On how to burn a movie I bought from Amazon.com to another disc so my mom can look at it later on. What program do I need to carry such task?..
How does the PQ will be from disc one?.....
My last question,can one copy blu ray as yet?....

On how to burn a movie I bought from Amazon.com to another disc so my mom can look at it later on.

Is this movie from Amazon a download or a commercial dvd?

What program do I need to carry such task?

That depends on the answer to my first question.

How does the PQ will be from disc one?

What?

can one copy blu ray as yet?

Not in OS X.

Thanks for quick reply. Yes I am talking about the commercial dvds.
I am thinking about buying the new OS that just came out.

When you copy a disc ,how close the PQ is to the original?....

well, if you just bought a new iMac, you can get Leopard for 10 bucks.

Under Tiger, you can backup a commercial dvd with MacTheRipper, then burn to disc with Popcorn or Toast. (Discussed on many, many other threads.)

The most current Leopard-build of MTR is R14i, though previous versions that I tried work, it's just the interface is a little screwed up. You have to donate to get these versions. Details at ripdifferent.com

There are many earlier MTR betas, downloadable and/or free versions that are floating out there, they will work with most dvds--just not the most recent, most troublesome discs.

I'm not sure of the current status of the most recent versions of Popcorn and Toast in Leopard--I'm using an older Popcorn version (1.0.3) and it's just fine in Leopard.

how close the PQ is to the original?

Identical. Unless you need to compress it in order to fit. Or you could just burn to a DL disk.

Under Tiger, you can backup a commercial dvd with MacTheRipper, then burn to disc with Popcorn or Toast. (Discussed on many, many other threads.)
Please allow me a newbie question.

I have three Macs, each with "superdrive", but have never yet written a DVD. Hmmm, why did I pay extra for that capability in my PowerBook? ... (that was rhetorical, now to my real question) ...

Anyway, why would I need Popcorn or Toast to burn a DVD? Doesn't the Mac already come with iDVD or some other program that will burn DVDs w/o needing third-party software?

Please allow me a newbie question.
Anyway, why would I need Popcorn or Toast to burn a DVD? Doesn't the Mac already come with iDVD or some other program that will burn DVDs w/o needing third-party software?

There is some overlap between what you can do with Apple's burn tools and with Toast and/or Popcorn. But there are major differences as well. It all depends on what you are starting with, what you want to end up with and how much time you want to spend doing it.

As for burning a video DVD that plays in DVD players, this must be burned in UDF format and the Finder and Disk Utility don't do that on their own. However, an application called DVDImager will make a UDF-formatted disc image that can be burned properly with Disk Utility. iDVD is wonderful if your source video is one of its accepted formats, but if not you'll find it a time-consuming pain.

If you're curious about what Popcorn and Toast are used for I suggest reading the promotional info at Roxio's site and Google for some software reviews. There are other third-party applications that compete for this market as well.

I have three Macs, each with "superdrive", but have never yet written a DVD. Hmmm, why did I pay extra for that capability in my PowerBook? ... (that was rhetorical, now to my real question)

I realize that was rhetorical, but a lot of people do ask this question, since Apple still sells Macs with combo drives with the intent to upsell you to the "better" superdrive model. Usually there's just enough difference between the base combo drive and the upgraded superdrive model to make you wonder if it's worth the extra $200 or so.

now, in my case, I do write A LOT of dvds--yet, whenever possible, I buy the lower-end, combo drive version. That's because the Apple-supplied Matshita superdrives suck, and aren't worth paying more for upfront. Better to get yourself a good external firewire superdrive instead, or stick a 5.25" Pioneer in your PowerMac.

why would I need Popcorn or Toast to burn a DVD? Doesn't the Mac already come with iDVD or some other program that will burn DVDs w/o needing third-party software?

HealeyGuy's answer was great, I'll add just a little bit to it: the main reasons why most of us turn to third party programs like Popcorn, Toast or something like DVD2OneX to do our dvd burning is 1) convenience and 2) flexibility. Usually we're dealing with commercial dvds that have already been ripped, i.e. stripped of content protections. These programs are designed to work with that result, a VIDEO_TS folder.

Now ask yourself how you might deal with a movie that's too large to fit on a typical blank single layer dvd? You'd have to compress it to fit--that's what these programs do automatically for you. What if you just wanted the main feature, in widescreen format, and, say, the 5.1 audio track--there will be checkboxes for you to include just what you want extracted and exclude what you don't want, like the 2.0 audio or the 4:3 feature. They also give you a pretty interface and buttons to click. Like HealeyGuy stated very succinctly:

It all depends on what you are starting with, what you want to end up with and how much time you want to spend doing it.

If you go back a bit in time, Apple support for external superdrives was not so great. That's changed now, but for many of us it was the evolution of these third-party programs like Toast and Popcorn that allowed us to do home theater-related tasks that Apple, to a certain degree, was intentionally hindering.

why would I need Popcorn or Toast to burn a DVD?

Nicely covered in this FAQ:

http://www.ripdifferent.com/phpbb2/viewtopic.php?t=792

Nicely covered in this FAQ:

http://www.ripdifferent.com/phpbb2/viewtopic.php?t=792Except we need an account to get in. Summarize?

