I'd like to import my Cowboy Bebop DVDs on to my MBP while I've still got a working disc drive, but I know nothing about what's involved.

I've Googled the subject, but I'm confused by what I've read.

Will someone please point me in the right direction?

Thanks.

I use this app, which works very well: Mac DVDRipper Pro. It's $25. Rips can be played with VLC Media Player.

Handbrake is free, but I don't know if it will do what you want. I think it's more for file conversion.

Finally, I use DVD2OneX2 to burn rips to DVD, but it's 32 bit only.

Thanks for the steer.

As it happens, Mac DVDRipper Pro offers a 5 rip free trial, and Cowboy Bebop, including the movie, only runs 4 DVDs, so I"m free and clear.

Now I"ve got to work up the energy to actually do the deed, which I suspect will be time consuming.

Stick a DVD in your drive, launch the app (it finds the DVD) select whether you want a whole DVD rip or just the main program, click start and it will take about 20 minutes. Repeat. Begin line dancing.

Thanks for the clarification; I was anticipating the ripping happening in real time.

I haven't got a clue how the "main program" differs from the "whole DVD." (I'm pretty darn near the farthest thing there is from a DVD maven.)

...and "line dancing?"

Thanks.

The whole DVD includes any trailers, special programs, etc. Main program is just the movie.

If you have plenty of space, choose to rip the whole DVD. You can always rip the movie at a later date, but it will count against your free allowance. Four DVDs will be about 30Gb.

To me, Cowboy Bebop sounded like some sort of dancing might be going on!

Ha! I just did a quick search – Cowboy Bebop couldn't be further from line dancing! Sorry...

As Cowboy Bebop is multiple episodes, you'll want to rip the entire DVD. You'll get a .iso file, which the current VLC will open and play.

Thanks! It's beginning to sound easy.

That worked a treat. Thanks

Now I've got to carve some time out of my busy sleep schedule to watch the entire series plus movie and make sure the rips were successful.

Clarification: In context, a "cowboy" is a bounty hunter.

After a little experimentation I've reached the tentative conclusion that DVD Player deals with my rips better than VLC does...audio seems about the same, but video may be a bit "crisper."

Oops; never mind. I just discovered that pausing play with DVD Player's onscreen control panel causes something to crash, necessitating quitting and relaunching it...deal breaker...VLC it is.

Thanks again for your help.

You're welcome.

I've always found DVD Player to be a bit useless, too.

DVD player has always played nicely with the actual DVDs, and if my memory serves me, it offers play options that VLC doesn't.

Stick a DVD in your drive, dispatch the application select whether you need an entire DVD tear or simply the fundamental program, click start and it will take around 20 minutes. Rehash. Start line moving.

Hi, and welcome to FineTunedMac.

Thanks, but if you're talking about Mac DVDRipper Pro, I've finished the project already, and if not, please clarify.

You're not up to date, so you can't confirm this, but all of a sudden, I can no longer open my .iso rips with DVD Player, and judging from the timing and the fact that the 10.15.2 update affected DVD Player, it's Apple's doing.

I hope they didn't break ISO playback... that's a very handy feature. My elderly neighbor watches exercise videos on her macbook air while exercising, that we ripped using her older macbook air. (using apple's external optical drive for the air) Ripped with Disk Utility too, so no aftermarket anything was required.

DVD Player used to open the ISOs with no further ado, but it now will open ONLY the enclosed (I think they're) TS files, and I've been unable to find any way to access them to select them, because there's no "Show contents" option for .iso files.

The ISOs still play in VLC Player, and that's the full extent of my experience.

double click the ISO to mount the disk image, that will reveal the TS files in the mounted disk image in Finder

That worked...once I realized that I had to change my "Open with" app.

Thanks.