There have been several threads lately questioning the methods of putting movies, TV shows, etc. on an Ipod. Hopefully the following tutorial will help.
*Part 1 will explain how to rip a DVD in preparation for putting it on an iPod.
*Part 2 will explain putting a ripped DVD onto an iPod.
*Part 3 will explain putting AVI, MPG, etc. files onto an iPod.
Part 1: Ripping a DVD
First, you'll need some type of "ripper" software that will extract the video from the a DVD. There are a ton of different rippers available, but I recommend DVDDecrypter (which is only available these days via some sort of filesharing network) or DVDShrink. This walkthrough will demonstrate how ripping is done using DVDDecrypter.
DVDDecypter is going to create files called VOB files from the information contained on the DVD.
Step 1: Download and install DVDDecrypter
Step 2: Create an empty folder on your desktop (or other easy access place) called DVD Files, then load DVDDecrypter.
Step 3: Put a DVD in the drive and wait for it to load.
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Step 4: Click on Mode in the Toolbar, then click IFO.
Step 5: Click Tools > Settings > IFO Mode tab.
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Step 6: Under Options, set File Splitting to None, then click OK.
Step 7: Next, click the Stream tab, and check the Enable Stream Processing box.
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Step 8: Then check the first box - Video - and select the language of your choice. For English, check the Audio box right under Video. Uncheck all the other subtitle language boxes since they are not needed.
Step 9: Next, set your Destination by clicking on the folder icon, and choose the DVD Files folder on your desktop.
Step 10: Finally, click the green arrow between the DVD icon and the HD icon. Wait for the ripping process to complete. When it's done, a small box will open to tell you that it's Successfully Completed. You'll have a .VOB format file on your computer, ready to be converted.
At this point, you're half of the way through the video-to-iPod conversion process, concluding with a .VOB format file that needs to be converted into an iPod-readable MPEG-4 or H.264 file.
As you may know, some file types can be converted automatically - drag the video files into iTunes, right-click on them and select Convert Selection for iPod, but it won't handle .VOB files. So you'll need to use a different program, such as Videora.
Part 2: Adding VOB files to iPod
Step 1: Load Videora and click on Setup in the left window.
Step 2: Click on the Profile tab so you can configure the profile for the movie/video that you will be converting. This step is a bit extensive, so just walk through the tutorial slowly.
a. Under the Settings tab, take note of the words "Output Videos to." This is where your finished videos will be when Videora is done transcoding them.
b. Next, look under the Profile Picker tab. This is a calculator that helps you set up the most appropriate "Profile" for the movie/video you are about to transcode. At the top, you'll see a One-Click Profile drop down window. Select one of the profiles you want to use, but do not click Save yet. Under the Output Filesize Estimates, enter your video's time in hours, minutes and seconds in each box. Finally, under Custom Bitrate, click the Calculate button. The total file size of your finished video in Megabytes will be displayed at the bottom of the window. Each time you change the One-Click Profile after that the values will automatically change.
This information can be used to select the best profile for the video you're going to convert. Once you have decided on the best profile, click on the "Save" button at the top for that movie. You can do this separately for each video.
c. Under the Profiles tab in the Video settings section, set Full Screen (4:3) or Widescreen (16:9 or otherwise) for each video, depending on the type of video you ripped or started with.
d. Under Existing Quality Profiles, select one of the choices given and you will see the values in the Video and Audio sections below it change to meet the specifications for that selection.
Example: If you select "H.264/320x240/16:9/640kbps Stereo/128kbps" you will see that the Video window values give you the choice to select the Aspect Ratio of 16:9 (Widescreen) or 1:1 (Standard). If you don't know which to choose, this information is usually found on the back of a DVD case, and you can select one or the other based on that information.
Click on the New Profiles button to add a new profile to the drop down selections. This allows you to customize your settings. Start by typing "iPod" as a description of the settings in the Profile Name box, then go down to the Apply button at the bottom and click on it to set the new settings as a profile. Next time you click on the Existing Quality Profiles menu, you will see the new settings have been added under the name "iPod." What follows are the settings we'd recommend for the iPod.
Mode: MPEG-4 > CBR
Resolution: 320x240
Passes: 1 (For higher quality, select 2 passes. This option takes twice as long, but yields a cleaner video file.)
Bitrate: 700 kbps
Framerate: 29.97 fps (Frames Per Second)
Note: When using MPEG-4 A-VBR the boxes Min and Max will be available. When using CBR they will not be available. I'd recommend these settings if you want to try something more advanced that will look better.
Min: 128
Max: 2500
Crop Input Video (by pixel): Leave this unchecked.
e. In the 'Audio' settings section, make the following selections.
Bitrate: 128 kbps
Sample rate: Input
Channels: stereo
Volume is set to 100%
Click the Apply button to save the profile settings. Now that you've told the program what to do, you're ready to convert your movie.
Step 3: Return to the main window by clicking on the word Convert in the left hand window. This will take you to the main window.
Step 4: Once at the main window, click on the Transcode New Video button. When the window opens, you'll need to find the .VOB movie file you want converted. If you used Part 1 of this tutorial and placed a DVD Files or similar folder on your desktop, this is where the .VOB is located.
Step 5: Under quality profile, choose "iPod," the profile you created using the steps above. Note: you have to select this profile EVERY time you transcode, as it's not the default setting. Then click Start to begin the converting process.
***Important Note: You will notice that the converting process will eventually say 100%, even though the program is still processing the file. Leave it until it finishes completely. The application will completely stop when done. If you have other movie files in the queue, Videora will load the next movie and begin to convert it.
Now to add the file to your iPod, load iTunes, go to File > Add Folder/File to Library and choose the finished file created by Videora. You'll have to wait a minute or five for the video to finish transferring. You can then connect your iPod and synchronize it automatically or manually to update the music and videos found in your iTunes library. DONE!
Part 3: Adding other video files to iPod (AVI, MPG, etc.)
Step 1: Load Videora and click on Covert in the left window.
Step 2: Click Transcode New Video.
Step 3: Locate the file on your computer you already have, such as AVI, MPG, etc...
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Step 4: Once the file is loaded into Videora, you can change what you want the title to be displayed as, then press Start to begin.
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Step 5: Once the transcode is complete, your video is ready to be moved to your device. The finished file will be located in the Output Videos to: folder specified in the Setup section. Simply copy the file using Windows Explorer to your device, or if your device is an iPod, import the video into iTunes.
If I missed anything or if anyone has questions, feel free to post feedback.
Hope this is helpful. :geek:
