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Ripping a DVD to MP4 Just for Kicks
Last night I thought it would be a laugh to try to copy one of my DVD movies into a Mpeg 4 movie file that is ready for a future video ready iPod that I am bound to get some day. Perhaps for my birthday or something. I also wanted to see what it would look like if Apple ever started to sell movies over iTunes since that is a current rumor out on the internets.
There are a couple good things about the video iPods and I think they are going to set some decent lowest common denominators when it comes to online digital video distribution for downloads and video podcasts.
First of all they are built on Mpeg 4 and can use either the H.264 or the MPEG 4 video codecs. They also support ACC so the audio sounds great. However the iPod screen is 320X240 so the video is about a quarter of what normal broadcast TV is here in the US. Luckily MPEG 4 files can scale all nice like.
So the only program in my book that I would ever consider for this task is Handbreak. So I fired it up and after glancing my DVD collection I decided that Shaun of the Dead would make a great test case. I used this handy tutorial for the proper video settings and set it off and then went to bed. When I woke up and checked it at morning coffee and bagel time I was surprised to see it still working but since I gave it the maximum image quality for the iPod format it was worth the wait.
It ended up being a 590 Meg Mpeg 4 movie at 320X144
using he H.264, ACC codecs and it is 1 hour 39 minutes long.
That is a weird aspect ratio but it is native to the movie and it looks surprisingly well when scaled to full screen.
This video file will play on the iPod or future Window Media devices. It will play in Quicktime, Windows Media Player 11 with Windows Vista, Real and it should run on a plethora of player platforms such as Mac, Windowz, Linux and whatever is down with Mpeg 4.
There is no extras, subtitles, chapter stops, menus in the file but there is also no DRM so it can play all over the place without needing to get permission from the bastards that run Hollywood. The file can play in iTunes but it is groovy in VLC. I can have it float over other programs and keep it on my notebook so I can multi-slack and watch Shaun of the Dead whenever I want.
I think I am going to rip some of my favorite movies so I have something to watch on my lappytop whenever I get bored and when I get a new iPod I will have some content for it. I am going to rip and encode the Anime classic Akira over night tonight.
How's that for a slice of fried gold?
Jake at February 24, 2006 
Nerd
