TAG | DVD ripper
19
Free Apps to Conveniently Convert Videos to Mobile Devices
0 Comments | Posted by Bob in Tips & Tricks
Our life are full of mobile devices like iPhone, iPod Touch, iPad, BlackBerry, PSP and much more and watching videos on these big screen mobile devices is more and more common especially as the development of advanced smart phones. However, the video format incompatible problem may bother you especially if you are a quick temper. If you know nothing about video conversion and you just want a convenient tool to convert the video by a few clicks without taking the trouble to select the corresponding settings one by one manually. Then the following listed apps are what you are seeking for. They have the presets or profiles for mobile devices and they are free. Hope you can find the one that works best for you.
Avidemux
Using Avidemux to convert a video to play in iPhone, iPod, iPod 5.5G, Zune, Sony PSP, and Microsoft Zune, you can click Auto on the top menu and chose the one you want. Then the application will automatically make all settings so that you don’t need to manually make the settings on the left panel. It supports a wide range of import file types including 3GP, ASF, AVI, FLV, MPEG, MKV, MOV and MP4. Besides, it is also a great video editing program; check here.
Auto format option in Avidemux
Xvid4PSP
Xvid4PSP has many format preset options for mobile devices including PSP, PS3, iPod, BlackBerry, iPhone, Nintendo DS, Xbox 360, SonyEricsson, Nokia, and Itouch. But it works a bit too slow.
Format options in Xvid4PSP
Format Factory
Format Factory is a versatile multimedia file converter, converting all popular video, audio, and picture formats to others. To convert videos to mobile devices, click the option of All to Mobile Device under Video in the main interface and then choose the corresponding device. It covers a very wide range of devices.
profile option in Format Factory
HandBrake
HandBrke has the presets for iPod, iPhone and iPod Touch. Just select the wanted one and it will do the job quick and great. Supported sources: Any DVD-like source: VIDEO_TS folder, DVD image or real DVD, and VOB and TS files. Most multimedia files it can get libavformat to read and libavcodec to decode. To make Zune HD in the presets, check here.
Presets in HandBrake
Videora
Videora has individual converters for devices of Apple, Sony, RIM, Nokia, Microsoft, Motorola, Sonny Ericsson and more. They can convert all popular types of video files.
Videro iPod Converter
The above listed video converters are the best I pick from all the free converting apps， but if you cannot find one that satisfies you with the reasons of working not fast enough，output quality not great enough to meet your requirement or any other reason， you can try a paid video convert. Our video converters can convert various videos to mobile devices with fast working speed, excellent output video quality and absolutely synchronous video & audio. If you want to directly convert video from encrypted DVDs to mobile devices, check our DVD ripper.
10
For Beginners: the Best Way to Play Various Videos on iPhone
0 Comments | Posted by Bob in Multimedia
Recently the hot sale iPhone 4 catches everyone’s eyes in the digital product market. Although the iPhone 4 has bug issues, it’s still worthy of the coolest smartphone. Let me guess: you have never got an iPhone and this time you couldn’t resist the temptation of the new iPhone 4 and have just bought one. With the iPhone big widescreen of 320×480 and retina display screen for iPhone 4, you can’t wait to watch videos especially HD videos on it. But wait, you may find your video format is not accepted, then what to do?
iPhone supports video H.264, MPEG-4 in .mp4, .m4v, .mov formats and audio files in AAC, MP3, M4a. If you want to play the unsupported format video on iPhone, you will:
1.Install codecs for the iPhone to play your video?
When our computer software player cannot handle the video format, we can download the corresponding codec for it but can we do this on smartphones? It’ll be very cool to watch various videos on the smartphone, but I’m sorry to say this method doesn’t exist yet.
2.Use the multi-format supported player- VLC4iphone?
As previously introduced in this post, VLC player is the media software coving most formats with all codecs built in. It’s used for all Windows and Mac OS and what’s more, it’s available for Smartphone like iPhone and iPod touch, that is, VLC4iPhone. In order to get VLC4iPhone at Cydia store, you have to jailbreak you iPhone or iPod touch.
However, I have searched online for this app and found the user experience for it is unsatisfactory. Users’ complaints include no fullscreen as advertised, lag video and some annoying advertisements, only working well on a certain type of video, etc. Perhaps there will better version for it in the future or you may try your luck at it.
3.Convert the video format?
