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iPod Ripping DVDs to 5G iPod (iPod Video): Steps That Work!
- Thread starter clayj
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I tried converting with Handbrake and with QT Pro. I found handbrake to be a considerable amount faster.
hey clayj, even though its a bit off topic...
could you give us a report of your experiances with regards to the video playing battery life? ilounge is taking waaay to long for my impatient tastes
could you give us a report of your experiances with regards to the video playing battery life? ilounge is taking waaay to long for my impatient tastes
I haven't sat down with it and played a movie from beginning to end yet... may try that later this evening. I'll go from a full charge and see how much is left after a two-hour movie.asherman13 said:hey clayj, even though its a bit off topic...
could you give us a report of your experiances with regards to the video playing battery life? ilounge is taking waaay to long for my impatient tastes
If we change the screensize using Handbrake to eliminate the letterboxes in a widescreen movie, will it still play on the ipod? I got a movie working but it was full screen. Now I want to see if I can get rid of the black boxes because they take up a lot of the already small screen. If I change the size, will it even let me import the movie to itunes and cut out the areas that don't fit in the screen or not accept it in itunes at all?
asherman13 said:hey clayj, even though its a bit off topic...
could you give us a report of your experiances with regards to the video playing battery life? ilounge is taking waaay to long for my impatient tastes
ilounge is saying 2 hours is a conservative estimate. They got over 3 hours.
Link. Check out #6.
OK, I reripped Blade Runner using H.264, and once again, the iPod would not accept the resulting movie. Therefore, I conclude that the H.264 option in Handbrake should NOT be used.
clayj said:
Glad to hear it confirmed. FWIW, DiveIntoMark has updated his online guide... and this time, he's reccomending MPEG-4. And he's eliminated all mention of using MacTheRipper as part of the equation.
Have you experimented yet with putting video off your iPod onto a TV screen, and if so, any comment on how that whole experience worked out?
Cool, I'll try using his updated steps and will update my steps once I confirm they work. Glad to see that I'm not the only one who's had trouble trying to use H.264.Totalshock said:
Haven't tried hooking the iPod up to a TV yet... I can't stand using RCA, so if I get a Dock with an S-Video out, I'll try that. No idea when (or if) I will be doing that, though.
Got my pod, got my av cable, here's my review.....
moved this over from another thread.....
so i finally got my equipment hooked it up and so...
out of the six compression versions I did of the same spongebob episode only 3 were accepted. all six of the compressions were exported from handbrake.
none of the H.264 versions were accepted including versions true to apples specs. yes clayj you were correct (perhaps this is a handbrake issue?) all three of the versions that were accepted were mp4 compressions and were set as followed;
A-320x240 at 1000kbps, audio 160kbps 48 khz (22min at 187.5mb)
B-same as above but at 2500kbps (22min at 233.2mb)
C-480x368 at 1000kbps, audio 160kbps 48 khz (22min at 187.5mb)
they all looked fantastic on the ipod screen.
didnt take;
D-mp4 480x360 at 2500kbps, audio 160kbps 48 khz (22min at 429.4mb) this is apples stated max for an mp4.
the other two were h.264 versions. both whithin apples specs.
so now for the tv broadcast quality;
all three were surprisingly not bad. the 480x360 was the sharpest and at times showed some "blocking" but for the most part played at about basic broadcast quality and somewhat short of dvd quality. the other two were similar but a bit more "fuzzed" which I actually preferred because it "fuzzed" the occasional blocking to the point where you didnt notice it. but the fuzzing certainly dropped the quality down a notch to about broadcast quality and certainly less than dvd quality.
seeing that the C version was the sharpest and came in with the smallest size this is what Im going with. im curious to see why the h.264 wasnt working because the image quality was comparable or better and was coming in at sizes around 87mb. if anyone can make these work please let us know.
moved this over from another thread.....
so i finally got my equipment hooked it up and so...
out of the six compression versions I did of the same spongebob episode only 3 were accepted. all six of the compressions were exported from handbrake.
none of the H.264 versions were accepted including versions true to apples specs. yes clayj you were correct (perhaps this is a handbrake issue?) all three of the versions that were accepted were mp4 compressions and were set as followed;
A-320x240 at 1000kbps, audio 160kbps 48 khz (22min at 187.5mb)
B-same as above but at 2500kbps (22min at 233.2mb)
C-480x368 at 1000kbps, audio 160kbps 48 khz (22min at 187.5mb)
they all looked fantastic on the ipod screen.
didnt take;
D-mp4 480x360 at 2500kbps, audio 160kbps 48 khz (22min at 429.4mb) this is apples stated max for an mp4.
the other two were h.264 versions. both whithin apples specs.
