The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW)

by **Sang Tang** on Jun 30th 2009 at 10:00AM

"A rose by any other name would smell as sweet." - William Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet

If we applied Shakespeare's logic to today's digital age, then it would also mean that watching mis-tagged or untagged videos on your Apple device (be it a Mac, iPhone, iPod or Apple TV) would be just as enjoyable. Okay, you got me, they'd probably be just as good. But this doesn't mean you're excused from tagging your videos appropriately.

First, a bit of background. The vast majority of videos purchased from the iTunes store, as well as "digital copy" (iPod/iPhone pre-formatted videos that are sometimes included on DVDs and Blu-Ray discs), will come pre-tagged. So, the situation for those in this camp (myself included) is peachy, especially when using an Apple TV. Your videos show up on the screen screen with proper titles, season and episode numbers, actors, and descriptions. Just the way Steve likes 'em.

But what if you already own the DVD and want a version for your iTunes library? For those of you with the time and patience to rip an MPEG-4 version (and believe me, this takes some patience, especially if you use H.264 encoding) of your favorite videos, a HandBrake-MetaX martini make tagging your videos a bit more of a pleasurable experience - as if it wasn't fun enough already.

Continue reading “Batch tagging your iTunes videos the easy way”

by **Mat Lu** on Jun 24th 2009 at 9:00AM

In this round of Ask TUAW we've got questions about connecting a MacBook to a plasma TV, using a Bluetooth headset with an iPod touch, backing up online, ripping DVDs to watch on an iPhone and more.

As always, your suggestions are welcome. Questions for next week should be left in the comments. When asking a question please include which machine you're running and which version of Mac OS X (we'll assume you're running Leopard on an Intel Mac if you don't specify). And now, on to the questions!

Continue reading “Ask TUAW: Online backup, Bluetooth with iPod touch and OS 3.0, converting DVDs for iPhone, and more”

by **Mat Lu** on Nov 24th 2008 at 10:00AM

The well known, open-source DVD ripping and video transcoding application HandBrake has been updated to version 0.9.3. Among the changes, perhaps the most exciting is universal input -- now you can use HandBrake to convert any kind of video file it recognizes, not just DVDs. This is particularly exciting given the recent demise of the much loved VisualHub (although the open-source reworking of VisualHub via the TranscoderRedux project is underway). In fact, the new HandBrake incorporates some of the same ffmpeg libraries that did the heavy lifting in VisualHub.

Among the many changes are an updated interface as well as improvements to both audio handling and video quality. Interestingly, the HandBrake developers have removed its internal DVD decryption which means you'll need to have the free VLC on your machine to utilize HandBrake's classic DVD ripping functionality (though as long as you have VLC they promise it will work as before).

HandBrake 0.9.3 is a free download from HandBrake.

Thanks Will!

by **Mike Schramm** on Oct 16th 2008 at 7:00AM

HandBrake handles most of my DVD-ripping responsibilities just fine, but RipIt came to our attention recently, and as a simple one-touch way to get a movie off of a DVD and on to your hard drive (in order to, say, watch it on a laptop without lugging the disc itself along), it looks pretty simple. In fact, it's about as cake as these things get: load up the app, throw a disc in your drive, and press Rip -- a few minutes later (a 7.9gb rip took about 30 minutes for me), you've got a DVDPlayerMedia file on your hard drive to watch at your leisure.

It's $18.99, which is pricey, especially (again) compared to HandBrake, which is conveniently open source, and provides tons more ways to rip things. But if you do a lot of movie ripping and want to have one single button rather than worrying about formats or encoding, that $19 might be well spent.

by **Chris Ullrich** on Feb 21st 2008 at 9:00AM

If you're like me, you take one or more of your DVD movies, TV shows, podcasts and other content with you on your iPod or iPhone when traveling. Heck, I even take stuff for long car trips across town, or to watch when I'm sitting in the waiting room at the doctor's office.

Most of the time, it's pretty simple to get movies, TV shows or podcast content onto your iPhone or iPod touch for viewing at a convenient time -- you can simply use iTunes to download it (for a suitable fee). Things get a bit more complicated when you want to watch a commercial DVD from your collection on one of these devices.

Fortunately, as we reported recently, there's a great tool called HandBrake that accomplishes this task quite nicely and has just been updated to a fully-compatible, Leopard-only version. OK, but now that you have the software, how do you use it so you can watch that 300 DVD when you're on the train to work tomorrow?

The folks at iPhone Atlas have taken care of that one for you; they've just posted an article that guides you step-by-step on how to take video from that purchased DVD and get it onto your iPhone or iPod touch. It's a pretty simple and painless process that yields surprisingly good results -- especially when watching something on the very nice, touchable screen of the iDevices.

by **Nik Fletcher** on Feb 19th 2008 at 7:00PM

If you're a fan of Handbrake -- the tool that allows you to extract your DVDs* into more portable formats (such as your iPod / iPhone / Apple TV) -- listen up. Handbrake has hit version 0.9.2!

