DVD Catalyst Free for iPod is the best free DVD conversion tool for Apple iPod Video, CLassic and Nano. While based on the popular DVD Catalyst Free, we have made some significant changes to make it even easier to use than ever before.

download (Windows 2000/XP/Vista/7 only, no Mac/OSX version available, sorry)

First off, in an effort to reduce as much confusion as possible, we eliminated the different device profiles as well as options that can affect compatibility. While it is possible to play files created with DVD Catalyst Free for iPod on other devices such as iPhone, Blackberry and Zune, depending on your DVDs and video files, it might not work.

Album Art.

DVD Catalyst Free for iPod generates “album art” with the video title, which shows up in Apple’s iTunes application (including coverflow) as well as on your iPod.

For more information, you can have a look at the manual here (Adobe Reader or other PDF application needed to view)

In addition to an updated DVD Catalyst Free, we also brought back DVD Catalyst Free Plus

DVD Catalyst Free+ is a (non-free but affordable) upgrade to DVD Catalyst Free, which offers some additional features.

Automatic File Transfer to your device. After the conversion is finished, DVD Catalyst Free Plus can copy the created movies to your device with a click of a button.

Besides quality adjustment, it includes blackbar-removal options (to make your videos full screen) and DVD conversions are quite a bit faster.

For more information, you can have a look at the manual here (Adobe Reader or other PDF application needed to view)

To purchase DVD Catalyst Free Plus (on sale now for $5.95) please click here (Windows 2000/XP/Vista/7 only, no Mac/OSX version available, sorry).

build 1.7

Convert DVD to your iPod, your iPhone, Pocket PC, PSP, Droid, Nexus One or Zune for free. DVD Catalyst Free is the ONLY free 1-click DVD conversion utility available, and enables you to create video files for your portable devices without the need to read through complicated guides or to install a variety of different programs.

Before DVD Catalyst Free, the only option for free DVD conversions was to use guides found on community websites. These guides usually require the user to install a couple of different applications, all designed to perform a single task, and then follow the steps in order to get to the end-result. While these guides do offer a lot more control over the actual conversion quality, the problem is that it takes a lot of time and trial-and-error to get things figured out for new users. In most cases, forums where these guides posted, there are numerous newbie users who are confused or have problems with one step in the process. As a result, we decided to create DVD Catalyst Free.

DVD Catalyst Free takes care of all the steps in those guides, and eliminates the need to install additional software. It is based on DVD Catalyst 3, and while it lacks many advanced features, it retains the 1-click user interface, and the most popular device profiles.

Besides converting DVDs, it can also convert video files from and to a variety of different video formats, without the need to install codecs. No additional software is required for DVD Catalyst to do it’s thing.

Included device profiles

Apple iPhone. (All versions) Files are created with the H264/AVC video codec to produce the best quality. This is the same format Apple uses for its content on iTunes.

Apple iPod Touch. (All versions) Files are created with the H264/AVC video codec to produce the best quality. This is the same format Apple uses for its content on iTunes.

Apple iPod Nano. (3G, 4G) Files are created with the H264/AVC video codec to produce the best quality. This is the same format Apple uses for its content on iTunes.

Apple iPod Video. (5G, 5.5G, Classic) Files are created with the H264/AVC video codec to produce the best quality. This is the same format Apple uses for its content on iTunes.

· Cellphone 3gpp. Compatible with most cellphones with video capability.

· Zune 4. Files are created with the H264/AVC video codec to produce the best quality.

· Zune 8. Files are created with the H264/AVC video codec to produce the best quality.

· Zune 30. Files are created with the WMV video codec to ensure compatibility.

· Zune 80. Files are created with the H264/AVC video codec to produce the best quality.

· Zune 120. Files are created with the H264/AVC video codec to produce the best quality.

· Playstation Portable. Files are created with the H264/AVC video codec to produce the best quality. Files need to be stored in the “VIDEO” folder located directly on the memorystick.

· Windows Mobile. Files are created with the DIVX video codec to produce the best quality. For playback, a DIVX-capable video player application such as TCPMP is required. You can find many versions of TCPMP on www.tools4movies.com/tcpmp

· Windows Mobile VGA. Files are created with the DIVX video codec to produce the best quality. For playback, a DIVX-capable video player application such as TCPMP is required. You can find many versions of TCPMP on www.tools4movies.com/tcpmp

· Palm Treo. Files are created with the DIVX video codec to produce the best quality. For playback, a DIVX-capable video player application such as TCPMP is required. You can find many versions of TCPMP on www.tools4movies.com/tcpmp

· Palm Centro. Files are created with the DIVX video codec to produce the best quality. For playback, a DIVX-capable video player application such as TCPMP is required. You can find many versions of TCPMP on www.tools4movies.com/tcpmp

· Audio only MP3. Converts only the audio portion of your videos/DVDs, basically turning them into audiobooks.

NEW in 1.7:

Google Nexus One

HTC Droid Eris

Motorola Droid

Options

DVD Catalyst Free is created to provide a simple way to convert movies for portable devices. Besides a basic quality adjustment, it does not have configuration options to modify settings set by the device profiles. Selecting a device profile automatically sets parameters required for creating video content compatible for the selected device, but nothing else.

To be able to modify additional profile settings, such as audio quality or black-bar removal, please upgrade to one of our other products, found on www.tools4movies.com. Besides offering more configuration options, they offer faster DVD conversions for most DVDs as well.

Selecting a device profile automatically selects the proper video format required for playback on the selected device. Some devices, such as PalmOS- and Windows Mobile-based devices do not have proper video playback, and for these devices, additional software is needed to be able to play the created video files. Please refer to the “Included device profiles” section for details on this.

In addition, the device profile sets the screen size of the device, which is used to optimize the video to make it fit, while preserving the best possible quality. The video will just be resized to fit within the screen size set by the profile, without further modifications. Depending on the device, as well as the video content, you might have black borders when viewing the video on your device. To eliminate this, please upgrade to one of our other software products.

The video quality is also automatically set by the device profile, but you can freely adjust this to fit your needs. The default setting for each device is selected based on providing a good quality at a reasonable file size. A quality indication (Q-value) gives you an indication of what quality to expect. Usually a value of 8 provides good quality. If you increase the video quality, keep in mind that the resulting quality can never be better than the quality of the original video, and going over 12 will not really be noticeable.

DVD Catalyst 3

Faster, easier and more features than ever before

Watch a DVD on your iPod, iPhone, Pocket PC, Zen, Zune or any other video-capable device with one click.

DVD Catalyst 3 is the most advanced, feature-rich DVD conversion tool on the market today, and besides the standard features found in similar products, it offers numerous industry-first features to make it as easy to use as possible.

Convert DVD to your iPod, your iPhone, Pocket PC, Zen, Zune and more in a breeze. DVD Catalyst is the most advanced, feature-rich DVD conversion tool on the market today, and besides the standard features found in similar products, it offers numerous inductry-unique features to make it as easy to use as possible.

DVD Catalyst enables you to convert your own DVD collection to a format that can be played on a video-capable device that does not normally play DVDs. It creates video files from DVDs that are compatible with many different devices, including Apple’s iPod and iPhone devices, Blackberry, Pocket PC, PSP, XBOX 360, PS3, Zen and Zune.

Besides converting DVDs, it can also convert video files from and to a variety of different video formats, without the need to install codecs. No additional software is required for DVD Catalyst to do it’s thing.

