hey guys,
Anyone use DVD backup software out there?
I recently upgraded my home-computer to an OS 10.5.2 machine. So far the experience has been a really good one - but, a little software program I picked up at Bic Camera today has got me hot as a pistol...
Anyone familiar with a company called "Roxio"; and a product called "Popcorn 3"?
This little f***er has ruined my day.
I have a very large DVD collection, and wanted to back up the rarer titles that I own. This past week I did some research, about the software involved and what the basic process is, on the net to get my bearings, and today made a trip into to town to pick up the title I'd heard recommended the most - DVDClone2...
While the Windows compliant version was in stock, the Bic Camera sales assistant told me that Mac OSX compliant DVDClone2 packages were all sold-out, and not being made anymore (sounded a bit fishy, but anyway...)
The assistant offered me a couple of alternatives: "Toaster", or this "Popcorn3" thing...
Toaster weighed in at about 20,000 yen
Popcorn3 was about 6,000yen
I've had good experience with cheap and cheerful sound editors in the past, so the cheap price of Popcorn3 didn't make me suspicious of the program's quality - and, reading the box, it had everything I needed in 1 neat package: compressor / writer software...
(I believe if I'd managed to buy DVDClone2, I'd have needed a separate piece of software, the compressor, to boil-down the amount of data in the composite layer DVDs in my film collection to burnable size on a typical DVD-R)
So I went with Popcorn3. Got home. Fired up the Mac. Inserted install disc. Followed instructions. Input all the CD key info. Even did an on-line registration. Install told me the process was complete. Thought, 'OK, I'll give it a test run'...
Click the Popcorn3 icon to start the application....
and...
nothing!!
Click again. Nothing. Again. Nothing. Again, nothing...
etc.,
The application icon starts its little Mac bounce then stops instantly. The little blue light under the application icon is lit for a brief second before extinguishing itself....
The application simply won't start!!!
I thought I must have done something wrong at install...
So, I threw the installed application in the trash. Cleared the trash out. And proceeded to install from scratch again...
And again, I get the above problem - the little sh** won't start up (T_T)
Now here's the fun part...
Roxio has something they comically call "support" on their website. There's no phone line to call (in Japan) for support, in-fact there is zero in the way of Japanese support: every link that purports to be help, just sends you to the english language American page. OK for me because I speak English - but imagine the poor Japanese users, who aren't originally from English speaking countries, and expected that a product sold in Japan would be supported in Japan. Anyway, lucky me, I speak and understand English - so I followed the clickthrough to the support...
....to find a US telephone number with the words "we don't offer any technical support" written underneath it. In other words the "support" center, is to support you in buying a product that doesn't work, and won't be supported post-purchase, technically....
I've been hoodwinked by Bic Camera, and Roxio...but it was only a 6,000yen lesson so I'll live and learn....
But, does anyone out there have any advice for me?
- on how it might be possible to get Popcorn3 to work
- but, more realistically, what software is best for backing up movie DVDs on Mac 10.5??
Sorry for the rant guys....but it's a real bummer when this happens to you
Anyone use DVD backup software out there?
I recently upgraded my home-computer to an OS 10.5.2 machine. So far the experience has been a really good one - but, a little software program I picked up at Bic Camera today has got me hot as a pistol...
Anyone familiar with a company called "Roxio"; and a product called "Popcorn 3"?
This little f***er has ruined my day.
I have a very large DVD collection, and wanted to back up the rarer titles that I own. This past week I did some research, about the software involved and what the basic process is, on the net to get my bearings, and today made a trip into to town to pick up the title I'd heard recommended the most - DVDClone2...
While the Windows compliant version was in stock, the Bic Camera sales assistant told me that Mac OSX compliant DVDClone2 packages were all sold-out, and not being made anymore (sounded a bit fishy, but anyway...)
The assistant offered me a couple of alternatives: "Toaster", or this "Popcorn3" thing...
Toaster weighed in at about 20,000 yen
Popcorn3 was about 6,000yen
I've had good experience with cheap and cheerful sound editors in the past, so the cheap price of Popcorn3 didn't make me suspicious of the program's quality - and, reading the box, it had everything I needed in 1 neat package: compressor / writer software...
