Movie Conversion: Instructions for using Handbrake

That happens variably. I think it depends on the format the movie is in. If the movie is in 16:9 it should fill the screen, if it is in cinemascope 2.3:1(i think is the ratio), it will leave black bars at the top and bottom. Of course, some can be edited to fit 16:9, but what they do is cut out the edges so you miss some of the movie. 2.3:1 is what the director envisions, and what you see in theatres, 16:9 is what you get when you buy the dvd and it is edited to fit your  tv screen. Some dvd, are released in 2.3:1, star trek blue ray has top and bottom bars on my plasma tv.

Similarly, if the movie is in 4:3 format, like the old disney re releases, pinocchio e.g., you will see you have bars on both sides.

Rockplayer free version works with almost all of my downloaded movies. Pretty impressed. And they're kept in native resolutions so they look absolutely amazing on the Thunderbolt when the quality of the file is good. This was very important to me and I'm glad Rockplayer works the way it does.

I bought one DVD with a digital copy, but when I was installing it, the program told me that I had to install some security features to Windows Media Player. I figured they were going to get me to install stuff to prevent me from copying those files or to unDRM them. So I did not installed the thing. I don't care for the digital copies if they are going to MAKE me do things to my programs.

I'm still using this method and haven't had any problems at all. When it gets slow at work, I watch a movie! Currently on phone:

300, Troy, Gladiator, Book of Eli, Invention of Lying, Hangover, and Harold & Kumar: Guat Bay.

I don't know if anyone already brought this up but I found a nice video converter that does the job. It's called the Hamster Free Video Converter. Let me see if I find the link. But I think I downloaded it from cnet downloads or something.
Yes, that's where it is:
http://download.cnet.com/Hamster-Free-Video-Converter/3000-2194_4-75218449.html

Anyway, It's really, really a free converter with all the features, as opposed to those other supposedly "free" that require you to buy it in order to really do what you want. This one does the job well. I converted 3 music videos from iTunes to play in my Thunderbolt and it did it rather quick. The interface is very easy to work with too:
You drag and drop whatever it is you want to convert, next, you find your device you want to play the videos in (there's also format option like .avi, .pm3, etc), and then you just hit "Convert" and that's it!

I have a question that I think goes more towards handbrake...

I have used HB on my mac for quite some time and used the steps you suggested for converting to my ipod, but now that I have an Thunderbolt... I figure... why not see if I can make it my 1 stop media viewer/phone/etc... I figured that my work computer is quicker than my apple, so why not just do the conversions at work and let it run that way... Well I got HB running and I am getting a show set up (Had to make a queue because its 7 episodes in the disk) and its now telling me that its going to take upwards of 42 hours to encode... I am going straight from the disk, and maybe thats where the problem lies...

Either way; does this sound normal? The computer is a Core I-7 with 8gb of ram, so I really doubt its the computer... Would going through an alternate program to bring the TS file to my hard drive first save me some time? Right now everything is still running and its encoding, but I just dont want to wait 2 days and come back and its not done correctly, lol.

Thoughts?

Edit: ** Update ** Back to the drawing board for me. It seems like Handbrake keeps quitting unexpectedly.... Maybe its the DVD causing this? I will have to give it a shot with something else and see where that gets me. I will also try this DVD with my mac when I get home today and see if I get any different results.

I'm a little late to reply to this one, but it seems to me that you are not understanding the required process of downloading drivers for new devices and adding videos to the Thunderbolt. It would be hard to tailor directions for you because your computer setup is unknown. If your computer is seeing the Thunderbolt as a disk, then the drivers are already there. Khassy is correct; you need to copy the movie files to your computer, then move them to your phone. Handbrake can do this for you, try and follow the instructions from the OP.


42 hours seems excessive, but it depends on what the computer's CPU is already committed to doing while it encodes; also matters on the settings you chose. Using Handbrake straight from disc does take longer, but most people dont want to save the TS folder to their computer. I, personally, do save the entire TS folder to my hard drive so that I can have the file ready to convert to my other devices on the fly. Having two hard drives is the best thing for speeding along the process. Saved the TS info to one drive, then have the output file save to the other hard drive to cut process time in half!

I have never used the queue function with Handbrake, but I would suggest trying to save the TS info, then convert each episode individually. You can usually find the problem if you follow the process window.

Lastly, I noticed that in my quad core computer, the decoding process uses only one core to its maximum while the other three seem available. I always run my computer with bare bones processess, especially when using Handbrake. Disable or unplug from network, shut down firewall/virus scan to free up resources. From start to finish is 10-20 minutes. It only took 20 minutes for one movie: Dark Knight. Took ten minutes to copy TS and ten to decode. It seriously felt like that disc was resisting the process more than any other I have converted. While copying, the disc was spinning so slow and would record in spurts, no other disc has done this.