DVD Catalyst 3.82, the next version of DVD Catalyst 3 is currently available in beta form.

While most things are fully functional, there might be some issues.

Whats new:

To clean things up a little, 2 new TABs have been added in Global Settings.

*Boosterpack TAB, containing the settings for turning off boosterpack, as well as room for future options.

*Advanced TAB, containing additional settings that do not really fit in the other tabs, or are for more experienced users.

The Advanced Tab includes the following:

*AVCHD framerate. Some camera files do not report the video information properly, causing severe issues with conversions.
This is used for those files.

*Run before conversion: run a program (or bat file) before the conversion starts.
*Run after conversion: run a program (or bat file) after the conversion is finished.
these are usefull to stop and restart a program that might interfere with the conversion. These options actually run anything. The Browse dialog is set to look for All Files, enabling you to pick whatever you want to run. You could pick a program, but also a wav file or an mp3 to play when conversions are complete. To test-run the file, click on the filename in DVD Catalyst after you selected a file. Note that the execution of the file is NOT monitored by DVD Catalyst. it will not wait for a script to finish.

*SRT subtitle font scale: video files with SRT subtites tend to convert subtitles really small. this fixes that.

*Ask for DVD track selection: Rather that using DVD Catalyst automatic scanning, this will enable you to manually select the tracks you need.
Handy for those DVDs with a lot of tracks, or if you had issues, and restarted DVD Catalyst and remembered which track you need.
Shows playtime of the tracks, and has a preview as well.

*Shutdown DVDCat when done. closes dvdcat when conversion are completed.
*shutdown computer when done. (has been in dvdcat since the beginning) turns off computer when conversions are done.

To play with the beta, use the “Email Us” button in DVD Catalyst 3 to contact us.

DVD Catalyst can read (convert) the following video files and formats:

DVD: Recorded as well as commercial (rental/store bought) DVDs.

DVD ISO: ISO files in a variety of different file formats. (usually backups of DVDs created using other software).

DVD FOLDER: Folders containing VOB and IFO files. (usually backups of DVDs created using other software).

SVCD/VCD: Commonly used in Asia, or backups created from DVD using other software.

MKV: Anime / BRrips etc.

DIVX/XVID/AVI: DVD rips (DVD backups), internet downloads etc.

MPEG1/M1V/MPEG2/M2V/VOB: Recordings (Camera/TV Card), DVD backups etc.

WMV / DVR-MS / VC-1: Windows Media formatted files, Media Center recordings etc.

AVCHD / MTS / M2TS / MT / TS / TP / M2T / M2P/ TRP : HD Camera recordings. Some formats work already, however, better support will be added in 3.82.

OGM : Open-source video format (Anime).

MOD : MPEG2-based video camera recordings.

FLV : Flash Video, video from websites like YouTube.

3GP / 3G2 / AMR / H263 : Cellphone camera recording format.

M4V / MP4 / MPEG4 SP : MPEG 4 Simple Profile, used for some camera recordings.

MOV / MP4 / MPEG4 AVC / H264 / x264 : MPEG4 Advanced Coding Profile, HD video format used in BluRay(rips), HD TV recordings, iPod/PSP optimized files.

And more (most of the ones listed here)

If for some reason DVD Catalyst ignores the files you add, you can use the “Add file(s)” button which lets you bypass the file-extension check. DVD Catalyst will try and access the file as a video file, and if it can do something with it, it will enable it for conversion.

DVD Catalyst can write (create) video files using the following formats:

H264 MP4 : The best-quality video format at this time. Used for all HD content, including Apple iTunes video and BluRay.

h264_ipod : DVD Catalyst h264 format, with specific settings for compatibility with Apple’s devices. It is also the most compatible H264 format, and is playable on most devices that can play H264 video.

h264_ipod_hq : DVD Catalyst h264 format, settings optimized for quality, while retaining compatibility with most devices.

h264_appletv : DVD Catalyst h264 format with specific settings for AppleTV, outdated, use h264_ipod instead.

h264_appletv_hq : DVD Catalyst h264 format with specific settings for AppleTV, outdated, use h264_ipod_hq instead.

h264_5.1 : DVD Catalyst h264 format with 5.1 audio. only for PC playback, not compatible with any known device. (.mov)

h264_5.1_hq : DVD Catalyst h264 format with 5.1 audio. only for PC playback, not compatible with any known device. (.mov)

h264_5.1_mp4 : DVD Catalyst h264 format with 5.1 audio. only for PC playback, not compatible with any known device. (.mp4)

h264_5.1_hq_mp4 : DVD Catalyst h264 format with 5.1 audio. only for PC playback, not compatible with any known device. (.mp4)

h264_xbox : DVD Catalyst h264 format specifically for XBOX360, not compatible with any other device. (.avi)

h264_xbox_hq : DVD Catalyst h264 format specifically for XBOX360, not compatible with any other device. (.avi)

h264_ps3 : DVD Catalyst h264 format specifically for Sony PS3, not compatible with any other device. (.avi)

h264_ps3_hq : DVD Catalyst h264 format specifically for Sony PS3, not compatible with any other device. (.avi)

h264_psp : DVD Catalyst h264 format specifically for Sony PSP, not compatible with any other device. (firmware 3.10+)

h264_psp_hq : DVD Catalyst h264 format specifically for Sony PSP, not compatible with any other device. (firmware 3.10+)

h264_psp2 : DVD Catalyst h264 format specifically for Sony PSP, not compatible with any other device. (firmware 2.00+) This format is very picky in file naming, folder location on the PSP, and is not recommended for use at all. Upgrade your PSP, and use the other format for better quality.

MPEG4 SP : Less demanding video format (older devices)

mpeg4_ipod : Most compatible MPEG4 SP format, compatible with most devices that can handle MPEG4-SP. Used in “Fast” profiles for Apple iPod / iPhone / Apple TV due to better performance on older computers. Less quality though.

mpeg4_psp : DVD Catalyst MPEG4 format specifically for Sony PSP, not compatible with any other device. (firmware 1.00+) This format is very picky in file naming, folder location on the PSP, and is not recommended for use at all. Upgrade your PSP, and use the other format for better quality.

amv_mp2 : specific video format for cheap Asian mp4 video players. (.amv)

Audio MP3 : Converts any DVD or video file to an MP3 audio file. (.mp3)

flv_mp3 : Creates video files in Flash Video format, compatible with internet websites and flv players.

H263 / 3GP / 3GP2 : Low quality video format for processor-limited devices (cellphones)

3gp1_aac: basic 3gp video file, compatible with most cellphones such as Nokia and Motorola (.3gp)

3gp1_aac_mp4: 3gp video file with .mp4 file extension used for Sansa Connect.

3gp1_amr-nb: basic 3gp video file, most compatible with anything that can play 3gp files (.3gp)

3gp1_amr-wb: variation of the above, using slightly modified settings, not used.

3gp2_aac: 3gp2 video file format(.3g2), not used.

