How to copy a DVD for later conversion?

Question

I would like to copy a DVD to my computer, so I can convert it later.

Right now, as I understand it, a DVD contains a file system, encrypted data, and a read-only, special track of decryption keys. There are libraries (such as libdvdcss) that can read those keys, and decrypt the data, and programs like Handbrake that will use that to access the encrypted data.

What I can do is make a file by file copy of the encrypted data from the DVD onto the computer, but this does not copy the decryption info, and neither Handbrake nor VLC can play this copy back.

Both of these are able to read the decrypted data with the library, and display/rip the contents to a normal file, but that is at the speed of reading a DVD, rather than the speed of reading files off the hard drive; additionally, it requires me to set the conversion information once, and that's it. It cannot work with any non-movie stuff, such as an interactive DVD game that a DVD playback program can work with.

I want to copy the decrypted data file to my computer.

1. This would let me run multiple conversion passes at the speed of disk I/O, rather than the speed of DVD I/O. This would let me try different settings to see which to keep.
2. This would let me use non-movie features of a DVD later in a DVD playback program.

If it makes a difference: I am on a Mac 10.9.5.

Answer 1

As far as I know, you can't copy a DVD to PC and then convert it, in a normal way, but there is a solution. Try making an ISO file from the DVD and then attempt to convert and extract the data from the ISO file. Technically, the ISO should contain a perfect image of the DVD (security descriptors included).

The simplest way is to use Terminal and DD command: Open terminal using /Application/Utilities/Terminal.app/ and then type sudo diskutil unmount /dev/disk1 followed by dd if=/dev/disk1 of=~/myCD.iso bs=2048 conv=sync,notrunc. Mount the ISO and then use Handbrake to extract the file.

Else, use Handbrake and extract/rip the DVD at its normal speed.