What software is good for transferring a protected DVD to a format for ipod (I think it is MP4 or something like that)? I have some DVDs that I would like on the Pod. Also, anyone know software that can remove region codes from DVDs?

Thanks

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Scott Roberts
Ruling Elder, Lakeside Presbyterian Church (PCA)
Southlake, Texas

Not sure about getting rid of the region codes. If you find out though, let me know, because I have one DVD from China (I bought it legally, not on the black market) that I can't watch on my computer or rip for Ipod.

As far as going to the Ipod though, use a program called Handbrake. It's free and works great (make sure you use double pass encoding). The latest release is like version 0.9 or something. I actually stuck with the old version, 0.7. It works great and is simple to use, takes about 2 hours to do a whole move to mp4. The new version I don't really understand how it works.

Here's version 0.7.1: HandBrake
And the newer version if you want to figure it out: http://tc.versiontracker.com/product...X.4_GUI_UB.dmg

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Joel S.
St. Paul's Presbyterian Church (Orlando, FL)
M.Div. Student, RTS Orlando, Oviedo, FL

Handbrake is what I have used. There is a side panel with a few presets, but I found the default works best. The default settings ran faster and produced a smaller file than the iPod preset. The results does well on my iPod Touch.

After it has read in the DVD's directory there is a pull down menu of the videos on there. The first is usually the movie the extra features, such a "making of" and trailers. There are tabs to set various options, such as including chapters in the export and selection of audio track and sub-titles.

As for region codes, Handbrake will probably work anyway. The main issue is that the optical drive will only allow a limited (5 I think) region changes. (The only way to reset this count is to replace the optical drive.) If you have a DVD player that will play the DVD, a video converter, such as the Elgato EyeTV Hybrid, might be an option

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Soli Deo Gloria

John Schultz
Member, Riveroaks Reformed Presbyterian Church (PCA)
Germantown, TN

"The reason why we worship God in a slight way is because we do not see God in His glory"
Jeremiah Burroughs

Handbrake does not remove protection, does it? I used it on the PC and had to use it in conjunction with another application.

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Scott Roberts
Ruling Elder, Lakeside Presbyterian Church (PCA)
Southlake, Texas

Rip the DVD using DVD Decryptor, then convert it to a video file using AutoGK. Then use Super Video Converter to convert the video file to an iPod format.

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Dan Pemberton
Vacaville, CA

Member, First Baptist Church San Luis Obispo
Formerly ABUSA (We left, so I guess that makes us American Baptists Unleashed!)

HandBrake is what I use and it works well.

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Dale Cosby
Kirklin, Indiana
Member of Faith and Family Baptist Church
Independent and Reforming Baptist.

For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever

I may have to try HandBrake myself. Thanks for this thread.

since I'm here, I'll drop off a resource instead of just 'taking'.

If anyone wants to save YouTube videos and convert them to DVD or iPod on Mac:

1. Open up whatever YouTube page you want to save with Safari.
2. While the video is loading, go to the Window menu and select Activity.
3. Look for the largest file loading (should be in MB, not KB like everything else).
4. Double-click it to save it. Be sure to rename it after it downloads to your desktop (usually as get_video). You can put the extension .flv on the end, since it's a flash video.

After that, use iSquint (look it up on Version Tracker) to convert it. iSquint's controls are self-explanatory and it'll even add it to iTunes for you automatically.

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K. Joel Gilliard
Theologically Correct dot Com
http://www.theologicallycorrect.com
Sunday School Teacher (Elementary 2), Gaithersburg Community Church (EFCA)
http://www.gchurch.org
The Blog: THINK! - Wrestlin' With Wordz -N- Ideaz
The Upcoming CD: The Definition