AVI / MPEG4 ASP

msmpeg4_mp3 : basic AVI video file, requires no codec install on computers that have Windows Media Player 7 or higher installed. Used by DVD Catalyst for inbetween file for some video formats.

divx_mp3 : divx encoded avi file, optimized for Nokia Internet Tablets

divx4_mp3 : divx4 video file format, used for some older Epson, Blackberry and Creative Zen models.

divx4_copy : divx4 video format with the original audio left untouched. Not used.

divx5_mp3 : divx5 video file format, compatible with any device capable of (Certified) DIVX playback.

divx5_copy : divx5 video format with the original audio left untouched. Used for some HQ profiles.

divx5_mp3_cam : special conversion format, recommended to be used for low quality conversions, such as cellphone recordings to another format. Using any other format with these kinds of files might fail conversions.

divx5_mp3_palm : special conversion format specifically intended for use with older PalmOS devices.

xvid_mp3 : opensource version of DIVX, compareable to divx5_mp3.

xvid_mp3_sansa : xvid format with specific settings for the Sansa Fuse.

xvid_mp2 : xvid video format with mp2 audio, usable for some older devices. Not used by DVD Catalyst at this time.

xvid_copy : xvid video format with the original audio left untouched. Used for some HQ profiles.

MPEG / MPG

mpeg2_mp2 : Standard MPEG2 video format with MP2 audio

mpeg2_mp2_hq : Standard MPEG2 video format with MP2 audio with additional quality settings enabled

mpeg2_copy : Standard MPEG2 video format with original source audio

mpeg2_mp2_hq : Standard MPEG2 video format with original source audio with additional quality settings enabled

and more

Build 3.84

Convert DVD to your iPod, your iPhone, Pocket PC, Zen, Zune and more in a breeze. DVD Catalyst is the most advanced, feature-rich DVD conversion tool on the market today, and besides the standard features found in similar products, it offers numerous inductry-unique features to make it as easy to use as possible.

DVD Catalyst enables you to convert your own DVD collection to a format that can be played on a video-capable device that does not normally play DVDs. It creates video files from DVDs that are compatible with many different devices, including Apple’s iPod and iPhone devices, Blackberry, Pocket PC, PSP, XBOX 360, PS3, Zen and Zune.

Besides converting DVDs, it can also convert video files from and to a variety of different video formats, without the need to install codecs. No additional software is required for DVD Catalyst to do it’s thing.

Included device profiles

Clearview miPC Infinity
Apple AppleTV (Fast)
Apple AppleTV (HQ)
Apple AppleTV (HD)
Apple AppleTV (HQ HD)
HD ( 720) Apple TV
HD ( 720) Apple TV HQ
HD ( 720) eGreat  720
HD ( 720) eGreat  720 HQ
HD (1080) eGreat 1080
HD (1080) eGreat 1080 HQ
HD ( 720) Zune HD
HD ( 720) Zune HD HQ
HD ( 720) XBOX 360
HD ( 720) XBOX 360 HQ
HD ( 720) PS3
HD ( 720) PS3 HQ
HD ( 720) WD HD
HD ( 720) WD HD HQ
HD ( 720) NMT XVID
HD ( 720) NMT XVID HQ
HD ( 720) NMT H264
HD ( 720) NMT H264 HQ
Apple iPhone (Fast)
Apple iPhone (HQ)
Apple iPhone 3G (Fast)
Apple iPhone 3G (HQ)
Apple iPhone 3GS (Fast)
Apple iPhone 3GS (HQ)
Apple iPod Classic (Fast)
Apple iPod Classic (HQ)
Apple iPod Nano (Fast)
Apple iPod Nano (HQ)
Apple iPod Touch (Fast)
Apple iPod Touch (HQ)
Apple iPod Video (Fast)
Apple iPod Video (HQ)
Apple iPod TV-Out
Toshiba TG01
Toshiba TG01 (HQ)
Generic 3GP Cellphone
Audio Only Movie to MP3
Tivo to MPEG
Tivo to MPEG Copy
Generic VCAST Cellphone
Verizon Droid
Verizon Droid HQ
Verizon Droid HQ2
Motorola Milestone
Motorola Milestone HQ
Generic MPEG4 Cellphone
Generic AVC/H264 Cellphone
Nokia Nokia 3GP
Nokia 9300
Nokia Nokia AVC (N95)
Nokia Nokia 5800
Nokia Nokia MP4
Dingoo A320 (AVI)
Generic Windows Mobile PocketPC (TCPMP)
Generic Windows Mobile Smartphone (TCPMP)
Smartphone Generic DIVX (TCPMP)
HTC Touch (TCPMP)
HTC Touch 3G (TCPMP)
T-Mobile myTouch 3G
HTC Touch Viva (TCPMP)
HTC Touch Pro (TCPMP)
HTC Touch Diamond (TCPMP)
HTC Touch Diamond2 (TCPMP)
HTC Touch Dual (TCPMP)
HTC Fuze (TCPMP)
HTC TyTN II (TCPMP)
HTC P6500 (TCPMP)
HTC P3570 (TCPMP)
Verizon XV6900
HTC Touch Cruise (TCPMP)
HTC Touch HD
HTC Touch HD2
Nokia 810
Nokia 810 HQ
HTC Touch LEO
HTC Touch Pro2
HTC Imagio
HTC Imagio HQ
Verizon VX6975 (Imagio)
Verizon VX6975 (Imagio) HQ
HTC MAX 4G
HTC Touch HD (HQ)
Generic WMV
Generic WMV HQ
Generic DIVX HQ
Generic AVI HQ
Generic MPEG2
Generic MPEG2 HQ
Microsoft Zune 4
Microsoft Zune 4 (HQ)
Microsoft Zune 8
Microsoft Zune 8 (HQ)
Microsoft Zune 30
Microsoft Zune 30 (HQ)
Microsoft Zune 80
Microsoft Zune 80 (HQ)
Microsoft Zune 120
Microsoft Zune 120 (HQ)
Microsoft Zune HD (HQ)
Microsoft Zune HD (TV )
Microsoft Zune HD (TV HQ)
Zune Zune HD (TV)
PocketPC PocketPC 2000
PocketPC PocketPC 2002
Microsoft W Mobile 2003
Palm Palm Treo / Centro
Palm Pre
Palm Pre (HQ)
PocketPC Palm Treo 7XXw
Palm Treo 7XXp (TCPMP)
Epson P2000
Epson P2000 AVI
Epson P4000 AVI
Creative Zen 4GB
Blackberry 81xx Pearl
Blackberry 83xx Curve
Blackberry 8330 Curve
Blackberry 87xx Series
Blackberry Storm
Blackberry Storm2
Blackberry Storm (HQ)
Blackberry Storm2 (HQ)
Blackberry 89xx Curve
Blackberry 89xx Curve (HQ)
Blackberry Tour 9630
Blackberry Tour 9630 (HQ)
Blackberry Bold
Blackberry Bold (HQ)
Misc Meizu M6 Miniplayer
Microsoft W Mobile 2005
Philips GoGear Opus SA5295
Microsoft W Mobile 5
Microsoft W Mobile 2006
Microsoft W Mobile 6
Microsoft W Mobile 2003 VGA
Microsoft W Mobile 2005 VGA
Microsoft W Mobile 5 VGA
Microsoft W Mobile 2006 VGA
Microsoft W Mobile 6 VGA
Microsoft PocketPC DIVX (TCPMP)
Smartphone Smartphone DIVX (TCPMP)
PocketPC DIVX VGA (TCPMP)
Asus eee  7″
Asus eee  9″
Asus eee 10″
MSI Wind  9″
MSI Wind 10″
Generic Netbook 7″
Generic Netbook  9″
Generic Netbook 10″
Generic Netbook 11″
Generic HD Media Player (Average)
Generic HD Media Player (Good)
Generic HD Media Player (Best)
Archos A404 H264
Archos A604 H264
Archos A605 H264
Archos A605 XVID
Archos 105
Archos 405
Archos 5 (with H264 plugin)
Archos 7 (with H264 plugin)
Archos AV500
Archos AV700
Misc Camera2DIVX
Misc Cowon A2
Cowon Q5W
Cowon A3 (DIVX)
Cowon Q5W (H264/AVC)
Cowon iAudio 6
Cowon iAudio 7
Cowon iAudio X5
Cowon S9
Cowon O2PMP (DIVX)
Cowon O2PMP (H264/AVC)
Cowon D2+
iRiver Spinn
iRiver LPlayer
iRiver E100
iRiver P7
iRiver Clix
Samsung Omnia
Samsung i8510 INNOV8
Samsung Omnia II
Samsung Omnia HD i8910
Misc Cavalry CAPP6
Misc Disney MixMax
Motorola KRZR
Motorola RAZR
Motorola SLVR
Motorola MOTOKRZR K1m
Motorola MOTORIZR Z6tv
Motorola MOTORAZR maxx Ve
Motorola ZN5
Motorola MOTORAZR V9m
Motorola MOTO Z6c World Edition
LG VX 8700
LG VX 8350
LG VX 9400
LG enV
LG EnV Touch
LG EnV Touch HQ
LG Chocolate
LG VENUS
LG Voyager
Samsung Gleam
Motorola DEXT MB220
Samsung Eternity
LG Vu CU920
Sony-Ericsson p910
Sony-Ericsson SE Xperia X1a
Sony-Ericsson Aino
Sony-Ericsson Satio
Samsung FlipShot
Samsung SCH-u540
Samsung SCH-u550
Samsung SCH-u620
Samsung Alias SCH–u740
Creative Zen Vision
Creative Zen Vision M
Creative Zen Vision W
Misc GP2X
HandheldPC Jornada 720 (TCPMP)
HandheldPC MobilePro 900 (TCPMP)
HandheldPC MobilePro 900c (TCPMP)
HandheldPC Sigmarion 3 (TCPMP)
HP IPAQ 22xx
Nokia N770
Nokia E72
Nokia N82
Nokia N800
Nokia N900
Nokia N900 HQ
Nokia N70
Nokia N73
Nokia N91
Nokia N93
Sony Playstation 3(PS3)
Sony Playstation 3(PS3) HQ
Sony Playstation 3(MPEG)
Sony Playstation 3(MPEG) HQ
Sony Playstation 3(COPY AUDIO)
Sony Playstation 3(COPY AUDIO) HQ
Sony Playstation 3(AVC)
Sony Playstation 3(AVC) HQ
Sony Playstation 3(H264)
Sony Playstation 3(H264) HQ
Sony Playstation P(PSP)
Sony PSP (PSP)
Sony PSP HQ
Sony Mylo2
Sony Playstation P(PSP) HQ
Sony PS3(AVC)
Sony PS3(AVC) HQ
Sony PS3(H264)
Sony PS3(H264) HQ
Sony PS3 DIVX
Sony PS3 DIVX COPY AUDIO
Sony PS3 DIVX HQ
Sony PS3 DIVX HQ COPY AUDIO
Sony PS3 XVID
Sony PS3 XVID COPY AUDIO
Sony PS3 XVID HQ
Sony PS3 XVID HQ COPY AUDIO
Sony Walkman NWZ
Sony Walkman X
Samsung S8000 JET
Samsung S5230 STAR
Misc Samsung U800
Misc Sansa Connect
Misc Sansa Fuse
Misc Sansa View
YouTube Flash Video
Misc FLV
T-Mobile T-Mobile G1 (Fast)
HTC HTC Dream (Fast)
T-Mobile T-Mobile G1 (Standard)
HTC HTC Dream (Standard)
T-Mobile T-Mobile G1 (HQ)
HTC HTC Dream (HQ)
Android HTC Hero
Android Acer Liquid
Acer neoTouch
Samsung B7620
Generic XVID_MP3
Generic DIVX_MP3