Converting the video format to the iPhone supported format is the best way to watch videos on iPhone at least for the time being. There are many excellent video converters and some are free like Avidemux, HandBrake and Xvid4PSP. They are powerful with great output quality.
If you want a tool to convert your video with faster speed, optimized video quality for your iPhone, you may be interested to check our iPhone video converter and free download to have a try. Or, if you would like to watch your favorite DVDs on your iPhone, you can use a DVD to iPhone converter to directly rip your encrypted DVDs to your iPhone with fast speed, excellent quality and ability to decrypt DVDs with new copy protection.
VOBs are subject to the DVD specifications, so the episodes/titles (PGCs) on the DVD are split into different VOBs, which means one episode will be split to the next VOB, or rather, various episodes are contained within the VOBs and may extend into different VOBS.
Then if you want to get complete episodes that extends from one VOB to another one into individual files, how do you do it?
The simplest way is to get the DVD ripped in separate episodes when ripping the DVD to the hard drive, using DVD Decrypter in IFO mode or DVD Shrink in Re-author mode. For specific operation, please refer to the articles relevant to this topic: How to Convert TV Show DVD into One AVI File for Free and Convert Each Episode of TV Show DVD to Individual AVI File Using Freeware. But if the DVD is already on your hard drive, there are two free tools to help you make a complete episode from different VOBs.
VOB2MPG
VOB2MPG goes through a whole VIDEO_TS folder and joins up various vobsets to produce MPGs for different titles without reconverting the video and audio. So it will split your VOBs into individual complete episodes/titles.
PGCDemux
Open the VOBs or the IFOs in PGCDemux and check “Create a PGC VOB”, and then it will output the individual episodes in the form of PGC VOB files.
Don’t forget to try our DVD Ripper which allows you to load the whole DVD folder or open DVD disk to get individual episodes and even individual chapters from one episode into whatever format.
rip DVD to separate episodes in TouchUp DVD Ripper Platinum
As most commercially-released DVDs are dual layer (DVD-9 with 8.5GB), we often use DVD Shrink to compress the DVD by re-encoding and/or discarding extra content such as foreign-language soundtracks so as to fit on a single layer DVD (DVD-5 with 4.7 GB), since dual layer DVDs are expensive and even unavailable in some places. However, there is such problem as the following description when using DVD Shrink to shrink the DVD:
Problem
“I have a DVD folder with 4 episodes in 7.4GB size and I need to backup it to DVD 5, but when I run it through DVD Shrink, it could only be reduced to 4.8GB. I used the automatic compression and set my target as dvd-5 but it was to no avail. Even if I chose custom, I could not slide the compression bar back any further on any of the main movies. It didn’t allow me.”
Solution
How to solve such problem? Well, a direct solution is to run the already shrunk file through DVD Shrink again to reduce it enough to fit on a DVD-5, but the video quality may suffer and we should try to avoid compressing that much.
A better solution is to use DVD Rebuilder (free version), selecting HC encoder option. This way can preserve better quality than shrinking twice or only once but reducing size that much.
Another solution is to use MenuShrink which turns motion screen menus to still menus with or without audios. It can save up to 200MB if the menu audios are removed too.
There is also a compromising solution, that is, splitting the DVD-9 to fit on two DVD-5 (two DVD-5 is cheaper than one DVD-9). For this way, please refer to the article on splitting DVD using freeware, or directly check the “split” option in TouchUp DVD Ripper Platinum that offers you a wide range of splitting options including customized splitting by size or time (please refer to the tutorial for details).
DVD spliting in TouchUp DVD Ripper Platinum
Ripping a TV show DVD is not as simple as ripping a movie DVD, since TV show DVDs have multiple episodes and are often improperly authored, either purposely or due to incompetence. DVD converters may convert the episodes into lots of segments and you have to cut and join them to get a correct file.
Then if you want to convert an improperly authored TV show DVD into a single file in AVI which is one of the most popular video format, how to make it easier yet for free? Following is the solution. For converting each episode to an individual AVI file, please refer to this article.
Use DVD Shrink to Re-author the DVD.
1. Rip the DVD to the hard disk drive first if DVD Shrink cannot decrypt it and then open the VIDEO_TS folder in DVD Shrink.
