newbie with a i Pod i touch [converting video]

You can download movies from iTunes onto your iPod Touch, otherwise you can't do it legally unless you own the copyright to the movie.

You can copy DVD discs you own onto your Mac with Handbrake.

 

I don't think there's a law on helping people to convert movies.

First, download the movie illegally (I will not tell you how to do this in public) or rip it from a bought DVD (probably will be in .avi format).

Second, download the free-trial or purchase VisualHub and install it.

Lastly, use the 'iTunes' menu, and select iPod touch. Add your movie to the list, and click 'convert' and select Add To iTunes.

After converted, you can then drag it from the iTunes movie window to the iPod touch.

 

^^ <shrug> I suppose I'm being a little anal.

Ripping from a bought DVD is better done with Handbrake, which will give a file that is iPod Touch compatible straight away.

 

If you own the DVD are you saying that it's illegal to rip it so that you can also view it on your Ipod?

 

Not at all, unless you live in the US, you are possibly breaking the DMCA (though it is fair use, so how the law stacks up I'm not sure). However downloading movies from BitTorrent is illegal.

 

ummmmmmmmmmmmmmm wow..........

ummmmmmmmmmm......... OK CALL APPLE!!!!!!!! they help u that is what there there for and go to the apple web site and watch the guided tore!!!!!!!!!

 

The issue with DVD ripping is tricky. It works like this:

Commercial, aka retail, DVDs, the ones with movies on them that we all love to watch, use a form of encryption known as CSS - Content Scramble System. The purpose is to make it so you can't just "copy" a DVD by simply copying the files off the disc itself - that won't work.

You have to decrypt the encrypted content to be able to read it at all in a usable format; that's where DVD playback software comes in because it can decrypt the CSS on the fly as required.

But, as luck would have it, a few years back some brilliant d00d figured out how to "crack" the CSS with a single line of code, seriously. The problem, at least here in the US, is that while the so-called law says it's ok to make backup copies of your movies for archival purposes (it's a screwy law, always has been), the way most people copy a DVD means they rip it and then re-burn the content, and doing so is where you cross the line and do something illegal.

Cracking the CSS for the purposes of copying the content is illegal in the US, so I don't care about the rest of the world as I live in the US. But realistically there are two ways to "back up" a DVD:

1) Do a perfect bit for bit "ISO" copy which does not involve cracking the CSS - you would be copying ever bit on the DVD. This is the perfectly legit and legal way to do it, but considering that most every DVD on the market today requires well over 5GB of space, that means you'll need a dual layer piece of media to accomodate the content, and dual layer blank media (aka DVD9) is still about 5x as expensive as the more common 4.7GB single layer media (aka DVD5). THIS METHOD is the only one that falls under "Fair Use" since it's never bothering with the encryption at all - the bit-for-bit copy method retains the encryption bit-for-bit, never requiring it to be decrypted.

2) Crack the CSS and do a more "normal" drag and drop to the hard drive - reburn with DVD software type solution. This still is the same problem as #1 above however in terms of DVD5 vs DVD9 space requirements. One sub-solution is to use software like DVDShrink or other such transcoders that will lower the overall bitrate of the original (DVD9) content so that it's "shrunk" enough to fit down on a 4.7GB single layer disc (DVD5) and the quality is still excellent. THIS METHOD only functions by cracking the CSS, meaning "Fair Use" is thrown out the window and the DMCA is broken, hence, in the US illegal.

But for most folks, to transcode from original DVD to iPod compatible (transcoding is the proper name for what most people refer to as "ripping", going from one format to another while trying to maintain the quality as high as possible) format media files, Handbrake is an excellent tool that produces great quality end results.

Just get ready for it to take a long damned time as transcoding is notoriously slow even on the most powerful quad core boxes.

Good luck...

 

Just get ready for it to take a long damned time..

permission to disagree?

Videora iPod Touch video converter converts a movie in .vob format to an iPod Touch-friendly file (.mp4) in about an hour (and that's 2-pass encoding) on an Intel Core 2 Quad CPU (a modest Q6600 @ 2.4 GHz) with 2 GB of RAM.

but that's on PC. not sure if Videora has Mac version of their apps.

 

yeah it only takes about an hour for VisualHub on my mbp which is not a terribly long time. although if you are looking to do a lot of movies at once it would be a tediously long time.

 

u can buy and rent movies off i tunes or u can burn ur movies on u computer then put them on u i pod............ i am getting an i pot touch tomorrow

 

Time for the grammar Nazi to step in....

Dude, use some grammar, a little spelling and for gods sake, use some punctuation!

I will forego printing multiple emoticons as those with a valid point only need to state it once for it to be noticed.

 

Seconded. Sorry to change the subject of this thread, but I'm getting really tired of lazy posters.

It's hard enough dealing with talking to my little sister on IM or through text messaging. When trying to communicate via text only, it's hard enough to come across clearly as you are not speaking directly to people. Don't make it worse by being lazy. It's not hard to spell check words you aren't sure of, in fact when you do you'll start remembering them and be a better communicator because of it. Learn where and when to use punctuation, it makes it much easier for others to understand what you're trying to say.

 

actually apple WONT tell you how to rip copyrighted movies or download them from bittorrent, they just tell u how 2 buy it from them.

 

Thanks for this thread guys. I'm going to give visualhub a shot and try to convert some of my .avi movies and tv shows to watch on my iPod touch when the battery on my laptop dies during my long flight.

update: seems I need to purchase visualhub to convert anything longer than 2 minutes. but the link they give me goes to their page that they are "closing their virtual doors" what do I do now?

 

Go with Handbrake, as recommended. It's free and works great.

 

To sum this up a little: in the US (under the DMCA, and under similar laws in other countries) it is technically not legal to extract the content from a CSS-protected copyrighted DVD with any device or software not licensed to do so, regardless of whether you own the DVD or not or what you do with the content you extract. Unfortunately, it's a common misconception that this constitutes fair use (see this section under the wikipedia entry for 'fair use'). It's a crazy law, but it is the law.

The good news is that there's probably no way you'll ever get 'caught', or worse, prosecuted for putting movies on your iPod, unless you're foolish enough to share the files on line or in some other conspicuous way. You are probably putting yourself at risk downloading copyrighted material from torrent sites, if the MPAA ever decides to go after people like the way the RIAA did as a result of Napster, Kazaa, etc. There is legal free content out there though, as quite a few (mostly old) TV shows and movies are now in the in the public domain and can be shared freely.

There's some more info, including a pretty funny comic strip, related to this topic toward the bottom of this thread.

 

Handbrake difficulties

I noticed that a couple of posters recommended handbrake to resolve the issue of getting dvd's to play on an iPod. I have downloaded the software and I have also ripped a couple of DVD's from my collection using it. The movies appear in my iTunes movie section and I can watch them on my iMac, but when I try to sync the movies with my iPod touch, I get an error message that says that I cannot sync the movies.

I would appreciate any help in getting this problem resolved; I am sure that my technological deficiencies are preventing me from doing a simple task the right way!

 

You should try using iSquint or a program similar and convert it to a mp4 and make sure the quality settings are at "go nuts" that will convert it to a playable format on the ipod.