*Scan DVDs. This will have DVD Catalyst scan your DVD drives for actual DVDs. By default, DVD Catalyst does this by itself. Unless you disabled this in Global Settings, there is no need to manually do this.

*Add files. This will open a file dialog enabling you to select individual video files to add to the conversion.

*Add folders. This will open a folder dialog enabling you to select folders containing video files to add to the conversion.

DVD Catalyst 3 supports Drag & Drop to quickly and easily add files to the conversion. Just drag files and/or  folders onto the program, and DVD Catalyst will sort out what it can handle, and add it to the selection queue.

Unbelievable Product!

source

I had to purchase 2 others that promised to work.. and be easy.. NEITHER worked.. or were easy and support stunk! I then purchased this one DVD CATALYST.. I first did the trial.. and I had a few questions about how to get it to work.. and the support at dvd catalyst was INSTANT and very helpful.. I had the problem solved and was using it right away! I couldn’t believe how helpful they were ..and I hadn’t even bought it yet.. I have since purchased it.. DO NOT even bother buying another one.. This is it. works great for my palm TX and on my sons video ipod. cool.

Over the past several years, many developers have released DVD ripping applications which allowed users to copy a DVD to their hard disk for playback directly on their PC, their iPod or Windows Mobile device.  While the legality of such software – especially in the United States – has been a subject of debate, the developers have continued to produce these applications with ever increasing performance and quality.

As part of this growth in DVD copying was and continues to be DVD Catalyst.  With the award winning 2.0 version currently available – and a new version on the horizon – DVD Catalyst has been one of the stronger applications in this genre.  The problem facing DVD Catalyst has been the same however for all of the applications:  complexity.  Simply put, there are dozens of variables that can go into the ripping of a DVD or the conversion of a video file to another format.  For new users, the overwhelming amount of features in DVD Catalyst 2 can seem a bit intimidating.

With this in mind and a goal of ease-of-use in mind, the makers of DVD Catalyst have released DVD Catalyst GT.  In a nutshell, it is the quickest and easiest DVD conversion software application I have had the opportunity to use to date.  Unlike it’s more sophisticated older sibling, DVD Catalyst GT makes conversion of a DVD or video file as simple as a few mouse clicks.  While it does have some small customization ability, the idea behind GT is to make it simple – literally for anyone to use.  This means that GT does not have many of the advanced editing features of DVD Catalyst but has all of the features that the majority of users will want and need.  For the professional, DVD Catalyst 2 is still the best choice.

In addition, GT also provides you the ability to crop a video to be viewed on different devices ranging from Windows Mobile devices to Sony’s PSP or an Apple iPod.  This is all done in a preview window, allowing you to see exactly how a file is going to look on your device before you convert it.  It is a nice touch to a well written and easy-to-use application that can make DVD ripping and file conversion simple, fun and rewarding for any level of user.

