f13.net

Google finds a bunch of these programs but can anyone recommend one? I am a bit leery of downloading a bunch of free demos. Hoping for a free version but willing to buy a full license if the program is good.

isquint

http://www.dvdfab.com/

Handbrake
http://handbrake.fr/

If you have a Geforce 8xxx or higher, you could check out Badaboom (http://www.badaboomit.com/). 

Windows only. I should have specified (or else I am failing to see a Windows version for isquint).

Yeah, just try Handbrake. Not sure how it'll work on Windows, but it's a pretty decent app generally. And free!

Anyone know offhand what resolution the iTouch wants? Do I have to know this?

Handbrake has presets for itouch resolutions.

For your reference the iPhone/iTouch screen is 480 x 320. If you have 16:9 video the resolution is 480 x 272 (which happens to be the screen res of the PSP).

Handbrake didn't work for me. The encoding process just didn't start.

VideoFab gives a 30day trial so I downloaded that and converted 1 file successfully to mp4. The problem now is how do I get that video on my iTouch if I cannot get the video to show up in my iTunes file listings? I copied it into the iTunes/.../TV Shows directory but it doesn't show up so that I can drag it to my iTouch.

You need to set some MP4 metadata for iTunes to be able to recognize the file. If you want a command line solution get AtomicParsley (http://atomicparsley.sourceforge.net/). If you want a GUI get MetaX (http://www.kerstetter.net/page53/page54/page54.html) (which uses AtomicParsley).

MetaX is Mac only?  This process is becoming more difficult than it should be...

Oh sorry, try one of the Windows projects listed at the bottom of the AtomicParsley page then.

I find it odd that VideoFab didn't output to MP4/H.264. You sure you got the right settings shiz? DVDFab goes right from any DVD to the iPhone in a one-step operation, and they make VideoFab so I gotta imagine they know what's what.

If you're ripping DVDs you need a decoder as well.  I really like DVD43 (http://www.dvd43.com/).

DVDFab includes that as part of the one-steppedness.

Maybe I didn't check a box or something. It converted the file just fine, but I didn't know about tagging it for iTunes.

Did it work this time? As Trippy said, there's metadata tags that need to be in the file for iTunes to take that final step of conversion. I think it's only that the file needs to be MP4 with H.264. However, I've had success just bringing in raw Quicktime Movies as well as long as they used a standard compression.

I haven't tried it yet, but my friend used to have success with:

http://www.videora.com/en-us/Converter/iPod/

That "your friend" or your friend?  :awesome_for_real:

I don't understand.

Erp. Ok, dead joke then. Was going for the "are you unsure the MPAA is watching and are therefore hiding behind the deniability of this being your friend you're talking about" thing.

Fail.

I forgot, new Handbrake (v 0.93), does not include libdvdcss (or whatever it's called) but for Linux/Mac users that have VLC installed, Handbrake will happily use its encoding library(s).

Also, new version of Handbrake not only converts from DVD, but any source video format.

There is also a CLI verison of Handbrake.

VideoFab gives me nothing to tweak. It has a GUI that let's me pick iPod as the output device, then you pick the file and go. Don't see anything about metatags. I copied the file into C:...iTunes/My iTunes//TV Shows/.  Moving it around the folders doesn't help.

Stick it in your Movies folder. iTunes won't display it from TV Shows unless you set a lot of special metadata (TV Show flag, TV Show name, Episode, etc.).

Edit: here's an example of what I do with AtomicParsley on the command line to set the metadata for a TV show:

system_str = "AtomicParsley \"out/#{line}\" --DeepScan --iPod-uuid 1200 --stik \"TV Show\" --TVShowName \"Chuck\" --TVSeasonNum \"#{season}\" --TVEpisodeNum \"#{episode}\" --TVEpisode \"#{episode_id}\" --overWrite"

The "#{blah}" is a variable substitution in the string (I'm using Ruby) which like a $blah in Perl or PHP. As you see there's a lot of crap there you have to set for a TV Show. The "--iPod-uuid 1200" is a special setting for widescreen video.