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SilentPanda said:
I downloaded Pirates of the Carribean from the iTunes Store. I then used similar specs to rip Serenity using Handbrake. 640x272 (black bars removed to save space) and I believe about 1700 kbps. Granted depending on the content of the movie the kbps can be changed but I wanted to keep things consistent with the Pirates download.

I'm intersted in doing the same to my DVD collection in preperation for iTV. I won't be able to buy movies from iTunes for awhile as I'm in Australia so I'm wondering if you could post the specs for iTunes movie.

Are they calling it "True Video"?
 
I was going to rip a TV show that was 45 minutes with the codec: AVC/H.264 and it was going to take 7 hours, is that normal? Probably having an iMac G4 from 3 years ago doesn't help.

Wonder if Handbrake will update there program to give exact spec as the new movie format.
 
from talking with another user on these forums we seem to have determines that apple has changed from H264 baseline for their codec. they now use something called AVC0 as their main video codec.
H264 files still work at the old 320x240 but to get the higher rez you have to have it encoded using AVC0 (via quicktime or purchased via iTunes)
 
I might hold off ripping the DVDs a bit longer then as I want to make sure I can get the best posssible picture while it still being compatible with the iTV.
 
is this right?

Are we "supposed" to be able to rip our DVDs and view them on an iPod or is this going through the backdoor? What sort of format are the files in that Apple is now selling on its website.

I'm thinking about getting a video iPod and would love to be able to watch my movies on it. I was wondering how reliable this Mac the Ripper/Handbrake procedure is. Also, I was wondering if these movies can be viewed on the Nano.

Thanks.
 
chuchichan2524 said:
Are we "supposed" to be able to rip our DVDs and view them on an iPod or is this going through the backdoor? What sort of format are the files in that Apple is now selling on its website.

I'm thinking about getting a video iPod and would love to be able to watch my movies on it. I was wondering how reliable this Mac the Ripper/Handbrake procedure is. Also, I was wondering if these movies can be viewed on the Nano.

Thanks.

It's a backdoor - we're not meant to be able to do it but we can.

Apple sell videos in H.264 encoded .mp4 files with FairPlay DRM attached - the resulting file is listed as .m4v

Handbrake has been nothing but completely reliable for me since day one - I haven't used MacTheRipper in any way except backing up a DVD that I wasn't going to be in possession of long enough to do a Handbrake rip.

Movies of any sort cannot be played on the nano.
 
re:

Now that I've apparently wasted a total of about 14-16 hours :mad: I see I have to use handbrake differently than before to make my @#%(ing iPod upload the video from iTunes to it.

So, what are the confirmed to work settings to make a DVD rip for the iPod that works with iTunes 7 and iPod Video 1.2 software?

Thank you very much!
 
Hicks said:
Now that I've apparently wasted a total of about 14-16 hours :mad: I see I have to use handbrake differently than before to make my @#%(ing iPod upload the video from iTunes to it.

So, what are the confirmed to work settings to make a DVD rip for the iPod that works with iTunes 7 and iPod Video 1.2 software?

Thank you very much!
I believe in order to achieve higher rez movie rips that are iPod compatible we will have to wait until Handbrake is updated to support AVoC (or w/e), buy Quicktime Pro and go through that procedure, or buy it from the iTunes Movie Store

I hope I'm wrong and there is already a method upon achieving the higher rez and if I am wrong please somebody correct me because I want to know!
 
Bubbasteve said:
I believe in order to achieve higher rez movie rips that are iPod compatible we will have to wait until Handbrake is updated to support AVoC (or w/e), buy Quicktime Pro and go through that procedure, or buy it from the iTunes Movie Store

I hope I'm wrong and there is already a method upon achieving the higher rez and if I am wrong please somebody correct me because I want to know!

Since my last post, I did a test run by ripping a 5-minute chapter of a DVD, and I got it onto my ipod. MP4 format, 640 width, 500 bitrate, 2-pass. I guess all it wanted was the higher res?
 
