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[deone]

I am running MC 25.0.128 on a Mac.  The Mac has an optical drive and I can use that to watch video DVDs or listen to audio CDs.  I have used the Rip Disk option successfully to rip audio CDs.
I have a lot of DVDs that I would like to rip and import into MC and then use MC to stream video to chromecast devices...that way I can do away with my DVD players.
However, when I click "Rip Disk" after inserting a DVD, I get the error "Ripping is currently unavailable.  Please ensure that a suitable optical drive is installed on this machine.  Also, make sure you are using a local library and are not in Party Mode. 

I obviously have a suitable optical drive since I can watch my DVDs using that same drive.  I'm also not in party mode.

Any guidance for accomplishing my task would be appreciated.

[Awesome Donkey]

Don't think ripping DVDs works on Mac (plus you'd need something like AnyDVD, which as far as I know isn't available on Mac, to remove the copy protection).

Your best bet is likely using an app like MakeMKV (which is available on Mac) to rip DVDs to MKV files.

[HaWi]

I'm using Handbrake...

[Dennis in FL]

I have used MakeMKV with Handbrake, DVDFab, and Brorsoft.  The latter two are purchased.   I do not recommend Brorsoft....they sent me a Windows EXE and I have a Mac.  I sent maybe 20 emails to customer service and got no response.

MakeMKV makes a copy and Handbrake can make a condensed file from the copy.   

MakeMKV is free as long as it is in Beta version which is forever.   Handbrake is also free. 

DVD Fab is OK most of the time, but it has troubles on some Blu Rays and I end up using MakeMKV.   

I don't use Media Center yet, however.  I use Infuse on an Apple TV.

[blgentry]

DVD ripping is not supported in MC for Mac.  I do not expect this to change.  But I'm just a customer, so this is speculation.

I've been using MakeMVK for several years and it works quite well.  Highly recommended for the Mac.  If you use it as much as I have, you might even buy a license, like I did.

I personally do not recompress any ripped videos from DVD or BluRay.  Disk space is cheap.  Recompression is tricky.  What looks good on a 21" monitor, might not look good on a 120" projection screen.  Parameters for compression algorithms are very, very detailed.  Recompression takes a lot of CPU time too.  For me it's simply not worth it.  I keep the full resolution rips, as is, as they come from MakeMKV.  I never, ever wonder if I got the compression wrong.  This makes me happy. 

Brian.

Brian.

[deone]

Thanks All.
The combination of MakeMKV with Handbrake worked great.
Now I can stream video to my phone.  What is the best way to stream the video to my Sony TV?  It has Chromecast built in.

[Dennis in FL]

I personally do not recompress any ripped videos from DVD or BluRay.  Disk space is cheap.
Brian.

I wish I had done that.   I originally bought 2 8TB disks (one for backup) and thought it would fill up quickly with MakeMKV so I elected to compress most files.    But I still have gobs of disk space left after I went through all my collection of Blu Rays & DVDs.  Recently I began keeping the uncompressed output on the backup disk in case I change my mind later.

[blgentry]

I wish I had done that.   I originally bought 2 8TB disks (one for backup) and thought it would fill up quickly with MakeMKV so I elected to compress most files.

My first round of DVD rips were done with Handbrake and some kind of compression, plus some selection of audio, which I think might have recompressed the audio too.  I think I ripped maybe 60 DVDs this way.  Then I discovered that some of my rips really didn't look very good on larger screens.  Ouch.  While searching for "optimal compression parameters", someone here recommended MakeMKV.  I tried it.  Easy.  FAST.  SO MUCH FASTER!  Because it doesn't waste any time doing recompression.  Plus it gives me all of the original data from the disc.

Over the next few months, I replaced most of my recompressed rips with direct MakeMKV rips instead.  Movie by movie.  TV show by TV show.  I did the ones I liked best first.  Now, several years later, I have a few left overs that I never got around to.  Very, very few.  Apparently I don't really watch those movies, so I haven't gone back to the original discs again to re-rip them.

This, and ripping my CDs to AAC, and then FLAC, taught me the lesson:  Never (lossy) compress audio.  Never recompress already lossy audio or video. 

So you can do it.  Just start pulling discs out.  The ripping really doesn't take that long on most titles.

Brian.

[Dennis in FL]

One thing I have had troubles with is the network speed playing lossless.   I get the swirling circle frequently on MKV files.   But not on compressed files.   I have both the Mac and the Apple TV plugged into Ethernet and I don't think I can get faster than that.   

I read somewhere that the Mac ethernet is not as fast as WiFi and I find that hard to believe.....

[HaWi]

On my iMac I get about 115MB/s max. with avg 100MB/s between it and the Synology NAS where my music files reside. The NAS is connected by Ethernet via a non-managed 1Gb/s switch.

[blgentry]

I play my MKV files from an iMac to an NVidia Shield with no issues.  *However*, when I first hooked it up, I was using Wifi and I had frequent buffering issues.  After that, I ran a flat cat6 cable from room to room (gaffer's tape is awesome) and now have a 1gig connection from Mac to Shield.  That took care of all the buffering problems.  It's smooth as you would expect now.

I'm using a really cheap TP Link 1g switch in my living room rack, and a NetGear router/wifi/1g switch at the Mac end.

Brian.