As I mentioned very briefly here, I plan to buy an iPad when it launches. I’m only getting a wi-fi version, 3G just doesn’t seem to make sense to me, but that’s just my opinion. Anyway, I should focus on my point. Being a Mac user, all of my data is embedded in Apple software, iTunes, iCal, Address Book, etc. For my media, I sync everything to iTunes so that I can keep my various iPods and iPhone synced. Well, now that I’m planning to buy  an iPad, I had a choice, I could re-purchace all of my movies and tv shows that I had previously purchased on dvd/blu-ray from the iTunes Store OR I could figure out how to get all of my stuff off the discs and in to iTunes. Obviously, the former is just stupid, so I had to figure out how to accomplish the latter. With a little research, I’ve got a method and I thought I would share.

Before I continue, I need to add a disclaimer. This method can allow pirating movies and tv shows. I am very much opposed to this. What I’m describing below is what I consider fair use, since I own everything I’m converting in resolutions greater than or equal to the files I’m generating. I’d be lying if I said that I never used Napster when it first launched or used the torrent sites when I was younger, but I’ve grown up. I’m a young working professional, so if I want it, I buy it. If you’ve somehow convinced yourself that the cost of movies and tv shows is too high, then don’t watch them. Saying something is too expensive to get legitimately, doesn’t justify stealing it. And all of this applies to rental services and buying the dvd used, but using a torrent to get it in HD. Sorry folks, the price you pay decides the time you have to watch it and the resolution you can watch it in. Don’t steal!

OK, off the soapbox. Here is the good stuff. Remember, my goal is making videos for portable screens (iPad is a 9.7″ screen), not HDTVs so this will involve some loss in video quality. First, you need a few applications:

(*) A dvd decrypting/ripping application. This will allow you to make a high-fidelity copy of the dvd on your hard drive. I use MacTheRipper, but there are a multitude of options: RipIt, DVDDecrypter (PC), etc. I won’t post links to these applications. You can find them with a quick google search. But this will speed things up.

(*) VLC is a great application to play videos of all formats and it will help us verify where each episode or movie is on the disc.

(*) Handbrake will let us take the dvd video (mpeg2) and convert it to an iTunes friendly format (H.264)

(*) MetaX will let us add all of the meta data to our converted files so they look pretty in iTunes. Three notes: (1) This application is Mac only. Sorry PC folks, you’re on your own to find an alternative. (2) This application is great because it doesn’t change the container format and can query an online database called TagChimp for data. The first part of this is key. You don’t want your files in a Quicktime (.mov) format. This drastically reduces the devices you can play your videos on. (3) This application is a little buggy, but it looks like its made by a single guy. Credit to him for building an app with a good feature set. Just be ready to deal with some odd quirks with the tag search, etc.

OK. We’ve got our apps. Now to the work:

(#1) Using your ripping software, create a decrypted copy of your dvd on your hard drive. It is best to remove regions or any other copy protection/restrictions if possible. Handbrake can actually do this on the fly using VLC while its converting videos, but I think this has some disadvantages. Decrypting while converting slows the conversion and it reduces the number of videos you can queue in Handbrake.

(#2) Verify your rip in VLC by opening the VIDEO_TS folder you should have gotten from the 1st step. Use the dvd menu to navigate to each video on the disc that you’ll want to convert. When the video starts, go to Playback > Title and make a note of the currently selected title number. We’ll need this later.

(#3) Fire up Handbrake. Click the Source button. Navigate to and open the folder we got from step 1. Handbrake will analyze the folder and automatically select the longest title on the disc. You’ll want to select the title we found in step 2. Then set the destination for the resulting file.

(#4) From the presets pane on the right side of the application. Select Apple > Universal. In the main window, change the quality radio button from Constant Quality to Average Bitrate and set it to 1500 kbps. This bitrate is what is typically found in iTunes SD video content.