DVD Catalyst GT is installed on your desktop PC and requires approximately 20MB of hard disk space.  Since there is no Windows Mobile component to the installation, there is no space requirement on your device.  The only storage you will need on your device is for the output files created by GT.  After installation and GT is started, you are provided two options:  “I want to Convert a DVD” or “I want to Convert a File”.  As the names suggest, Convert a DVD is to be used to rip a DVD and make it into a file on your hard disk while Convert a File is designed to allow you to convert an existing video file on your hard disk to another format.  For example, you could convert an AVI file to WMV (note that in order to convert file to WMV, you will need the Windows Media Encoder which is a free download from http://www.windowsmedia.com)

Figure 1:  The DVD Catalyst GT Start Screen

To use the convert to DVD function you must first have the DVD in your computer’s DVD drive then select the convert a DVD option.  The main display of GT is split into two sections:  The preview pane on the left and the conversion settings in the right hand pane.  On the preview pane you will see the DVD playing, which is automatically started by GT.  It is on this pane that you select the type of device that you are going to be using to view the video file.  For example, you can choose a Windows Mobile 5 device, an Apple iPod or a Sony PSP and you will see how the video will look on that type of device.  The selection of the device is critical as the codec that GT will use will be based on your selection.  If you choose a Windows Mobile 5 device, GT will automatically use the Windows Media Video (WMV) codec so it can be played on your device.  The same is true for iPods or PSPs as it will put the video in the proprietary format of these devices.  This automatic step by GT takes the guesswork out of how to configure or which codec to use when converting a DVD.

Figure 2:  DVD Catalyst Configured for a Windows Mobile Device

Figure 3:  DVD Catalyst Configured for an Apple iPod

You will also note that there is a PocketPC DIVX output option as well instead of Windows Mobile 2003 or 5.0.  This will allow you to convert the file into a properly proportioned file for Windows Mobile devices using the DIVX codec which can then be played on your device with the TCPMP player.  The TCPMP player can be downloaded directly from the DVD Catalyst website at http://www.dvdcatalyst.com/support/downloads/.

Once the format is chosen on the left-hand pane, the file name, location, video and audio qualities can be adjusted on the right-hand pane.  By using the slide bars, you can choose how high you want the video or audio quality and can see in the information window above how big the file is going to be based on your settings.  So, for example, a 300Kbps file is going to be smaller than a 600Kbps file.  You will also note in the information window four options for cropping the video file.  By default GT will automatically crop the video viewing to fit your device.  However you can override this to make it full screen or have no cropping at all.  By doing this it is possible you will cut out some of the video edges so be sure to use the preview window to see exactly what you will get before doing a conversion.  Once the settings are to your liking click the Start Conversion button to have GT begin converting the DVD to a file on your PC.

Figure 4:  Auto Cropping of The Video File…

Figure 5:  Full Screen with no Borders on the Video File When the conversion process starts, DVD Catalyst GT will display a window showing you the file names being created and the progress being made on that conversion.  Most DVDs can be ripped in less than 1 hour depending on the codec being used.  If you are ripping to WMV then the conversion process can take up to 3 hours.  This is one reason the developer of GT has recommended the use of the TCPMP player and a DIVX output for Windows Mobile device users.  Once the DVD is converted, the outputted file can then be viewed on your PC or copied to your Windows Mobile device and played.  Moving a file to your Windows Mobile device can be done via a storage card reader on your PC or through Explorer in ActiveSync. You will also note that you can change the priority of your conversion process on the status window.  By changing the priority, you can instruct DVD Catalyst GT to have a normal priority, a lower processing priority or a high processing priority.  This will essentially instruct your PC how much processing power to put into the program, speeding up or slowing down the conversion process based on your choice.  It is usually best to leave it in Normal mode for conversion and the ability to use your PC while it is working in the background. Figure 6:  The Conversion Status Window Figure 7:  A Converted File on a Windows Mobile device In essence, DVD Catalyst GT is that simple!  With only a handful of mouse clicks you can convert a video or DVD for your favorite device, copy it to that device and view it.  There are no other adjustments or settings required and the output quality is fantastic.  It is clear that the developers at DVD Catalyst have hit the mark when it comes to simplicity but they have also hit on the application being feature rich and not stripped down in order to reach the simplicity goal.  As impressed as I was with DVD Catalyst (See my review at http://www.clintonfitch.com/reviews/dvdcat/dvdcat-3-0/default.asp) I’m even more so with GT because it opens up a whole new world for many Windows Mobile users who are new to video conversions. To be sure, DVD Catalyst GT is not for everyone.  For the serious video converter who wants to have the ability to tweak every aspect of the output file, you need to look at DVD Catalyst 2 as GT simply does not have the “knobs” to turn as it’s bigger sibling.  If you want to convert your DVDs and files but don’t have the desire to do all the custom tweaking, GT is definitely the right choice.  Make no mistake however; GT is not a crippled version of Catalyst 2.  They are intended for a different type of user and both meet their intended audience exceptionally well. Source link Tools4Movies Addition: DVD Catalyst GT is the predecessor of DVD Catalyst 3, and is no longer available.

Why I bought my iPod classic, I went for the 160 GB because I wanted to make sure I had plenty of room. After all, my Creative Zen had 40 GB, and that held only a fraction of my music library and audio books. After loading up the iPod, though, I realized I had a lot of room left over. I decided to put my favorite DVDs on there so that I could watch them while on the treadmill.

After trying multiple free solutions that required long processing time that sucked all the power out of my machine, I tried out DVD Catalyst. I was hooked. It was a one-stop-shop package to rip the DVD and put it on my iPod. You start the package, put in the DVD, select your settings and press a button. That is all there is to it.

Free Full Trial

Another thing I really liked about this software is that the trial version is a full version, available for 7 days. That allowed me to try out the software without having to extrapolate functionality.

Summary

I think that DVD Catalyst is well worth the money. The free solutions are, well, free, but paying the $20 has saved me a lot of time and effort to get my DVDs onto my iPod.

