AppleTV

DVD to iPod Conversion

I often buy DVD’s and while some companies are now providing iPod and AppleTV compatible files, many are not.

To convert I use handbreak to rip the DVD to a suitable format. However there has been an increasing trend of trying to hide the track number in 99 tracks, most of which are just the same chapters out of order.

To record the correct track you need to know what it is, so I’m going to start posting the actual track numbers on my site whether I rip a film or not. I would appreciate any help you can give me by posting in the comments too.

The way I find track numbers is a control on my DVD remote labelled I think prog which gives chapter and track number of what you are watching at the time.

I should add that I am looking at Australian (region 4) content. If you have any details from other regions let me know and I will put them in a seperate post.

G-force – track 32
Up – track 68
Harry Potter & the half blood prince – track 1 (as it should be)
Ice Age 3 (has iPod version on disc) – track 1 (as it should be)
Fame – track 1 (ok no taking the mickey for this one! I know I’m sad!)
Michael Jackson – this is it – track 1 of 99
Lego – The Adventures if Clutch Powers – track 23 of 26
Sherlock Holmes – track 48 of 99
Princes and the frog – track 51 of 99 (US is track 29 of 99)
Alice in Wonderland – track 35 of 99
Iron Man 2 – track 33 of 99
Last Airbender – track 7 of 99
Cats and Dogs 2 – 1 but also get track 3 a roadrunner cartoon.
Sorcerer’s Apprentice – track 28 of 99

AppleTV update

Having been frustrated with the AppleTV in my last post, I have got a workaround which seems to do the job for me.

In iTunes preferences, click on the advanced tab. At the bottom of the first section is the checkbox to “Copy files to the iTunes folder when adding to library”. Unchecking this box allowed me to add the videos stored on my external hard drive into iTunes, without overloading my laptop. From there they then synced over to the AppleTV, and seem to stay there even when the hard drive is disconnected from my laptop.

Okay, I’ll admit it’s hardly ideal! I am hoping that by using appropriate commands I won’t get files littering my hard drive, but at least it makes the AppleTV useful!

I got an AppleTV the other day and have got it all hooked up. It is very slick, but really annoying in one respect and unfortunately that is why I actually bought it.

First I should explain that I have a small child, so the first thing I like to do with a new DVD is back it up. This is from experience of knowing it can last anything from a week onwards.

Obviously this gives me a management problem. I usually put films on my 80gb iPod video and that is very full. I now either delete ones he doesn’t want to watch anymore, or back them up to an external drive using Senuti to pull them off the iPod. I have a MacBook with a 120gb drive which only has 10gb left so I don’t have the option of keeping them on my mac.

So I bought the appletv with a 160gb hard drive so I could move the films off the iPod and onto the appletv. Trouble is that the sync is either automatic or semi-automatic. No manual management.

That means that I am effectively only able to use a few GB of the drive, unless of coarse I buy everything again from the iTunes store. This seems really odd on apples part. Why would you do it one way for the iPod and another for appletv?

The end result is that I really can’t use the atv to anywhere near it’s full potential. So I am left with a choice of using a device that should work for what I need it for, but doesn’t or hacking it so it will work!

What to do, what to do! Any advice out there?