I know many of you are aware of Handbrake, which allows you to convert your DVD over to a useable video signal for the iPod w/video. But WOW, I decided to give it a shot... I am amazed.
I used the movie Polar Express as my first movie. I did this on my Powerbook so I think it took longer than it might of on a Quad Power Mac, but nonetheless 3 hours later I had a quicktime video ready to use. I had absolutely no problems doing other applications while this was in the background converting the DVD over to the Quicktime video. After it was done I just simply added it to the iTunes library, and then finally onto my iPod.
It took less than 1 minute for the 1.5 hour movie to transfer to the iPod. How is that for fast? Then came the moment of truth.
I went to the movie menu, hit play and there it was. It looks AWESOME and sounds good too. It was done in widescreen so I have a smaller pic, but the details were excellent and I could watch this on a trip in the car or plane.
Next I wondered how it would look on my 36" TV. I have the new dock and I utilized the S-Video output to play the movie on the TV. The quality looks like a video tape, which isn't bad considering the resolution. Now I can take my kids stuff and mine, and play them at Grandma's house while we are on vacation. No need to take 30 DVD's... I plan to have them all on the iPod within a week.
I have seen some debate between the Photo and Video iPod. I wasn't sold either until I used Handbrake to do the DVD tricks. I am a BELIEVER. 100%. And I also have no regrets now of spending the extra $100 for the 60GB model. Room for more DVD's!
If you Google "Handbrake" you will be able to download this free software. I printed out the instructions to make it easy for me to follow, and I would recommend the same to anyone trying this out for the first time. BTW, only works on the OS X platform.
I used the movie Polar Express as my first movie. I did this on my Powerbook so I think it took longer than it might of on a Quad Power Mac, but nonetheless 3 hours later I had a quicktime video ready to use. I had absolutely no problems doing other applications while this was in the background converting the DVD over to the Quicktime video. After it was done I just simply added it to the iTunes library, and then finally onto my iPod.
It took less than 1 minute for the 1.5 hour movie to transfer to the iPod. How is that for fast? Then came the moment of truth.
I went to the movie menu, hit play and there it was. It looks AWESOME and sounds good too. It was done in widescreen so I have a smaller pic, but the details were excellent and I could watch this on a trip in the car or plane.
Next I wondered how it would look on my 36" TV. I have the new dock and I utilized the S-Video output to play the movie on the TV. The quality looks like a video tape, which isn't bad considering the resolution. Now I can take my kids stuff and mine, and play them at Grandma's house while we are on vacation. No need to take 30 DVD's... I plan to have them all on the iPod within a week.
I have seen some debate between the Photo and Video iPod. I wasn't sold either until I used Handbrake to do the DVD tricks. I am a BELIEVER. 100%. And I also have no regrets now of spending the extra $100 for the 60GB model. Room for more DVD's!
If you Google "Handbrake" you will be able to download this free software. I printed out the instructions to make it easy for me to follow, and I would recommend the same to anyone trying this out for the first time. BTW, only works on the OS X platform.
