“My name’s Matt Haney, and I have an iPhone”.  But then, looking around on the train to and from work nowadays, it seems everyone else has one too.

One of the reasons I got the phone was so that I could watch videos on the train without using the not-designed-for-video-playback screen on my old phone, or having to carry a PSP around.  So, here, for the sake of my own memory more than anything, is how I go about getting moving pictures from overpriced shiny round things onto my overpriced shiny iPhone.

Software used: DVD Decrypter & Handbrake

Basically, the process is ‘Decryptwith DVD Decrypter, then encode with Handbrake’.  This can be a pain for multiple episode DVDs (TV Series boxsets, for example), as you can’t just set it off and go to bed.  This is where the ancient art of batch scripts comes in.  Both of these pieces of software can be run from the command line, so I use a batch script like the following*:

"c:\program files\dvd decrypter\dvddecrypter.exe" /MODE IFO /SRC F:
  /DEST "G:\JeevesAndWooster_Series1\1\" /VTS 6 /PGC 1 /SPLIT NONE
  /START /CLOSE
"c:\program files\dvd decrypter\dvddecrypter.exe" /MODE IFO /SRC F:
  /DEST "G:\JeevesAndWooster_Series1\2\" /VTS 7 /PGC 1 /SPLIT NONE
  /START /CLOSE
"c:\program files\dvd decrypter\dvddecrypter.exe" /MODE IFO /SRC F:
  /DEST "G:\JeevesAndWooster_Series1\3\" /VTS 8 /PGC 1 /SPLIT NONE
  /START /CLOSE

"C:\Program Files\HandBrake\HandBrakeCLI.exe" -i
  "G:\JeevesAndWooster_Series1\1\VTS_06_1.VOB" -t 1 -c 1 -o
  "G:\Music\TV Shows\Jeeves And Wooster\Jeeves And Wooster S1E1.mp4"
  -f mp4 -X 480 -e x264 -q 0.59 -a 1 -E faac -B 128 -R 48 -6 dpl2 -D 1
  -x level=30:cabac=0:ref=2:mixed-refs=1:analyse=all:me=umh:no-fast-pskip=1 -v
"C:\Program Files\HandBrake\HandBrakeCLI.exe" -i
  "G:\JeevesAndWooster_Series1\2\VTS_07_1.VOB" -t 1 -c 1 -o
  "G:\Music\TV Shows\Jeeves And Wooster\Jeeves And Wooster S1E2.mp4"
  -f mp4 -X 480 -e x264 -q 0.59 -a 1 -E faac -B 128 -R 48 -6 dpl2 -D 1
  -x level=30:cabac=0:ref=2:mixed-refs=1:analyse=all:me=umh:no-fast-pskip=1 -v
"C:\Program Files\HandBrake\HandBrakeCLI.exe" -i
  "G:\JeevesAndWooster_Series1\3\VTS_08_1.VOB" -t 1 -c 1 -o
  "G:\Music\TV Shows\Jeeves And Wooster\Jeeves And Wooster S1E3.mp4"
  -f mp4 -X 480 -e x264 -q 0.59 -a 1 -E faac -B 128 -R 48 -6 dpl2 -D 1
  -x level=30:cabac=0:ref=2:mixed-refs=1:analyse=all:me=umh:no-fast-pskip=1 -v

mplay32 /play /close c:\windows\media\chimes.wav

You do have to open DVD Decrypter to find out the right PGC and VTS settings, and that Handbrake command line is more than a little insane, but this does mean it’ll just churn away without requiring attention every 15 minutes or so whilst the decryption is going on.  Handbrake has a handy ‘export to batch file’ option which I used to create my inital script, and I’ve been cutting and pasting ever since.  The mplay32 at the end there is just a nice way of letting me know the whole shooting match has finished, and it’s time to break out the next disc and write the next batch file.

There.  Simple.

You Mac users don’t know you’re born…

* Yes, I have just started to encode my complete Jeeves & Wooster boxset… so what? )