVD to Television output will take up more room on your hard drive than copying a DVD to iPod quality output.

Once you've decided which preset you'd like to use then simply click on the start button. The program will take care of the rest. The program might take a while depending on how long the DVD you want to copy is and the output quality.

Once finished you can check the file by opening it on your Mac to where the file was saved. By default the program saves files to the Desktop. Once saved you can move the file to wherever you want to play the content.

This should conclude our first look at HandBrake. We'll go through some of the more advanced features of the program in a later tutorial.

Note: I strongly recommends you check the copyright notices on the DVDs you plan to copy and check local laws before following this tutorial and using HandBrake. AppleSource does not support piracy of copyright material.

Reviewing computer operating systems is the most challenging task a person with a cool job like this handles. The reason: Everyone uses a computer in a different way.

The programs I like to use on my computer, someone else may not care for. Likewise, I never had much affinity for certain tasks -- let's call them spreadsheets -- while other folks become simply giddy when they learn a new way to sort cells on Excel.

So keep that in mind as I write why Apple's new operating system upgrade, called Leopard, continues to make Mac computers the easiest and most enjoyable to use.

If you own a Mac, you'll want Leopard. If you're thinking of giving Apple computers a try, Leopard is further proof that personal computing needn't be filled with stress.

I've been using Leopard -- also known as version 10.5 of Apple's OS X operating system -- on two computers, my own 3-year-old iBook G4 and on a sparkling MacBook Pro laptop on loan from Apple. Needless to say, the MacBook is a screaming fast and beautiful machine that anyone would be inclined to like.

And, boy, do I like this one. But it's a $2,800 laptop that is a tad too rich and powerful for my modest home needs.

So to me, and millions of other Mac users, the real question is whether upgrading to Leopard will make my humble little iBook better. The answer: Yes.

(Note: my iBook barely met the minimum requirements needed for the upgrade. Check Apple's Web site for details if you're unsure your computer meets those needs.)

In the past, some Mac OS upgrades could be skipped. The last one, dubbed Tiger, had nice touches, including Dashboard. (That's a platform for little programs, dubbed widgets, that make computing a bit more entertaining.) But overall, the Tiger upgrade, by itself, wasn't the primary reason to get a Mac.

Leopard is and here's one example why: Apple included the excellent "cover flow" feature it introduced on the new iPods. On a computer, cover flow allows you to flip through a visual display of the programs, documents, photos or utilities you have on your computer.

This is far more useful than I imagined. After 3-plus years using the same computer, one forgets what they have. Using cover flow to skim through my applications, I found games, children's software and perhaps a hundred other things I forgot or simply didn't know I had. (Did I have Activity Monitor before Leopard?)

When you combine cover flow with the upgrade to "spotlight," Mac's built-in search tool for the files on your computer, the results are great. Spotlight is so fast that search results pop up as soon as you strike keys, so by the time you reach the end of a search term, tons of relevant files -- and now images of those files -- have already been located.

When I searched for Kanye West, for instance, up popped two albums' worth of mp3 files from the Chicago musician's own albums, mp3s from artists he produced, a video I downloaded and a digital booklet I didn't know I owned that came bundled with an iTunes album purchase.

Another new feature is "spaces." It divides your computer screen into quadrants you can use to organize and maneuver around your desktop. In each space, you can see what files or applications you have open. Click on a space and that becomes the dominant element on your screen.

It took a little time to learn how to navigate with spaces -- I'm still not sure I have it optimized -- but I like using this tool to quickly switch between tasks, such as checking e-mail. The real plus is that spaces helps maintain a clutter-free desktop. You are not distracted by what else might be open on your screen, a common issue with computing today that has made multitasking (multidistracting, if you prefer) so easy.

Using spaces, if I want to see if I have new e-mail messages while working on a document -- such as this review -- I hit F8 to open all my spaces. Then I move the cursor into the space where I put my e-mail program and click it open. When done, I hit F8 again and click on the space housing this document.

Another tool Leopard uses to keep your desktop clear is called "stacks."

(Apple apparently requires its software designers to be neat freaks. Leopard is filled with tools to keep you orderly and organized.)

With stacks, your documents and downloads are organized into a stack of content. In my download stack, for example, I have a bunch of videos of my kids that relatives have sent me. When I first downloaded them, the videos sat on my desktop.

Now, with Leopard, I just open my download stack and click on a video there. This actually adds a click to find content in a stack, but the benefit is a clean desktop that doesn't obscure any cute photos I may use it as a screensaver. It also looks pretty cool when the stack springs open to display its various content.

Now there are many, many things I haven't covered here -- including all the cool stuff I can do on that MacBook that I can't on my iBook. But I plan on posting occasional mini-reviews and other Leopard insights on the Eric 2.0 blog (chicagotri bune.com/eric).

After all, Leopard offers 300-plus new features, so pardon me if I didn't cover what interests you. But I can tell you this: for $129, Leopard breathes new life into an aging Mac.

Quick Look, which appears throughout Leopard, is a technology that lets users preview the contents of documents without opening the program that was used to create them. Click on a Microsoft Word file in the Finder and press space, and the entire file will appear before you, ready to be read (but not edited). Select a movie and press space, and the movie will expand and begin to play.

Quick Look can play back QuickTime movies without launching QuickTime Player.

That same Quick Look technology lets you optionally set Finder views to display live previews of documents. Spotlight and the Open and Save dialog boxes are also Quick Look savvy. And the Finder's new Cover Flow view really wouldn't be possible without this technology, which transforms dull document icons into live previews of each document's contents.

In practice, turning your Finder icons into live document previews isn't always very useful - text documents end up looking like a wash of gray. But Quick Look itself is an impressive technology, if longtime users can retrain themselves to press space rather than double-clicking on a document to see what's inside.