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When people think of software for their Pocket PC, it normally involves an application that is installed on the mobile device itself. One area that many people overlook is software for the desktop PC with a focus on improving the usability of the handheld. One such genre is DVD conversion allowing you to compress an entire movie down to a relatively lightweight size while retaining an optimised experience for the user.
I tried out the previous version of DVD Catalyst and was impressed by how simple and quick it was to convert your movie collection to the mobile format. Building on this, a whole lot more has been added allowing the user to customise the results and yet still remain intuitive and quick to use.
Starting up the application gives you the home page where you select the type of project you wish to run through i.e. converting a DVD from the original disc, image file or folder or converting a video file from a similar range of sources. Also on this home page is a link to check for updates which for this application is quite an important feature – more on that later.
Screenshot – Home Page
Once you have selected the source of your video, the next screen in the wizard style interface takes you to a properties page of sorts which gives you some information on each video file that has been selected such as duration, resolution and frame rate. You can select which of these files you wish to convert and also amend the output name, brightness and contrast of the converted file. Clicking on a file in this page will give you a real time preview of the video that includes any changes you have applied thus far.
Screenshot – First Options page
Clicking next brings us to the main conversion page. This will be the most commonly tweaked page as it allows you to select one of many predefined profiles to suit a variety of different mobile devices such as PDAs, phones, PSP and Apple’s iPods among others. Selecting a suitable profile sets such things as resolution, video and audio bitrate at a suitable ratio for the target device. These can be tweaked to your own personal preference and if you have found a customised setting what works well for you then this can be saved as a new profile for later retrieval. Profiles are a big bonus for this application as you may have a couple of different target devices and calling up a previous profile is a very quick way of setting all your options in one go. Hidden away on this page under the Advanced button are more settings which can be amended such as a custom resolution, the type of codec you wish to use, audio volume and video frame rate. You also have the option of selecting two pass encoding for a better quality conversion at the expense of time. One cool feature is that you can mix your profiles in the same encoding session so say for example you have a movie that you wanted to convert to be watched on a Pocket PC and your iPod, all you need to do is load up the first profile for the Pocket PC and then add another under the Advanced tab and select the iPod profile. This will encode the movie twice, once to each chosen output format. You can do this for multiple devices and it saves a whole lot of user interaction as the application takes care of it all.
Screenshot – Main Options page
Hitting next will bring you to the next page in the workflow which is cropping. A preview of your movie will play and beneath this are four icons that represent a form of auto cropping. Yes, this program will even crop your movies for you if you wish to remove the black bars from widescreen ratio moves as an example. Not only do the presets give you an illustration of the type of cropping, they will actively search out the black bars in the video and crop based on that so they are not set at any one predefined ratio. There are manual adjustments on the right of this page should you wish to over ride the auto mode and dial in some figures of your own. If cropping is not needed you can simply hit next to go to the final page.
Screenshot – Cropping
This last page gives you a quick overview of the file(s), the target device and estimated file size. All you need do here is click the start conversion button and the application will run through all the jobs listed on this page showing the start time, percentage done and where applicable, the finish time for each job keeping you fully up to date with the progress. This wizard approach to the conversion lets you tweak the right settings at the most logical time and is still very quick to run through; you literally can set up your video conversion in seconds.
So what else makes this application such a joy to use? Well, once you have figured out which settings you wish to use, the next time you start up the application you can simply opt to run it in quick mode which lets you select the target device, the input file(s) and then head straight to cropping before starting your conversion, missing out the conversion settings which are already in the target device settings. You can also do something similar by selecting the profile option on the home page, selecting your own profile and input file(s) and then going straight to the final conversion page missing out all the in-between steps. These two features are great for people who know how the output will be generated and wish to just select their files and let it the program do the rest.
For me, one of the most convenient features of this application has to be the batch conversion facility. When you are selecting your source videos, you can select multiple by ctrl/shift clicking or by using the ‘from folder’ option and then converting all the files in the one job. This is especially great for converting all the episodes from a series of your favourite TV program for example. Settings can bet set independently for each episode or you can apply settings globally to all the files and again you can have many video files selected and converting in literally a few seconds. The icing on the batch conversion process is that if you have more than one DVD ROM drive attached to your PC or shared over a network, you can select multiple DVDs for your sources and batch convert them all.
DVD Catalyst has been developed with a plug in system in mind meaning that new codecs and supported devices can be added simply, without the need to upgrade the whole application. Speaking of codecs, a vast majority are supported with conversion to and from popular codecs such as WMV, MP4, DIVX and many others included. While we are on the subject of updates, I want to go back to the importance of the check for update button I mention on the home page. DVD Catalyst 2.0 is a continually improving product with a very active support; I highlighted one area that I felt could be tweaked and the following morning the update was available – now that is dedication to the customer!
I have made a vast number of different conversions from DVDs and video files on my hard drive to various different formats with a total mixture of resolutions and bit rates and the application has yet to fail me. Batch conversion is completely reliable and you can quite happily queue up a few series of a particular program overnight and have them all waiting for you in the morning in their respective mobile formats. The speed of this application is determined by a number of factors such as source material, codec used and of course the speed of your computer and perhaps the longest conversion would be going from a DVD to WMV using two pass encoding. This process requires an in-between file created as an AVI before the resultant WMV can be generated. If you chose a DIVX AVI as your output file then this in-between step is not required and so the conversion would be much faster. I also found during my testing that this application will make good use of a dual core processor and I successfully converted an entire series of 25 minute episodes using two pass encoding from AVI to WMV in an average of 14 minutes per episode. You can safely half this figure to seven minutes if only using single pass encoding – not bad for a full episode using a 3Ghz Pentium D processor.

I have to say that I am nothing short of completely impressed with DVD Catalyst 2. Everything about this application is a pleasure to use, from the intuitive interface, through the speed of operation and batch processing to the rock solid stability. Throw in a very competitive price and top notch customer support and you really have one truly excellent value for money product.

Original location

H264/AVC:

Pro:

Offers the best possible quality, format is the same as used in Bluray, as well as movies rented/purchased through iTunes.

Con:

Very processor-demanding to create as well as playback. Many recent devices, including the iPhone/iPods have an accelerator chip build-in to ensure a good performance

MPEG4 SP

Pro:

Fast, does not require much processor power to create/play back

Con:

Quality is not as good, requiring a larger file size for good results.

The iPhone specifications indicate that the device is capable of playback of H264 video at a maximum of 640×480 at 1500Kbps.

In fact, the maximum screen resolution suppored on an iPhone is 720×480, and the quality can exceed 1500Kbps as well.

The iPhone itself has a screen resolution of 480×320, so only when you use the TV-out feature of your iPhone (with a compatible dock) there really is no need to use the maximum settings.

On some community pages, people always mention to use the maximum, but really, if you watch video on your phone, wouldn’t you rather have a bunch of videos that are good quality than only a few that are perfect quality?

On an 8GB iPhone, I can fit almost 2 seasons of 24, or the first 14 James Bond movies at very good quality. If I would use the maximum settings, I might only be able to fit half a season of 24, or 5 movies.

iPhone full screen settings:

DVD Catalyst 3 has the capability to make any movie full screen on any device. Regardless what the resolution is.

To get full screen videos on your iPhone, follow these steps:

Start DVD Catalyst 3

Select Apple > iPhone (Standard) or Apple > iPhone (HQ) from the dropdowns on the left. The HQ profile is a little slower, but provides a slightly better quality.

Click on “Modify” right underneath the dropdowns, and make sure the screen size is set to 480×320.

In Modify, you can increase the audio quality to 160Kbps if you want, however, 128Kbps is good enough for our personal needs

If you desire, you can increase the video quality from 500Kbps to 700Kbps, but again, this is personal taste, going over 700 is barely noticable. If you use the HQ profile, you can use a 5% lower video quality setting to end up with the same quality as the Standard profile

If you are converting a movie with fast action scenes, changing the pass-option from 1 pass to 2 passes might help increasing the quality, but again, this is personal preference.2 passes is a bit slower with conversions, however, it can reduce”blocky” artifacts in most movies to a minimum.

In Global Settings, go to the “Conversion Tab” and make sure that “remove black bars from device” is enabled. This will remove black bars from the video, and adjust the sides of the movie to make it full-screen on your iPhone.

Start a conversion.

The above settings will make any DVD or video file appear in full-screen on your iPhone.

The above settings will make any movie full screen on your iPhone, however, in almost all cases, a small portion on the sides (for wide-screen movies) or from top and bottom (for standard definition movies) will be removed.

If you would like the option to decide during playback if you want full-screen or the full-movie, use the following settings:

Start DVD Catalyst 3

Select Apple > iPhone (Standard) or Apple > iPhone (HQ) from the dropdowns on the left. The HQ profile is a little slower, but provides a slightly better quality.

Click on “Modify” right underneath the dropdowns, and make sure the screen size is set to 720×320.  This is a custom resolution,only found in DVD Catalyst 3, which enables it to create video files of a better quality when you use the Zoom function for video on the iPhone. The resolution height is set to the height of the iPhone screen, and the width is set to the maximum it can accept.

