I thought I would put my 2 cents in to the BB community for anyone that is using a Mac. The programs to rip movies and DVDxxx8217;s to the 8830 are free and work quite well. So, here goes.
Needed programs:
MacTheRipper
HandBrake
Ffmpeg (optional, Ixxx8217;ll explain later)
MacTheRipper
MacTheRipper (MTR) removes a DVDs region coding and copy write protection. Naturally this program should be used to violate copy write laws.
Open MTR and insert your DVD. Once the disk is identified, it will display the disk size, current region code and what type of copy write protection is on the disk. You really donxxx8217;t have to do anything with the first screen.
Click on the Mode button to just extract the Main Feature. Since you are putting this on your BB, you donxxx8217;t need anything else but the movie. I usually just select xxx8220;Main Feature Extractionxxx8221; from the drop-down.
When you done poking around with the setting click on xxx8220;Filexxx8221; from the menu and select where you want to save the movie. Once you do this, it will take some time to extract the DVD to your Mac.
Once this is done, you will have the needed VIDEO_TS folder saved to your computer. Now we move on to the use of HandBrake.
HandBrake
HandBrake (HB) will compress the video to fit on your BB. I can usually get a 2+ hr movie compressed under 480MB. Which is much better than 4GB+ that it can be.
Open HB and select the VIDEO_TS folder that you made with MTR. The settings that I am recommending are optional. You can use what ever you want, but any one wrong will causes it not to play on your BB.
Fist I sent the destination, which is where I am going to save the file. The Desktop works just fine for this.
Next I select MP4 file as the format and MPEG-4 Video / AAC Audio as the codec.
Staying on the Video tab, I pick 23.976 as my framerate, FFmpeg as my encoder, 400kbps as the average bitrate, and uncheck 2-pass encoding. Still in the video tab, I click on Picture Settings.. This is where I need to change the size of the video to fit my BB. Uncheck Anamorphic and change the video size to 320x176. You may even try 320x144, but it still looks ok to me. The rest of the settings are fine, so close this window.
Back at the main screen, click the Audio & Subtitles tab. All you need to do here is change the Track Mix to stereo. No need for Dolby Surround. You an cut the Sample Rate (khz) down somewhat to save a little space, but 44.1 is what I leave mine at.
Next click the Chapters tab and unselect the xxx8220;Create chapter markersxxx8221; box. I will likely not hurt anything if you leave it checked, but as long as were are herexxx8230;
Finally you can click the green Start button on the top of the window. Once again this will take some time to compress it down, but it will be a much more manageable size for your BB 8830.
The very last thing you have to do is to move the .mp4 file to your video folder on your BB. Fairly simple, just connect your BB via the USB cable and you will see the volume mount on the desktop. Drag and drop. Enjoy the movie!
ffmpegX
I mentioned ffmpegX at the beginning of this articlexxx8230; This app easily lets you convert (transcode) just about any video format to a BB friendly video format. Also, you can only extract audio if you so choose. I use this to convert a lot of different video formats to a BB friendly format. It is fairly similar to HandBrake as far as the settings go.
If any Mac owners have used other settings the get smaller file sizes with good results, post emxxx8217;. Enjoy!
HOW-TO: Using A Mac To Get Playable Video On The BB 8800
