Comments on: Review: Popcorn 2 by Roxio

By: Andrew

Andrew — Tue, 17 Apr 2007 05:58:42 +0000

I got an important question, i recently got Roxio Toast Titanium 8.01 and since it can burn dvds also, would any of you guys just go ahead and rip the copy protected dvd’s and just use the Toast program to burn the dvd instead os using popcorn? i want to know if i should really invest in popcorn 2.0 or if the Toast can get the job decently, please respond anyone who knows.

By: Jon Crenshaw

Jon Crenshaw — Fri, 13 Apr 2007 02:10:02 +0000

Hello,
I am trying to convert Video_TS files to Home Theatre mode in Popcorn but when I start the process it shows about 1% progress then stops.
Can Anyone Help Me?
Thanks

By: Gary Glitter

Gary Glitter — Fri, 28 Apr 2006 18:10:15 +0000

Yesh, that’s tough, but it makes sense when you think about it. In theory Popcorn is designed to make movies for portable players, and I can’t think of one that plays true 5.1.

By: miles

miles — Fri, 28 Apr 2006 18:06:31 +0000

Gary Glitter,
Thanks for the info. It sounds like it’s definately worth looking into getting this. I can live without menus and chapters but loosing the 5.1 surround sucks.

By: Gary Glitter

Gary Glitter — Fri, 28 Apr 2006 17:56:53 +0000

no, i don’t think there is any way to string multiple disc’s VIDEO_TS folders together using popcorn.
Although, now that you got me thinking, as a work-around…

… once you de-crypt a DVD, Popcorn can make a video out of it using export for iPod.
You could do that for both discs of Lord of the Rings, THEN go back into the export for iPod option, and choose VIDEO FILES as your source option. Then Popcorn will string those 2 together. (although you loose menus and chapters).

The problem is you would be double compressing them, however, if you use your own custom bitrate/size settings for the intial convert for each disc, and choose a really high quality setting, like 1920×1080 MPEG-4 at 10,000kbs or something ridiculous, you won’t notice any quality hit I would think.

But as far as picture quality, since you can make your own cutom H.264 or MPEG4 setting, so for your final output you can make it as big as you want, space-wise. Popcorn estimates hwo large the file will be when you adjust your settings.

Oh, and I think when you export to a video file froma DVD, it mixes the surround down to a stereo mix, so you alos loose 5.1 surround that way.

By: miles

miles — Fri, 28 Apr 2006 17:13:14 +0000

to clarify, my intention isn’t to transfer movies to an iPod. I want to store them on a hard drive and watch them on a TV via Front Row. I would to maintain DVD like quality (compressed if possible). Also, What about connecting a movie that spans 2 DVD’s, like Lord of the Rings, so I don’t have to access two movie files. Can that be done in Popcorn 2?

By: miles

miles — Fri, 28 Apr 2006 16:49:10 +0000

I’ve used handbrake and it works but the quality of the final movie is low, even with the highest settings. How is the quality with Popcorn 2?

By: kugino

kugino — Fri, 28 Apr 2006 15:41:05 +0000

for those of us who already have toast 7, why would we need/want popcorn 2? even though it’s a UB, isn’t roxio going to update toast 7 as a UB in the near future? moreover, with free apps like handbrake, converting even copy-protected DVDs to mpeg or h.264 is a cinch…any reason to use popcorn over handbrake?

By: Gary Glitter

Gary Glitter — Fri, 28 Apr 2006 14:51:11 +0000

Yup, Popcorn 2 can do that. you gotta unencrypt the dvds first, like the article says, but once you got the video_ts folder, Popcorn can compress it for ya.

By: Chase

Chase — Fri, 28 Apr 2006 05:56:09 +0000

Once you’ve converted your DVD in to MP4′s you’ll want to tag the file with the proper information and even a summery of the plot with this handy little app “Lostify” which can be found here:

http://home.comcast.net/~lowellstewart/lostify/