(#5) Next check the 2-pass encoding checkbox and the Turbo first pass checkbox. This means the conversion will be slower but of better quality because it will analyze the video first, then convert it.

(#6) Open the preview window and picture setting pane. If you have a widescreen video, you’re going to want to set the anamorphic drop-down to loose. This makes sure you get the right aspect ratio for the resulting video. Also verify the picture cropping. The automatic setting tends to work well, but for some darker movies, it can get it really wrong. Finally, if you’re converting a tv show, you’ll want to verify if its interlaced. An explanation of  interlacing is too long for this post (google it), but if it is, open the filters tab and select De-interlace and then Fast from the drop-down.

(#7) When that’s all set. Hit the start button and walk away. Depending on the size of the movie and specs of your machine, this can take some time.

(#8) When Handbrake is done, find your new video file and test it in VLC or Quicktime. Don’t double-click on the file!!! This will launch iTunes and add it to your library. We just want to make sure the video plays, so open VLC and navigate to the file to test it.

(#9) We’re almost there. Open up MetaX and drag your file in to the queue on the right side of the app. Wait for the search to finish. If it found your video, you can select the result and it will populate the middle section that holds your file’s meta data. If you’re satisfied with the search results, just check the box next to each field. You’ll want to make sure that you have the following fields populated as a minimum: Cover art, Title, Artist (Show), Short Description, Long Description, all of the TV Tags on the Video tab if its a TV Show, and the Track # on the Advanced tab (set to the episode #). Then hit Write & Share.

(#10) When MetaX is done (it will moo at you), your file is ready for iTunes. Drag it in or double click it and you should be good to go for you iPod, iPhone, Apple TV, or iPad.

Now there are a ton of options I didn’t cover to tweak this process. You can explore all the applications and their options, but this will get you started. For example, if you have an Apple TV, you may want to use the Apple TV presets in Handbrake, or a higher bitrate with the Universal preset (higher bitrate means better picture quality, but bigger files). There are also chapter markers, which I didn’t cover, but are very valuable for movies. I also didn’t touch blu-ray. I haven’t crossed that bridge yet. I highly recommend using the queue features in both Handbrake and MetaX. Its better to spend a little longer upfront to configure a batch of movies or tv episodes, rather than having to keep coming back to your computer to check the progress. Lastly, you can visit this site, for a way to get iTunes cover art for your files.

Your mileage will vary. Like I said, your computer specs matter. I do my conversions on my Mac Pro (two 2.8GHz quad-core xeon processors with 2Gb of memory running Snow Leopard.) I converted my copy of Smallville, Season 8 recently. Here’s the breakdown: 1 hour ripping (10 mins per disc x 6) + 0.5 hour queuing Handbrake + 4.5 hours converting (all 22 42-min episodes = ~950 mins) + 0.5 hours adding meta data = 6.5 hours. Considering that only 1 of those hours was real work (configuring Handbrake and using MetaX) and the rest was more or less unmanned, its not that bad. I usually let the conversion run overnight. I bought the dvd off Amazon on sale for $17. The standard def version on iTunes is $39.99. (Sadly, that dvd price is atypical for such a recent season, but if you are a bargain hunter, you can see how you would come out ahead.)  I’ve converted about 20 of my favorite movies, the first 4 seasons of The Office, and Season 8 of Smallville, all using this method and it works great. Now all I need is my iPad. Oh well, at least I’ll be ready for it!

So before you get too far in to this post, I should warn you that this is not a post of philosophical musings about happened in the past year. It is about vision, quite literally. So I wear glasses. I have for a very long time. There are even some pictures of me with glasses that belong on an 80 year old man! It’s not so bad, and to be honest I’m just used to them now so it’s rare that I notice them.

When I got married earlier this year, I added vision insurance to my policies for 2009. The really reason was that my wife can’t see anything farther than 8 ft in front of her so we needed to get her some specs! In April, we got eye exams at the Hour Eyes a few miles down the road. My wife got some new glasses from them, but since my prescription didn’t change (yay, for my eyes!!!) I didn’t bother. Simple enough.