So what's changed from the last version, released back in October last year? Well, first-off the application is Leopard-only which may well irk some readers (debate away in the comments, folks). Throw in improved queueing, Sparkle updating for keeping Handbrake up-to-date, iPhone Anamorphic video, 'multi-track audio on Apple devices' and Elgato .eyetv file support. Of course, there's many, many, more enhancements that we're not mentioning, and the changelist shows there's plenty of new goodness in this release.

All for the very excellent price of free, the new version is available from the Handbrake site for Mac, WIndows and Linux citizens.

*It goes without saying that you should only use Handbrake for DVDs which you are licensed to do so. TUAW does not condone piracy.

Thanks, Rouven!

by **Scott McNulty** on Dec 28th 2007 at 5:00PM

HandBrake is one of those applications that we adore here at TUAW HQ. It makes converting DVDs into a variety of digital files a snap (though only use it with DVDs you own. Don't be pirates, kids). Chris Breen, of Macworld fame (and an amateur astronomer it would seem) shows us how to use HandBrake like a pro. Breen goes a step beyond 'use the presets' and delves into what many of the options HandBrake offers up actually do, and how they impact your files.

Check out the video, and get to ripping your DVDs!

by **Michael Rose** on Oct 9th 2007 at 2:00PM

It's not often that an application update is announced by the developers with chagrin instead of excitement, but the new 0.9.1 of HandBrake is delivered somewhat sheepishly as it consists mostly of bug fixes. The full list of changes to the DVD-ripping open source tool is below.

You can download 0.9.1 now from the HandBrake site. As always, a reminder that beta software may do you harm, and that you are bound by local and national laws regarding content protection and copyright with respect to the responsible use of HandBrake. Go in peace.

Thanks Rouven

Continue reading “HandBrake updated to 0.9.1”

by **Mat Lu** on Aug 30th 2007 at 9:00AM

Roxio has released version 3 of their DVD and video conversion utility Popcorn. The biggest new feature is probably the "exclusive TiVoToGo support for the Mac" that lets you burn TiVo recorded shows to disc or convert them for playback on other devices. However, other improvements include the ability to create compilation DVDs and custom DVD menus as well as improved Apple TV and iPhone/iPod support. Popcorn is $49 and is available now.

For my own money, I think the the only compelling feature of Popcorn is the TivoToGo support. Unless that's a big deal for you, I think you'd probably do better with VisualHub ($23.32) plus Handbrake (free), as the ffmpeg based conversion of the former is considerably faster than the QuickTime based conversion that Popcorn appears to use.

[via MacMinute]

by **David Chartier** on Aug 19th 2007 at 6:14PM

Handbrake, the reigning king of effortless DVD conversion software, has received a major update to v0.9.0. New in this version is a "re-envisioned" interface for the Mac OS X version (as well as a completely rebuilt UI for Windows), and picture quality has been improved quite a bit through new effects, filters and deinterlacing techniques. Overall speed has also been boosted, and you no longer have to customize your encoding settings for the iPhone, thanks to new presets that simplify the process.

Altogether, nearly 300 changes were made for this new version, so head on over and give it a spin.

Thanks Jim

by **Michael Rose** on Jun 29th 2007 at 10:00AM

When your open-source project is the focus of a New York Times article, that's a big news day for you (at least it would be if not for those meddling kids in line to buy iPhones). Thursday's NYT article discussing the technical hurdles, legal haziness and other challenges to ripping DVDs for personal use leads off with the example of HandBrake dev lead Eric Petit ('titer') using his very own tool to convert a movie so it'll play on his PSP. The article goes on to mention VisualHub and VideoLan, and quickly dives into an acronym soup of MP4, OGG, AVI and more.

What I found most interesting about the story was what it failed to say about the software it featured so prominently: neither HandBrake nor VisualHub were described as Macintosh apps. VisualHub is of course Mac-only, and HandBrake has been historically a Mac tool (after beginning life on BeOS) before forking and unforking as MediaFork with a Windows version in the mix. It's pleasantly surprising to me that this sort of article can be platform-agnostic.

by **Michael Rose** on Apr 21st 2007 at 4:00PM

First there was HandBrake, then MediaFork... and now, well, just don't call it a comeback: HandBrake 0.8.5b1 is out, incorporating all the library updates from the MediaFork build of the free, open source DVD converter/compressor and adding some new goodies:

• User presets
• AppleTV and PS3 support
• Anamorphic video, even in QuickTime
• Surround sound (both AAC 5.1 and Dolby Pro Logic II)
• Chapter markers (QuickTime-style)
• Official support for the Windows GUI
• PPC Linux support
• High profile H.264

What better way to spend a weekend than converting all your DVDs to show on your AppleTV? Just note that this is a beta version, and the last stable rev of HandBrake (0.7.1) may be more reliable.

by **Michael Rose** on Mar 24th 2007 at 11:00AM

[Update: Brian Ganninger of Growl and Adium fame has posted on his strong disagreement with the HandBrake manifesto.]

