How to Convert DVD to iPhone (with Free Software)

iphone-video.jpgIn the first few post-iPhone launch days, there seems to be a bit of an epidemic. Many technology sites, particularly the iPhone dedicated sites, don't seem to be able to get out of pre-launch mode. I thought I'd give it a shot. Instead of moving with the herd, and throwing up 15 posts today about what my iPhone looks like out of the box, or what some other guy's iPhone looks like in it's dock, or maybe what it looks like when I run down the street with my iPhone in it's bag - I thought I'd try to write something that might actually be useful to those of you who are now at home with your iPhones.

One of the first things I wanted to know once AT&T decided to let me use my iPhone was how to get some of my DVDs converted so I could watch them on the phone. Not having any experience with video iPod or otherwise being a video encoding savvy individual, I found myself starting from scratch. There are, without question, countless ways to get from DVD to iPhone. The problem is, most of them are either costly or wrought with a myriad of incredibly frustrating problems. That's where Handbrake comes to the rescue.

After trying a variety of methods, we tried Handbrake and were shocked by the ease of use and quality of product that Handbrake turns out. Following is a very simple to follow tutorial that will have your DVDs on your iPhone in no time.

Step #1 - Download and Install Required Software

You'll need two pieces of software to get this done. One is Handbrake, the other is a DVD decrypting tool called DVD43.

It's worth noting at this point that DVD43 is a tool that decrypts copy protection on DVDs to allow the Handbrake software to access these DVDs. You need to be aware of the local laws in your area regarding software like DVD43. It may be illegal. In any case, the information in this tutorial is provided for transfer of your own DVDs onto your iPhone. Use of this information to rip rented, or otherwise unowned DVDs, is illegal and frowned upon by big people in high places.

Download Handbrake here: http://handbrake.m0k.org/?page_id=8

Download DVD43 here: http://dvd43.com

Install both packages before moving on to the next step. DVD43 will require a restart in order to load it's driver into your system. When DVD43 is running properly, you should see a yellow smiley face in your taskbar (smiley face will be green if a DVD is in your DVD drive). If DVD43 does not start automatically, start it and check your taskbar.

Step #2 - Load DVD

Insert a DVD into your DVD drive, and start Handbrake. The first thing you will see is something like this:

selectdvd.jpg

Select "DVD" as your source, and click "Browse". Now you will need to select the source location of the DVD's video files. As shown below, these are usually found within the "VIDEO_TS" subdirectory on your DVD drive. Select the VIDEO_TS directory, and click "OK".

videots.jpg

Step #3 - Setup Video Encoding

After clicking "OK" in step #2, you will receive an informational message letting you know that Handbrake is going to read information from your DVD, and that it can take a long period of time to do so. You'll agree, of course, and once complete the following screen should appear:

settings.jpg

There screen above reflects the settings I had once I completed the following steps. Make sure you follow closely, as improper settings can result in video that cannot be shown on your iPhone.

Select a DVD Title

The default is "Automatic". This will encode the entire DVD, including previews, commentaries, advertisements, etc - which is most likely what you do not want. Instead, select from the dropdown the track with the longest time - as this is almost always the movie. In the example above, Bad Santa is clocking in at 1 hour and 39 minutes.

Choose a Destination Directory

Enter a location and filename where you want to save your iPhone movie. This should be self explanatory. As you'll be using MPEG-4 encoding, name the file with a .mp4 extension. Though, if you omit this, Handbrake should add it for you.

Choose Your Encoders
Video: A subsequent release of Handbrake will contain a specific iPhone profile, but for now, the iPod profile works just fine. Select the "H.264 (iPod)" encoder profile.

Audio: Select AAC (the other options don't work with MP4)
Enter Width/Height

You'll notice to the right of the Width/Height entry boxes, Handbrake displays the aspect ratio of the track or DVD title you are converting. One of the nice features about Handbrake is that it will automatically determine width or height given one of the two dimensions, based on the aspect ratio. As you'll want to take advantage of the full size of the iPhone's screen, enter 480 for width and 320 for the height. Handbrake will convert the movie to 480x320 while maintaining the native aspect ratio of the DVD.
Other Settings

Below the source and destination settings, you'll find an extended settings section with six tabs. For the purpose of this tutorial, you need only worry about the Video Settings tab.

Within the video settings tab, you'll only need to interact with one of two settings.

Avg Bitrate

You can specify the quality of your movie by setting the average bitrate. The maximum setting is 1500 kbs. I'm not sure what the minimum is, but I wouldn't recommend bothering with anything less than 500 or the quality will be unpleasant.

The bitrate, and thus quality, of your converted video directly affects the size in MB of the resulting file. As we're all working with 4-8GB of space on the iPhone, minimizing the size of the file while retaining good quality is usually everyone's goal.

In my tests, I've had good results with 750 kbps and even with 650 kbps. On the same note, 1000 kbps is noticeably better. Ultimately, you decide.

Target Size

If you don't want to make guesses about the Bitrate of your video or are more concerned about the final space of the video, and not in the mood to do long-run encoding tests, you can specify a target size for the video. If, for instance, you want your video to be 800MB in size, simply enter 800 in the target size and Handbrake will determine the matching Bitrate.

