DVDs on my MacBook
I read a lot of blogs. I love the entire blog community, reading other peoples' blogs and writing this one. I'm speaking to a group of blog readers, so I'm sure this is not the only material you're reading.
One of the blogs I enjoy reading is Terry White's Tech Blog. I don't know Terry, but he does quality blogging, and he's good about doing an entry almost every day. Something you're not getting what you're paying for at THIS blog. :-)
One of his recent entries was on the application HandBrake. HandBrake is an app that allows you to put your DVD collection onto your mac. Terry has hundreds of DVDs, all of which he is adding to his mac. Not to be a CopyCat, (DVD copying pun intended) but now I'm doing the same thing.
I'm using four apps to pull this off. I'd like to mention that this process has been available for years, but is just now becoming easy and fast enough for us average bears to mess with it.
I wouldn't be blogging this if I didn't want you to try it. I can't believe how easy this is, and how nice it will be to watch my movies on my mac (traveling) without having to carry my 70+ discs around with me. Also, I am doing this process in a way that it is viewable on any iPod, including my iPhone.
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I just finished "I am Legend". Here is a basic rundown of how I pulled it off:
1. open HandBrake
2. insert DVD
3. VLC will run silently
4. from the right hand side, select "Apple--Universal"
5. start the HandBrake process
5. open MetaX
6. open the file HandBrake just created
7. start the MetaX process
8. double click the file, and iTunes will add it
DONE!
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It is SO easy. However long your DVD is is how long the process takes to run. I am Legend took less than two hours. This is perfect when I can leave my mac running and go to lunch, or overnight, or while I'm getting ready in the morning.
I started watching the movie, paused it, and synced my iPhone, putting the movie on there. That took about 2mins, for the entire 100min movie. When I watched it on my phone, it started where I paused it on my laptop. INCREDIBLE.
Anyway, if you want to go get those applications, did I mention they are all COMPLETELY FREE? I love it. I'm going to have a handful put on here before we leave on vacation next week, so we can watch them on the flight.
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Here are some links for ya:
HandBrake: http://handbrake.fr/
VLC: http://www.videolan.org/vlc/
MetaX: http://www.kerstetter.net/page53/page54/page54.html
iTunes: http://www.apple.com/itunes/
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You should totally just try it for one movie and see what you think. That DVD only took 1.2GB of space, so you're not exactly filling your system here. thanks for reading!