Can anyone suggest a good "ripping" program for Mac?
try "
mac the ripper" for getting the dvd onto your computer so you can manipulate the files.
http://www.macupdate.com/app/mac/14414/mactheripper
then take a look at "
MPEG stream clip" to convert the video_ts folder into a file component that you can edit
http://www.squared5.com/svideo/mpeg-streamclip-mac.html
I have not used "
MPEG stream clip", but it is recommended by the people that created the software "handbrake" that is very userful for encoding files into mp4 and other formats, though only to reduced file size (highly compressed and a loss in quality). That is why they recommend "
MPEG - stream clip".
MH, do you have any editing / authoring software on your computer right now? You should check and see what files you can import before you start. Note it should take about 15 - 20 minutes to decode each dvd, then about 2-3 hr's to encode 1 hr's worth of video. Though it depends highly upon your computer. Don't do anything on your computer at this time, as encoding is very taxing on your CPU and you don't want the program to hickup and drop frames (parts of movie).
If you don't have any software for creating a editing a movie and creating a dvd. I like Sony "Vegas" which is a good software program.
So here are the steps.
1) rip dvd to computer
2) re-encode dvd on computer to editable format (.avi, dv, quicktime)
3) edit movie using software
4) burn movie to dvd
Tips for creating your movie with software. You do not want to do this in one shot. What you want to do is break up the total movie into small chunks. Then group the chunks into larger chunks, and then burn to a disc. It can be very difficult trying to create a 1 hr movie all at one time. Breaking it up into 5 minute chunks makes the workflow a lot faster, then you just add the 5 minute chunks together and you have your movie. It helps keep you audio and video synched as well. Took me a while to listen to that advice, and it does work good.
