Best program to convert DVD's to AppleTV

2

Comments

  • Reply 21 of 42
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by ZagMac View Post


    Hoping to find a charitable soul who has some specific experience.



    I have used Handbrake for about 2 years, ever since adding iPod w/ Video to the mix. With introduction of AppleTV, I've run into a snag. I find that about 40% of the movies I rip to my iMac will not sync to iPod or AppleTV. THey appear in iTunes just fine, I can play them using it without any trouble. But they won't go into my devices. Worse, the iTunes settings make it appear as if they have, so I don't even receive an error message or indication there is a problem unless I look at the device. Sure is frustrating to build a library for a big trip, or to enjpy in the living room with friends, only to have it partially work.



    I'm not listing the settings I use, only because I am away from machine and not technical enough to recall them. But I use an article from MacWorld to remind myself of the settings during each attempt, and am extremely confident I am using same settings on both my successful and unsuccessful attempts. I would think it were something with DVDs if not for fact that iTunes plays the files perfectly. Seems this is indication the ripped file is every bit as useable as any other.



    Thanks in advance if someone tracks this down and has any ideas.



    (No, my devices are not just out of memory!!)





    Handbreak has been updated, I find the presets very useful, theres one for iPod and AppleTV just click em and rip, easy.
  • Reply 22 of 42
    brussellbrussell Posts: 9,812member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Cynthia View Post


    Humm, thanks ZagMac for sharing your experience. So think the best DVD to Apple TV converter should be handbrake, as listed in the post that this post is quoted in.[/URL] then.



    Absolutely. Use Handbrake.
  • Reply 23 of 42
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by BRussell View Post


    Absolutely not. Use Handbrake.



    Yep, forget all the others. FFMpeg is good for converting DivX files etc to H.264, but for DVDs use Handbrake.
  • Reply 24 of 42
    gordygordy Posts: 1,004member
    Handbrake is cool, albeit slow. At $99, ElGato's Turbo.264 is my new method. I use it with FairMount, and rip DVDs to h.264 at 25fps on my 6 year-old Quicksilver G4. Works fine with iTunes, AppleTV, and iPod.
  • Reply 25 of 42
    daibachdaibach Posts: 18member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by ZagMac View Post


    Hoping to find a charitable soul who has some specific experience.



    I have used Handbrake for about 2 years, ever since adding iPod w/ Video to the mix. With introduction of AppleTV, I've run into a snag. I find that about 40% of the movies I rip to my iMac will not sync to iPod or AppleTV. THey appear in iTunes just fine, I can play them using it without any trouble. But they won't go into my devices. Worse, the iTunes settings make it appear as if they have, so I don't even receive an error message or indication there is a problem unless I look at the device. Sure is frustrating to build a library for a big trip, or to enjpy in the living room with friends, only to have it partially work.



    I'm not listing the settings I use, only because I am away from machine and not technical enough to recall them. But I use an article from MacWorld to remind myself of the settings during each attempt, and am extremely confident I am using same settings on both my successful and unsuccessful attempts. I would think it were something with DVDs if not for fact that iTunes plays the files perfectly. Seems this is indication the ripped file is every bit as useable as any other.



    Thanks in advance if someone tracks this down and has any ideas.



    (No, my devices are not just out of memory!!)





    The ipod will only play videos with a maxium width of 640 and height of 480. If either the width or height exceed those sizes, iTunes won't sync the video to the iPod. iTunes won't give you any error - it just won't sync the video!



    In iTunes, do a get info (command-i) on a video that won't sync and check the video dimensions.



    As Walter said, HandBrake has been updated and now has presets for converting to iPod. Alternatively in HandBrake click the Picture Settings button to manually change the dimensions.
  • Reply 26 of 42
    EVEN LAMER attempt. Fission mailed.
  • Reply 27 of 42
    I use Xilisoft Apple TV Video Converter. Have a try. It provides easy way to convert most popular video formats to Apple TV Video MP4 formats. Moreover, it can convert video to iPod MP4 for Video iPod and new iPod 30GB and 80GB together with the resolution for 640 x 480.
  • Reply 28 of 42
    i've been using visual hub. i like it a lot and it seems to take advantage of more cores than ffmpegx was. but i'm also doing more conversion of downloaded material than dvd's. i generally still use handbrake for dvd conversion.
  • Reply 29 of 42
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by skeletux View Post


    I use Apple TV Video Converter. Have a try. It provides easy way to convert most popular video formats to Apple TV Video MP4 formats. Moreover, it can convert video to iPod MP4 for Video iPod and new iPod 30GB and 80GB together with the resolution for 640 x 480.



