Get your TV onto the iPod/iPhone/Apple TV (for Mac OSX Users)

[enzoweb]

Got my Ipod Touch yesterday and used the Elgato hardware encoder (links in previous post) to convert the video to Ipod format.
Works great. Drag and drop video files (can do multiple selections), tell Elgato the format (Ipod normal, Ipod high, Nano, Iphone) and click start. Does a 43 min TV show in about 15-20 mins. Puts the converted file into Itunes. Plays perfectly on the Touch, I tested Ipod High and Iphone settings and both were fantastic.
If you're willing to spend $200 for a one-click solution, I'd recommend this.

[scritch]

enzoweb,

Can you tell me what kind of Mac you have?

The reason for my question is that I use VisualHub (also a drag and drop solution) and on my MacBookPro 2.4Ghz machine VisualHub (using only one core) converts a 45 min program in about 10-15mins.

Settings to use:


I just wonder whether this device would speed up my encodes. I have a feeling the CoreDuo and Core2Duo machines are fast enough to do it without it.

* One thing I haven't mentioned before - note the "Xgrid Encoding" option - this rocks if you have more than one Mac in the house and need to encode multiple items - it farms pieces out to each Mac in the Xgrid (standard in Mac OSX - just follow instructions to setup) and you in essence get a big pool of CPU's crunching away on your encodes, finishing them seriously fast.

Regards,
Shane.

[enzoweb]

This is my macbook pro:

Model Name: MacBook Pro 15"
Model Identifier: MacBookPro2,2
Processor Name: Intel Core 2 Duo
Processor Speed: 2.16 GHz
Number Of Processors: 1
Total Number Of Cores: 2
L2 Cache (per processor): 4 MB
Memory: 1 GB

i haven't really done any specific timings; I set them to encode and do something else.
The blurb says it's faster, but it also uses the usb device so lightens the load on the macbook so I can web surf etc.

[DebB]

If I rip my DVD of a TV series, I get one Video TS folder. I can put that into Visual Hub and it puts out one mpeg4 file for my ipod touch. Is there any way I can separate the episodes and only put in one or two rather than the whole disk?

[Mac Ram]

If I rip my DVD of a TV series, I get one Video TS folder. I can put that into Visual Hub and it puts out one mpeg4 file for my ipod touch. Is there any way I can separate the episodes and only put in one or two rather than the whole disk?

Try using handbrake to convert the video_ts - you will notice that it will (should) allow you to encode individual episodes.

[decryption]

If I rip my DVD of a TV series, I get one Video TS folder. I can put that into Visual Hub and it puts out one mpeg4 file for my ipod touch. Is there any way I can separate the episodes and only put in one or two rather than the whole disk?

If you use Handbrake instead - you can select DVD chapters and it will encode each chapter (chapter = episode) as a separate file.

[Lutze]

* One thing I haven't mentioned before - note the "Xgrid Encoding" option - this rocks if you have more than one Mac in the house and need to encode multiple items - it farms pieces out to each Mac in the Xgrid (standard in Mac OSX - just follow instructions to setup) and you in essence get a big pool of CPU's crunching away on your encodes, finishing them seriously fast.

Regards,
Shane.

Great right up - however a quick question. I've enabled x-grid on both my machines. Yet when I have two files ready for conversion in Visualhub and X-Grid enabled I get a very long Applescript Error. Any suggestions? I've tried it with X-Grid only enabled on the remote machine but still no joy. They are connected via ethernet. And it works if I disable x-grid.

[DebB]

thanks for that!

[scritch]

Great right up - however a quick question. I've enabled x-grid on both my machines. Yet when I have two files ready for conversion in Visualhub and X-Grid enabled I get a very long Applescript Error. Any suggestions? I've tried it with X-Grid only enabled on the remote machine but still no joy. They are connected via ethernet. And it works if I disable x-grid.

If you are running Leopard this error will be because VisualHub doesn't support Xgrid under Leopard. Anything else I suggest posting on the VisualHub forums.

Regards,
Shane.

[chippas]

Scritch what's the difference between iSquint and Virtual Hub? At a quick glance, they seem to be the same...

Thanks! Chippas.

[303-Acid]

iSquint is free, VisualHub is not. Plus...

[scritch]

Yeah - what ^^^ he said

Regards,
Shane.

[chippas]

Ah hah, thanks for that.

Chippas

[Laura123]

wow - awesome post and screenshots. it looks hard to do, but sounds like it is worth the time and effort.

[justjack]

You are a star scritch! EXACTLY what I've been looking for!

[davidw89]

I use iFlicks, after migrating from handbreak and metax.
Manage your Video Collection with iTunes | iFlicks

The new beta version works really well. Metadata is added automatically (no mumbo jumbo with metax) and has in built conversion with a number of preset. Loving it!