Travel Technology - Backing up dvd's on a Mac

Hello,

I know there have been a couple topics on his but upon looking what I found was intructions and tips for Window's systems. I have a trip coming up and want to take a few movies with me to watch but I don't want to take my originals for fear of scratching or damaging them so I wanted to make a backup copy -- could someone please explain how to do that?

Thank you.

Two of the easier (though more expensive) methods:

1. FastDVDCopy (http://www.fastdvdcopy.com/) (~$100)
2. MacTheRipper (free) + Roxio Popcorn (<$50)

Check to see how much room you have on your hard drive - each movie is around 4+ gigs. I just load them up and also will be using the spare room on my iPod and external FW HD that I travel with. I figure I will be able to store around 20 movies for the next trip.

Two of the easier (though more expensive) methods:

1. FastDVDCopy (http://www.fastdvdcopy.com/) (~$100)
2. MacTheRipper (free) + Roxio Popcorn (<$50)

Is FastDVDCopy worth the $100? Also, is it safe to put on the Mac?

Depends on how many DVDs you want to take with you. If it's just a couple, the easiest and least expensive (i.e. free) method is to just rip the DVDs, i.e. remove copy protection and copy the audio and video files to your hard drive. Most DVDs including extras like special features (deleted scenes etc.) take up around 7 GB each. So you can figure out how much DVDs you can back up to your hard drive. For this, I use 0SEx (first letter is a zero) or MacTheRipper, both free, although 0SEx is no longer widely available. You can download MacTheRipper at VersionTracker.com or MacUpdate.com. I find that the most convenient format for the end-result is disk image (.img) file.

If you intend to backup several DVDs then you have to buy a program like Popcorn or DVD2OneX (the latter is what I use) that will first of all reduce the file size to ~4.7 GB which is the maximum capacity of a single-layer blank DVD media (which is what you buy for about a buck a piece), then burn the resulting file to a blank DVD (I use Toast 6 to burn DVDs but you can also DiskUtility which is included in Mac OS X). You can use double-layer DVD media if your DVD drive writes to such AND you're willing to fork over around 5 bucks per disk. (I have not used FastDVDCopy so I can't comment on it.)

Summary:
1. Rip - MacTheRipper (free) or 0SEx (free)
2. Compress to <4.7GB - Popcorn or DVD2OneX
3. Burn to DVD - Popcorn or Toast or DiskUtility

I have not found a consistently good DVD brand that gives me 100% trouble-free DVD backups. I've tried cheap and expensive brands and every now and then I come across a DVD backup that freezes towards the end of the movie which is of course infinitely annoying. So personally, I just rip my DVDs to my hard drive and iPod and which should give me about 5-7 DVDs to watch -- plenty enough even for a 2-week trip. Hope this helps.

I haven't used FastDVDCopy, but a colleage of mine has and is very pleased with it.