Comments on: Video conversion anyone? http://the-gadgeteer.com/2007/09/28/video_conversion_anyone/ Gadget reviews and news by Julie Strietelmeier and friends since 1997 Sat, 26 May 2012 21:11:40 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v= By: Julie http://the-gadgeteer.com/2007/09/28/video_conversion_anyone/comment-page-1/#comment-26233 Julie Sat, 06 Oct 2007 15:18:42 +0000 #comment-26233 <p>After briefly playing with Crunch and Popcorn, I noticed that videos I had converted from AVI to my AppleTV had audio sync issues. Both titles created files with the same problem. So, I have switched back to using iSquint (freebie converter). Now I'm just waiting for an HD AppleTV so I can really enjoy converted video.</p> After briefly playing with Crunch and Popcorn, I noticed that videos I had converted from AVI to my AppleTV had audio sync issues. Both titles created files with the same problem. So, I have switched back to using iSquint (freebie converter). Now I’m just waiting for an HD AppleTV so I can really enjoy converted video.

]]> By: Leo Wiggins http://the-gadgeteer.com/2007/09/28/video_conversion_anyone/comment-page-1/#comment-26232 Leo Wiggins Tue, 02 Oct 2007 13:35:08 +0000 #comment-26232 <p>Well I went the slightly more expensive route and picked up Elgato's Turbo.264 for encoding videos to iPod, PSP and AppleTV. It handles various types of file formats (including DVD VOB's). Using a single USB port this hardware accelerator handles (depending on level of compression) converting a 2 hour DVD to about 2 hours realtime. And the best part is I can still use my Mac while it's doing the encoding - it's not using my system CPU to handle the conversion. Well worth it. </p> Well I went the slightly more expensive route and picked up Elgato’s Turbo.264 for encoding videos to iPod, PSP and AppleTV. It handles various types of file formats (including DVD VOB’s). Using a single USB port this hardware accelerator handles (depending on level of compression) converting a 2 hour DVD to about 2 hours realtime. And the best part is I can still use my Mac while it’s doing the encoding – it’s not using my system CPU to handle the conversion. Well worth it.

]]> By: Robert http://the-gadgeteer.com/2007/09/28/video_conversion_anyone/comment-page-1/#comment-26231 Robert Sat, 29 Sep 2007 15:54:31 +0000 #comment-26231 <p>I think the easiest and quickest (and cheapest) are Handbrake and <a href="http://www.techspansion.com/visualhub/">VisualHub</a>. I've used VisualHub for work and play and it does a fantastic job converting across a ton of formats. If I'm correct it is just a streamlined UI for ffmpegx and whatever other codecs it drops in. Just the day before I needed to move some video to my iPhone and 1,2,3 it is done converting and adding into iTunes.</p> I think the easiest and quickest (and cheapest) are Handbrake and VisualHub. I’ve used VisualHub for work and play and it does a fantastic job converting across a ton of formats. If I’m correct it is just a streamlined UI for ffmpegx and whatever other codecs it drops in. Just the day before I needed to move some video to my iPhone and 1,2,3 it is done converting and adding into iTunes.

]]> By: Julie http://the-gadgeteer.com/2007/09/28/video_conversion_anyone/comment-page-1/#comment-26230 Julie Sat, 29 Sep 2007 15:20:52 +0000 #comment-26230 <p>My DirecTV DVR has TiVo features, but isn't a true TiVo. It doesn't have the TiVoToGo which is disappointing as I wouldn't mind moving some shows off of it for archival purposes. As it is, I just keep them marked as do not delete and they stay there taking up space.</p> <p>I'm going to have to try ffmpegX as Crunch, Popcorn and Toast are all very slow from the limited testing that I did with them.</p> My DirecTV DVR has TiVo features, but isn’t a true TiVo. It doesn’t have the TiVoToGo which is disappointing as I wouldn’t mind moving some shows off of it for archival purposes. As it is, I just keep them marked as do not delete and they stay there taking up space.

I’m going to have to try ffmpegX as Crunch, Popcorn and Toast are all very slow from the limited testing that I did with them.

]]> By: carly http://the-gadgeteer.com/2007/09/28/video_conversion_anyone/comment-page-1/#comment-26229 carly Sat, 29 Sep 2007 13:41:13 +0000 #comment-26229 <p>I used to use handbrake, but now I use Toast. I bought it for my tivotogo so I could burn world cup rugby games, and be able to watch my tivo stuff when I traveled without having to fill my hard drive with tons of tv shows, i could just put them on my iphone or burn them to dvd.</p> I used to use handbrake, but now I use Toast. I bought it for my tivotogo so I could burn world cup rugby games, and be able to watch my tivo stuff when I traveled without having to fill my hard drive with tons of tv shows, i could just put them on my iphone or burn them to dvd.

]]> By: Rob Tillotson http://the-gadgeteer.com/2007/09/28/video_conversion_anyone/comment-page-1/#comment-26228 Rob Tillotson Sat, 29 Sep 2007 08:45:30 +0000 #comment-26228 <p>On my Mac, I use <a href="http://homepage.mac.com/major4/">ffmpegX</a> for single videos and <a href="http://handbrake.m0k.org/">Handbrake</a> for DVDs. Under the hood, both of these use open source encoding tools that are much faster than Quicktime's native codecs, especially for h.264.</p> <p>Most of the time I end up using Nero Recode on Windows though, simply because my Windows box is idle more of the time than my Mac, so I don't mind letting it sit there and encode a stack of videos all day long. Recode is part of the Nero CD/DVD burning package, and has a pretty fast encoder as well which does a good job with both mpeg4 and h.264, and has profiles built in for iPod, PSP, etc.</p> <p>For the iPod, the simplest way to convert videos might just be to let iTunes do it for you. As long as your video can be played by Quicktime (on the Mac, install the codecs from <a href="http://perian.org/">Perian</a> and it probably will be), you can add it to the iTunes library, right click it and select the option to convert to iPod. It won't be fast, and you won't have any control over the quality or bit rate, but it's easy...</p> <p>For the PSP and the Mac, you might also check out <a href="http://www.nullriver.com/pspware">PSPWare</a> which is a sync app for the PSP that has a video converter dropbox; just dump a video in it and it will be converted and synced to the PSP automatically.</p> On my Mac, I use ffmpegX for single videos and Handbrake for DVDs. Under the hood, both of these use open source encoding tools that are much faster than Quicktime’s native codecs, especially for h.264.

Most of the time I end up using Nero Recode on Windows though, simply because my Windows box is idle more of the time than my Mac, so I don’t mind letting it sit there and encode a stack of videos all day long. Recode is part of the Nero CD/DVD burning package, and has a pretty fast encoder as well which does a good job with both mpeg4 and h.264, and has profiles built in for iPod, PSP, etc.

For the iPod, the simplest way to convert videos might just be to let iTunes do it for you. As long as your video can be played by Quicktime (on the Mac, install the codecs from Perian and it probably will be), you can add it to the iTunes library, right click it and select the option to convert to iPod. It won’t be fast, and you won’t have any control over the quality or bit rate, but it’s easy…

For the PSP and the Mac, you might also check out PSPWare which is a sync app for the PSP that has a video converter dropbox; just dump a video in it and it will be converted and synced to the PSP automatically.

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