MUSIC, VIDEOS, & PHOTOS
IS IT LEGAL? Creating software to extract video from the copyprotection system used on DVDs is illegal under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA)—even if you're doing it only to extract video from your personal DVD collection for your own use. However, the law is murkier when it comes to using tools such as DVD Decrypter, HandBrake, and MacTheRipper. Common sense would suggest that if you're extracting video from DVDs you own in order to view them yourself, you're well within your rights. But common sense and the law don't always intersect. Some court rulings suggest that it's not unlawful to circumvent DVD protection for noninfringing purposes; on the other hand, the Motion Picture Association of America maintains that any DVD ripping violates the DMCA. So what's an iPhone owner to do? As far as we're concerned, moving video from your DVDs to your iPhone is an absolutely fair use of the video on DVDs you've bought. But because the law is still not completely clear on this matter, every iPhone user will need to personally assess the risks involved in ripping DVDs.
GET WINDOWS FILES TO GO Xilisoft’s Imtoo iPhone Video Converter lets Windows users easily convert video files sitting on their hard drive into iPhone-compatible files. Launch VisualHub, click on the iTunes button in the To section at the top (see “Not Lost in Translation”), and then select both the iPhone and the H.264 Encoding options (otherwise your video will be encoded as an MPEG-4 file). Next, drag a file or a number of files into the center pane (VisualHub works with many different file types, including several that QuickTime can’t) and click on Start. If you’re not happy with the results, you can move the Quality slider to High or Go Nuts.
FOR PC USERS Windows users can download Xilisoft’s $29 Imtoo iPhone Video Converter 3.1.46 (www.imtoo.com). After launching the program, you drag files into its main window or click on the Add button and select the files to convert (see “Get Windows Files to Go”). Then find the Profile pop-up menu at the bottom and choose the option you want. There are presets for MPEG-4 320 by 240 and 480 by 240. If you want more control, you can tweak the settings by highlighting the file you’re working with, then clicking on any of the options in the upper right corner of the software’s window and adjusting them accordingly. Click on the Encode button, and the resulting file should work just fine with an iPhone.
THE MACWORLD iPHONE SUPERGUIDE
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