So, on the iPod Photo, we can't even upload movie clips that we take on a digital camera? Are the clips that are taken with most digital cameras in AVI format? I thought we were able to upload video onto the iPod using Quicktime Pro 7 or something like that?

Or, is the iPod Photo only supposed to display photos out of the box until recently when Apple began to offer movies?
 
chuchichan2524 said:
So, on the iPod Photo, we can't even upload movie clips that we take on a digital camera? Are the clips that are taken with most digital cameras in AVI format? I thought we were able to upload video onto the iPod using Quicktime Pro 7 or something like that?

Or, is the iPod Photo only supposed to display photos out of the box until recently when Apple began to offer movies?

As far as I know, the iPod Photo has never been able to display motion video, and that has not changed. The iPod with video capability released in late 2005 has always been able to play motion video. The new update simply allows it to play 640x480 content in the h264 codec that was previously limited to 320x240. And now Apple can sell you the movies we once converted ourselves.

MPEGs were previously playable at higher resolutions than h264. I don't know if this has changed.
 
DVD>H.264 with 5.1 audio

I was thinking about ripping all 400+ DVDs in prep for iTV too. But I've tried Handbrake every way I can think of and it won't rip using 5.1 audio. ANyone been able to do this easily? I'm pulling my hair out trying to figure this out.

Want to be able to watch the movies at full rez with 5.1 audio so the codec/ file format isn't a sticking point. As long as it plays at those specs on iTV/ Itunes I'm happy. Any ideas?
 
i see someone up there claiming to have gotten it to work. yes...MP4 works. its always worked. MP4 is not H.264. There is a difference.
MP4 i have actually gotten to work successfully at as high as 720x304. thats not the issue. the issue is H.264, which currently handbrake only supports the baseline version, which has worked (and still does work) in the past. this can only be ripped at 320x240 or lower. the newer codec, Baseline LC also known as AVC0 (which is what Apple uses for iTunes Movies) can currently only be done using Quicktime Pro. the old baseline specs will still work and play fine, but in order to get the higher resolutions on H.264 you have to use QT Pro. i've went over to the handbrake forums and that is all they are talking about over there, so I am sure someone is working on getting it updated.
so until Handbrake or some other program supports the codec your best bet is to either A. rip a video to an insane quality and reencode that file in QT Pro. B. rip to a really high quality MP4. C. use the old H.264 Baseline standard and deal with the lower rez. or D. simply wait for an update.
right now i am choosing B in the short term for must have movies i want to carry, but waiting for option D to convert all my movies in prep for iTV.
 
I finally had time lastnight to sit down and sort out this DVD to 640x480 iPod video and found what most of you have already found, but I thought I'd just share my experience anyway.

So I did a DVD rip to MP4 (Handbrake) then MP4 to MV4 (QuickTime Pro) and the quailty was pretty shabby and not really what I'll be going for...

...but I also had some Gorillaz music Videos from their CDs in .MOV files (640x480) which I converted to MV4 files and they look great! They lost a small bit of quality when I compared it to the original file but I was really being picky. Also look great on the TV throught the Video dock.

I'll be waiting for Handbrake to hopefully upgrade before I'll rip anymore DVDs me'thinks as the double encoding really hammers the quality.
 
I'm going to try the 'double encoding'

Start in handbrake, full resolution, mpeg4 file @ around 3000 kb/s
->QT7 export to mpeg4
-->set bitrate to around 600, set resolution to 640x480, h.264

I'm on battery at the moment, so I'll have to report back when I can plug in for a while and let the macbook sweat

-billy

EDIT: I generally don't do the export to ipod bc it makes huge files... then again, higher bitrates are kinda necessary for decent quality at these higher rezes
 
no dice on the QT export... export to iPod looked and worked great... then again, it was multi-pass @ something near 1600 kbps...

I'm not sure how we're going to be able to do HR w/o obscene bitrates
 
...a little confused...

I've just run Handbrake and received the "done" message, but I cannot find the output file. I searched for it in the finder, but still cannot find it.

The name of the file is: Kill Bill Volume 1

Is this a problem because there are spaces?

I wonder what happened to the file...Handbrake ran for a few hours...it was definitely doing something...hmmm...
 
