Need Help - Ipod Video

[Rick Laton]

I have a few questions. If I purchase an IPOD Video, can I load my store bought DVD's on it? If so, what software do I need? How long does it take to load one? Can I load my home made armwrestling DVD collection on it? Once I have them on there, can I buy an adapter and plug it directly into my tv and play it stand alone? All help will be appreciated as I know NOTHING about this contraption. No, I have not purchased one yet and I may not unless you can help me. Thanks in advance.

Ricky Joe

[Mike Moeller]

rick get a rca lyra video player if you want to put dvds from the store on it. with all dvds you purchase there is copy right protection you have to get around. the rca is capable of doing this easily. you can plug it into your tv and record shows or put in a dvd from blockbuster on your tv and record it right to your rca lyra also. I can yell you how to get around the copy right issues if you decide you are getting one of these.

[Rick Laton]

Awesome! How long does it take to load a full length DVD? How many gig does a lyra hold? On second thought, drop me a phone # I may just call you when I get a few minutes. Thanks man.

[Mike Moeller]

do a search on ebay for rca lyra 2780, they have different models like the x3000 20gb or the cheaper 2780 models. they record while the movie is playing on your tv so however long it takes for the movie to run its course. I actually recorded all my college teams games on it that were on tv. pretty cool to take with you on road trips to tournaments and watch during the drive!

[James Battles]

I bought Heather a Zune last year. I did alot of research and in the end the Zune had very few downsides to it. 30gb drive. runs wmv, wma. Most anything now days are convertable. The pathway I would take was to rip the dvd to xvid avi and then convert the xvid to wmv because it retains higher quality video and audio and has very little problems being out of sync. I make most full length motion pictures into a 300 to 450 mb file this way. Alot of movies will fit into 30gb but mp3s need a place . Plenty of room for both. they have rules though. The white pages on the Zune tells just which bitrate is best. I use easy cdda extractor for mp3 conversion . I used a freeware program called auto gordion knot for ripping the dvds to a high quality AC3 audio xvid and then most any of these windows media video converters work ok. there are several. You can cut out the middle man though . here is two links. One is just the doorway to any and all conversions for beginners.
forum.videohelp.com/newbie-conversion-f3.html

this one is one I found that sounds fairly automated for dvd to wmv which is exactly what you need. Has a list of codecs and the program plus a detailed explanation for conversions .
I dont know the quality. Latley most anything to be found in the scene is in xvid and yoiu want to make either wmv or turn it back into a dvd . I have been using VSO convertX for that.
Of course latley I have not been doing any of this much because I have been working and studying .
here is the skip a step converter link.
forum.videohelp.com/topic319304.html

Zune won me over because it interfaces with winxp and can be categorized and linked with album covers etc to the media. I don't much use the online part for anything but matching album covers etc. It is also wireless from zune to zune meaning you can trade and transfer between Zunes wirelessly within 30 feet as long as they unlock their network. Good luck on the Choice Rick.
link below
forum.videohelp.com/topic319304.html

The Lyra sounds great. The zune has a Tv hook up also but doesn't record direct and convert to the wmv format. You know Microsoft. It is all about their formatting.
here is the link from zune on record and convert. I just prefer to use my dvd recorder , make the dvd, rip to xvid and convert to wmv although I am gonna read the article above now to cut out the middle man. Laters,
www.zune-online.com/forum/3rd-party-software-for-zune/how-to-record-tv-shows-and-convert-to-zune-wmv-on-computer-t320.0.html


another link to all different guides.
www.videohelp.com/guides/category/how-to-convert-to-avi-divx-xvid-wmv-mkv-ogm-mp4-h264-4;13#968

[Rick Laton]

Mr. Battles,

I have NO IDEA what you just said. Sounded important though. I will talk with you in detail in Jacksonville or I may call you. Thanks in advance everyone.

Ricky Joe

[Justin Kaufman]

Thanks Mr. Battles, I was going to tell Rick about the Zune also. I just bought one and hadn't had much time to check out the video side of it but what you said in your post will surely help when I get to it.