Faster forward to December 29th. That’s when I realized that I had paid for insurance for 9 months and that I hadn’t fully used it by getting glasses. Off to Hour Eyes we went, since they already had my prescription and took the insurance. After a little while, we found a set of frames that I liked. Next we getting in to a holding pattern for an associate. After a quick game of musical chairs we find ourselves discussing the finer points of optical accessorizing. Now the fun begins.

So I wanted a pair of backup glasses, since my current pair are perfectly fine. First we get the pitch for anti-glare coating on my lenses. Sounds great but it will cost me $45 after the insurance deduction. Reminding myself that I won’t use these everyday, I said pass. Being the ambitious sales person that this lady was, we being a battle of wills that I thankfully won. Now on to the lenses. I did decide to go with polycarbonate lenses. They cost more, but if you’ve ever worn real glass on your face, you’d cough up the money too. So after a few minutes on the computer, out comes my grand total of $115. I guess that’s not too bad, but curiosity proved to be friend. I enquired about the lenses. Sure enough, they were polycarbonate, but not just any polycarbonate, super-flat polycarbonate at a $50 premium!!!!!!! Had I not asked, this saleswoman would not have told me that she had made a choice for me. So re-thinking my choice and the choice made for me, I opt for regular polycarbonate lenses with an anti-glare coating. So lets do the math together: $115 – $50 + $45 = $110. That makes sense right? Well, my new total: $72. HUH?! Ok, so I whip out credit card, sign on the dotted line and out the door I run, thinking I saved a bunch. As I’m heading out the door, the saleswoman hands me a bag with lens-cleaner and tells me it comes complimentary with my anti-glare coating. Great, who cares, I’m going home!

As I sit here stewing over the fuzzy math, thinking about the decisions that were made without my explicit consent, and looking over my receipt, I realized a few things and I’m getting steadily more disappointed with what I consider a dishonest way of doing business. First, my free lens-cleaner actually cost $7, that bites, but not as bad as the rest. Second, my insurance deduction isn’t itemized, it’s just one lump-sum discount, very informative. Lastly, when the saleswoman told  me about the premium for the super-poly lenses, it was actually $50 per lens! I’m guess she was intentionally vague, because $50 is easier to sell than $100. Redoing the math, things are starting to make sense: $115 – $50 – $50 + $45 + $7 + tax & rounding = $72

To wrap-up this little rant…I went to a store, told a salesperson I wanted something, and they intentionally gave me a more expensive option without disclosing that there was a choice involved. Sure, she could argue that I asked for poly lenses and she gave me poly lenses. But I would argue that an honest salesperson would have presented the choice to me and let me make the decision for myself, not try to slip it under my nose. I hate being cynical and skeptical about people. (In fact I was lecturing my brothers about being a little more trusting.) I guess in the end, you still have look out for yourself, because there are still plenty of people looking to dupe you. Not such a great thought, but I’m going to try to hang on to my optimism. Makes me wonder if we got hoodwinked when we bought my wife glasses in April. Oh well, I guess this is the last time Hour Eyes will get my business.

So one thing I’ve been meaning to do is give a big web thank you (and online plug) to the cake decorator from my wedding, Jen! The thing is, she not only made our cake, but she was also a bridesmaid. I met Jen after I moved to Virginia and we’ve been great friends ever since. She really is great at what she does and she even competes in regional competitions. You should hop over to her website Around The World In 80 Cakes. You can check out all of her work and find out how to get in touch with her. The picture below is Jen standing next to the cake at our wedding. 

Jen And Our Cake

If you want to read Jen’s blog post about how she designed our cake, you can check it out here. Oh, I should also mention, she made us some awesome truffles as favors. Of course, I can’t forget to thank her assistant (and husband), my friend (and groomsman), Rohit. So I give them 

Rating:

Definitely fuzz-worthy!