Playable DVD backups?

November 15, 2004 1:30 PM

When I make backups of DVDs I own (of course) on my powerbook using DVDBackup or DVDimager or MacTheRipper, the resulting video_ts folder is always 6-8 gigs in size, and blank DVDs are only 4.whatever gigs. What I've been doing is using handbrake to make about 4 gig MPG4s out of them and burning that to a DVD, but there must be a way (codec?) to make my DVD backups burnable to normal DVD-Rs, right? I don't want everything - just the main feature, and in the case of foreign films, the subtitles.
posted by luriete to computers & internet (13 comments total)

You seem to be on a Mac, otherwise I'd recommend DVDShrink. But there is a Mac version of DVD2One available that might do the trick. Never used it myself, however.
posted by Dipsomaniac at 1:46 PM on November 15, 2004

the resulting video_ts folder is always 6-8 gigs in size

Many of them are probably dual-layer DVDs, so they could be up to around 9 gigs. You could buy a Pioneer DVR-108 (which now works with Toast, I think), but dual-layer burnable media is still very difficult to find. I don't have experience with breaking out tracks / subtitle data on a mac, so I'll leave ansawering that to others.
posted by j.edwards at 2:14 PM on November 15, 2004

We use a combination of Mac the Ripper and DVD2OneX ( as Dipsomaniac mentions ) -- quite wonderfully and quite consistently.
posted by tenseone at 2:52 PM on November 15, 2004

oh, and of course: Toast as a 'Data - DVD-ROM (UDF)' with the title of the disk IN_ALL_CAPS_AND_UNDERSCORES and the VIDEO_TS and AUDIO_TS copied in to that title.
posted by tenseone at 2:55 PM on November 15, 2004

what dispo and tendeone said.
or, get a double-layer dvd burner
posted by matteo at 2:58 PM on November 15, 2004

dipso and tenseone

sorry, my bad
posted by matteo at 2:59 PM on November 15, 2004

Thanks, I know about that and do have toast - I just couldn't figure out how to get my Video_TS folders down to the size where I could burn them with my superdrive - double-layer burner not an option at this time.
posted by luriete at 4:13 PM on November 15, 2004

You're already using DVD Backup. I was under the impression that you could select the features you want in there, so you can easily lose whatever extra stuff you don't want.

You might also take a look at DVD2oneX and/or forty-two (which I for one always had trouble figuring out) for your compressing needs
posted by willnot at 4:35 PM on November 15, 2004

DVD2OneX will reduce the size of your VIDEO_TS folder to fit on a typical recordable DVD. It also includes an array of options including full disk copy, movie only copy, check and un-check language and subtitle features and a few other whiz-bangs.
posted by tenseone at 4:52 PM on November 15, 2004

I use DVD2OneX for recompression if needed, and MacTheRipper to perform the original rip. MTR seems to have occasional problems with "main feature" mode where it selects only the largest title for ripping -- I've wound up with a few unplayable rips using it -- so I always do a "Full Disc" rip. You can choose titles for recompression and inclusion in the copy using DVD2OneX, so it's no great loss.

Once recompression's done, you can just throw the VIDEO_TS into Toast.

I never could get forty-two to work, nor that other recompression program that's floating around out there. I'm extremely happy with doing the three-step MTR/DVD2OneX/Toast process, though.
posted by majick at 6:28 PM on November 15, 2004

The way DVD's (and VCD's) are written to the CD disables the error-protection in favor of the extra file space it provides. I believe this is the reason you can fit a 830 Mb. MPG file to a CD (when encoded for VCD CD's).
posted by Civil_Disobedient at 10:45 PM on November 15, 2004

"dual-layer burnable media is still very difficult to find."

No, it's not. It has its problems -- they are close to $10 per, and the current DL burners are a less compatible +R instead of -R -- but availability is no big deal. supermediastore.com carries it.
posted by majick at 5:30 AM on November 16, 2004

Two new DL burners announced today: 1 2.
posted by rorycberger at 12:01 PM on November 16, 2004