Toast, Popcorn and the new Apple TV

[Dan Donovan]

I am looking to do 2 things:

 

1. Copy DVD movies I purchased to iTunes so I can watch them with the new Apple TV. From what I understand, for anything to play on the Apple TV, it must be in iTunes.

2. Make back-up DVDs of the DVDs I have purchased.

 

Do I need both Toast and Popcorn, or will Toast do both?

 

Thanks!

Dan

[Chops]

Understatement of the year ! It's as though they proactively wanted to hide it away to get more Popcorn purchases....

 

Disappointing.

 

The VIDEO_TS folder can also be located in the Movies folder. Symbolic links are followed; aliases aren't.

 

Awkwardly unintuitive access method, IMO.

[tsantee]

I am looking to do 2 things:

 

1. Copy DVD movies I purchased to iTunes so I can watch them with the new Apple TV. From what I understand, for anything to play on the Apple TV, it must be in iTunes.

2. Make back-up DVDs of the DVDs I have purchased.

 

Do I need both Toast and Popcorn, or will Toast do both?

 

Thanks!

Dan

Commercial DVDs have copy protection that prevent what you're wanting to do.

 

If DVDs aren't copy protected Toast 8 or Popcorn 2 can export the video to iTunes in a format supported by AppleTV (as I understand the AppleTV specifications), as well as duplicate DVDs. Toast 8 does a lot more than Popcorn 2, so if you have a Mac that meets the Toast 8 System Requirements it makes much more sense to buy Toast 8.

[Chops]

With all respect, I think you are very wrong with your statement.

 

(although I have bought Popcorn 2 and Toast 8) I am using Handbrake or now, Mediafork incorporating Handbrake. Toast 8 does NOT have support for exporting DVDs to AppleTV or iPod format. This is purposely blocked from the system to force you to buy Popcorn 2.

 

If you open a DVD inside Video/VideoTS in Toast, it makes a best attempt to show you the MPEG contents of the DVD folder - but it is not an intelligent show of the contents. This has been NOT included, and I can only think that it's to get users to buy both products.

 

Was VERY disappointed in this.

 

PLEASE prove me wrong - I'd be delighted ! In the meantime - Handbrake it is ! Handbrake also allows you to trim pictures to cut out bars and black edges, vary 1 or 2 passes, encoding rates and encoders and many more features. Nice. Toast is for burning files to disk. Popcorn is... redundant, I guess?

 

 

 

 

Commercial DVDs have copy protection that prevent what you're wanting to do.

 

If DVDs aren't copy protected Toast 8 or Popcorn 2 can export the video to iTunes in a format supported by AppleTV (as I understand the AppleTV specifications), as well as duplicate DVDs. Toast 8 does a lot more than Popcorn 2, so if you have a Mac that meets the Toast 8 System Requirements it makes much more sense to buy Toast 8.

[tsantee]

With all respect, I think you are very wrong with your statement.

 

(although I have bought Popcorn 2 and Toast 8) I am using Handbrake or now, Mediafork incorporating Handbrake. Toast 8 does NOT have support for exporting DVDs to AppleTV or iPod format. This is purposely blocked from the system to force you to buy Popcorn 2.

 

If you open a DVD inside Video/VideoTS in Toast, it makes a best attempt to show you the MPEG contents of the DVD folder - but it is not an intelligent show of the contents. This has been NOT included, and I can only think that it's to get users to buy both products.

 

Was VERY disappointed in this.

 

PLEASE prove me wrong - I'd be delighted ! In the meantime - Handbrake it is ! Handbrake also allows you to trim pictures to cut out bars and black edges, vary 1 or 2 passes, encoding rates and encoders and many more features. Nice. Toast is for burning files to disk. Popcorn is... redundant, I guess?

I don't have Handbrake and it may be better than Toast for this purpose. Toast works differently from Popcorn when using video contained in a VIDEO_TS folder. With Popcorn you just select the VIDEO_TS folder and have access to its titles. With Toast you must place the VIDEO_TS on the desktop and select it using the DVD button in the Media Browser. This gives you access to the titles and chapter levels. Select either the titles or chapters in the Media Browser and drag them to the Video window (with DVD video selected as the format). After Toast extracts the files as MPEGs you can export them to iPod video format.

[sjkrox]

With Toast you must place the VIDEO_TS on the desktop and select it using the DVD button in the Media Browser.

The VIDEO_TS folder can also be located in the Movies folder. Symbolic links are followed; aliases aren't.

 

Awkwardly unintuitive access method, IMO.