2. Select Re-author from the top menu
3. Select the episodes you want and drag them to the left panel under the DVD structure.
4. Select Backup on the top menu and select where you want to save the result files.
DVD Shrink Re-author
There is also a detail DVD Shrink Re-author tutorial you can refer to. After the re-authoring, you get the episodes without other extras and can re-number to place the episodes in correct order for encoding and then joining.
Convert the Re-authored DVD files to AVI
Use AutoGK to convert the DVD files to AVI files:
AutoGK
Merge to One AVI file
To join the separate AVI files to one file, we can use VirtualDub. Here is the detail guide on how to do this.
The above method is easy to use but is troublesome with three steps. The easiest method is to convert the DVD to an AVI file directly in one step, by using a commercial DVD ripper which allows you to convert DVD to whatever format and meanwhile lets you choose to merge the converted files into a single one or not. This way can say you much time and what’s more important is you get the video with much better quality.
I saw someone was seeking help for the following problem in a forum:
“I ripped a DVD using DVD Decrypter to the hard drive but I got a surprising 60GB folder with 11 VOB files. I played one of the VOB and it showed a part of the movie several times.
When I clicked on the DVD-ROM drive to open the DVD, it showed pointless files, but Windows explorer showed the DVD size and number of files which were exactly the same with what the ripped DVD folder on the local hard drive showed. I know there is no a DVD in such large size as 60 GB but I don’t know where is wrong or how to extract the good parts from the files to make a normal DVD folder.”
Have you ever met such problem? Do you know what the matter is?
Well, I have met across such problem on a few DVDs. When I put the DVD in the DVD-ROM, the OS reported a huge file. This type of copy-protecting scheme is made by putting 99 dummy tittles on the DVD and only one of the titles is the correct one of the movie. This is becoming popular at present since it’s effective to make many DVD rippers fail to decrypt the DVD.
Outdated DVD rippers like DVD decrypter which has not been developed for years are unable to decrypt the DVD with newer copy-protection. However, a DVD ripping tool that is constantly upgraded to keep pace with the development of the DVD encryption can easily rip a correct DVD folder from a DVD with latest DVD encrypting scheme. TouchUp DVD Ripper Platinum is exact such a program with much more features like converting DVD to whatever format, video editing when ripping and more. For more details about it, you can check here.
Update: For free solutions to backup this type of copy protected DVDs, please refer to this article.
Have you ever ripped a commercial DVD and burn to a blank DVD to make a backup for yourself? If yes, what software did you use to do this work? I think most people use the free ripping tools like DVD Decrypter and DVD Shrink and then burn with freeware like ImgBurn or other burning programs.
Recently, one of my friends turned to me for help, for he couldn’t play a burned DVD in the standalone DVD player. He ripped the usual VIDEO_TS and AUDIO_TS files to his hard drive with DVD Shrink and then burned the files to a blank DVD with ImgBurn in the option of “Write files/folders to disc”, but the burned DVD couldn’t play in his standalone DVD player, though the files could normally play in his PC. He was unable to figure out what was wrong.
Have you ever met such problem, when you are backing up you DVD? Where was wrong in the whole operation in your opinion? Actually, where the shoe pitches is the ripping tool. Although the DVD files are created on your hard drive and you can play them in your PC, which seems you have ripped the DVD, it doesn’t mean the files have been ripped correctly and properly.
As we know, DVD ripping software like DVD Decrypter and DVD Shrink haven’t been under development for years, while the DVD copy-protection technology are updated constantly. Thus the outdated DVD ripping software is unable to fully and correctly decrypt the newer commercial DVD. When you use the incorrectly ripped DVD files to burn, the burned DVD cannot play in your standalone DVD player. Therefore, you need to use a DVD ripping program competent to rip the latest copy-protected DVD so that you can burn playable DVDs swimmingly.
TouchUp DVD Ripper Platinum is such a tool to break the latest DVD copy protection with constant update. It can produce excellent output video and audio quality with super speed. To know its tons of features further, please check here.
Tip: Make sure the VIDEO_TS folder of the DVD you burned is in uppercase letters only; otherwise the standalone DVD players may not find the folder.
TouchUp DVD Ripper Platinum is a feature-full program and DVD splitting is one of its numerous features. If you want to split a large DVD movie into multiple parts so that to burn into multiple CDs or DVDs or just split the DVD into wanted clips, TouchUp DVD Ripper is an easy way to meet your splitting needs with a wide range of settings. Here is the tutorial on how to split a DVD when ripping using TouchUp DVD Ripper Platinum.
