How to Rip a DVD for Your iPod (part 1 of 3 – the required software)
If you own a video capable iPod, and already have a few favorite movies on DVD, then you’ve probably wanted a simple way to bring the two together. Set aside the question of whether it’s legal to rip a DVD for your iPod, and consider the question of “how” to put a DVD movie on your iPod. Basically, there are three options:
- Buy videos from the iTunes store
- Buy software to make “rip-n-load” a turn-key process
- Find a free software alternative
The ideal choice, and the most difficult — option number 3.
Why not use the iTunes store or buy a turn-key solution?
Buying a movie or television episode I already own might make loading it onto my iPod easier, but it’s also a complete waste of money. Since I don’t want to buy something I already own, I need to consider the next option on the list: buy a turn-key software solution?
Affordable easy to use “rip-n-load” applications such as TransferMyDVD do exist, but there are “free” alternatives. And while the “free” option might require more time to learn than the average turn-key solution, the extra time also means you save a few bucks.
Software needed to rip a DVD for an iPod
The “free” alternative isn’t an all-in-one piece of software. To rip DVDs with free software you need two pieces of software: something to decrypt the DVD and then something to copy the decrypted content into something you can use with your iPod. For the decryption part of the equation I highly recommend DVD43.
Decrypt DVD copy protection with DVD43
Only available for a Windows machine (Vista, XP, or 2000), DVD43 does one thing and it does it well (I have yet to come across a DVD it wasn’t able to decrypt). Simply insert your DVD into your drive and start DVD43. A little smiley face icon appears in your system tray and changes color from yellow (nothing in the drive), to “angry” yellow (decrypting the DVD), and finally to green (DVD decrypted). Once the green icon is sitting in your system tray, the DVD is ready for ripping and the recommended software for this final step is HandBrake.
Convert decrypted DVDs for the iPod with HandBrake
HandBrake, available for Windows, Mac, and Linux, takes most of the mystery out of the conversion process. Unfortunately, setting up the conversion can be a bit intimidating for the first time user. A summary of the basic steps are as follows:
- Start by selecting “what you want to copy.” Normally it’s the VIDEO_TS directory on the DVD (HandBrake takes about a minute or two to read the contents of the DVD).
- Next, locate the “track” which represents the movie from the Title drop-down list. Normally, the longest track (measured in minutes) is the movie itself. Keep in mind, however, that you’ll find several “tracks” in this list. With repeated use, however, you’ll become very proficient at finding the right track.
- Next, select an output format preset from the available list. Since I’m ripping things for the tiny screen on the iPod, I don’t worry too much about trying to get the best possible picture. Therefore I always select the preset that consumes the least amount of disk space, and in this case that is the iPod Low-Rez preset.
- Finally, specify the filename and folder destination for the converted movie, press the Encode Video button, and wait. How long you’ll wait for the conversion to complete depends entirely on you’re computer’s CPU — the faster the CPU, the quicker the conversion.
- With everything converted you’ll only have to “import” the movie into your iTunes video library and then sync your iPod (I’ll cover those simple steps in part 3 of this series on Friday, February 8).
Those steps are just a high level overview of the conversion process. I’ll take a deeper dive into these steps in the second article in this series on Wednesday, February 6. In the meantime, head over to DVD43 download and install their DVD decryption program, and then download and install a copy of HandBrake. Come back on Wednesday and I’ll walk through the DVD ripping process in greater detail.
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[...] TechTraction placed an observative post today on How to Rip a DVD for Your iPod (part 1 of 3 – the required software)Here’s a quick excerpt [...]
[...] TechTraction added an interesting post today on How to Rip a DVD for Your iPod (part 1 of 3 – the required software)Here’s a small reading [...]
[...] TechTraction wrote an interesting post today on How to Rip a DVD for Your iPod (part 1 of 3 – the required software)Here’s a quick excerpt If you own a video capable iPod, and already have a few favorite movies on DVD, then you’ve probably wanted a simple way to bring the two together. Set aside the question of whether it’s legal to rip a DVD for your iPod, and consider the question of “how” to put a DVD movie on your iPod. Basically, there are three options: Buy videos from the iTunes store Buy software to make “rip-n-load” a turn-key process Find a free software alternative The ideal choice, and the most difficult — option nu [...]
Whatz up, I am glad I pressed harder enough until I found liux copy dvd, because this post on How to Rip a DVD for Your iPod (part 1 of 3 – the required software) was extremely helpful. Just last Monday I was pondering on this quite a bit.
Whatz Expert, what entice you to post an article on How to Rip a DVD for Your iPod (part 1 of 3 – the required software)? This article was extremely interesting, especially since I was searching for thoughts on this subject last Wednesday.
Nice guide, it does work. I also found a nice iPod guide, so share it here
http://www.aimersoft.com/tutorial/dvd-to-ipod-converter.html
Thanks for the positive feedback folks.
As for the link to the to the DVD iPod converter software, it does look a bit like comment spam. The product you’ve linked to is NOT FREE but they do offer a free trial. Therefore, assuming some readers might prefer a turn key solution, and don’t mind paying for it, I left the link in the comment.
Thanks
[...] Part 1: The required software [...]
I’d like to share with you a guide for HandBrake here http://macdvdripper.wordpress.com/2008/01/21/how-to-rip-dvd-on-mac-with-handbrake/
It is very useful for those (especailly Mac OS users) who use HandBrake to rip DVD movies to iPod.
Hi Danke, thanks for the comment and link for Mac users that might want to rip a DVD movie to their iPod on the Mac platform using Handbrake. I don’t have a Mac so I wasn’t able to include Mac specific instructions. I was hoping someone would come along and offer a link to similar instructions for Mac users. Thanks again.
Thats a nice article. I usually rip DVD’s by using Cloine DVD and Any DVD. Then I will take the DVD files and use Win converter to convert the DVD files into Ipod file .avi format. Excellent write up. Will save me time now..
John, glad you liked the article and hopefully you will find that it’ll save you some time when ripping DVDs.
Thanks for commenting.
omg im only 16 and i was able to do this cuz of the instructions!! thanks man! big help!
Glad to hear the instructions worked for you. Thanks for the positive feedback
thx a lot. It’s really simple with your instructions.
Glad I could help Thomas.
i cant get it to work for some reason…
Can you be a little specific about the problem you’re having? No promises, but I might be able to help.
I prefer using DVD Decrypter and then converting to whatever format I like.
Thanks for the comment and alternative recommendation. I’m sure regular readers appreciate having other ripping options.