MacTheRipper: A DVD extractor for Mac OS X
MacTheRipper is a free DVD ripper (extractor) for Mac OS X. It can extract commercial DVD movies to your hard drive, minus all the copy protections and region controls put in place by DVD publishers. You can then use various tools to burn the movie back to DVD-R for use in DVD players, or convert the movie to different formats for playback with a variety of devices. MacTheRipper is intended to backup DVDs you have legally purchased for personal use. Any copyright-infringing activity you choose to perpetrate using this application is illegal, immoral, and beyond our control.
To install MacTheRipper, simply mount the .dmg image by double-clicking on it, and copy the MacTheRipper application to your Applications folder (or wherever you want it), along with the MacTheRipper Manual, if you need it, or just move the folder to where you want it.
Using MacTheRipper
There is an illustrated MacTheRipper Manual distributed with the application, but this is the heart of it.
To use MacTheRipper, you insert your DVD movie into your DVD drive. You then launch the MacTheRipper application. Then, you pick which DVD you want to back up to your hard drive if you have several. If a disc you've just inserted fails to be listed, you can click the refresh arrow button to the left of the DVD choosing popup menu.
Then, you should set the RCE options if applicable. If MacTheRipper displays 'DISC RCE: -Clear-' after scanning the DVD in the drive, you can leave the 'RCE Region' popup menu on 'OFF', as it is by default. Only (and always) set the 'RCE Region' to 'OFF' when it says that RCE is '-CLEAR-'. If MacTheRipper has detected RCE, you must set the 'RCE Region' popup menu option to the region in which the DVD was purchased. For example, if you have a DVD that was purchased in N. America (Region 1), and MacTheRipper says that RCE is detected, you must set the 'RCE Region' popup menu to 'RCE 1'. So, if DISC RCE is '-DETECTED-', always set the 'RCE Region' to the region the DVD comes from, regardless of the numbers that show up in the 'Region' field.
'New Region' should usually be left on its default of all regions selected (region 0), unless you wish to restrict the playback of the output to a certain region, or set of regions. If you wish to select certain regions to limit the output DVD to (some DVD players don't like region 0 discs, so you might limit them for compatibility), click on the 'New Region' button, and select the regions you want the output to work with, and hit 'OK'. The checked regions are the ones where you want the DVD to play. MacTheRipper remembers your last disc region settings, so the next DVD you rip will automatically have the same regions selected as the last.
Analog protection removal should usually be left checked, as it is by default. This removes analog copy protection, enabling you to play the DVD on a player hooked up through a VCR, or record to VHS without getting a bunch of wavy lines.
If you wish to disable UOPs to allow you to skip or fast-forward through most DVD content, such as warning screens, previews, and such, you can click the 'UOPs' button. This will open a sheet where you can choose to 'Disable DVD UOPs', by checking its box. If you do this, be sure to verify the output of MTR with DVD Player before you burn to DVD±R, as it can break the menu system on certain DVDs.
If you want to access the advanced UOPs options, you can check the 'Enable Advanced Features' box. This will allow you to select the UOPs you wish to enable in the DVD. This option should only be used by advanced users, and has the potential to break DVD playback if you don't know what you're doing. If you don't understand the options in the advanced features, leave 'Enable Advanced Features' unchecked. Once you're done selecting the UOPs options, you can click the 'Close' button, and go back to the main window.
Now it's time to choose the type of extraction you want in the 'Mode' tab. Usually, you would want to extract the whole DVD for either burning back to DVD±R or processing with other tools to shrink it down to size first (like Popcorn, DVD2OneX or DVDRemaster). For this, you will choose the 'Full Disc Extraction' option.
If the main feature is under 4.37 GB (or you don't want to waste time extracting parts of the DVD you don't want), and you don't care for the extra content on the DVD or the menus, you can choose the 'Main Feature Extraction' option to only get the main feature title set by itself.
If you only want to extract a certain title set (video track) from the DVD besides the main title set, you can choose the 'Title Set Extraction' option, and setting the title set number you want to extract. This might involve a little trial and error to get the desired one.
If you want to extract only a particular title, you can choose the 'Title Only Extraction' option, and set the title number you wish to extract. The main feature title is indicated with the letters '(MF)'. You can also set the desired angle if there are several. You can also choose to demux the individual streams (.m2v, .ac3, .dts, .pcm, .spc) from the VOB, and select only the ones you want. To do this, click the "D" button (for demux), and then the "Streams" button to open the stream selection drawer. There, you can choose exactly which streams you want extracted.
If you want to extract only a certain set of chapters of a particular title, then you can choose the 'Title - Chapter Extraction' option, and set the title number and chapter range you wish to extract by choosing the start chapter 'SChpt' and end chapter 'EChpt'. Again, if you want to extract the elementary streams (.m2v, .ac3, .dts, .pcm, .spc), follow the demuxing instructions above for Title Only mode.
Once you've selected the type of extraction and options you want, you can go back to the 'Disc' tab and click the 'GO!' button (or hit the 'Enter' or 'Return' key) to start the extraction. This will prompt you to choose a Save Location in a new window (only the first time you run a new version of MacTheRipper - after that, you must choose "Save To..." in the "File" menu to change Save locations). Navigate to where you want to save the DVD folder, and click the 'Open' button to make your selection. Once the process starts, the upper progress bar will indicate the progress on the current file displayed in the main window area, and the lower one will indicate how far along the extraction process it is for the entire disc. There will be a sound when the process is finished, along with a dialog showing Bomberman and the time elapsed for extraction. If at any time during the processing you wish to cancel, you can click the 'Cancel' button (where the 'GO!' button was before processing began), and it will stop processing immediately, leaving your partially extracted DVD where you saved to. You should probably throw this away, if you didn't get the parts you wanted.
Additional information, including a detailed explanation of the options in the preferences and more, is included in the MacTheRipper Manual distributed with the application.
Note that ARccOS copy-protected DVDs are automatically detected, and MTR will switch to an equivalent ARccOS mode when such a DVD is detected. Title Only and Title - Chapter modes are not affected by ARccOS protection.
Version History
2.6.6
Improves prescanning to fix crashing problems on certain DVDs
Faster prescanning by consolidating code into fewer passes to reduce seeking
