Monday, October 31, 2005

DVD to iPod Video: A (Relatively) Easy Guide


DVD
to iPod Video: An Easy Guide





Welcome to my first real
guide. It will show you how to take a DVD and make it ready to sync
to a brand new iPod Video! Note that for this guide I will be ripping
the Pixar short film Knick Knack from the “Finding Nemo” DVD –
Disk 2.





WARNINGS:


  • This WILL take a
    long time. Probably overnight to do, depending on your system.


  • Some of the
    software used in this guide may not be legal in all jurisdictions. I
    have no problem with “backing up” DVD’s, as long as you OWN
    the DVD.


  • DON’T PIRATE.
    ONLY DO THIS FOR MOVIES YOU LEGALLY OWN. This guide is not
    intended to aid piracy!






Materials:



  • The DVD you will rip



  • Latest version of DVD Shrink (other software may be
    necessary. DVD Shrink doesn’t work with all DVDs).



  • Videora iPod Converter







Part
1: DVD to Computer



  1. For this first step you will need to download DVD
    Shrink
    . You can get that from FileHippo.com. They should have the
    latest version. It is under the “CD and DVD Tools” section.



  2. Install and open DVD Shrink. Then insert the disk you
    want to rip. Close any program that might have opened to play the
    DVD. Then click the “Open Disk” button. Select the drive the DVD
    is in.

    Flickr Photo Flickr Photo



  3. Next the program will analyze the entire DVD to
    see how to decrypt it. This will hopefully take under 10 minutes.

    Flickr Photo



  4. Next, click “Re-author” because we don’t need the
    whole DVD’s contents (because the whole content includes menus and
    stuff, which iPods don’t read).

    Flickr Photo



  5. Now you need to find the part of the DVD that you want
    to rip. Most likely you will want “Title 1” as that is most
    often the main movie. To check, click the part you want to check,
    then click the little play icon. If it is correct, then double-click
    it.

    Flickr Photo



  6. Now click “Backup!” Choose to save it to a hard
    disk folder, and pick a folder. REMEMBER WHAT FOLDER you choose.
    Then it will take a while, but less than the running time of the
    movie.

    Flickr Photo Flickr Photo



  7. Now the DVD is on your computer!






Part
2: Computer to iPod-Readable format



  1. Now you need to download the very nice free converter
    program Videora iPod Converter. It is available from videora.com.
    Then install it and open it.



  2. Click on the Setup item and choose the Profile Picker
    tab. Pick the profile that best fits your needs. For widescreen
    movies pick “MPEG-4/Movies (Proper amount of time here)”. For
    other items, just read the descriptions.

    Flickr Photo



  3. Then click “Convert” and choose “Transcode New
    Video” and navigate to the folder where you saved the DVD. Choose
    the “VIDEO_TS” folder and just choose the only file that shows
    up.

    Flickr Photo



  4. Make sure the profile is correct and click “Start”.
    The process will take a while, and for me it never went past 0% the
    first time I did it, so don’t worry. To make it go faster, do
    nothing on your computer and choose priority “High.”

    Flickr Photo Flickr Photo



  5. When it says done just search your computer for
    “VTS_01_1.mp4”. Add that file to your iTunes library. Then right
    click the file in the library, and add proper tagging, to make it
    look nice in your iPod.

    Flickr Photo Flickr Photo



  6. Next time you connect your iPod Video (while iTunes is
    open), it will load to your iPod!



DVD to iPod and other...stuff

Well, I am working on my brand new DVD to iPod Video guide that I am making for someone from school. It is really quite easy. It will take a while though, I am doing screen shots. In other news, NaNoWriMo starts at midnight! Woohoo!

Tuesday, October 11, 2005

NaNoWriMo Season

It's Noveling Season! I have picked the title, "The Gift," and you can read my process of pre-writing, and eventually the novel, at the novel's site. Powered by WordPress. I would use Blogger, but WordPress has static pages, perfect for writing the chapters.

The Gift

Saturday, October 08, 2005

About Time

Well, it's about time Google made a web based RSS Reader. Nice interface, and it allows you to search for RSS feeds. Yay!

Google Reader

Fun Fun Times

Well, the bomb threat person has now done 3 bomb threats in less than two weeks. Way to go, felon! It has gotten very... I don't know. Just stupid, I guess. It's just gotten old. The reward is now $1000. Homecoming game was last night. We lost. Moses Lake won 34. We (Walla Walla) got 0. At least the homecoming dance will be fun. If we don't get blown up! Ha Ha Ha!