so now for the tv broadcast quality;
all three were surprisingly not bad. the 480x360 was the sharpest and at times showed some "blocking" but for the most part played at about basic broadcast quality and somewhat short of dvd quality. the other two were similar but a bit more "fuzzed" which I actually preferred because it "fuzzed" the occasional blocking to the point where you didnt notice it. but the fuzzing certainly dropped the quality down a notch to about broadcast quality and certainly less than dvd quality.
seeing that the C version was the sharpest and came in with the smallest size this is what Im going with. im curious to see why the h.264 wasnt working because the image quality was comparable or better and was coming in at sizes around 87mb. if anyone can make these work please let us know.
freeny said:
Interesting. Some people had complained that anything in resolutions higher than 320 across were not looking as good on the iPod screen, because the iPod has to scale the image down as it were. Which seemed odd to me. Any comments on this? I'm wondering if that concern may have come from using the iPod max res of 480x480, which may or may not have caused some stretching or warping? I don't know. Your input would be most welcome.
sitting here right now watching the 480x368 version and it looks great. no issues. perhaps a 480 square might squash and distort? i think as long as you stick to the 320x240, 480x368 etc. ratio things should be fine.Totalshock said:
My 2 cents for ripping episodes or parts of a dvd:
I have ripped my DVD's with MacTheRipper.
I then use Cinematize so that I can grab whatever I want from the DVD's (chapters, episodes, etc.). So far I've been ripping Family Guy and Music Video DVD's. So I can specifically take an episode at a time from Family Guy or 1 Music Video and convert them to QT and put them onto my iPod individually.
I understand that Handbrake will work well too when you just want the entire contents of the video_ts folder, but this is for picking and choosing what you want off of the dvd instead of the whole movie
I have ripped my DVD's with MacTheRipper.
I then use Cinematize so that I can grab whatever I want from the DVD's (chapters, episodes, etc.). So far I've been ripping Family Guy and Music Video DVD's. So I can specifically take an episode at a time from Family Guy or 1 Music Video and convert them to QT and put them onto my iPod individually.
I understand that Handbrake will work well too when you just want the entire contents of the video_ts folder, but this is for picking and choosing what you want off of the dvd instead of the whole movie
does anyone know why mp4 videos have no preview image in itunes? the h.264 versions had a little icon from the video even though they didnt make it onto the pod. anyone know a fix? tried to copy and paste an image but that froze itunes (oops).
My MP4s DO have preview images... but they appear to be the first frame (or thereabouts) from the video. For Blade Runner, the preview image is the Warner Brothers logo. For Sin City, it's a black frame, which makes sense since the first thing you see in Sin City is the Dimension Films logo fade in.freeny said:
I should add that I use the QT Full Quality creation format on Cinematize. This creates huge file sizes of QT movies when it converts the video_ts file to QT. But this setting can be adjusted to all kinds of formats (mpeg 4 and H264 included).
Once I have the video_ts file converted to QT I then use QT Pro's export to iPod feature to create the 5G/iTunes 6 compatible iPod file. These look AWESOME on the iPod. Unfortunately my dock still has yet to ship (not until 10/27 now) so I cannot test the video out with an s-video cable yet.
Once I have the video_ts file converted to QT I then use QT Pro's export to iPod feature to create the 5G/iTunes 6 compatible iPod file. These look AWESOME on the iPod. Unfortunately my dock still has yet to ship (not until 10/27 now) so I cannot test the video out with an s-video cable yet.
freeny said:
Thanks for the feedback. Don't know if this'll hold true with video off the iPod, but just tried viewing some stuff I ripped in an odd widescreen format -- ended up 320x112 or something like that -- on my TV, off my PowerBook in fullscreen, and it looks quite watchable, although not perfect, on my pretty-average 36-inch RCA normal boring TV.
320x112, 23.98 FPS, set for 500 kbps, but QuickTime reports actual as 305.94 kbps, audio 44,100 Hz, 128 kbps. End file is 1:16:15, and only 170 MB.
Not saying it's for everybody, but I bet it'll be quite watchable on the iPod, and even passable on a normal def boring old TV like mine.
thanks. all mine are black squares but all the clips start off black so this makes sense. ill try to insert 1 frame at the start and see what happens.....clayj said:
freeny said:
If you have video playing in iTunes -- either in its own window or in the little Now Playing box where album art appears, you can pause the movie whereever you like, and right click or ctrl+click anywhere on the image, and you'll get the option to Set Poster Frame. This allows you to pick, quite literally, any scene from the video as the poster which will show up in iTunes.
Hope that helps.
Jovian9 said:
Handbrake can very easily rip individual episodes from a DVD of TV shows.
Up the top left hand corner of the main window is a pulldown menu called "title" listing the main tracks on the DVD. They are listed in playing order and since the shows are about half an hour it's not hard to pick which one is which. Sure they don't give them a name but they are in order so you can just check on the DVD box to see the names. Then just select one, put in the settings and rip.
It's not hard.