(I believe if I'd managed to buy DVDClone2, I'd have needed a separate piece of software, the compressor, to boil-down the amount of data in the composite layer DVDs in my film collection to burnable size on a typical DVD-R)
So I went with Popcorn3. Got home. Fired up the Mac. Inserted install disc. Followed instructions. Input all the CD key info. Even did an on-line registration. Install told me the process was complete. Thought, 'OK, I'll give it a test run'...
Click the Popcorn3 icon to start the application....
and...
nothing!!
Click again. Nothing. Again. Nothing. Again, nothing...
etc.,
The application icon starts its little Mac bounce then stops instantly. The little blue light under the application icon is lit for a brief second before extinguishing itself....
The application simply won't start!!!
I thought I must have done something wrong at install...
So, I threw the installed application in the trash. Cleared the trash out. And proceeded to install from scratch again...
And again, I get the above problem - the little sh** won't start up (T_T)
Now here's the fun part...
Roxio has something they comically call "support" on their website. There's no phone line to call (in Japan) for support, in-fact there is zero in the way of Japanese support: every link that purports to be help, just sends you to the english language American page. OK for me because I speak English - but imagine the poor Japanese users, who aren't originally from English speaking countries, and expected that a product sold in Japan would be supported in Japan. Anyway, lucky me, I speak and understand English - so I followed the clickthrough to the support...
....to find a US telephone number with the words "we don't offer any technical support" written underneath it. In other words the "support" center, is to support you in buying a product that doesn't work, and won't be supported post-purchase, technically....
I've been hoodwinked by Bic Camera, and Roxio...but it was only a 6,000yen lesson so I'll live and learn....
But, does anyone out there have any advice for me?
- on how it might be possible to get Popcorn3 to work
- but, more realistically, what software is best for backing up movie DVDs on Mac 10.5??
Sorry for the rant guys....but it's a real bummer when this happens to you
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コメント(4)
I'm sorry to hear that. Sure looks like Bic Camera and Roxio ripped you off. Can you return the product? I mean, if you buy stuff that ends up not working for you, what else is there for you to do? :(
These are the system requirements for Popcorn 3. I'm sure you've checked it already, but just in case...
http://www.roxio.com/enu/products/popcorn/standard/requirements.html
I've used Roxio's product called "CD Creator" before. I didn't like how they kept jacking up the price every time they upgraded its version, but I never ran into a fundamental issue like yours.
I wish I could give you some advice on backing up DVDs on Mac OS. I do have a MacBook (running Tiger), but I do all my media stuff on my Linux desktop...
These are the system requirements for Popcorn 3. I'm sure you've checked it already, but just in case...
http://www.roxio.com/enu/products/popcorn/standard/requirements.html
I've used Roxio's product called "CD Creator" before. I didn't like how they kept jacking up the price every time they upgraded its version, but I never ran into a fundamental issue like yours.
I wish I could give you some advice on backing up DVDs on Mac OS. I do have a MacBook (running Tiger), but I do all my media stuff on my Linux desktop...
Hey there だいはど
I've found a nice little work-around with some free-ware...
It's a shame I had to go and make a 6,000 yen mistake, before getting my act together - but I'm in a better mood now, since I've found a solution that does what I want and has cost me zero.
On doing some more research on-line, I found a couple of things out - nearly all Japanese users of Roxio's "Popcorn3" are complaining of the same problem as me. In fact, if you go to the Japanese Roxio site, and go look at the support forum for Popcorn, you'll see a few people complaining that they can't install the software, or get it going....with zero response from any Roxio support staff (they don't exist, I'm sure). Not a good advert for the software
The Bic Camera staff, and my trusting nature, sold me on Popcorn when I was in-store this afternoon...but if I'd have done what I knew I should have - on the news that the product I went for was unavailable, I should have gone home to check-up on the never-heard-of-it software I was recommended before buying - if I'd have done that, I would have found out that the Bic Camera staff totally sold me the wrong product → on reading some MacWorld articles, turns out Popcorn3 is a reformatter: for changing the format of non-copy protected video, to be viewable on a variety of devices. An example might be something you TiVo'd - with Popcorn you can compress and format it for viewing on an i-phone say....
