• Apple OS X

  Copy DVD

  Posted by Andy Kleiman on November 3, 2011 at 7:17 pm

  Hey internet friends,
  I recently made a movie and just got a copy from my director. I want to make copies of it and am having some difficulties. Here’s the specifics:

  I have a Mac OS X 10.5.8. The movie is on a DVD-R, so I used Handbrake to rip it onto my desktop and it rip it as a .M4V (158 MBs). It works fine on my desktop, but when I burn it using iDVD and it comes out looking all choppy. I’ve burned it to a DVD-R and DVD+R with the same results.

  I also tried using the “burn” function on Disk Utility in my Application folder, but it wouldn’t let me select my project, only .dmg files.

  I don’t want to make a menu or do anything fancy, all I want to do is copy it exactly how it is from the original to a new DVD. Please help. Thanks!

  Andy

  Joel Hufford replied 14 years, 10 months ago 2 Members · 1 Reply
• 1 Reply

• 

  Joel Hufford

  November 4, 2011 at 7:53 pm

  Hi Andy,

  The problem with using Handbrake is that you’re introducing two more generations of compression to you material. Every time you re-encode the video, you introduce compression artifacts which can’t be removed. Those artifacts get worse with every generation of encoding.

  You can use the Disk Utility to create an image from your source DVD that you can then use to create copies.

  To do this, put the DVD into your Mac and open Disk Utility. The DVD should show up in the left window. Select it and press the “New Image” button in the toolbar. From there, select “DVD/CD Master from the drop down “Image Format:” menu. Name your new image and save it somewhere with enough free space to create the image. Once Disk Utility has created the image, it should show up in the bottom half of the left window, just insert a blank DVD, select your new image and hit burn.

  Also, when ever I’m burning DVDs, I like to select the slowest speed available. Most Macs will let you do 8x burn speeds, but these disc are much more prone to read errors when playing back, especially if someone is using an older DVD player. I have never had issues when burning at 1x.

  Hope that helps!

  joel
  Corporate and Special Event Staging Services
  http://www.pacificstaging.com

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