Filed under: Multimedia, Peripherals, Software, Universal Binary
Popcorn 2 goes Universal
Roxio announced Popcorn 2 is a
Universal Binary now. Popcorn is a little app that'll supposedly move content around to your mobile stuff— a PSP, iPod, or "mobile phone." I couldn't get a list of supported phones, but I'm assuming it won't convert your movies to ASCII so they show up on Nokia's from 2000. Popcorn also says it'll grab your unprotected DVD content. Now, I haven't used Popcorn, but will it just refuse to rip store-bought DVD's? Ugh, I'm beginning to hate DRM too... If anyone knows the answer to these burning questions, leave your experiences in the comments.

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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Joe Lyons said 4:35PM on 4-12-2006
Its says you can back up your DVDs and CDs on the Website. It then says in smaller print underneath
Does not copy encrypted or copy protected DVDs or video files. USE OF THIS SOFTWARE TO MAKE ILLEGAL COPIES OF MOVIES AND OTHER CONTENT IS STRICTLY PROHIBITED.
!!
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Mario Panighetti said 4:38PM on 4-12-2006
Popcorn won't rip encrypted DVDs, period. You'd have to de-DRM them first, with a utility like Mac The Ripper. Honestly, you're probably best off just using Handbrake, which rips straight from DVD to MPEG-4 (including iPod, if you know the proper settings).
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matt said 4:48PM on 4-12-2006
If you want to use Popcorn for the compressing of store bought DVDs you can always de-encrypt the dvds with something like Handbrake and then use Popcorn to burn a backup or compress it for your mobile device.
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BobMac said 4:54PM on 4-12-2006
I hope that means Toast will be updated to universal soon...
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Axel said 5:00PM on 4-12-2006
Is Popcorn a Toast lite or am I totally wrong
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paul said 5:01PM on 4-12-2006
It won't work with store-bought DVDs, but there is a universal version of Mac the Ripper available, which will take care of that problem. But this is great news. I can now rip and burn DVDs on my Macbook Pro without any slowdown.
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spk said 5:27PM on 4-12-2006
Pity when I bought it that they sent me version bloody one!!
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Andrew G said 5:36PM on 4-12-2006
Popcorn? Psh. Try Handbrake Lite from the creator of iSquint. You can do some fine tuning, but your final videos will always be MPEG4 and iPod ready (probably PSP ready, as well).
http://isquint.org/handbrakelite/
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jbelkin said 5:39PM on 4-12-2006
Yes, Popcorn gives you a warning if you attempt to copy a retail DVD Or one with DRM.
Popcorn is a subset/one trick pony from Toast Titanium but it's pretty good if all you want to do is convert ripped Video_TS files back a DVD format (and now some others) as it can fit them in a variety of ways on a single/dual layer, etc ... it's a nice app for people who don't want to deal with a couple addition steps doing it with Toast Titanium.
Handbrake is pretty amazing - it will do whatever you ask - NTSC, PAL, etc and it's ready for Popcorn to complete the task.
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Aaron Vogel said 7:47PM on 4-12-2006
Yeah, Handbrake is cool and all, but...
1) It's slow as hell to do a full DVD
2) The quality you get from ripping with Mac the Ripper and compressing to fit a 4.7GB DVD with Popcorn is pretty amazing.
3) With a Dual-layer burner you barely need Popcorn to compress at the disc at all.
I make "road copies" of all my DVD's so I don't have to worry about scratching up my precious originals when I'm traveling. I'm using Popcorn 1.0.3 still, but I'm definitely going to upgrade to check out the iPod and PSP compression.
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starwxrwx said 10:16PM on 4-12-2006
Popcorn seems to me like a waste of money.
You can take a VIDEO_TS folder and image it with DVD-Imager, then burn it in disk utility - all for free!
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Nathaniel said 10:44PM on 4-12-2006
The main purpose of Popcorn is to recompress a DVD9 disc to a single layer DVD. Yes, there is lots of cool free stuff that recompresses to MPEG4, but that doesn't play in most DVD players.
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Scott said 9:28AM on 4-13-2006
I'm a Popcorn 1 user. Yes, you have to use Mac the Ripper first for copy-protected DVDs. But Popcorn works flawlessly at doing what it's made to do: burning (and compressing when necessary) DVDs from VIDEO_TS folders.
I have a question if anyone is fully familiar with the new Popcorn 2, though. I've read through the specs and can't quite tell whether they've added this capability or not. It says it can import MOV and MPG files. Is that only for exporting to handheld devices, or does it now have the capability to include those movie files in a DVD burn? Because THAT would be really convenient!
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m said 5:17PM on 11-12-2007
I have worked in professional DVD creation for eight years now and I can tell you, without a doubt, that Popcorn has the best re-compression of any consumer product there is. that is it's main strength. Use it in tandem with Mac the Ripper and you have a great way to backup your encrypted DVD's (only if they are 4.4GB and abovewhich most commercial DVD's are) and burn them to DVD.
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