I've followed these steps with a Donnie Darko DVD but Handbrake always tells me it's finished and stops encoding leaving me with a file that's only 1 hour and 6 minutes long. I've repeated steps 4-6 a few times and I always get the same result. Any idea what I could be doing wrong :confused:
 
puckhead193 said:
anyone figure out the new steps for the new size, do i just do the 640 or whatever the size is...:confused:

There aren't really any "steps" as yet because HB hasn't been updated to include the LC Baseline profile that Apple are now using.

I read somewhere that ffmpegx has been updated to version 0.0.9 and includes the new profile for transcoding already ripped videos but I'm not entirely sure.

I've been doing 100% quality MPEG-4 rips in Handbrake at 640xwhatever and then using the "Export to iPod" option in Quicktime Pro. Results are pretty good, gets fairly blocky when there's a lot of motion on the screen.
 
Chundles said:
There aren't really any "steps" as yet because HB hasn't been updated to include the LC Baseline profile that Apple are now using.

I read somewhere that ffmpegx has been updated to version 0.0.9 and includes the new profile for transcoding already ripped videos but I'm not entirely sure.

I've been doing 100% quality MPEG-4 rips in Handbrake at 640xwhatever and then using the "Export to iPod" option in Quicktime Pro. Results are pretty good, gets fairly blocky when there's a lot of motion on the screen.
if I used the old steps, will they still work?
 
ive been using the MPEG4 option in Handbrake and it works great. ive been ripping my movies at their maximum aspect ratio at around 1500kbps and they look and play wonderfull and play on the iPod with no problem.
also the 640x480 is not a maximum resolution. its the maximum pixel number. if you are wondering if a rez will work with the iPod just multiply your aspect ratio measurements together. if the total is less than 307200 it should work. for example ive ripped movies at 720x304...which is actually only a total of 218880 pixels. its appears to be higher than the 640x480 spec at first glance, but its actually less due to it being widescreen.
H.264 still only works with the old settings currently.

now. ive been plundering around the handbrake forums and they have a new build (if you download the source and build it yourself) that reportedly works with the new H.264 specs. the problem is the build is reportedly really buggy right now.
according to the developers that have made the build they say there is actually no such thing as Baseline LC. they have discovered what appears to be a more insidious plot by Apple. it appears than Quicktimes new iPod export (at the newer high rez) puts basically what is in effect a watermark inside the file. its just a few bites of data that basically lets iTunes know "this was made with Quicktime" pretty much. they have discovered that the actual encoding is still the old baseline one that handbrake already supports. their new build injects this data into the ripped movies and then when imported into iTunes they transfer and play flawlessly onto the iPod.
ill post more as i find out.
 
I personally still will continue to use instant handbrake the way it is now. Works great everytime. I also don't mind having the resolution lower because the file sizes are much smaller and I can put more movies on my iPod. The movies look perfect on the iPod, and if I really want to watch them in there normal quality, I will just pop in the DVD. I don't want to take up a 1.5gigs per movie, but that is just me.
 
i like the smaller sizes too for the iPod. but i plan on making a complete diskless movie system around iTV when it comes out, so I'd prefer the higher quality.
it just means ill have to manage my iPod video content a bit more closely as to not max it out.
my problem is the fact i don't believe a normal drive would hold all the movies i have. i'd probably have to get at least 2 hard drives and raid them together.
 
iTunes can convert virtually any video file into an iPod compatible video. Go ahead and rip the DVD at any resolution and quality you want. Set up a place to store you "originals" so you ahve the high-res version someplace (I have a second hard drive for just this very type of occurence). Then just drag the file into iTunes, right click, and chose "Convert Selection for iPod".

Yeah, it takes a few hours... big deal. Start it when you go to bed, and it's done when you get up in the morning.

Apple has happily done all the work for you - why not use the tools! And if you honestly are gonna try and tell yourself you can tell the difference in quality between 640px and 500px on an iPod screen, you're crazy. It's so minimal, and it's a small screen in the first place. Just use the tools Apple gives you and enjoy your movies. They look great this way.
 
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