Also, from what I heard they are kind of phasing out the 30 gb (which I bought) since they are coming out with the 80 gb, so you should be able to get it a little cheaper. I bought mine from Cosco for $99 bucks and they're normally $199. If that would have been the case I would've waited for the 80.

Rick, that sounded like a foreign language to me too!!


I have loaded about 24 full length cd's and it only took up 1.6 gb also.

[James Battles]

You guys have great amounts of common sense and that is what counts in this world. Justin just relayed some big info at 25 full length cds and 1.6 gigabyte of 30 was used. I would say for 99 bucks that is sweet. According to how you encode to windows media video you can feasibly put 60+ full length movies on the zune. Of course the way to go is to run up several hundred albums and then load about 30 movies and you would be good to go for several weeks or a month on a trip. That would be if you had it running the whole time though.
An 80gb zune... That is just scary. My choice on the Zune was also based on the screen size and placement . Its rotatable. I will see maybe I can throw some goodies on a disk and bring to Jax. I see things on the net and its a shame as a simple end user to not reach out and grab I even have the family guy 100th special episode and then 101 part A & B .. Stewie Kills Lois We have dvr with our cable provider. aight .. night guys. the wife is calling. we are seeing if Miami can get to 0-16 or if they can hold off the Steelers.

[Rick Laton]

Okay, let's take this one step at a time.

1. Just for informational purposes, what is the format that you have to convert to, to place a dvd on an ipod video or zune?

2. How do I get a store bought dvd on these devices? I am guessing that I have to put it on my computer first. Am I correct? I have a dvd player/burner on my computer but I have no idea how to "Save" it to my hard drive. How do you do that?

3. What software do you have to have to "Unlock" the dvd to let it save to your hard drive?

That's enough questions for now. Let's go in baby steps.

Ricky Joe

[James Battles]

OK by the numbers. You can capture directly in an average but very viewable stream from your dvd player or just the TV to a computer. The original piece of hardware was referred to as a capture card. They had varying compatibilities and problems with drivers at first. I used to have a pinnacle card but it crashed and froze etc. I did get it to work ok for a while but it was a pain. I couldn't vouch for where cards went to after that . I bought an adaptec USB media center which had RCA jacks for the VHS and a composite "cable" jack for capping TV programs. Hopefully they have gotten even better with it but the capture hardware will convert and possibly , depending on how good it is can capture a file to the format you need even for the Zune. I would have to do some investigating there. I do know mine will do AVI format which is while being the same type file as xvid its a different codec from adaptec. Then I would convert the capture to whatever file format I needed. In this case with Zune and I suspect Ipod would be the WMV or Windows Media Video which is just a really heavily compressed mpeg file but with an alter file extension of WMV instead of AVi because Microsoft likes to keep it in their court. WMV is nothing more than the non open source code of DIVX which was the open source = free code. The problem with capture cards or units is that most only do 640X480 resolution or maybe 800X600 which is not bad but far from DVD quality. This is why I use software to rip the DVD to the current cutting edge open source Xvid which is like DIVX but they had more skills and were able to retain better audio quality within the movie. See a movie is Audio and Video which I am sure you know but the audio takes up far more room than the video. The Xvid coders have been able to retain some quality of the audio and also improve on the quality of the video while compressing the file as much as humanly possible off a free source code. Then you use Microsoft's even better code for WMV to bring it down to Zune and ipod. All that writing about was about a single program that would take a DVD and rip it to WMV without stopping along the beaten path to preserve the quality.
I must admit over the years the growth and change of this technology has been daunting?
I guess that is a good word. There are many paths to wander down but the quality path is not always the direct one , but possibly could be I would have to investigate
OK question number 3..... du du du duuuu. There are programs. Some are outlawed now but they exist. Some are new but more investigating . Some require a visit and some talking by me to some of the guys in the Scene also known as MiRc. I would have to see who is using what and what they think is best as far as unlocking and ripping a DVD. I didn't read about that automkv and whether it removed the region code but autogordionknot works on some locks and there is a little outlawed program that can be had called DVD-decrypter. I am sure there are some others . There is a program called alchohol 120% which will clone just about any disc but not sure about decryption. :)you know for backup purposes only < cheap disclaimer lol. ok enough for now. any further enlightenments must come in person. I could ask around to see just what the going best one step program is . Alot of these guys really pride themselves on their creations so as I said before in some cases direct path is not always their chosen one. I hope this has been a little more informative but yeah I know its not enough yet. I will search for what is being used to backup ones DVDs to different file format to be used on portable devices. See that was perfectly legal hahaha. night

