Ripping DVD's on a Macintosh to your iPod
Today I got a little bit froggy and decided I wanted to convert a DVD I own to iPod format. This DVD was Failure To Launch. It weighs in at 1 Hour, 34 Minutes, and 14 seconds. Now I'm not going to step you through everything I did to get up and running in various ways to get this to rip but I will tell you enough.
I've used Handbrake quite a bit to rip movies not just to iPod format but to XviD as well. I however read somewhere that Roxio Popcorn 2 did a great job of converting to iPod format. So I decided I'd try them both out. Timing how long it takes as I go using Chimoo Timer, a free countdown/up timer for Mac. While the ripping was going on I continued to use my white 2.0 Ghz MacBook with a superdrive and 2GB of ram to surf the internet, check my email with Mail.app, and listen to my Last.FM radio.
I decided to start with Popcorn since I had not used it before. It's a pretty straight forward program however right off the bat I had a problem. It's not free. I'm a fan of free software but I also know you get what you pay for. So $50 later I own Popcorn. After I get it installed I have another problem. It says my DVD is protected and can not be ripped by their program. That's kind of a bummer but luckily I have a program called MacTheRipper that will rip the DVD to my hard drive. It's hard to find now a days for download (something about breaking copy protection being illegal), but if you look in the usual places I'm sure you can find it. Ok, so I got my DVD ripped after about 30 minutes (the whole DVD because MTR wouldn't rip just the main feature) and I'm ready to start converting. I just drag and drop the VideoTS folder into Popcorn and set it for Video iPod and Standard quality and away it goes. It really was as easy as it sounds, signs of a quality Mac program. It doesn't show what percentage complete it is, however it does have a blue bar that indicates how far you've gone. By looking at it you can tell about how far you've gotten, 25%, 50%, etc... Since I didn't see a percentage I tried to go into the preferences to see if maybe I could adjust something but no dice. Everything is grayed out while a conversion is in progress.
It took about 1 hour and 35 minutes to rip and convert the DVD and then I had a 727.5 MB .m4v file sitting on my desktop. I could have chosen to automatically import it into iTunes however I manage my library on a computer with a bigger hard drive. Which is why I'm going to have to research managing an iPod without iTunes on a Mac while I convert with Handbrake. The quality on my Macbook isn't too impressive but then again I will be watching it on an iPod screen. The problem is I could have converted it to XviD and it would have fit on a 700MB CD and I could play it full screen and it would look great. The quality I'm getting with this file is quality I would expect from a 200-300 MB file. Like I said it will probably look fine on an iPod but the file size is unacceptable. Let's see what Handbrake does for us.
Now while I was encoding with Popcorn I decided to browse Handbrakes website a bit. I found that they released a version of Handbrake called Instant Handbrake. It's a free 2.8 MB download and is a stripped down version of Handbrake that is solely for converting to iPod or PSP formats. It doesn't have all the functionality of it's older brother or Popcorn but since all I want to do is convert a movie to play on my iPod I decided to give it a go.
I fire up Instant Handbrake and it gives me two options. Insert a DVD or select a VideoTS folder. I decide to pop the DVD back in and let it rip as it converts. Getting going with Handbrake was a lot easier than with Popcorn 2 and it was really easy with Popcorn. Within under a minute I was converting with Instant Handbrake. Right away it estimates it's going to take about 55 minutes to convert. We shall see since at the beginning it can probably rip faster since it is mainly just credits at the start of movies. When it gets into more live action the conversion will slow down a bit. It actually took about an hour an 20 minutes. 15 minutes faster than Popcorn did it in. The finished file came out at 512 MB's, much lower than what Popcorn did it in. It also looks beautiful, on my MacBook screen and on the iPod.
I downloaded a trial copy of ipod.itunes to transfer the movies to my iPod. First I had to copy them into iTunes and then hook up my iPod so I could start using the program. It went fairly smoothly. If you can follow directions you can get it copied over. I have to say, I thought the Popcorn version would look fine on my iPod screen but it was absolutely horrible. There were artifacts all over the place in just the first few minutes. At one point the video completely stopped while the audio kept going and then the video came back in a few seconds later. At least the Audio and Video were still in sync. Speaking of which, I know there are problems with Audio/Video syncing when you convert videos for the iPod so i thought I'd make sure it is fine. I fast forward to the end of the movie and it is in sync. That is good but with the file size being so big and the video looking the way it does I'd say with the default settings in Popcorn that it is junk. Handbrakes encode looks great on the iPod and the audio/video sync is spot on as well.
The final verdict? I'm sure you can tell from the way I've written this, Popcorn did a crappy job. Especially considering I had to use two different programs to get the DVD converted and that it cost me money. Instant Handbrake is by far the winner. A 2.8 MB download, faster conversion time, smaller file, and better looking video makes it a winner all around. So go and download Instant Handbrake.
