Tag archive for ‘dvd’ at bioneural.net

Tag archive for 'dvd'

Home-made DVDs won't mount or copy on Mac

Published by Bruce on July 9, 2008 in Mac. 1 response

Home-made DVDs of our travels and family events were backed up as disk images (.dmg) onto an external hard drive as they were made. When these were inadvertently deleted I attempted to re-create the backup using Disk Utility to create new disk images. I was very concerned to find that about a third of my collection would either fail to mount on the OS X desktop or, if so, caused Disk Utility to report an input/ output error resulting in failure to copy. So what gives Apple? Why can my Mac not mount, copy, or play back Mac-made DVDs—when my consumer player handles them fine?
Continue reading 'Home-made DVDs won't mount or copy on Mac'

New Zealand progressive on fair use laws

Published by Bruce on April 11, 2008 in New Zealand. 0 responses

As reported by Ars Technica, the New Zealand House of Representatives passed a bill on 8 April 2008 reforming copyright law for the "digital age". Most netizens even outside the US will have come across the American DMCA: any mention seems tainted by the taste of bile. The DMCA criminalises circumvention of digital rights management (DRM) technologies and access controls—many folk argue at the expense of "fair use". Do the NZ reforms provide workable compromise?
Continue reading 'New Zealand progressive on fair use laws'

HDTV, Blue-ray, HD DVD, HDV, PVR, TV & Macs

Published by Bruce on June 17, 2007 in Mac. 9 responses

I was recently impressed by a HDTV broadcast I saw in Brisbane. The Wellington House & Home Exhibition demoed the Bose Series III Lifestyle 28 ($NZ5500), a Toshiba-based DVD player with media centre functionality. House of flying daggers looked and sounded superb on a large $NZ10000 Samsung "high definition" LCD TV. Although the Lifestyle is a multi-region player (I'll never by region-locked again) it uses yesterday's tech, offering neither HD nor support for higher-capacity optical discs (Blue-ray or HD DVD). My current DVD player, TV, and camcorder are all limited to "standard definition". Would largely garbage free-to-air TV programming justify the cost of making the jump to high def? What equipment would I need and what technology standards should I be mindful of? And, in a Mac-centric home, how much of this would be compatible with my preferred computing platform? Here are the results of my investigations into these surprisingly complex questions: if I have erred please feel free to re-educate me.
Continue reading 'HDTV, Blue-ray, HD DVD, HDV, PVR, TV & Macs'

Changing DVD regions

Published by Bruce on November 8, 2006 in Mac. 12 responses

When we moved to New Zealand I brought my UK-purchased Mac mini with us. In the world of DVD region codes, the UK is "2" but New Zealand is "4". When I rented Utu, an 80's film about revenge set during the New Zealand Wars (fought over land) between various Maori tribes and the Colonial Government, I ran into this obstacle to the "fair use" of my Mac as a DVD player. Should I change the region code of my DVD drive? Were there alternatives?
Continue reading 'Changing DVD regions'

Anamorphic DVD playback revisited

Published by Bruce on March 26, 2006 in Mac. 8 responses

I previously blogged a solution to playing anamorphic DVD recordings under Mac OS X using VLC. VLC is not yet a Universal Binary and seems unstable on my Intel-based Mac, which is also capable of reading the DVD+RW disks that my Philips DVD Recorder uses. On my previous (DVD "minus" only) Mac, getting .VOB (MPEG-2) video of such disks was complicated and involved using a PC (shudder!). Thankfully there is a way to watch recorded anamorphic TV broadcasts on the Mac in the correct aspect ratio using none other than the DVD Player software included with Tiger.
Continue reading 'Anamorphic DVD playback revisited'

How do you edit .VOB files on DVD+RW?

Published by Bruce on March 7, 2004 in Mac. 27 responses

If you've recorded to DVD+RW using a consumer DVD recorder, how can you extract the .VOB files and edit video and audio on the Mac?
Continue reading 'How do you edit .VOB files on DVD+RW?'