By Daniel Eran Dilger

Published: 12:00 PM EST

Using Crunch to convert DVD movies

Using HandBrake, it is actually more difficult and time consuming to strip the encryption off a DVD and then use Crunch to convert it that it would be to simply do the entire job within HandBrake itself in one step. The latest version of HandBrake offers presets for Apple TV and the iPod, in addition to the Sony Playstation Portable. While HandBrake has a more intimidating "expert" interface with more exposed controls for a wide variety of setting options, users who just want one button simplicity can simply select on one of the presets and click start and ignore all the other options.

Compare the simple Toast interface above with the default interface of HandBrake, which presents a fairly intimidating set of controls for audio and video settings:





Power users have many more options for fine tuning their DVD conversions in HandBrake, depending on whether they want the highest possible quality, the smallest possible file size, or are only interested in how long the conversion will take. Crunch does offer a variety of custom settings in a simpler interface than HandBrake, but presents the user with far less control over the conversion process. This might actually appeal to users who want some ability to play with the settings, without being overwhelmed with lots of technical options.

As shown in the graphic below, once a DVD is ripped of encryption and copied to the hard drive by an outside applications, the ripped DVD's VIDEO_TS folder can be selected in Crunch, then assigned a target size using a clean and simple interface similar to Roxio's Toast.

This interface is still somewhat confusing; it displays a colored, curved status bar in the lower right that reflects whether the movie will fit into the target file size selected by the user. This 6 GB DVD fills the status bar with orange if I select a 1 GB target, but is half filled with green if I select a 2 GB target. Selecting a target size smaller than 1 GB makes it red.

Does orange mean "not recommended," "a tight fit that will compromise quality," or that the conversion might fail? The interface is so simple that it isn't clear. In really, it doesn't mean anything apart from the fact that the user has chosen a file size goal that does not match the estimated size. It appears to have no bearing on the actual compression used. Why is the control even there? A decorative holdover from Toast for nostalgia? Rather than reusing the Toast interface window designed for CD burning, where it is important to know whether selected files will fit on a CD-R before burning, Roxio should have rethought the overall interface to suit the needs of a video converter.



Clicking on the green gear icon allows the user to choose a different device target and quality setting than the default selection of "Apple TV - Automatic." A sheet drops down to offers three target devices: iPod, Apple TV, and iPhone. For Apple TV, the "Automatic" settings default to about 720x400 (depending on the source movie aspect ratio) and H.264 encoding. The "High" quality setting is oddly enough identical to Automatic. Why is it even there? For the "Fastest" quality setting, Crunch selected a lower 640x350 resolution and MPEG-4 compression (which means MPEG-4 part 2, as opposed to MPEG-4 part 10 / H.264).

At that lower quality setting, Crunch estimated it would generate an 850 MB file from my 6 GB movie, rather than the 1.07 GB estimate shown below for both the Automatic and High settings. And no, changing the target size using the popup menu control show above did not adjust the Automatic settings to target that resulting size; it had no effect at all.



The standard iPod and iPhone device settings appear to be exactly identical. At "Standard" quality, using a 320x180 resolution (for the widescreen movie I used), it estimated a 480 MB result. The iPod screen is 320x240, but the fact that the iPhone is advertised as having a 320x480 display indicates that Crunch currently offers no custom support for the iPhone, despite listing iPhone support as a reason to buy the product. It would be expected that Roxio would update this when the iPhone is actually delivered. The "High" and "Fastest" quality settings for both the iPod and iPhone are also identical: High is about 640x350, H.264 (830 MB estimated result); Fastest is 320x180 using the simpler MPEG-4 compression (830 MB).

However, users who want to convert a number of DVDs for use with Apple TV are likely to be disappointed by the features in Crunch, because free rivals such as Handbreak not only do the entire job for free, but offer a variety of features and options that Crunch does not support. For example, Crunch only offers to convert DVD audio to plain, two channel stereo sound. A recent update of HandBrake now allows users to convert the Dolby Digital Surround on most DVDs to Dolby Pro Logic II stereo surround, which is supported on the Apple TV. HandBrake also offers a variety of options for selecting multiple alternative language soundtracks and for creating QuickTime chapter markers in the resulting movie file; Crunch does none of these things.

While HandBreak is more complex and is still offered as beta software, it is also completely free and seems to work well in practice. It is also simply much faster to rip and convert in one step compared to a two step rip and convert using multiple applications, as would be required to use Crunch. This makes it hard to recommend Crunch for use in converting DVD movies.

This problem isn't the fault of Crunch as an application as much as it is the legal challenges that prevent Roxio from offering a commercial product that rips encrypted DVDs. Having to rely on third party, open source ripping software to do half of the job simply makes Crunch impractical for a large part of the job for which it is being offered. This is the same legal quandary that prevents Apple from offering the ability to rip DVDs from within iTunes for use on the Apple TV or with video iPods.

A recent legal suit lost by the DVD Consortium in its efforts to stop a vendor from ripping users' DVDs for them suggests a future possibility for vendors such as Apple to allow managed copying of DVDs specifically to enable consumers to copy their own DVD movies for use on alternative devices such as the Apple TV. Until that happens however, end users will have to rely on open source projects like HandBrake, which operate under the legal radar and effectively cannot be sued for helping consumers to convert their DVD movies.

On page three: Using Crunch to convert video files.