How to Use HandBreak and Apple TV to Burn DVD’s Into A Mega Movie Library

With HandBreak, Apple TV, a 1 TB hard drive and my laptop I have built a movie library that is portable and accessible on my iPhone, iPad or most any TV at home or away. Back in the day I would go down to Blockbuster and stock up on the 5 for $25 sale in order to build my movie collection. Not anymore. One reason is because Blockbuster disappeared but mainly it’s because there are better options for movie fans: Netflix and Redbox. Before Netflix changed their membership options I had the unlimited plan and every DVD I would get in the mail I would burn it into my iTunes library and send the DVD back the same day. With Red Box I rent 3 or 4 new release videos at a time, add them to my library and turn them back in a days time. I don’t make copies for friends. I only use them for my own viewing.

Over time this chunking of movies has added up and today I have about 400 old and new release movies in my library. There are so many I haven’t watched yet that movie night is always full of possibilities. Plus because they can quickly be seen over my mobile tech toys, business trips and plane rides are never without movie options.

If you want to do the same you can use HandBreak to easily build your own movie library. No super geek skills required.

First, you’ll need to download HandBreak and iTunes. Both are free.

Then start the transfer process. Insert the DVD into your drive. Most computers will start the DVD automatically so stop the playback and close the DVD player window.

Open the HandBreak application and click the “source” button at the top of the window. (Click the image above for a clear view of the HandBreak screen) This will open up a finder window and you’ll then choose your DVD title as the source. When you click on the DVD its info file will appear. Click the folder marked “video.” Don’t select the audio file. Once you’ve chosen this file HandBreak will start sourcing this file.

While that’s going on click open the toggle presets from the upper right corner. Here you will select which recording format you would like the transfer to be. I choose Apple TV 2 because my movies are mostly played through my iTunes to my version 2 Apple TV hooked up to a 1080p TV. This format choice will give you more specific frames per second images and is clearer on high definition televisions. If you don’t plan on watching movies through an Apple TV select “Regular.” Note that you can choose iPad and iPhone settings if that will be your main viewer and not an Apple TV.

Click the start button and wait for the transfer to finish. Just leave it and let it run. You can still work on your computer while the application runs. The movie transfer time is essentially equal to the film play time. You can check the progress at the bottom of the window. It will tell you how many minutes are left and there will be a drink and pineapple icon on your desktop tool bar that will have a red progress bar.

When the movie is finished transferring you will get a “Put that cocktail down. Your HandBrake queue is done.” message and your version of the video will be on your desktop.

Open iTunes and click the movies library from the left panel. Drag the movie you’ve recorded from the desktop into the movie section of iTunes. This means a copy is placed into your iTunes library. The desktop version will still be there. Click on the version in iTunes and verify that it starts to play. If it does then drag the desktop version to the trash bin and delete it. If you don’t do this step each time, your hard drive will be clogged up with 2 copies of every movie you transfer.

I strongly suggest buying a portable hard drive to hold your iTunes library. This way your main computer isn’t bogged down with your movie collection. My iTunes library is attached to a 1 TB Western Digital drive that is lightweight and smaller than my hand. My iTunes is set up on my laptop. This means that I can carry my hard drive with all of my movies in my laptop bag. I have a back up of that library on another drive that stays at home.

Now you can watch the movies on your computer or when you synch your iPad or iPhone you can select which movies you would like to take with you. When I travel without my laptop I pick out a about 10 movie choices and load them onto my iPad.

To watch movies on your television using Apple TV just make sure that your iTiunes library is synched with your Apple TV. You can access all of your movies from there. Take your laptop, your Apple TV and an HDMI cord to plug up to the hotel TV and you’ll never be tempted to buy a hotel movie again.

So to summarize the quick steps:

1. Click the source button on HandBreak.
2. Set your transfer format on HandBreak.
3. Click the start button on HandBreak.
4. Open iTunes movie library.
5. Drag the transferred movie from your desktop to iTunes.
6. Put the desktop copy in the trash.
7. Load movies to iPad or iTunes by plugging in and synching.

Tags: How To, ipad, iphone