Do you want to watch your DVDs on your iPod, iPhone or Apple TV? Here's a guide which explains how to use an excellent software - Handbrake to rip DVD's into MPEG-4 video files.
Requirements: 1. VLC player (Handbrake 0.9.3 and higher)
2. iTunes 6.0.1 or later
3. QuickTime 7.0.3 or later
4. 500 MHz processor or better with at least 16MB of video RAM
Step 1: Download Handbrake Download Handbrake from here and install it. Handbrake is free. If you already have Handbrake installed, please check to see if your version is out of date. Several new improvements have been made recently to the program, specifically for the iPod and iPhone.
Step 2. Insert DVDGrab a video DVD and put it into your computer. Handbrake can only convert standard video DVD's that you would normally play in a DVD player. If you have a DVD-ROM with video files saved on it as individual files (AVI, MPG, WMV, MOV, etc), Handbrake will NOT be able to convert these files. Handbrake only wants standard video DVD's.
Depending on your computer's preferences, the DVD Player application might automatically open. If it does, just quit it. Only one application should be accessing the DVD at a time.
Launch Handbrake. A screen asking you to select a DVD will appear. Select the DVD you've inserted into your computer and press the Open button.
Step 3: Download VLC playerWhat version of Handbrake are you using? As of version 0.9.3, Handbrake will no longer natively rip DVDs. Weird right? I wonder if they were getting some pressure from the movie industry. But don't give up on Handbrake just yet. You can still use Handbrake 0.9.3 to rip DVDs, you just need to install VLC on your machine first.
If you see the VLC screen like the one shown below, then you need to download and install VLC.
VLC Download Page:
http://www.videolan.org/vlc/
The VLC media player is a highly portable multimedia player for various audio and video formats (MPEG-1, MPEG-2, MPEG-4, DivX, mp3, ogg, etc.) as well as DVDs, VCDs, and various streaming protocols. It can also be used as a server to stream in unicast or multicast in IPv4 or IPv6 on a high-bandwidth network. Handbrake now uses some components of the VLC player and it must be installed if you want Handbrake to read DVDs.
The VLC media player is a highly portable multimedia player for various audio and video formats (MPEG-1, MPEG-2, MPEG-4, DivX, mp3, ogg, etc.) as well as DVDs, VCDs, and various streaming protocols. It can also be used as a server to stream in unicast or multicast in IPv4 or IPv6 on a high-bandwidth network. Handbrake now uses some components of the VLC player and it must be installed if you want Handbrake to read DVDs.
After you download VLC, you need to install it on Mac:
VLC for Mac OS X is distributed as a disk image. Download the .dmg file, open it, and copy VLC to your hard drive (for instance the /Applications folder). Open VLC by double-clicking on it.
Step 4: Source Settings Handbrake will now scan your DVD. This makes take up to a minute or two depending on the contents of the DVD and the speed of your optical drive.
Title: By default, Handbrake will select the longest title in the list. However, this may not be the content you want.
Movies: If you are ripping a movie, the longest title is usually the main feature.
TV Shows: If you are ripping a DVD containing TV shows, you should see a list of several titles all about the same length. The shorter titles on the DVD are usually the video backgrounds used in the DVD menu screens and DVD extras like movie trailers. Unless you are a graphic artist, you probably don't want these tracks.
The shorter titles on the DVD are usually the video backgrounds used in the DVD menu screens and DVD extras like movie trailers. Unless you are a graphic artist, you probably don't want these tracks.
If you only want to rip one title but aren't sure which one, you can click on the Picture Settings button (bottom right of the Handbrake interface) and manually step through several frames of the title to see what it looks like.
NOTE: Sometimes Handbrake is unable to see every track on a DVD. We've noticed issues with very old DVD's from the mid-1990s (before the days of fancy menus and Bonus features) and some newer DVD's like Stealth. There are different techniques and methods to authoring DVD's Sometimes the tracks get nested in weird ways that prevents Handbrake from seeing them. Other DVD ripping applications like Mac The Ripper and OSex might be able to see these tracks. Look for the longest track. That is probably the main feature.
Step 5: Destination Settings The Destination section has 3 settings you can modify: file format, codec and file destination.
File Destination: You can name your file and choose its destination using this box. Try to pick a location that has sufficient disk space to store the ripped file. On average, you need about 1 GB per full length movie.
Step 6: Select A Preset
Handbrake has a variety of handy DVD ripping presets for iPod, iPhone, Apple TV, Xbox, Sony PSP and many more. Just select a preset and Handbrake will automatically fill in all the settings for you.
If you plan on watching this DVD on your iPod, iPhone or even Apple TV, we suggest you select iPod High-Rez and drop the average bitrate to 900 kbps. This will give you a nice high quality file that will work on both big (HDTVs) and small screens (iPod/iPhone) and won't take up a ton of hard drive space.
Step 7: Picture SettingsClick on the Picture Settings button to launch a separate window. The only thing you really want to do here is to compensate for interlaced or grainy, compressed looking video. Handbrake will have adjusted everything here for you based on the preset you selected.
Sometimes video files will have horizontal lines in them. This is called interlacing. To get rid of interlacing, try turning on the Deinterlace option and select "Fast." The image below is animated and will toggle between when the deinterlace option is turned on or off. You can really see the difference around the edge of the flipper.
Denoise will help get rid of graininess and Deblock will help clean up blocky or compressed looking video. Experiment and try to make your video clip look the best possible.
NOTE: Your iPod really only wants video files that are 320 pixels wide by 240 wide. If you don't plan on watching this ripped DVD on anything else, you can mess around with the settings. Turn on the "Keep aspect ratio button" and decrease the Width until it says 320. Handbrake will auto-adjust the height to match the width. If your video source is 3:4 (full-screen), the height will be 240. For wide-screen content, the height will be a lower number. This is fine and isn't something to worry about.
But if you plan on watching this video on your TV with an Apple TV or an iPod Video dock, then you should keep the video size big. If you don't have the money for an Apple TV, there's this amazing iPod video dock called the Keyspan TuneView. If you want to hook your iPod Video up to your TV, you should check out the TuneView.
Step 8: Rip
Finally! Click on the Rip button and stand back. The encoding time will depend on several variables including: the duration of the video file, the speed of your computer, what other activity your computer is currently doing, the codec you selected (H264 or MP4) and if you decided to do a 2-pass encoding or not.
Handbrake will attempt to provide you with an ETA. The time will increase if you Pause the encode or do anything that will hog the processor like start a 3D render in Maya. We suggest you do your DVD ripping overnight or at a time when you don't need to use your computer.
Handbrake will attempt to provide you with an ETA. The time will increase if you Pause the encode or do anything that will hog the processor like start a 3D render in Maya. We suggest you do your DVD ripping overnight or at a time when you don't need to use your computer.
Step 9: Import Into iTunesConnect your iPod Video or iPhone to your computer using the cable it came with and open iTunes (Applications > iTunes).
Drag and drop the video file into your iTunes library, or select Add to Library... from the File menu.
Make sure the video file you just added to iTunes is in a Playlist that will get synced to your device.
Select "Sync"
The sync may take a few minutes. Once the import completed, you could find the file which is ripped by Handbrake on your iPod or iPhone.