I think that one thing that needs to be mentioned is that, IMHO, the Mac built in disk burning system (this is from my experience with Tiger, not Leopard--which may or may not have changed significantly) is very oblique. It is poorly documented, and has no "front end" that the average user is looking for when they go to burn a disk. It is not an application. You can't just double click on "DiscBurner."

Most people who do lots of burning get Toast because it is a desktop app, and is well documented. WHile versions over the years have had their faults, and if you have an older version, it is difficult to discover what drives it supports, or to decipher errors that usually refer back to firmware problems with drives or media brand issues. There's always the triangle of Toast version, drive model/firmware, and media brand to tangle with to get reliable burns, and everybody points the finger to the other parties when burning fails.

But back to Apple's system of cheap internals and minimal burn support. It really is a travesty that the company puts such little stock in the importance and utility of burning. It charges a premium for an "upgrade" to a superdrive that may or may not work. And discovering the proper media to use with it can be expensive--you'll give away a lot of bindles of DVDs that won't work, or go around begging your friends for different varieties to try, just to see if one will work. It bundles no intuitive app with its drives for the everyday user. Ask a user who hasn't worked out the intricasies of burning from the Finder how to burn a disk, and chances are they'll be unable to do so. Run the Help system, and you may be able to figure out how to burn a disk. Or not. Ask a vid pro how to use Disk Utility to burn a DVD, and they'll stumble, until they've worked out the process. It just isn't the Mac Way for it to be this difficult.

Yesterday I ordered an external DL dvd burner for the office i work in. Our Apple-supplied SuperDrive in one of our G5's quit burning dvds. So for $100, I got an external drive with USB/Firewire and a quality Pioneer mechanism. Pair that with Toast (and its siblings), and you have a robust burning environment. And i can move it around to all of the workstations. And I can take it home, etc.

It's quite simple. For the cost of the Apple tax upsell on a poor quality SuperDrive, you can buy a good external with Toast, and get the versatility of using it on multiple machines for free. There's really not any reason to not do so, unless you have a phobia for externals, or you really need a SuperDrive in a laptop. Or if you just have a single Mac, in which case, for $50-60 and 10 minutes time, you can swap out the internal ***sh*t* drive for a good Pioneer.

In another case, a friend had the internal SuperDrive in his MacBook fail. the local Apple shop quoted him $400 to replace it (rip off, I know--but that's what the average consumer is up against). I told him to just go get an external for under a hundred, and only burn at home. "You can do that?" He was a happy camper.

Sorry, I mistakenly linked to the non-public forum, try this one:

http://ripdifferent.com/phpbb2/viewtopic.php?t=3958

OK guys ,here's what need I guess from the info you nice people are given me/ us. Don't pay attention to the super drive that Mac is given you, buy an after market SD.Second buy either Toast or Popcorn to burn DVDs to the SD you just bought. In my case since I like 1.5 DTS or DD sound and 16x9 movies, I guess the Toast and Popcorn will do me a lot of good.
My question is , since you nice people have been doing this a long time,what SD and what version of Toast or Popcorn will do the job for me.
Since I am getting Leopard very soon can I copy HD from over the air to a disc?....
Thanks.

In my case since I like 5.1 DTS or DD sound and 16x9 movies, I guess the Toast and Popcorn will do me a lot of good.

Yes. Rip first with MTR, then process & burn with either Toast or Popcorn.

I think only the older Popcorn 1 and 2 work at the moment in Leopard. I don't think either recent version of Toast (7 or 8) or Popcorn 3 works yet in Leopard.

You most certainly CAN use the superdrive in your iMac since you're just a beginner, soccerdude. Learn how to do things first on that drive--then decide later to upgrade or not.

Yes. Rip first with MTR, then process & burn with either Toast or Popcorn.

I think only the older Popcorn 1 and 2 work at the moment in Leopard. I don't think either recent version of Toast (7 or 8) or Popcorn 3 works yet in Leopard.

You most certainly CAN use the superdrive in your iMac since you're just a beginner, soccerdude. Learn how to do things first on that drive--then decide later to upgrade or not. Yes Sir. What's MTR?

What's MTR?

Post #5 above--MacTheRipper. Basic info at:

http://ripdifferent.com/phpbb2/viewforum.php?f=34

Don't pay attention to the super drive that Mac is given you, buy an after market SD.Like chefklc says, if it works, go ahead and use it. Just be prepared for it to potentially go south some day, without notice.

I just had to burn a little frustration at Apple for all the inconvenience I've had to go through with a SuperDrive at work that quit working properly. And at work, it sometimes is easier to convince my coworkers that my time is better spent working on production than troubleshooting bad Apple drives that can be replaced with superior ones for a c-note.

And thanks for the updated link, chefklc.

Boy, you two guys are great.I learned a lot stuff today. Thanks .
I will ask more questions though. Here's one. Why every time I logout of Firefox, I have to reinstall FlushPlayer. Sometimes I don't have to logout of FF but still lose FlushPlayer. I get this Quicktime logo with question mark in it ,when I reinstall FlushPlayer it goes away. What I am doing wrong?..
Do I need an EyeTV ?...