DVD Remaster Pro: Quickly Re-compress your DVD Collection

Posted by Greg Healy on 08/29/08 in Home & Personal, Video

DVD Remaster icon When it comes to putting DVDs on your Mac, the first application that comes to mind for many is the open-source Handbrake. DVDRemaster Pro, from Metakine, is an application similar to Handbrake. It allows you to re-compress an entire DVD, export a DVD to a device such as an iPod, or rip a raw, uncompressed stream of the DVD to your hard drive.

When you first open DVDRemaster Pro, you have to choose a source. DVDRemaster Pro comes with an application called FairMount, that allows you to mount DVDs like Disk Images.

Once you have chosen a source, you must decide what mode you are going to burn in. There are three modes in DVDRemaster Pro: Remaster, Export and Extract.

Remaster lets you re-compress the DVD onto your hard drive, that can simply be stored, or later re-burned. You can choose to re-compress the entire DVD, or just the main feature. First you have to select a Recompression Module, and you can choose a target size to try and keep the file size under.

Remaster

Export is the mode that I expect most people to use this application for. You can choose from 7 formats to export for, including iPod, Apple TV, MP4 and Quicktime. There are a number of presets included in DVDRemaster Pro for this mode, and you can easily create your own in the â€œConfigureâ€ dialog. Once you have chosen your format and preset, you can go through the files on the disc and choose which files you want to export. You can also have the result automatically imported into iTunes once it is done, and choose whether you want the subtitles of a particular file.

Export

Finally, DVDRemasterâ€™s third mode is Extract. Extract lets you take the raw stream off the DVD for use in another application, such as VLC.

In the end, DVDRemaster produced great results, and made it easy to get files quickily from DVD to iPod. It took DVDRemaster Pro 5 minutes, 59 seconds to rip a 26 minute episode of FRIENDS, where it took Handbrake 18 minutes, 24 seconds to rip the same episode, at the same settings. This test was in no way scientific, but rather just a quick test to compare burn times.

DVDRemaster Pro is a little on the expensive side at $49.99 ($39.99 for standard version) when there are tools like Hanbrake available, but it depends on whether you are willing to pay for the convenience of time.

Burning

Just remember that you should not rip DVDs that you do not have ownership of. If I understand correctly, it is illegal in the US to rip a DVD if you circumvent the encryption or protection in the process. Please correct me if I am wrong.

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CaptSaltyJack said on

August 29th, 2008 at 8:40 pm

Handbrake only takes existing DVD video data (on your HD) and encodes it to something else. It does NOT rip/decrypt off the DVD which is a necessity. DVD Remaster Pro sounds fine and dandy, but so many movies you can buy now (such as Vantage Point or 21) will not rip. At $50, it’s a bit of a risk.

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Greg Healy said on

August 29th, 2008 at 8:45 pm

@CaptSaltyJack: from Handbrake’s website: “Supported Sources: Any DVD-like source: VIDEO_TS folder, DVD image or real DVD (encrypted or unencrypted, but protection methods other than CSS are not supported and must be handled externally with third-party software), and some .VOB and .TS files”

Unless I am not understanding what you mean correctly, Handbrake does rip directly off of DVDs in your optical drive.

CaptSaltyJack said on

August 29th, 2008 at 9:00 pm

Ahh I stand corrected, didn’t know it could decrypt. But it sounds like it’s limited, and a 3rd party app such as MacTheRipper (free) might be needed.

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Greg Healy said on

August 29th, 2008 at 9:02 pm

That is correct, many people suggest using MacTheRipper to get the DVD onto your HD, and then use Handbrake to encode it to the format of your choice.

DVDRemaster Pro is sort of like “one-stop shopping.”

Dale said on

August 30th, 2008 at 6:10 pm

I have just recently started using handbrake. I purchased a 160G ipod classic and wanted to put all our dvd’s (kids and mine) onto my ipod to be able to play back via a portable dvd/ipod player or play on my tv via a homedock. I have been able to convert all my dvd’s without the use of any other software whatsoever through handbrake.

Not that i suggest this but i was also interested to see if this would work with a rented dvd and it did. Again this is illegal, however i really just wanted to see if it would work and it does.

So i don’t see the point of paying for a piece of software that another software will do for free. The original poster said it was faster. I generally just put in a dvd and forget about it until its done so speed is of no importance whatsoever.

Unless i am missing something what would be the point of using this “mactheripper” software since handbrake will do it all?

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CaptSaltyJack said on

August 30th, 2008 at 7:20 pm

MacTheRipper might tackle certain DVDs that Handbrake may not. But that’s just speculation. Handbrake does warn that it only supports certain encryption methods. I think MacTheRipper recognizes more.

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Dale said on

August 30th, 2008 at 7:35 pm

Handbrake has shutdown on a few occassions, however, when this happens i just restart the process and it usually converts the dvd. In fact there has only been one dvd that i haven’t been able to convert and that is a recently purchased copy of “Bee Movie”.

Maybe i will try this mactheripper program and see if it can convert it.

Other than that, there isn’t anything that i have thrown at handbrake that it can’t handle.

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Greg Healy said on

August 30th, 2008 at 7:55 pm

@Dale: MacTheRipper doesn’t convert the ripped information, it saves it as the VIDEO_TS and AUDIO_TS folders. You can then use Handbrake to convert the folders into the format of your choice. MacTheRipper excels at the ripping process, and Handbrake is better used to encode your files.

Dale said on

August 30th, 2008 at 9:47 pm

ah ok, that makes sense now. I have noticed that on the cds with those 2 folders already in place, converting the dvd works flawlessly.

Thanks for the clarification.

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Greg Healy said on

August 30th, 2008 at 9:49 pm

No problem Dale, glad you understand now.

Baron Von Cruzer said on

September 28th, 2008 at 7:31 pm

I have downloaded this software, but I trashed DVD Remaster Pro. I already have Cinematize. It’s interesting that FairMount is mentioned only in passing. You do realize that once a DVD is mounted as a disk image, it’s decrypted right? You can then drag that VIDEO_TS folder to a hard drive. FairMount is now my preferred DVD decrypter.

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