Rip DVDs for OSD (Mac)
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[edit] Introduction
The process of converting a DVD to a video file playable on the OSD is now quite an easy process. Usually, applications that perform this task are full of jargon, settings and terrifying GUIs! But not any more, Handbrake for Mac has made this as painless as possible.
[edit] Get Handbrake
Handbrake is an open source DVD converter, which allows you to playback your movies on many personal devices, from your iPod to your laptop. It's available for download here. 0.9.1 is the current version as of writing. Simply double-click the .dmg to mount it, and drag the "Handbrake" icon to your Applications folder.
[edit] Getting Started
First insert your DVD of choice. If the "DVD Player" application pops up, close it. Now run Handbrake. It immediately asks you for a VIDEO_TS folder to open. By the DVD video standard, the VIDEO_TS folder contains the actual movie files, and is where your DVD player looks to start playing. Point Handbrake to the VIDEO_TS folder on your DVD & click "Open"
Handbrake will take a little time to scan the DVD.
[edit] Choosing the best Settings
Now is the time to choose the best settings for the OSD. I advise you change the defaults as follows (See screenshot below):
- Set 'Codecs' as 'MPEG-4 Video / AAC Audio' (h.264 don't play on the OSD)
- In the 'Picture Settings' dialog, shrink the size of the output to something in the area of 500x350. The larger this area is, the greater the detail at the cost of a larger filesize.
- In the 'Video' tab, in the 'Quality' section, set the 'Average bitrate' to 1200kbps. The higher this number the larger the final file is, but the greater detail and action sequences are clearer.
You may also check the 'Picture Settings' dialog to ensure the video is being cropped correctly.
[edit] Let 'er Rip
That's it, if you wish you can save your settings as an 'OSD' preset, or play around a bit more. Simply click the 'Start' icon in the toolbar to start ripping.
As a rough estimate, it takes about 4 hours to rip a 2 hour DVD on my iBook G4 (2-pass encoding, above settings). I'm sure Intel based systems will be twice as fast, if not more.
[edit] Some information of note
- 2-pass encoding is not necessary, and almost doubles the ripping time, but does make for smoother playback.
- Subtitles may be extracted by choosing the language in the 'Audio & Subtitles' tab. This can be a little hit & miss if a language turns up twice. (However as of writing the OSD still doesn't support them.)
- If you are ripping a disk of a TV show, with several episodes per disk, you must be careful of the Chapters you chose to encode. You need to do each episode separately to keep them as separate files.