Method One: Direct DVD Splitting in Settings
There are many choices for you to select in the Split drop-down menu on the right panel of the main interface to split the DVD disc to parts of equal size. You can select one according to the CD/DVD you want to burn to or customize splitting by size or time.
direct DVD splitting
Method Two: Manual Splitting DVD to Clips
1. Right click on the title or the chapter you want to split and select clip.
select clip
2. Now you get the Clip Movies Editor. Here you can set the Start point and the End point by dragging the slider bar. Click OK and the clip you have made will be added to the file list. Or click Next Frame and begin to make next clip.
make clip
3. The clips you split from the DVD will be added in the file list. You can convert them to any format you want. You can merge them by selecting and right clicking to choose Merge; then you will get just one file after conversion finishes.
merge clips
This How-to will show you step by step the way to convert a DVD to iPod, using the free DVD ripping program DVDx and TouchUp iPod Video Converter trial version.
Rip the DVD
1.First, download DVDx 2.2 by clicking here and install it.
2. Insert a DVD. Launch DVDx and click File>Open DVD root to select the hard drive location and load the VIDEO_TS folder of your DVD. This will open the following window. If you are ripping a movie, just select the longest title; if you are ripping a TV show or anything with multiple episodes, select the episode you want to convert.
select a title to rip
3. After you select the title, the Input Settings window will pop up. You can leave most of the settings as default. Just choose the language of audio, and language for subtitles. Besides, the Audio/Video Synchronization option is recommended to select, for it can make the output video and audio sync better, though take a little longer. Click OK to save the settings.
Input Settings
4. Click Settings in the main menu bar and choose Output Settings. In the Output Settings you need to choose WMV and click “Apply”.
output settings
5. Click File>Select Output File to select the destination folder to store the ripped file and then press the red encode button on the bottom right to begin the ripping.
Convert the Ripped DVD
After DVDx finishes the ripping which may take a bit long time, you should install and launch TouchUp iPod Video Converter. You can download it here.
Next choose “File > Add Video File”. In the open dialogue, choose the WMV file just created by DVDx and set the output folder to save the final file you will get. Then press the Convert button on the right to begin the conversion.
convet to iPod Video
The converting speed is very fast and you can get the file ready for iPod very soon. At last, launch iTunes and add the converted file to its Library. Now you can play the movie in your iPod.
You also can choose a pay program to convert a DVD to iPod directly. One such program to produce excellent output video and audio quality with fast working speed is TouchUp DVD to iPod converter. You can read the detail tutorial for it and find the easiest to use DVD to iPod converter.
TouchUp DVD to iPod Converter is a DVD ripping tool which can rip DVD to Apple iPod Video with excellent output video and audio quality and fast ripping speed. Here is a detail tutorial for TouchUp DVD to iPod Converter. Hope it can help you.
Step 1. Start TouchUp DVD to iPod Converter.
Download, install and start TouchUp DVD to iPod Converter and insert a DVD. The DVD will be automatically detected and read, with DVD information like title and chapter loaded in the file list. For more detail DVD information, click Property on the main menu bar and you’ll get a window showing detail property of the DVD.
You can also click File to open DVD folder too.
Now you can select all items or any item you want to rip.
select the item to convert
Step 2. Select output format
Click Profile drop-down button, select the output format you want in the drop-down list that opens.
select output format
Step 3. Select output settings
You can select 2-pass encoding to get better quality output but take twice converting time and select “merge into one file” to make the output as just one file.
For advanced settings, you can click the Settings on the right of Profile to get a dialog box where you can adjust a wide variety of parameters for video and audio. If you are a beginner, we suggest you use default settings which we have optimized for iPod Video.
output settings
Step 4. Select output folder
Click on the right of the Output panel to select a destination folder to save the ripped files in and then click OK.
select output folder
Step 5. Converting
Now click on the Convert button on the bottom right of the main interface and begin converting. A converting progress bar at the bottom will show you the converting process.
You can watch the DVD when you are converting by checking the Preview box in the middle and you also can pause for the conversion and resume it anytime as well as cancel the converting by clicking Abort.
What’s more, you can capture image when the video comes to the image you like during ripping DVD by clicking the Capture Image button under Preview. And the image you capture will be automatically saved in the Output folder.
converting