[James Battles]

further... Ipod is mp4 which is an mpeg 4 but its proprietary just like microsoft but different
they referred to the file as 30G and 60G which is probably like quicktime related being and apple/mac product. Zune is microsoft. That may be one problem you would have with ipod unless you are a Mac user. anyway they make a windows based program that does format conversions call xillsoft video converter. I am pretty sure that is the name. I will bring more later ,,,, Tired and going to pass out, night

[Heather Battles]

Rick,
Don't worry I don't understand 98% of what he just said and I now have a headache.
Plus I am married to him so don't feel bad
see if this helps
Item Description Zune


It's brand-new, super-slim and goes anywhere. Highlights include wireless sharing, video playback, innovative touch controls and a built-in FM tuner. So get ready to discover and share some new tunes.



Key Features & Benefits:

8 GB hard drive

Stores up to 2000 songs, 25,000 pictures or 25 hours of video

Bright 1.8-inch color LCD, 320 x 240 pixels

Shows your settings, what's playing, and what's available

Zune-to-Zune wireless sharing and wireless sync with your PC

Lets you use a built-in 802.11b/g wireless interface to sync with your own PC music collection or share tracks, homemade recordings, playlists and pictures with other Zune users (received tracks expire after you have listened 3 times or had the track 3 days)

Zune Pad

Enables you to browse effortlessly through your music, photo and video collection to find what you want

Versatile audio and video playback

Supports MP3, WMA and ACC audio formats, plus it displays JPEG images and WMV, MPEG-4 and H.264 video formats


Built-in FM tuner

Offers 30 station presets, as well as RBDS broadcast signal support to display artist and track title

Interfaces

Provides a USB 2.0 port and wireless 802.11b/g connection for downloads and sharing

Rechargeable lithium-ion battery

Plays up to 20 hours of music or 4 hours of photos/video on a single charge




Top of Page




Specifications


Features
Capacity: 8 GB
Digital Storage Media: Flash memory - integrated
Additional Features: Built-in FM radio, upgradeable firmware, USB 2.0 compatibility, MPEG-4 playback, WMV playback, H.264 playback
Equalizer: Yes
Sound Output Mode: Stereo
Supported Digital Photo Standards: JPEG
Audio & Video Playback
Supported Digital Audio Standards: WMA, AAC, MP3
Playback Modes: Random play / shuffle
Supported Digital Video Standards: MPEG-4, WMV, H.264
Display
Built-in Display: LCD - color
Diagonal Size: 1.8"
Resolution: 320 x 240
Battery
Battery: Player battery - rechargeable - lithium ion
Battery Life Details: Music playback (wireless off) - up to 24 hour(s) ¦ Pictures - up to 4 hour(s) ¦ Video playback - up to 4 hour(s)
Headphones
Headphones Type: Headphones - binaural - ear-bud
Miscellaneous
Cables Included: 1 x data cable
Connections
Connector Type: 1 x docking station ¦ 1 x USB ¦ 1 x headphones
General
Height: 0.4 in
Width: 1.6 in
Depth: 3.6 in
Weight: 1.7 oz
Enclosure Color: Black
More Information
Model No.: HVA-00001
Shipping Weight (in pounds): 0.5
Assembled in Country of Origin: USA and/or Imported
Origin of Components: USA and/or Imported
Wal-Mart No.: 000580307

[Rick Laton]

Sweet. Would you bring it to Florida states? If you have an adapter that plugs in to a tv to watch it on a larger screen bring that too. I would like to see what the quality is. Thanks.

Ricky Joe

[Heather Battles]

Ok see u next weekend. I don't know about the adapter I'll have to ask the guru :-*of the house I mean the computer room.

Heather