Converting a DVD from your collection to a video format so that you can watch it on your iPod is not as complicated as you first might think. There are only two pieces of software that you need to install on your computer to do this, a DVD RIPper and Handbrake.

A ‘DVD RIPper’, or simply ‘a ripper’ is a piece of software that saves a digital ‘image’ of your DVD disc to the hard disk of your computer but also removes the ‘anti-copying’ encryption that is applied on the DVD. Each DVD that you purchase has encryption which prohibits you from copying it; mainly disc to disc purposes though.

Handbreak is a piece of software that converts your unencrypted DVD image to a ‘preset’ format of your choosing.

Process

1. Probably, for legal reasons, I am not going to name a DVD ripper for you (maybe people can suggest them in the comments), but I suggest that you visit VersionTracker to find a ripper that suits your needs. They are pretty easy to find.

2. Once you have an unencrypted image of the DVD on your computer, launch Handbreak.

3. For this tutorial, I am using a Macintosh. Some of the settings might be different on different operating systems, but the principles are still the same. You now need to select the source for Handbreak to work with. This is your DVD image that you have saved to you hard disk.

4. Once your DVD image has been selected, Handbreak will analysis the image.

With the source selected, you have various options. As you only want to encode the main film, make sure that Handbreak has selected the correct ‘title’. This is usually the longest (in time) in the selection. Leave the chapter marks from 1 to maximum, this makes sure that you have the whole film.

5. Underneath the ‘Source’ option, you have the Destination options. Unless you want to save the file to a different place, I recommend that you leave this option as it is.

6. Underneath the Destination settings are the Output Settings. Luckily, Handbreak comes with ‘Presets’ for commonly use MP3/Video devices. On Handbreak, click Toggle Presets to get a list of the presets and choose one that meets you needs.

As you can see, there are presets for quite a few devices. These presets have already worked out the compression settings for you, but you can change them if you wish. For this tutorial, I will be selecting ‘iPhone / iPod Touch’ because I have a iPod Touch.

7. If you happy with that, click the ‘Start’ icon in the menubar. Handbreak will now re-encode your DVD image to MP4, the format used on iPods. How long does it take? That all depends on the length of the movie you want encoding and the speed of your computer. Handbreak will give you an estimate on how long it will take.

And that’s it! All you have to do is sit back and wait. Once the encoding is completed, it’s a matter of importing it to your iPod as normal.

Addition information

7A. If you are multilingual, you can select different language soundtracks and subtitles on the ‘Audio and Subtitles’ tab within Handbreak. Handbreak will obey accordingly, as illustrated by the image below:

Serenity with German subtitles (and German audio, which you can’t hear unfortunately)
©2006 Universal Studios

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