How to move episodes from DVD to ipod?

January 25, 2012 7:51 PM

How can I put an episode of a TV show onto my ipod? The issue is, I own the season on disc and don't want to purchase or rent the show from itunes.

I don't know how to take the episodes from the DVD and transfer them to the ipod-- opening up the DVD in Finder (I use a Mac) shows me a folder labeled AUDIO_TS and a folder labeled VIDEO_TS.

Is there a trustworthy app or open software program that would take the show and convert it to the right file format for my ipod?

posted by lockstitch to computers & internet (6 answers total)

handbrake will rip it straight from the dvd into ipod format and throw it onto itunes for uploading
posted by elizardbits at 7:54 PM on January 25, 2012 [1 favorite]

I've never done this (I don't own an iPod) but this guide may be of some help.
posted by RonButNotStupid at 7:54 PM on January 25, 2012

Handbrake.
posted by Jeff Morris at 7:54 PM on January 25, 2012

Convert in Handbrake, drag & drop into iTunes, find in "Films" (IIRC, the default ID3-ish tags put new video there), right-click, "Options", media kind = "TV Programme".
posted by Pinback at 7:56 PM on January 25, 2012

You may also have to install VLC. Handbrake no longer contains the DeCSS libraries necessary to read most commercial DVDs; installing VLC will add them.
posted by Tomorrowful at 8:01 PM on January 25, 2012

I highly recommend RipIt. It uses Handbrake behind the scenes but provides a very easy interface for converting movies. You can set it to both rip and convert a movie when you insert a disc using presets (iPod, iPhone, iPad, Apple TV, generic high quality, etc.) and it'll copy the files to iTunes when it's done.

You can even, in the CD & DVD pane of System Preferences, tell your Mac to open RipIt automatically when you insert a DVD, then tell RipIt to convert the disc & eject it when done. Do note that video conversion is a complicated process that takes hours.

It's $25 but well worth it in my opinion. There's a free version you can try that has limitations I can't remember.

Also, on the Mac App store, there's a program called iDentify ($10 I think). You can drag a video app to it and it'll look up all of the movie's or show's metadata (actors, director, release date, even the poster) and embed it in the file. If you don't mind a second step, you can have RipIt not automatically add its files to iTunes, then drag them onto iDentify and have it tag the files and add them to iTunes. The result is a movie/show that looks identical to what you'd download from iTunes but that came from a DVD you already own. In fact, some iTunes files are still something like 360p while your DVDs will be 480p, so you're getting a higher-quality file in some cases.
posted by davextreme at 6:37 AM on January 26, 2012