Niether TiVo, or the i-phone, are available in Japan - so perhaps that gives us an idea of how useful this software is over here....
Anyway, hold the phone..."non copy protected video"
I explicitly explained to the Bic Camera assistant that I wanted to back up DVDs (yes, legally purchased - and no, not for resale or redistribution) using my new Mac - and the assistant pushed Popcorn3 on me...which was a con.
I'm really suprised, as usually Bic Camera are very honest and helpful...
I'm going back tomorrow with my receipt, and a bit of righteous anger, to get my money back, or something in exchange...and at the very least an apology.
My work-around, is a decrypter called "mactheripper", and a really neat little application called "handbrake" - great thing is, handbrake was just updated especially for 10.5 users, and all the mac magazines, forums, users, have lavished praise on it
"Every cloud...."
I've just done my first test run with the free-ware combo, and it worked fine. There's one draw-back: neither of those applications offer compression. My test run video was 4.15GB, so that's inside the 4.5GB upper limit of commercial DVD-Rs and no problem - but I'll need something for compression if the data load of a film I wish to back up gets above 4.5GB...
Looking into that now....
Oh and, yeah, Popcorn3 says "OS10.4以降" on the 対応 info on the box....
So it's a relatively new version, and should work with leopard fine...
last time I'll ever use Roxio. That's for sure.
I've found a nice little work-around with some free-ware...
It's a shame I had to go and make a 6,000 yen mistake, before getting my act together - but I'm in a better mood now, since I've found a solution that does what I want and has cost me zero.
On doing some more research on-line, I found a couple of things out - nearly all Japanese users of Roxio's "Popcorn3" are complaining of the same problem as me. In fact, if you go to the Japanese Roxio site, and go look at the support forum for Popcorn, you'll see a few people complaining that they can't install the software, or get it going....with zero response from any Roxio support staff (they don't exist, I'm sure). Not a good advert for the software
The Bic Camera staff, and my trusting nature, sold me on Popcorn when I was in-store this afternoon...but if I'd have done what I knew I should have - on the news that the product I went for was unavailable, I should have gone home to check-up on the never-heard-of-it software I was recommended before buying - if I'd have done that, I would have found out that the Bic Camera staff totally sold me the wrong product → on reading some MacWorld articles, turns out Popcorn3 is a reformatter: for changing the format of non-copy protected video, to be viewable on a variety of devices. An example might be something you TiVo'd - with Popcorn you can compress and format it for viewing on an i-phone say....
Niether TiVo, or the i-phone, are available in Japan - so perhaps that gives us an idea of how useful this software is over here....
Anyway, hold the phone..."non copy protected video"
I explicitly explained to the Bic Camera assistant that I wanted to back up DVDs (yes, legally purchased - and no, not for resale or redistribution) using my new Mac - and the assistant pushed Popcorn3 on me...which was a con.
I'm really suprised, as usually Bic Camera are very honest and helpful...
I'm going back tomorrow with my receipt, and a bit of righteous anger, to get my money back, or something in exchange...and at the very least an apology.
My work-around, is a decrypter called "mactheripper", and a really neat little application called "handbrake" - great thing is, handbrake was just updated especially for 10.5 users, and all the mac magazines, forums, users, have lavished praise on it
"Every cloud...."
I've just done my first test run with the free-ware combo, and it worked fine. There's one draw-back: neither of those applications offer compression. My test run video was 4.15GB, so that's inside the 4.5GB upper limit of commercial DVD-Rs and no problem - but I'll need something for compression if the data load of a film I wish to back up gets above 4.5GB...
Looking into that now....
Oh and, yeah, Popcorn3 says "OS10.4以降" on the 対応 info on the box....
So it's a relatively new version, and should work with leopard fine...
last time I'll ever use Roxio. That's for sure.
hey there だいはど...
just incase you, or the guys on here are interested, I have an update on the all-I-want-to-do-is-back-up-my-DVDs-why-is-this-so-hard saga...
Turns out on most commercial DVDs there are two data folders: a VIDEO_TS folder; and an AUDIO_TS folder...
The audio_ts folder is usually just an empty folder, but more to the point it isn't relevant to the process I'm aiming for, so we can just leave it alone.
