Tag: DVD

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Mac Eject Key for External Disk Drive

Apple keyboards have an eject key in the upper right corner that works with built-in Mac DVD drives. If you have a new Mac Mini without an optical drive, you might want to use a 3th party external disk drive. The problem is that the eject key doesn’t work for these drives.

Thanks to tjb1 at MacRumors who gave instructions on how to make the eject key work.

  1. Download and install KeyRemap4Macbook. Restart is required for use.
  2. Open System Preferences > KeyRepma4Macbook
  3. Make sure you are on the “Change Key” menu and click in the search bar in KeyRemap4Macbook, not the search for System Preferences.
  4. Type “eject” in the search bar and check the box next to “Eject to Command+Control+Option+Shift+E”
  5. Exit System Preferences and open Automator.
  6. Choose the template “Service” and hit “Choose” at the bottom right.
  7. In the search bar at the top left, type “Run Shell Script”
  8. Drag “Run Shell Script” from the left to the Workflow Area.
  9. At the top above “Run Shell Script” click the arrows next to “Service receives selected text” and pick “no input” at the bottom of the list.
  10. Next delete “cat” from the Shell Script and type this “drutil eject”
  11. While in Automator go File > Save As > Eject
  12. Close Automator and open System Preference > Keyboard > Keyboard Shortcuts
  13. In Keyboard Shortcuts choose Services in the left box.
  14. In the right, scroll down to “General” and you should see “Eject” listed.
  15. Make sure the box beside “Eject” is checked and double click on the right side, left of the scroll bar. This should open text box where you hold down Command+Control+Option+Shift+E. This will enter those keys as shown here.
  16. Restart the operating system.
  17. Close System Preferences and the Eject key should now eject your external cd/dvd/blu ray drive.

 

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DVD Regions & Formats

An Annandale, VA client is moving to France for a year assignment with his family. He wants to be able to play his kids’ favorite DVDs for them on a French TV when he is there. Will this work?

Not easily, for two reasons:

  1. NTSC/PAL: The video on DVDs from the US & Canada is in the NTSC format which uses 720X480 resolution and displays 30 frames per second. European video is in the PAL format which uses 720X576 resolution and displays 25 frames per second.
  2. DVD Regions: DVDs have region codes so that they only play in DVD players sold in that region. The US is Region 1, while Europe is in Region 2. See the Wikipedia DVD Region information.

Work Arounds

There are a couple of ways to address these limitations:

Get a friendly DVD player

Several DVD players can be set up to be region-free by unlocking them with an unlock code entered with the remote control. This code simply allows the user to change the factory-set configuration flag to another region, or to the special region “0” which can play any region.  See the videohelp.com/dvdhacks site to find codes to make DVD players region free and to find out if a particular player can be set to region free.

Many DVD players can play both NTSC/PAL standards. You will need to check the manufacturer information or search online to determine if a particular DVD player can read and display both formats.

Oppo makes my favorite DVD players which have high quality upscalers (also knowns as scalers or upconverters) to make the video appear closer to high definition. Home theater aficionados typically compare the Oppo upscalers to those used on $1000+ DVD players. Oppos can read and play NTSC and PAL formats, and can be changed to region free.

There are many brands of DVD players including dirt-cheap DVD players which should work. The AVS Forum DVD Section also has a lively discussion of the best DVD players available.

Most of these DVD players are rated for 110-240 volts, meaning that they can be plugged into a US (110 volt) or European (220 volt) outlet, with only an adapter needed for the plug to fit. Otherwise, a larger transformer will be needed to step up or step down the voltage.

Play Video Files created from Handbrake

Most DVD players will also play back individual backed-up or ripped video files, as we described how to make with Handbrake. You can burn these files to a CD or DVD. This will get rid of the DVD region issue because the Handbrake-created files are not region specific. It will also allow you to put more video on a disk because the files are compressed with Handbrake. Cartoons, because they have few colors, can be highly compressed without a noticeable impact on quality. That allows you to burn many cartoons onto one disk.

While it’s not made to work out of the box, the limitations of format and region encoding can be overcome with a little work.

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Backup your DVDs with HandBrake

HandBrake Rips DVDs

HandBrake is free open source software that can rip DVDs, meaning that it can make a backup of the video to your computer. HandBrake works very slickly and has multiple encryption options and presets for popular formats (ipod, PSP, Apple TV, etc.).

Originally just on Max OS X, HandBrake is now available on Windows.

You can keep your backup on your computer, on a small media device like an iPod, or burn it to CD or DVD.

MetaX adds Artwork

MetaX, also free, adds an image, description, and other info to the video. This allows you to, for example, see all your movies with associated artwork from within iTunes. Unfortunately, MetaX is only available for Mac OS X.