Since HandBrake got back under one open-source roof, the attention to everyone's favorite Mac DVD 'archiving' tool has heated up, and with said attention the volume of end-user feature requests has apparently risen. Over at the HandBrake forums, back on March 6, Rodney posted a manifesto called "HandBrake and Open Source - an end-user must-read," pointing out what he sees as the differences between F/OSS and commercial software when it comes to user-driven feature priorities. I quote:

"Open source software is exactly what it sounds like: It's software written by a (usually small) group of highly-dedicated people that solved particular problems they themselves had and thought others might find useful as well. Like most things that are free, it comes with no warranty: If it does what you want, that's great - that's exactly why it was offered to you. If not, you have the freedom of choice to either modify it to suit your desires or find another software package that more closely meets your needs."

The core of Rodney's message, as I read it: if you want something weird or customized, either pay someone for it or code it yourself -- don't knock on the glass with your crazy "why doesn't HandBrake do X?" requests, unless you're willing to pull your weight, 'cause everyone here is a volunteer. I don't agree with him on all fronts -- certainly, 'big kahuna' open source projects like Firefox, Webkit or OpenOffice are highly focused on the needs of the end user -- but for apps like HandBrake with a small core of developers, it definitely pays to ask very politely if there's something you desire, and to accept the fact that your priorities may not sync up with the developers' areas of interest. Now, off to learn C -- where did I leave that copy of Kernighan and Ritchie?

by **Michael Rose** on Feb 23rd 2007 at 10:30AM

As Erica noted back on the 12th, a contributed branch of the HandBrake DVD ripping tool was released as MediaFork, including plenty of updated library goodness and new features for conversion to iPod video formats. The development team on MediaFork had tried to contact HandBrake developer "titer" prior to splitting off a version, but hadn't been able to reach him.

Well, titer has returned, made contact with the new team, and given his official stamp of approval to the MediaFork efforts -- meaning that the next beta of MediaFork will return to the HandBrake name and website. It's wonderful to see everyone working together for justice, and for... the safety of puppies... and Christmas, right? Let's rip those DVDs!

thanks Mike!
[via MacApper]

by **Erica Sadun** on Feb 12th 2007 at 3:00PM

Not much has happened on the HandBrake front for quite some time, so some developers decided to fork the open source development and create their own nonofficial version. MediaFork is the open-source community-contributed HandBrake fork they developed. Like its parent, it's a DVD ripping application that allows you to create iPod compatible MPEG-4 video from any commercial DVD. The 0.8.0 Beta 1 software is available as a 10.3.9-or-later Universal Binary. I just downloaded my copy and can't wait to give it a spin.

#	Blogger	Posts	Cmts
1	Steven Sande	38	9
2	Michael Rose	31	24
3	Mel Martin	29	0
4	Mike Schramm	25	1
5	Victor Agreda, Jr.	24	8
6	Brett Terpstra	18	11
7	Erica Sadun	16	2
8	Megan Lavey	16	6
9	Dave Caolo	14	0
10	Robert Palmer	13	3
11	David Winograd	13	0
12	Chris Rawson	12	0
13	Christina Warren	9	28
14	Michael Jones	8	0
15	Tim Wasson	8	0
16	Sang Tang	7	1
17	Cory Bohon	6	0
18	Casey Johnston	6	0
19	Jason Clarke	6	1
20	Mat Lu	3	0

The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW)

Handbrake posts

Batch tagging your iTunes videos the easy way

Ask TUAW: Online backup, Bluetooth with iPod touch and OS 3.0, converting DVDs for iPhone, and more

HandBrake 0.9.3 adds Universal Input

RipIt yanks your DVDs right off the disc

Getting DVD movies on your iPod touch and iPhone

Handbrake 0.9.2 now out & Leopard-only

Get those DVDs onto your iPhone or Mac

HandBrake updated to 0.9.1

Roxio releases Popcorn 3, adds TiVoToGo support

Handbrake 0.9 released with speed, quality enhancements and more

HandBrake gets some major press

Return of the pineapple: HandBrake 0.8.5b1

Care and feeding of open source programmers

MediaFork to 'unfork' back into HandBrake

MediaFork: Stick a fork in HandBrake

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