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MAC Ripping Station - Newbie

post #1 of 8
1/9/13 at 9:03am
Thread Starter 
Hi,

I've just joined your site after finding this post: http://www.avsforum.com/t/1155408/ripping-station-hardware-sw-suggestions

I'm hoping there are Mac users on AVS who might be able to help. Here's my dilemma: I have a number of Bluray Dics, over 400 DVD's and approximately 7-800 CD's that I'd like to preserve and archive on a HD(s). The discs are not only a variety of movies but some also contain an assorted archive of Mac data files (imagery, sound files and working, client design files).

I've tried all the usual forums (searched cdrlabs and cd freaks etc) but am still in the dark and am not finding a suitable, inexpensive solution. I've found a number of PC solutions but am uncertain if they will recognize/rip the data DVD/CDs.

Ideally, the solution I'm hoping for is an automated procedure as possible which will rip/copy the content of the discs onto a Mac formatted drive.

Any help would be greatly appreciated. Many, many thanks, Tim

ps: Although this is my first post and it's relatively unrelated to the usual AVS threads, I've found a number of useful threads that will help with my personal AV needs...so I'll be around and contributing in the future. Thanks again.
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post #2 of 8
1/9/13 at 6:08pm
Budget?

When do you want/need the job completed?

1 person job full time? Occasionally as time allows? As many people and as much equipment as necessary to get the job done by Feb 1st, 2013? Finished sometime this century?

For ripping DVD and CD data drives you could get buy with an old G4 Mac running Leopard. Could probably run at least 2 ripping drives on it at one time, possibly more depending on the Mac and your workflow? Ripping bluray you will need an Intel Mac.

Doing a back of the napkin calculation in my grey matter you're looking at probably 100 to 150 hours just to rip the CDs, without any time considered for cataloging and storage in the workflow. Lots of number crunching needed to come up with a good solution.
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post #3 of 8
1/13/13 at 10:46am
Thread Starter 
I've seen all sorts of ripping stations for PC's...isn't there one that will work on a mac?
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post #4 of 8
1/14/13 at 5:18pm
All "ripping station" says to me is hardware and $$$. Most disk hardware that can connect to a PC will connect to a Mac. No matter how many drives you have someone still has to load the disks into the drives. Then, someone has to manage the data produced.

What is your budget? You stated in your original post you were looking for an "inexpensive solution" - define inexpensive. Where is the sweet spot for you personally on cost of the system versus automation and time?

Workflow and software are what I would personally consider to be most important. Start with the problem definition then work backwards to what will accomplish the goal.

For ripping BluRay or DVDs, my personal opinion is that it is a wash. If you prefer the Windows world use a PC platform. If you prefer the Apple software environment then do this on a Mac.

CD's with data files are a totally different kettle of fish - what file formats? "Client projects"? Illustrator? PageMaker? Freehand? FrameMaker? MacWrite II? InDesign? Quark XPress? Final Cut Pro? A random collection of Avid application files?

If most of the data files on your CDs have been created in some kind of Mac platform tool, and you consider this an archiving project, you will also need to consider whether the software that created them has a future. If not, you need to make sure you also keep a hardware/software platform that can run the apps to access the data.

Number of BluRay discs - how many? What do you want to do with the Blu-ray rips after? Leave them as some form of disk image or convert to .mkv?

DVD Rips - just want to turn them into Video_TS folders, or want to convert them to movies by chapter?

Store all this ripped data on HD forever, or burn copies? For rough estimating of storage requirements CD's are 650 to 700 megs, DVDs 5 to 10 GBs, Blu-rays 25-50GBs for easy round numbers to calculate disk requirements.
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post #5 of 8
1/18/13 at 11:46am
Thread Starter 
Hi EG – thanks for taking the time to reply.

The challenge is I'm not prepared to pay $3-4K for a station that will possibly not rip my mac data disks. There are stations in the $5-600 range which seem more within my ballpark, however they seem to be one-way machines that do not connect to the Mac.

Ideally I'm looking for an "automated" solution. Something where I can load ~50+ CD/DVDs into the 'machine' and have them be automatically ripped to the Mac. I find it hard to believe that while there are many PC-run machines, none exist that are Mac compatible. It would be okay if the PC mirrored the data from the CD/DVDs onto a removable hard drive, however I don't think the PC will go so far as even mounting the Mac formatted data discs.

Yes, I'd ideally like to have a machine rip all of the discs onto a hard drive so that I (or staff) will not have to manually load a disc every time a file is needed. And yes, I'd like to avoid having to load and rip them individually.

Soooooo...solutions?
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post #6 of 8
1/18/13 at 12:35pm
If you believe it will save you enough time for the money, buy a rip station you like that produces output in a format you want for the physical media it can deal with - the Blu-rays and the DVDs. A ripping station can do something useful with these disks because the contents are known. This is why I asked questions about how many Blu-ray disks and what you wanted to do with the copies afterward.

The issue I see with the CDs is not the disk media, it is the file formats on the CDs. Even if you find a hardware station that can handle Mac formatted media, how does that help you?

A human will still need to look at the contents of the disks and decide what to do with the contents. Pick up a suitable vintage machine that can run all of the apps that the data files were created in, install all of the apps, hang a few Firewire/USB/SCSI drives on the machine and chug away as time allows. This is why I asked what applications generated the file formats.

We seem to be concerned about different things here. As near as I can tell your main concern is ripping the disks as quickly as possible with as little personal intervention as possible. If I was doing this my concern would be - after I have gone through all of this effort, will the files I have archived actually be usable?
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post #7 of 8
1/18/13 at 1:06pm
Thread Starter 
: ) Yes, your concern is valid however all data on the discs is within range of the current software, ie older versions of the same software (Adobe Creative Suite). Additionally, there are images, sound files, movies, fonts etc all within 'current' parameters. So, given that all of these files are within a set filing format (all within labeled dockets etc) my concern remains ripping all the discs as quickly and efficiently as possible. Once ripped to a single HD...they will (hopefully) all maintain their respective docket numbers and can therefore be searched according to docket/file etc. Thus removing the need to manually search through hundreds of discs for a single file...and also easing the process of backing up the data.

Again, my concern is not if they are usable...they are. I need an efficient mode of transfer.
Edited by MACDesigner - 1/18/13 at 1:12pm
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post #8 of 8
1/20/13 at 8:43am
Send a Email to the customer support address of every ripping station manufacturer you can find on the net and ask them if they support Macintosh HFS formatted CDs.
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