mac n00b tries to copy a dvd and fails
Since I’ve already learned that the only way to burn a DVD on my mac is by using the iDVD program, I figured this is probably the way to copy a DVD disc as well. My bad, there’s nothing on any of the menus about copying discs. So my next thought was to try the Disk Utility (although the spelling of Disk vs Disc gave me a small pause… are disKs magnetic media and disCs optical media?).
Didn’t find anything about copying on the menus there either so I entered ‘copy dvd’ in mac help and lo and behold, it told me exactly how to copy a DVD using the Disk Utility! Apparently you have to create a disc image first, then burn copies from the image.
So feeling optimistic I loaded the disc into the drive, and WHAM! The Mac’s DVD player autostarts and wants to know my region. I don’t want to play the disc, only copy it. I quit DVD player, and it conveniently ejects the disc. Doh!
I tried sticking the disc into the drive again, and obediently, up pops the DVD player app. This time before closing it I look at the options preferences, and uncheck ’start playing disc when inserted’. Quit DVD player, it ejects the disc, I reload the disc and the !@#$*& DVD player app starts up again, even though it’s not playing the disc. When I quit it, of course it ejects the disc.
At this point I decide to use the linux box, where you can simply copy a disc and the OS doesn’t try to outsmart you. But before going downstairs, I look in Control Panel System Preferences and under ‘CDs and DVDs’ I see ‘when you insert a video DVD’ is set to open DVD player — I change that to ‘ignore’ and insert the disc once more and — voila! the DVD player doesn’t startup, I select it in Disk Utility and successfully burn an image! Woo-hoo! Frog 1, Mac 0.