Encoding/Converting Your DVD

Once you've completed all the above steps, Handbrake is ready to convert your DVD for use on your iPhone. Simply click "Encode" and off you go. Handbrake will launch another informational dialogue, once you click okay, you should see a command window such as this one pop up:

cli.jpg

That's it. Seriously.

Handbrake will chug away and convert your video. Once completed, it'll give you a pop up letting you know. After that, all you need to do is add the video to your iTunes library, sync to your iPhone, and you're all set.

Enjoy.

iPhoneFAQ encourages readers of this tutorial to test the methods described above and offer suggestions, tweaks, improvements, etc. Thanks to rolfmaocopterzor (DVD to iPod HowTo) and the folks in #handbrake on irc.freenode.net for their assistance.

Comments

I was just looking for something like this yesterday. Thanks for reading my mind. :)

For the rest of you... this works very well. Do NOT, I repeat: DO NOT go the DVDx route. That ugly junk locked up my machine 5 times in a row.

Not that questions here in the comments won't be handled, but anything detailed in terms of questions or comments in regards to the tutorial is best done so on our iPhoneFAQ Forums.

Thread for this conversion tutorial is here:
https://www.iphonefaq.org/forum/put-your-dvds-on-your-iphone-t77.0.html

Very many thanks for this. I was wondering how I'd go about this.

I've never had any experience w/ video encoding and this was easy as pie.

Ripped Super Troopers to my iPhone today. Now that's a nice diversion at work. :)

Help...After going into handbrake download site, which do I check to download if I'm running Windows XP?

Thanks in advance

If you have a Mac, just get MacTheRipper and Handbrake!

Question: What happens when I am done? Can I still use the same dvd that i have put into my iphone to watch at dvd player?if no, my mom is gonna slaughter me.

It does nothing to the DVD, why would it?

Handbrake will not install...
Installer info: Handbrake will not install on systems with .net framework version smaller than 2.0
What does this mean? Anyone else run into this?

You need to upgrade to .NET 2.0.

This worked like a charm and is very easy! Thanks so much!

Here's a tip: in the newer version of Handbrake, you can choose "Presets -> IPhone" to help in fill in all the options. It will set a very high avg bit rate, so you might want to change that before encoding.

I did the same thing you did, but when i tried playing it on my phone, it said "This movie format is not supported"" What did i do wrong?

I'm trying it and it seems that dvd43 is no properly working as handbrake keeps on telling me that I am trying to use a protected source. The happy face is green btw

Um never mind. I closed both programs and opened them back up (dvd43 -> handbrake) and its working now.

I went through all the steps and everything worked fine. At the end the movie did not show up in my destination folder. Where is it?

Can someone please help me????? I have followed all of the steps to convert a dvd for my iphone. I put the movie in itunes, but when I try to sync it to my phone I receive a message saying that it did not sync the movie to my iphone because it can't play it on the iphone. I cannot figure out what the problem is. If anyone out there had this problem or can offer a suggestion, I would so appreciate it!!

I have been looking for this sort of program for a while now. I figured i would give this one a try today but honestly just thought that it would be to complicated or not work like the others that i have tried, but i have to say this has worked great and was super easy to use. Thanks alot

I used Handbrake to encode the DVD with the iPhone preset, and i had it synced and then tried to play it and my phone says "This movie format is not supported". What should i do?

have downloaded this and now have film in itunes, but when i attempt to put it on iphone it tells me it will wipe off everything else. when i proceed with this it still doesnt put the film on. when i drag it from itunes on to iphone it tells me that it cant save it to this iphone (its a 3g) Please help!!!

I have used handbreaker, but i cannot get the new movie into itunes, how can i do it please?????

I had the same problem. I decoded, put into iTunes but every time I tried to transfer, iTunes would throw an error code. To solve the issue, I changed to a different USB port and used the ORIGINAL USB cable that came with my phone and it transferred perfectly.

To get the movie into iTunes, open iTunes, go to the movies index (on the left) and click "file" at the top, "add file to library" and browse to your ripped file.

I have read an article : Play DVD Film on iphone on http://www.softry.com/reviews/audio-a-multimedia/178-play-dvd-film-on-iphone.html.
It is AOA DVD Ripper. the output video is high-quality and very clear, however, it take a very long time, and during this tool working, my computer runs like a snail, and I can do nothing at all.

try http://www.m2solutionsinc.com/ this site is a lot better and carries more formats to convert to.
for free conversions try filewiggler.com

I Follwed the rules BUT it didn't work!
I have followed all of the instructions yet when I come to watch the movie I have downloaded in iTunes it is there but not watchable as it is totally pixelated and the sound is cutting in and out... Does anyone have any solution?
Very frustrated - all that time downloading programs etc and I'm so close yet so far :(

you can try this one:
http://www.dvd-converter-suite.com/

you can try this one:
http://www.dvd-converter-suite.com/

Do you want to convert your DVDs to any formats easily?I find a good help for you:
http://www.dvd-converter-suite.com/

Works fantastic, but the only down side is the time it takes.
The good side, its free and easy to use

try http://www.m2solutionsinc.com/ this site is a lot better and carries more formats to convert to.
for free conversions try filewiggler.com

For all your conversion needs such as putting files onto your iPhone, you should try http://www.m2solutionsinc.com/
or for free conversions try www.filewiggler.com

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