Drive-in for Mac, this seems to be a real cool setup, its easy to use and also looks nice. I first saw it on the Flip4Mac a few days ago and was immediately intrigued. This is (as of this time) a Mac only program. I have a bunch of DVD’s that like my CD’s I would like to get a digital copy of. For a few reasons but mainly to preserve the media and also to make it portable (for me). I like watch them on my laptop when traveling and hate to use the extra battery power for the cd drive.

This program is currently free and also a Beta program, upon the final release it will be approx $50.00. Let me first say that I understand there are other (free & low cost) programs out there that can rip DVD’s and make them portable or digital. In the past I have used a combination of a few applications to make this work.

1. MacTheRipper - Rips the DVD to your Mac.
2. DVD2oneX - Strips away all the extra junk and just leaves the movie, in turn making the file much smaller and therefor taking up a lot less hard drive space. I do not need all those languages and I rarely watch the extras anyway.
3. Toast - In case I wanted to burn a back-up copy. Used mainly for my daughter (4 years old) who loves Disney DVD’s and I cannot afford to keep buying the same movie over and over when it gets scratched. I buy it burn it and let her play with the copy, just in case. I of course never give the copy’s to anyone. I really believe in buying media, I also really believe in protecting my investment.

So back to Drive-in…

At first glance this program seems real nice. Like I said it is easy to use and also looks nice. What more could you want. I do think the $50.00 is a little but pricey, but I would most likely buy it anyway, just because it works. I have tested it with a few DVD’s that I have purchased over the years, some real new and some a few years old. I was trying to get a range date wise from when they were made.

The first movie I tested was 6.22gb and it took approx 30 minutes to process. This was on a G4 1.67 Powerbook with 2gb Ram. The only other program running was Apple Mail & NetNewsWire. I was not using them they were just up at the same time. Overall I think 30 minutes is an acceptable time. Very good so far.

When first starting the DVD it takes a minute or so to read it. You can then click the “Download Info” icon and it asks you for the UPC code, (pretty sweet), it will pull it from Amazon.com by default and just in case some of the info was incorrect or you simply wanted to add more there is a nice “Edit Info” icon also. For me the info it pulled was all correct and even had the cover art.

Then once that is set you can click the “Create Image” icon and just wait. They also give you a “Delete Image” icon just incase you wanted to remove it as well. It goes by default into your Movie folder, but you can change or move that. I added a custom “Drive-in Movies” folder inside my Movie folder.

Overall a great product and like I mentioned one that I would most likely buy. I don’t think that this is for everyone however. This program seems to be better suited for someone who has a DVD collection and a media center style Mac. Someone who wants to preserve the collection and have them all available without having to go to the DVD player and storage rack to make a selection. I think for the average user who wants just to rip and maybe burn a copy without the extra’s there are better solutions that are free and or lower cost.

So in conclusion great product if this is what you are looking for.

[UPDATE/FYI]: Don’t try to use the beta to rip your whole collection for free and expect to use them forever. They seem to be smart and have this covered. From the Flip4Mac website, “While you can create DVD images for free using this public beta, you must purchase the final release if you wish to use those images, or create new ones, after the beta testing period has ended. This beta software will expire on May 1, 2007″

So like always is you use software please pay for it, don’t pirate it.