In Modify, you can increase the audio quality to 160Kbps if you want, however, 128Kbps is good enough for our personal needs

For the selected resolution, it is recommended to use a video quality of 700Kbps or higher, going over 1000 is barely noticable. If you use the HQ profile, you can use a 5% lower video quality setting to end up with the same quality as the Standard profile

If you are converting a movie with fast action scenes, changing the pass-option from 1 pass to 2 passes might help increasing the quality, but again, this is personal preference.2 passes is a bit slower with conversions, however, it can reduce”blocky” artifacts in most movies to a minimum.

In Global Settings, go to the “Conversion Tab” and make sure that “remove black bars from file” is enabled. This will remove black bars from the video. This, combined with the custom 720×320 resolution will result in video files that will not have black borders by themselves, however, when you view them on your iPhone, they most likely will have black borders. Tapping on the iPhone screen shows a “Zoom” button (arrows) on the right top side, which will zoom the video to full screen. For widescreen movies, the zoom will scale the video to it’s original size, and while it does not display the sides, zooming out will show the full movie (with black borders at top and bottom)

Start a conversion.

The above settings will make any DVD or video file appear in full-screen on your iPhone, or in full original width if desired.

To get the best results for video files if you use TV-Out on the iPhone, use the following settings:

Start DVD Catalyst 3

Select Apple > iPhone (Standard) or Apple > iPhone (HQ) from the dropdowns on the left. The HQ profile is a little slower, but provides a slightly better quality.

Click on “Modify” right underneath the dropdowns, and make sure the screen size is set to 720×480.  (while the official Apple specification for the iPhone states that the maximum resolution is 640×480, the iPhone actually accepts 720×480 and anything less than that)

In Modify, you can increase the audio quality to 160Kbps if you want, however, 128Kbps is good enough for our personal needs

For video quality, we recommend using 1200Kbps at least, but 1500Kbps is recommended

If you are using 1500Kbps, enabling 2-pass might result in unplayable files.

In Global Settings, go to the “Conversion Tab” and make sure that “remove black bars from file” is enabled. This will remove black bars from the video,enabling you to use the zoom function on the iPhone to make the video full screen or to have it look as the original.

Start a conversion.

Video quality is relative to the person who views the file. Combined with the above information, DVD Catalyst 3 offers many adjustments that can be made to get the best possible quality or the smallest files (more movies). Some people prefer to have the best possible quality, while others rather have enough on the device to ensure they have something to watch on a trip. The default settings for every device in DVD Catalyst 3 are selected based on a good quality vs a reasonable file size. Quality can always be better, but will also result in bigger file sizes.

Requirements:

*An Apple iPod Video. (5G or 5.5G)

*An Apple iPod Video Sync cable. (The cable that came with it)

*A Windows-based PC. (Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows 2003 (Server), Windows 2005 (MCE), Windows Vista or Windows 7)

*Apple iTunes installed on Windows PC (the latest version is recommended, but as long as it is compatible with your iPod Video, it will work just fine)

*A DVD drive in Windows-PC. (Needed for DVD conversion) If your computer has more than one DVD drive, we recommend using the DVD burner instead of the DVD-ROM drive. DVD Burners are usually better in reading DVDs, and especially for your first time, it would reduce the chance of any complications that might arise.

*DVD conversion software. (DVD Catalyst 3 is recommended, but DVD Catalyst Free will do as well)

Step 1: Initial Setup.

*Install DVD Catalyst onto your Windows-based computer.  At the end of the install, it has options to open the user guide and to start the program after install. For convenience, uncheck them both.

*The installer puts a shortcut for DVD Catalyst on your desktop. Double-click it to run the program.

*Open your DVD drive tray, and put the DVD you want to watch on your iPod Video in the drive. Close the drive-tray.

*After a few seconds, DVD Catalyst will recognize that you inserted a DVD, and it will perform a scanning procedure on it. The scanning procedure is performed by DVD Catalyst to gather information about the DVD, which is uses to optimize it during the next step for the best possible quality on your iPod Video. Depending on the DVD itself, if it is a TV DVD or a Movie DVD, it might take a little while before the scanning is complete.

Step 2: Starting the conversion.

*Using the dropdowns at the left, select Apple > iPod Video (DVD Catalyst 3) or at the bottom (DVD Catalyst Free), select the iPod Video profile. If there are more profiles listed (DVD Catalyst 3) ignore them. These other profiles are more specific, and do not serve a purpose or an explanation in this particular “How To” guide.

*Click the Go button to start the conversion. The conversion will take a while, depending on the speed of your computer.

What DVD Catalyst is doing at this point is converting the video from one format to another format. The video on a DVD is created in a specific video format called MPEG2. While there are many devices that can play this particular video format, the iPod Video cannot play video in this format, so to be able to watch the DVD on your iPod Video, it has to be converted into a format that will play on it. In addition, DVDs are intended to be viewed on a bigger screen, and to have a good quality on even bigger TV screens, the quality setting used to create the DVD video makes it quite big in file size (4 GB or more). If the video just gets converted to a compatible format, this would mean you can barely fit 2 movies on an 8GB iPod Video. Because of the smaller screen on the iPod Video, it does not need to be that big to maintain the same quality, so during conversion, DVD Catalyst changes the format to make it compatible, adjusts the screen size to make it fit properly on the iPod Video screen, and adjusts the quality itself to reduce the file size. This way, movies that would normally take up more than half of the space on your iPod Video, you end up with 10 times as many movies and TV shows.

Step 3: Preparing iTunes for transferring video files.

This is where quite a few people experience some complications. iTunes, Apple’s software for transferring music and video files to your iPod Video, is quite powerful in options; however, if these options are not set a certain way, it actually blocks other options.

*Connect your iPod Video to your computer with the Sync-cable. iTunes should start automatically after a few seconds. If it does not, double-click on the iTunes icon to start the program.

*On the left side, find your iPod Video. It should be listed under “DEVICES”. Click on your iPod Video’s name in iTunes, and on the left side it will show some information about it, a few buttons for update and restore, and below that a couple of checkmarks. While iTunes has numerous options to automatically transfer videos and songs, the easiest to transfer videos to your iPod Video is by enabling the checkmark for “Manually manage music and videos”. If you do not have this selected, it is hard to manually select the movies you want to transfer.

*Once you have enabled the “Manually manage” checkmark, click on Apply to have it set.

Step 4: Transferring the movie to your iPod Video.

When the conversion is finished, DVD Catalyst automatically opens the folder where it stores the video files. By default, the files are stored in your “My Video” (for windows 2000/XP/2003) or “Videos” (Vista/Windows 7), so if you closed the dialog, you can find it again by opening on “My Computer” and browsing to your “My Documents” folder or your “user” folder.

There are a few different ways of transferring the files to your iPod Video. If you are like us, and have a big collection build-up with movies and TV shows, it might not be desirable to have them all in iTunes. Rather than having 1000’s of files in iTunes, which makes it a bit slow, we prefer to bypass the iTunes library feature, and just transfer the files we want directly to the iPod Video.

Method 1 (preferred), bypassing the iTunes library.

*In iTunes, click on your iPod Video on the left, so that right underneath it, it will show Movies, Music (and your playlists if you have any on there) Click once on the movies so it shows the movies that are already on your iPod Video (if any) on the left side. Now go to the Windows Explorer dialog that shows the video file(s) created by DVD Catalyst. Left-click and hold the file, and drag it over to the video selection of your iPod Video. The mouse arrow should show a green “+” icon after a few seconds. Once this happens, left go of the mouse button, and iTunes will transfer the file.

