Using Your Mac Wisely: Video Content

Written on January 25, 2008 by Arvin Dang and 27 people have commented

When it comes to harnessing your Mac’s power for video encoding, you’re left with two choices: digital or physical.

Digital

Handbrake is the go to source for creating digital copies of your video. With Handbrake you can pop in a DVD and select the appropriate preset. You can encode straight to iPod, iPhone or Apple TV. Handbrake is open source, and completely free.

iSquint is great for converting DivX/XviD to Mp4. It’s freeware for basic use, or you can purchase Visual Hub which offers a variety of services. For basic use, iSquint works well and converts fairly quickly. For the best iPod TV out settings, select:

Check Optimize for TV
Check H.264
Scale the slider to the quality setting of your choice

Quick tip for your iPods. If you want to import a video without transferring it to iTunes. Be sure your iPod is set to “Manually Manage” and you can now drag and drop files right onto the iPod icon in iTunes and transfer straight to it.

Physical

MacTheRipper allows you to import DVD Vob files right to your Hard Drive. Couple it with Dvd2OneX and you can shrink the file down to 4.4 gigs so it will fit right on a single layer DVD-R. Personally, if you can find it, I prefer the original version of Dvd2OneX, not the new Dvd2OneX2. Also Dvd2One isn’t freeware and requires purchasing.

Toast 8 will take your Dvd2One or MacTheRipper file and burn it for playback on DVD players. Toast 8 is not freeware and will require purchasing to unlock all its features. Be sure to select UDF in Toast 8 to ensure proper playback.

iTunes
When dealing with importing videos into iTunes, it’s a simple drag and drop. If the video you copy doesn’t go into the proper category (Movie, TV Show, etc) be sure to edit the Metadata as follows:

Right click and select ‘Get Info’
Click the ‘Video’ tab
From the drop down select: TV Show, Movie, or Music Video

Comment any questions, I’ll see if I can answer them. Also if you use any other resources or methods for converting your videos, I’d love to hear about them.

Disclaimer: This article is not intended for any illegal activity. What you do with it is your problem.

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#1 Rob says:
Why do you need both Dvd2OneX and Toast 8? Dvd2OneX claims it will allow you to burn the DVD once you’ve shrunk it and Toast 8 claims it can do the shrinking. I have both and either one seems to do the job just fine.
#2 Jonathan says:
I use all of this except for dvd2onex and toast. I use DVD Remaster from http://www.metakine.com/ and it is about 10 bucks cheaper and can also burn to disc so I would not need toast. But if I did need to burn there is other lower cost software and freeware to burn dvds. I will sometimes use Burn from http://burn-osx.sourceforge.net/ when I need it. Just make sure to also choose UDF just like in toast. Good article it will help get people started in the right direction especially Handbrake and Mac the Ripper. I could not live without em.
#3 Jeremy Brooks says:
Don’t forget Popcorn. It can compress and burn the image from MacTheRipper. It also supports TiVoToGo.
#4 Nick says:
Great post. How about Audio stuff? I’m still looking for encoders.

Thanks
#5 Arvin Dang says:
@Rob:I’m using the older version of Dvd2OneX, perhaps the burning feature was a more recent add on?

@Jonathan: DVD Remaster looks really cool, thanks for the heads up.
#6 Galley says:
I recently used OSEx to extract AC3 audio from a few music video DVDs, and then used mAC3dec to convert the AC3 audio to AIFF. Of course iTunes will convert AIFF to AAC. Both apps are bare-bones, but they are free.

And don’t forget about Lostify to tag TV shows.
#7 Dan Ridley says:
I’d also recommend adding Lostify or MetaX to your guide, as it’s much more efficient to tag with these tools than with iTunes (and I think they allow you to change more metadata than iTunes does; certainly that used to be the case).
#8 macguy says:
I suppose there is no method as of yet for putting a movie bought from iTunes to a DVD right? Just confirming as I was trying to do it but found that it couldn’t be done.
#9 ultrasur1 says:
visual hub is from the same makers of isquint and basically an amped up version allowing for video conversion to psp, ipod, dvd, dv, dvd, avi, mp4, wmv, mpeg & flash. i believe it’s $23 or so dollars, but well worth it imo.
#10 millions says:
Are there any freeware programs to do the compression or shrinking?
#11 Partners in Grime says:
Nice summary. HandBrake works well for reducing movie file size for iPods.
#12 Scott says:
I agree that Popcorn is worth recommending as opposed to Toast. Cheaper than Toast, with all the DVD-creating functionality I need. I rip stuff with MacTheRipper, then burn it with Popcorn. Easy & fast, especially with a newer system.
#13 Jake says:
Is there anyway to maintain full aspect ratio when encoding? I cannot figure out how to do that.
#14 Honza says:
@#11: Handbrake is not a recompression tool (unlike Popcorn or DVD2OneX). It’s a re-encoder.