    Careful. Recommending Apple TV Video Converter can be considered a spam.
  • Reply 30 of 42
    why do you want to rip your DVD to Apple TV since it decrease the video quality?

    OK, if you insist, most recommend handbrake and xilisoft.
  • Reply 31 of 42
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by macbee View Post


    why do you want to rip your DVD to Apple TV since it decrease the video quality?

    OK, if you insist, most recommend handbrake and xilisoft.



    I've ripped more than 80 DVD's with HandBrake (AppleTV preset,3000Kb/s), but there is no quality loss visible on my 40" TV.



    Sometimes the ripped version looks better than the original!

    My guess is that the (slow) conversion process does some clever stuff suppressing typical mpeg-2 artifacts. Interlaced DVD's (yes they do exist) look way better.
  • Reply 32 of 42
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by WebFlits View Post


    I've ripped more than 80 DVD's with HandBrake (AppleTV preset,3000Kb/s), but there is no quality loss visible on my 40" TV.



    Sometimes the ripped version looks better than the original!

    My guess is that the (slow) conversion process does some clever stuff suppressing typical mpeg-2 artifacts. Interlaced DVD's (yes they do exist) look way better.





    oh, yes, it's too slow. some say xilisoft ripper software lasts about 20 mins to convert a DVD. I have no idea how long other rippers will do, but I do think it's a trouble to rip a DVD and wait there.
  • Reply 33 of 42
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by macbee View Post


    oh, yes, it's too slow. some say xilisoft ripper software lasts about 20 mins to convert a DVD. I have no idea how long other rippers will do, but I do think it's a trouble to rip a DVD and wait there.



    Really?

    My macbook (Intel Core 2 Duo) usually takes less than 10 min using Xilisoft ripper software
  • Reply 34 of 42
    oh~

    so what's the problem? why did mine take so long?
  • Reply 35 of 42
    HandBrake. No question. I'm surprised people use something else, to be honest.



    The Elgato solution is faster, but does not produce quality rips using the Elgato encoder, or whatever settings it uses, if it calls on QT, which I don't know. Everything comes out slightly "soft", as if there was a soft filter over the video.



    HandBrake can be slow, but that's very much dependent on what settings you use and how much you are trying to compress the video. The AppleTV preset actually allows for some advanced features (if you want to call it that) of X264. If you want a faster rip, use the iPod preset and customize it slightly, perhaps by turning on PAR and bumping the bitrate to 2500Kbps.
  • Reply 36 of 42
    bg_nycbg_nyc Posts: 189member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by skeletux View Post


    Really?

    My macbook (Intel Core 2 Duo) usually takes less than 10 min using Xilisoft ripper software



    10 minutes to encode a feature-length DVD? Thats extremely good. I have a new 2.8Ghz iMac and it takes closer to 20 mins for a 1:45 film at ipod-touch preset settingsusing handbrake. Is Xilisoft really that much faster? Where do you play your output? ipod? AppleTV? Can you speak on the picture quality?
  • Reply 37 of 42
    If Xilisoft could work so fast, maybe it's worthy to get.
  • Reply 38 of 42
    xoolxool Posts: 2,460member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by WebFlits View Post


    I've ripped more than 80 DVD's with HandBrake (AppleTV preset,3000Kb/s), but there is no quality loss visible on my 40" TV.



    Sometimes the ripped version looks better than the original!

    My guess is that the (slow) conversion process does some clever stuff suppressing typical mpeg-2 artifacts. Interlaced DVD's (yes they do exist) look way better.



    I agree, my DVD Rips look better when played on my Apple TV vs when using my DVD Player. The secret is the Apple TV (Mac OS X + CPU/GPU) is doing the upscaling to HD whereas my standard DVD Player (480p) has the TV doing the upscaling.



    Now if I had an upsampling DVD player I might get different results, but I think the flexibility of software will give the Apple TV a leg up.
  • Reply 39 of 42
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Xool View Post


    I agree, my DVD Rips look better when played on my Apple TV vs when using my DVD Player. The secret is the Apple TV (Mac OS X + CPU/GPU) is doing the upscaling to HD whereas my standard DVD Player (480p) has the TV doing the upscaling.



    Now if I had an upsampling DVD player I might get different results, but I think the flexibility of software will give the Apple TV a leg up.



    oh~, think I'm being converting to one of you guys who rip DVDs
  • Reply 40 of 42
    Spam-nation
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