The video_ts folder contains the data I want to back-up, and is the focus of this process.
Step1: I have to "rip" the video_ts folder to my hard-drive. Mactheripper can do this, although internet opinion largely favors using "handbrake."
My experience so far has been that mactheripper is quicker and easier; although handbrake can rip for you, it is more an encoding/transcoding purpose application (and it takes much longer to do a rip).
In other words, all mactheripper is for is "ripping" data from a commercial DVD to my hard-drive (much like I-Tunes "rips" the music data from a music CD to your computer's hard-disk); whereas handbrake is for changing the MPEG-2 (or DVD format) code of you commercial DVDs to other formats, like MPEG-4...you can put the reformatted data onto your i-Pod, i-Phone, even into your i-Tunes library - point is most handbrake users are looking to put the DVDs they've bought into other formats, so they can watch their films, or TV, again on a different device.
Step2: So, I've got a video_ts folder "ripped" onto my hard-drive. OK, so I just insert a blank DVD into my mac, drag the video_ts folder onto the blank DVD, and burn it right?
Wrong!!
I tried this a few times, and it resulted in DVDs that my DVD player couldn't playback...
Going back to google-searches on the issue, and dredging through mac forums to find a thread that addressed my problem, I found a lot of advice that read "you need a burner software like Popcorn to burn the video_ts folder to a blank DVD to have it viewable through a DVD player"
Ouch...that's bittersweet
Well I /own/ Popcorn, but the damn thing won't initialize - and there's no way I'm buying another copy, or buying Popcorn's big-brother application "toaster"....because toaster is made by, guess who, Roxio. I can see that doing the same thing to me (refusing to start up).
Then I found a great nugget of info. Burning DVDs from finder, burns information as data, in other words, finder burns a "data DVD", not a DVD for playback in a player.
There's a utility application in OSX called "disk utility" that can be used for burning DVDs, and in the leopard version, "DVD/CD master" is an option on something called "making a disk image."
I had no idea what a "disk image" was - it's sounds like a mirror image of the data you're interested in....
Anyway, you use disk utility to create a "new disk image from a folder." That folder is the ripped video_ts folder on your desktop - and we make sure to select the DVD/CD master option for the image. This results in, not a .dmg image, but a .cdr image when disk utility is done.
Step3: Again in disk utility, select the disk image I just created, click "burn disk", insert the blank DVD when prompted....and finito!
Not quite.
just incase you, or the guys on here are interested, I have an update on the all-I-want-to-do-is-back-up-my-DVDs-why-is-this-so-hard saga...
Turns out on most commercial DVDs there are two data folders: a VIDEO_TS folder; and an AUDIO_TS folder...
The audio_ts folder is usually just an empty folder, but more to the point it isn't relevant to the process I'm aiming for, so we can just leave it alone.
The video_ts folder contains the data I want to back-up, and is the focus of this process.
Step1: I have to "rip" the video_ts folder to my hard-drive. Mactheripper can do this, although internet opinion largely favors using "handbrake."
My experience so far has been that mactheripper is quicker and easier; although handbrake can rip for you, it is more an encoding/transcoding purpose application (and it takes much longer to do a rip).
In other words, all mactheripper is for is "ripping" data from a commercial DVD to my hard-drive (much like I-Tunes "rips" the music data from a music CD to your computer's hard-disk); whereas handbrake is for changing the MPEG-2 (or DVD format) code of you commercial DVDs to other formats, like MPEG-4...you can put the reformatted data onto your i-Pod, i-Phone, even into your i-Tunes library - point is most handbrake users are looking to put the DVDs they've bought into other formats, so they can watch their films, or TV, again on a different device.
Step2: So, I've got a video_ts folder "ripped" onto my hard-drive. OK, so I just insert a blank DVD into my mac, drag the video_ts folder onto the blank DVD, and burn it right?
Wrong!!
I tried this a few times, and it resulted in DVDs that my DVD player couldn't playback...
