by on January 5, 2011 Leave a Comment

DVD Ripping Software Handbrake Get’s Major Update

I’m in love with my new Apple TV so it shouldn’t be too surprising that the last few posts have been video related. I’ve talked about Handbrake before. It’s a great one stop application for ripping and converting your DVD collection to a number of Mac friendly formats. The other day it received a major overhaul.

While not apparent on the Handbrake website this new version adds some great tweaks to the existing feature set including:

  • BluRay disc structure support. (No decryption support)
  • Updated Libraries (x264, ffmpeg)
  • SSA Subtitle support. (Including burn-in)
  • MP3 audio now supported in MP4 files (Note: Limited Player compatibility)
  • VOBSUB subtitle now supported in MP4 files (Note: Limited Player compatibility)
  • Updated Presets for newer devices and better quality
  • AC3 encoding support.
  • Improved DVD Main Feature detection (when using dvdnav)
  • Universal audio downmix support (all audio types can be downmixed)
  • Point*to*Point encoding (second or frame start and end times)
  • Peak framerate option (Capped VFR)

All GUIs

  • Updated x264 Advanced Panel
  • Video Quality Slider drops % value and only shows RF for x264
  • Batch Scan (Scan Multiple files at once. N.B: Does not include multiple VIDEO_TS folders / Image files)
  • Many Bug fixes
  • Many Tweaks to improve usability.
  • Ability to edit queue jobs

Mac GUI

  • New Audio Panel supporting >4 Audio Tracks
  • VLC detection in /Applications and ~/Applications
  • Multiple instance support

The ability to read the Blu-ray disc structure. This allows Handbrake to rip Blu-ray discs much easier than it did before. It still won’t decrypt them but there are other tools for that.

by on November 5, 2009 Leave a Comment

Easily Copy Your DVD collection to iTunes, iPhone or iPod

If you would like to rip DVDs onto your OSX system there are less options than on a Windows PC. However, the software that is available is very good. Today we are going to take a look at Handbrake. A very easy to use DVD ripping program that will take DVDs and convert them into a plethora of formats.

If you want to rip DVDs for the iPod, AppleTV, TiVo or just to watch on your Mac Book then Handbrake is the application for you.

To get started, you need to first install Handbrake onto your system.

  1. Download the file from the Handbrake website
  2. Install Handbrake into your Applications Folder
  3. Launch Handbrake, then follow along with the video below

As you can see Handbrake does an excellent job of easily allowing you to load your DVD collection into your Mac. The next time you are on a trip, you don’t have to bore yourself with things like reading. Open up iTunes or VLC and you’re ready to go.