I've used Handbrake quite a bit to rip movies not just to iPod format but to XviD as well. I however read somewhere that Roxio Popcorn 2 did a great job of converting to iPod format. So I decided I'd try them both out. Timing how long it takes as I go using Chimoo Timer, a free countdown/up timer for Mac. While the ripping was going on I continued to use my white 2.0 Ghz MacBook with a superdrive and 2GB of ram to surf the internet, check my email with Mail.app, and listen to my Last.FM radio.
I decided to start with Popcorn since I had not used it before. It's a pretty straight forward program however right off the bat I had a problem. It's not free. I'm a fan of free software but I also know you get what you pay for. So $50 later I own Popcorn. After I get it installed I have another problem. It says my DVD is protected and can not be ripped by their program. That's kind of a bummer but luckily I have a program called MacTheRipper that will rip the DVD to my hard drive. It's hard to find now a days for download (something about breaking copy protection being illegal), but if you look in the usual places I'm sure you can find it. Ok, so I got my DVD ripped after about 30 minutes (the whole DVD because MTR wouldn't rip just the main feature) and I'm ready to start converting. I just drag and drop the VideoTS folder into Popcorn and set it for Video iPod and Standard quality and away it goes. It really was as easy as it sounds, signs of a quality Mac program. It doesn't show what percentage complete it is, however it does have a blue bar that indicates how far you've gone. By looking at it you can tell about how far you've gotten, 25%, 50%, etc... Since I didn't see a percentage I tried to go into the preferences to see if maybe I could adjust something but no dice. Everything is grayed out while a conversion is in progress.
It took about 1 hour and 35 minutes to rip and convert the DVD and then I had a 727.5 MB .m4v file sitting on my desktop. I could have chosen to automatically import it into iTunes however I manage my library on a computer with a bigger hard drive. Which is why I'm going to have to research managing an iPod without iTunes on a Mac while I convert with Handbrake. The quality on my Macbook isn't too impressive but then again I will be watching it on an iPod screen. The problem is I could have converted it to XviD and it would have fit on a 700MB CD and I could play it full screen and it would look great. The quality I'm getting with this file is quality I would expect from a 200-300 MB file. Like I said it will probably look fine on an iPod but the file size is unacceptable. Let's see what Handbrake does for us.
Now while I was encoding with Popcorn I decided to browse Handbrakes website a bit. I found that they released a version of Handbrake called Instant Handbrake. It's a free 2.8 MB download and is a stripped down version of Handbrake that is solely for converting to iPod or PSP formats. It doesn't have all the functionality of it's older brother or Popcorn but since all I want to do is convert a movie to play on my iPod I decided to give it a go.
I fire up Instant Handbrake and it gives me two options. Insert a DVD or select a VideoTS folder. I decide to pop the DVD back in and let it rip as it converts. Getting going with Handbrake was a lot easier than with Popcorn 2 and it was really easy with Popcorn. Within under a minute I was converting with Instant Handbrake. Right away it estimates it's going to take about 55 minutes to convert. We shall see since at the beginning it can probably rip faster since it is mainly just credits at the start of movies. When it gets into more live action the conversion will slow down a bit. It actually took about an hour an 20 minutes. 15 minutes faster than Popcorn did it in. The finished file came out at 512 MB's, much lower than what Popcorn did it in. It also looks beautiful, on my MacBook screen and on the iPod.
I downloaded a trial copy of ipod.itunes to transfer the movies to my iPod. First I had to copy them into iTunes and then hook up my iPod so I could start using the program. It went fairly smoothly. If you can follow directions you can get it copied over. I have to say, I thought the Popcorn version would look fine on my iPod screen but it was absolutely horrible. There were artifacts all over the place in just the first few minutes. At one point the video completely stopped while the audio kept going and then the video came back in a few seconds later. At least the Audio and Video were still in sync. Speaking of which, I know there are problems with Audio/Video syncing when you convert videos for the iPod so i thought I'd make sure it is fine. I fast forward to the end of the movie and it is in sync. That is good but with the file size being so big and the video looking the way it does I'd say with the default settings in Popcorn that it is junk. Handbrakes encode looks great on the iPod and the audio/video sync is spot on as well.
The final verdict? I'm sure you can tell from the way I've written this, Popcorn did a crappy job. Especially considering I had to use two different programs to get the DVD converted and that it cost me money. Instant Handbrake is by far the winner. A 2.8 MB download, faster conversion time, smaller file, and better looking video makes it a winner all around. So go and download Instant Handbrake.
Technorati Tags: Computer, Fun, DVD, Movies, Technology, Rip, Entertainment, Rip, Sale, Macintosh
posted by James @ 5:37 PM
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