@#13: You mean in Handbrake? If so, there is an option under the Video tab. Click picture settings and click ‘keep aspect ratio’. I recommend not letting it do the auto crop feature. Also - don’t click anamorphic, because last time I tried this it turned an anamorphic DVD format into a 4:3 letterbox

For those who want a free CD/DVD burner tool, apart from Burn, there is also LiquidCD. That’s if Disk Utility doesn’t work for you…
#15 duufus says:
Anyone know of a tool similar to iSquint/VisualHub that will convert MP4s for iPhone/iPod Touch and maintain the chapter markers?

.

I have a wealth of video created with Handbrake for the AppleTV. I want to reduce these files for iPhone playback, but when I use VisualHub, the chapter markers are lost.

.

Any ideas? I can, of course, re-create the files from DVD source with Handbrake, but I’d rather just be able to batch convert a bunch of MP4s, like I can with VisualHub…
#16 ex-expatriate says:
So I own a buncha DVDs bought overseas that I’d like to watch in the U.S., where I live now. But Macs make you commit to a DVD “region” and let you switch regions only a few times.

So here’s my question: What’s the simplest workaround to watch these movies on my iMac. FYI I’m particularly confused by the formats (mp4? avi?) and their relevance to my goal. That should give you an idea of my level of expertise. Thanks!

(Please note I’m talking legal DVDs bought for personal viewing. I understand the copyright issues. I just want access to flicks that I bought.)
#17 Honza says:
@ex-pat

Region locking comes in 2 forms. Firstly the DVD drive is usually locked in the hardware (AFAIK it always is on Macs), and also the DVD player software is locked. To get around the 2nd is easy, just use VLC instead of Apples DVD player. To get around the first one is possible but a bit more tricky. You can do a google for ‘region free RPC1 firmware’ for your drive model and if it exists, flash the drive with this new firmware. This will region-free your drive. You may have to do this with windows and use normal (non-apple) firmware (you didnt say if you are on intel imac) but there ARE some Mac firmwares available. TBH it doesn’t matter if you are on Tiger or above because PC DVD drives are supported anyway (I use one).

There is a second method which is easier for you but less of a complete solution IMO: Just use Mactheripper to copy the protected DVD to your hard drive. Then you can use VLC, DVD Player, or even Front Row to open the Video_TS folder.
#18 Steve says:
From the drop down select: TV Show, Movie, or Music Video

My standard nitpick: That’s a popup menu and has been called that since they first appeared on a Mac.
#19 geochick says:
Disco is good for burning DVDs as well.
#20 ex-expat says:
Honza:

Thank you for the thorough reply. Sounds like MTR is the answer to my issue since I simply wanna watch the movie on the iMac unhindered. (And don’t care whether or not it’s still on a disk.)
#21 Sumo says:
I have a new canon hg10 which is AVCHD.

Only intel based macs will recognize this format.

frustrating!

Is there a solution?
#22 ex-expat says:
sad: Mactheripper isn’t working for me. I’m using MTR 2.6.6, Leopard 2.5.1. Are there alternatives?

All I wanna do is: Make a straightforward copy of my DVDs (which I bought legitimately) onto my hard disk, circumventing the DVD region codes. Why? Because I bought the DVDs when living abroad, but Macs let you switch regions only a few times before making you commit.

Thanks in advance for any guidance!

The forum on mactheripper.org is dead. Is the software itself dead/unsupported?

(FYI if anyone cares: Mactheripper goes thru the process, but at the end shows a red “bad sectors” warning panel. The ripped file won’t play in DVD Player, Front Row or VLC. I’ve tried all major settings in MTR: “full disc extraction,” “full disc extraction ARccOS,” “main feature extraction,” etc.)
#23 Honza says:
Ex-Expat… contact me pnetops at yahoo com, I will help you further.
#24 Peter Sattler says:
Is there a good application out there for extracting particular scenes from DVDs — one where a user can specify the exact start and stop times of the scenes being copied?

I know many teachers, e.g., who want to be able to snip out small, exact clips from films and insert then into academic presentations. Occasionally, I want to compile and burn a series of such clips onto a single disc for classroom use.

Any recommendations for an application that allows for this level of video editing/extraction? It seems that MacTheRipper and Handbrake only allow one to select by “chapters,” not time signatures.
#25 Honza says:
>Is there a good application out there for extracting particular scenes from DVDs — one where a user can specify the exact start and stop times of the scenes being copied?

Handbrake
#26 Rachel says:
I found my battery at needbattery.com they had the cheapest ipod batteries i could find on the net.
http://www.needbattery.com/Mp3-Players/Apple.html