17 July 2007 @ 12:02DVD Image Utility

Do you need to create a DVD image of a movie you made? Do you need to image and burn a copy of a DVD from your DVR? There are a lot of uses for this simple droplet which uses mkisofs for its imaging. A co-worker of mine found it useful for duplicating home videos that his wife is burning with a DVR.

My initial reason for creating DVD Image Utility was because I needed a method to burn some DVD compliant discs without having to buy a third-party application, such as Toast. Unfortunately, the Mac’s built-in hdiutil will not create a DVD compliant image. Once the resulting image was burned to a DVD-R, it would not play in all DVD players. The same DVD created and burned with DVD Image Utility has played in all DVD players that I have had the opportunity to try.

How to use DVD Image Utility to create image files

Drag and drop your DVD folder (the folder containing the VIDEO_TS) onto the DVD Image Utility icon. You will be prompted to select where to save the image file. Select and wait for confirmation that the image is complete.

How to use DVD Image Utility to burn image files

Drag and drop a .img or .iso file onto the DVD Image Utility icon. You will be prompted to insert a blank disc. Providing that the disc you inserted is large enough to hold the image, the image will be burned, and you will receive a confirmation when it has finished.

I have tested this with both single-layer DVD-R and dual-layer DVD-R.

How it works

Here is the Applescript:

on run
display dialog "Please drag a DVD folder (containing VIDEO_TS) onto my icon to image this folder. Or drag a DVD image file onto my icon to burn it to DVD"
end run

on open input_items
set ginfo to (get info for input_items)
set disp_name2 to name of ginfo
tell application "Finder"
set nameExtension to name extension of item 1 of input_items
end tell
if nameExtension = "iso" or nameExtension = "img" then
set POSIX_source to POSIX path of input_items
set burning to "/usr/bin/hdiutil burn -noverifyburn " & POSIX_source & ""
with timeout of 30000 seconds
display dialog "Please insert a blank DVD"
do shell script ("" & burning & "")
tell me to activate
beep 2
display dialog "" & disp_name2 & " DVD burn complete"
end timeout
quit me
else
tell application "Finder"
set mkisofs_binary to ((path to me) as string)
set mkisofs_binary to (mkisofs_binary & "Contents:Resources:mkisofs")
set mkisofs_binary to (quoted form of (POSIX path of mkisofs_binary))
set mplex_binary to ((path to me) as string)
set mplex_binary to (mplex_binary & "Contents:Resources:mplex")
set mplex_binary to (quoted form of (POSIX path of mplex_binary))
set POSIX_source to POSIX path of input_items
set POSIX_file to POSIX path of (choose folder with prompt "Choose a folder to save image in:")
end tell
with timeout of 30000 seconds
do shell script ("" & mkisofs_binary & " -quiet -f -dvd-video -udf -V \"" & disp_name2 & "\" -o \"" & POSIX_file & "" & disp_name2 & ".img\" \"" & POSIX_source & "\"")
tell me to activate
beep 2
display dialog "" & disp_name2 & " DVD image complete"
end timeout
end if
end open

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As you can see, the Applescript references the mkisofs binary inside the droplet’s package contents for its imaging, and uses the hdiutil that is built into the OS for its burning.

Download DVD Image Utility
Note: this is a Mac-only application.

DVD Image Utility has been tested on Mac OS 10.4 and 10.5. It may or may not work on earlier versions.
Note: this application will NOT image commercial DVD’s.

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