Going back to google-searches on the issue, and dredging through mac forums to find a thread that addressed my problem, I found a lot of advice that read "you need a burner software like Popcorn to burn the video_ts folder to a blank DVD to have it viewable through a DVD player"
Ouch...that's bittersweet
Well I /own/ Popcorn, but the damn thing won't initialize - and there's no way I'm buying another copy, or buying Popcorn's big-brother application "toaster"....because toaster is made by, guess who, Roxio. I can see that doing the same thing to me (refusing to start up).
Then I found a great nugget of info. Burning DVDs from finder, burns information as data, in other words, finder burns a "data DVD", not a DVD for playback in a player.
There's a utility application in OSX called "disk utility" that can be used for burning DVDs, and in the leopard version, "DVD/CD master" is an option on something called "making a disk image."
I had no idea what a "disk image" was - it's sounds like a mirror image of the data you're interested in....
Anyway, you use disk utility to create a "new disk image from a folder." That folder is the ripped video_ts folder on your desktop - and we make sure to select the DVD/CD master option for the image. This results in, not a .dmg image, but a .cdr image when disk utility is done.
Step3: Again in disk utility, select the disk image I just created, click "burn disk", insert the blank DVD when prompted....and finito!
Not quite.
This method seems to work fine for some people - but the DVD I burnt from the process wouldn't play back in my player. Back to square one....
So I thought I needed to go back and figure out /what exactly is it that these "DVD burner" applications do. And what's the difference between dataDVD and a DVD that is for playing back in a player (they're both "data" surely).
I'm not up to speed yet, but it looks like something called .iso, and something called vob, data might be involved, and something else called UDF. The "UDF" term turned out to be the "OK I see" eureka point...
UDF, or "universal disk format", is the data formatting that tells your DVD player it's reading a DVD for playback. What the "DVD burner" software does is convert ripped data to UDF as they write, and so make a DVD that plays back in your player. That sounds to me like when the "rip" software rips data to your hard-drive, they don't keep the UDF, or whatever format, the DVD was coded in (that makes it playback on the player). Not really sure...
Anyway, what I am sure about is, I have to get the video_ts folder on my desktop into a UDF format / a UDF disk image, ready to be burned.
I found a little app called "DVD imager" on a mac forum. This will do the "disk image" job I did in disk utility, but make sure the image is a purpose "UDF" one...
(in fact, most of the users on mac forums recommended a few lines of code, to be input through "terminal", to do the same job - but that's a bit too technical for me...)
So...
It looks like a nice process is
1) "rip" the DVD data to your desktop using the software of your choosing
2) compress the data (if it exceeds 4.7GB - the amount you can fit a DVD-R)
3) use DVD image to make a UDF image of the video_ts folder you ripped to the desktop
4) use disk utility to burn the UDF image to a DVD-R
I'm about to try this process right now...
fingers crossed
(it's been a real learning experience...)
So I thought I needed to go back and figure out /what exactly is it that these "DVD burner" applications do. And what's the difference between dataDVD and a DVD that is for playing back in a player (they're both "data" surely).
I'm not up to speed yet, but it looks like something called .iso, and something called vob, data might be involved, and something else called UDF. The "UDF" term turned out to be the "OK I see" eureka point...
UDF, or "universal disk format", is the data formatting that tells your DVD player it's reading a DVD for playback. What the "DVD burner" software does is convert ripped data to UDF as they write, and so make a DVD that plays back in your player. That sounds to me like when the "rip" software rips data to your hard-drive, they don't keep the UDF, or whatever format, the DVD was coded in (that makes it playback on the player). Not really sure...
Anyway, what I am sure about is, I have to get the video_ts folder on my desktop into a UDF format / a UDF disk image, ready to be burned.
I found a little app called "DVD imager" on a mac forum. This will do the "disk image" job I did in disk utility, but make sure the image is a purpose "UDF" one...
(in fact, most of the users on mac forums recommended a few lines of code, to be input through "terminal", to do the same job - but that's a bit too technical for me...)
So...
It looks like a nice process is
1) "rip" the DVD data to your desktop using the software of your choosing
2) compress the data (if it exceeds 4.7GB - the amount you can fit a DVD-R)
3) use DVD image to make a UDF image of the video_ts folder you ripped to the desktop
4) use disk utility to burn the UDF image to a DVD-R
I'm about to try this process right now...
fingers crossed
(it's been a real learning experience...)
- mixiユーザー
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