Convert Movies bought on iTunes--What to do??

[Anneby13]

Hey, I don't have an iPod, my dad does though, and whenever he buys a movies from iTunes, it's (I think, at least) an M4v format. Now, for christmas I got a sony mp4-player, which I can also use to watch movies. Now, whenever I wanted to load movies on to it, an error message appears, saying there is no data found to copy on to the device. Strangely enough, movies NOT bought on iTunes work. I know the iTunes movies are protected, but is there any way how decode them somehow, that I can't only copy them onto my own player, but also burn a dvd?

 

[costabunny]

Handbrake should be able to do it (I am running a test on a movie I purchased last night). It can out put to avi format (am trying mpeg4 as divx is flakey under handbrake (or has that now been fixed lol))..

But yes many programs will allow you to transcode from one format to another, I personally like Handbrake for its feature set and is easy to use (I am laxy).

 

[Chundles]

While costabunny's advice would normally be correct, in this situation there really is nothing you can do.

iTunes movies are encoded with DRM that makes it only playable on iPods, iPhones, AppleTVs and your computer. They cannot me made to play on any other devices nor burned to a DVD such that the movie could be played on a standard DVD player.

 

[Anneby13]

Thanks, I'll just try . . . and if it doesn't work . . . Ah, well.

 

[davwin]

There are several software applications out there to remove the copy protection from iTunes video files so that may be your only alternative. And for what its worth, I am not aware of any free options to do this - only paid apps...

 

[freep]

I also have the same problem as the OP. Does anyone know of a program that will remove the DRM whilst maintaining the same video file and quality settings rather than converting to AVI etc. I have downloaded a few different programs but they all require me to input resolution and bitrate settings rather than maintaining these settings from the original.

 

[themoonisdown09]

This is the main reason why I have never bought any movies or music from iTunes. It's more of a pain than it is a convenience.

I buy the DVD from a store and then convert it for my iPod/computer. I buy the CD from a store or buy the digital version from Amazon.com (because it's DRM-free).