If you already use iTunes for your music collection, you might want to have it manage your video collection as well. If this is the case, just add the video file to the library.

Method 2: Add to the iTunes library, and then transfer from library to your iPod Video

To add files to the iTunes library, just drag the video files to it in the same way as mentioned in method one, however, instead of selecting the “Movies” item underneath your iPod Video, select the “Movies” item underneath the library. You can also use the “File > Add file to library” or “File > Add folder to library” in the iTunes top menu as well. Once you have your movies in the iTunes library, transfer of the movies to your iPod Video works the same as for music.

Requirements:

*An Apple iPod Touch. (Any model or version will work)

*An Apple iPod Touch Sync cable. (The cable that came with it)

*A Windows-based PC. (Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows 2003 (Server), Windows 2005 (MCE), Windows Vista or Windows 7)

*Apple iTunes installed on Windows PC (the latest version is recommended, but as long as it is compatible with your iPod Touch, it will work just fine)

*A DVD drive in Windows-PC. (Needed for DVD conversion) If your computer has more than one DVD drive, we recommend using the DVD burner instead of the DVD-ROM drive. DVD Burners are usually better in reading DVDs, and especially for your first time, it would reduce the chance of any complications that might arise.

*DVD conversion software. (DVD Catalyst 3 is recommended, but DVD Catalyst Free will do as well)

Step 1: Initial Setup.

*Install DVD Catalyst onto your Windows-based computer.  At the end of the install, it has options to open the user guide and to start the program after install. For convenience, uncheck them both.

*The installer puts a shortcut for DVD Catalyst on your desktop. Double-click it to run the program.

*Open your DVD drive tray, and put the DVD you want to watch on your iPod Touch in the drive. Close the drive-tray.

*After a few seconds, DVD Catalyst will recognize that you inserted a DVD, and it will perform a scanning procedure on it. The scanning procedure is performed by DVD Catalyst to gather information about the DVD, which is uses to optimize it during the next step for the best possible quality on your iPod Touch. Depending on the DVD itself, if it is a TV DVD or a Movie DVD, it might take a little while before the scanning is complete.

Step 2: Starting the conversion.

*Using the dropdowns at the left, select Apple > iPod Touch (DVD Catalyst 3) or at the bottom (DVD Catalyst Free), select the iPod Touch profile. If there are more profiles listed (DVD Catalyst 3) ignore them. These other profiles are more specific, and do not serve a purpose or an explanation in this particular “How To” guide.

*Click the Go button to start the conversion. The conversion will take a while, depending on the speed of your computer.

What DVD Catalyst is doing at this point is converting the video from one format to another format. The video on a DVD is created in a specific video format called MPEG2. While there are many devices that can play this particular video format, the iPod Touch cannot play video in this format, so to be able to watch the DVD on your iPod Touch, it has to be converted into a format that will play on it. In addition, DVDs are intended to be viewed on a bigger screen, and to have a good quality on even bigger TV screens, the quality setting used to create the DVD video makes it quite big in file size (4 GB or more). If the video just gets converted to a compatible format, this would mean you can barely fit 2 movies on an 8GB iPod Touch. Because of the smaller screen on the iPod Touch, it does not need to be that big to maintain the same quality, so during conversion, DVD Catalyst changes the format to make it compatible, adjusts the screen size to make it fit properly on the iPod Touch screen, and adjusts the quality itself to reduce the file size. This way, movies that would normally take up more than half of the space on your iPod Touch, you end up with 10 times as many movies and TV shows.

Step 3: Preparing iTunes for transferring video files.

This is where quite a few people experience some complications. iTunes, Apple’s software for transferring music and video files to your iPod Touch, is quite powerful in options; however, if these options are not set a certain way, it actually blocks other options.

*Connect your iPod Touch to your computer with the Sync-cable. iTunes should start automatically after a few seconds. If it does not, double-click on the iTunes icon to start the program.

*On the left side, find your iPod Touch. It should be listed under “DEVICES”. Click on your iPod Touch’s name in iTunes, and on the left side it will show some information about it, a few buttons for update and restore, and below that a couple of checkmarks. While iTunes has numerous options to automatically transfer videos and songs, the easiest to transfer videos to your iPod Touch is by enabling the checkmark for “Manually manage music and videos”. If you do not have this selected, it is hard to manually select the movies you want to transfer.

*Once you have enabled the “Manually manage” checkmark, click on Apply to have it set.

Step 4: Transferring the movie to your iPod Touch.

When the conversion is finished, DVD Catalyst automatically opens the folder where it stores the video files. By default, the files are stored in your “My Video” (for windows 2000/XP/2003) or “Videos” (Vista/Windows 7), so if you closed the dialog, you can find it again by opening on “My Computer” and browsing to your “My Documents” folder or your “user” folder.

There are a few different ways of transferring the files to your iPod Touch. If you are like us, and have a big collection build-up with movies and TV shows, it might not be desirable to have them all in iTunes. Rather than having 1000’s of files in iTunes, which makes it a bit slow, we prefer to bypass the iTunes library feature, and just transfer the files we want directly to the iPod Touch.

Method 1 (preferred), bypassing the iTunes library.

*In iTunes, click on your iPod Touch on the left, so that right underneath it, it will show Movies, Music (and your playlists if you have any on there) Click once on the movies so it shows the movies that are already on your iPod Touch (if any) on the left side. Now go to the Windows Explorer dialog that shows the video file(s) created by DVD Catalyst. Left-click and hold the file, and drag it over to the video selection of your iPod Touch. The mouse arrow should show a green “+” icon after a few seconds. Once this happens, left go of the mouse button, and iTunes will transfer the file.

If you already use iTunes for your music collection, you might want to have it manage your video collection as well. If this is the case, just add the video file to the library.

Method 2: Add to the iTunes library, and then transfer from library to your iPod Touch

To add files to the iTunes library, just drag the video files to it in the same way as mentioned in method one, however, instead of selecting the “Movies” item underneath your iPod Touch, select the “Movies” item underneath the library. You can also use the “File > Add file to library” or “File > Add folder to library” in the iTunes top menu as well. Once you have your movies in the iTunes library, transfer of the movies to your iPod Touch works the same as for music.

Requirements:

*An Apple iPod Nano. (3G or Newer)

*An Apple iPod Nano Sync cable. (The cable that came with it)

*A Windows-based PC. (Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows 2003 (Server), Windows 2005 (MCE), Windows Vista or Windows 7)

*Apple iTunes installed on Windows PC (the latest version is recommended, but as long as it is compatible with your iPod Nano, it will work just fine)

*A DVD drive in Windows-PC. (Needed for DVD conversion) If your computer has more than one DVD drive, we recommend using the DVD burner instead of the DVD-ROM drive. DVD Burners are usually better in reading DVDs, and especially for your first time, it would reduce the chance of any complications that might arise.

*DVD conversion software. (DVD Catalyst 3 is recommended, but DVD Catalyst Free will do as well)

Step 1: Initial Setup.

*Install DVD Catalyst onto your Windows-based computer.  At the end of the install, it has options to open the user guide and to start the program after install. For convenience, uncheck them both.

*The installer puts a shortcut for DVD Catalyst on your desktop. Double-click it to run the program.

*Open your DVD drive tray, and put the DVD you want to watch on your iPod Nano in the drive. Close the drive-tray.

*After a few seconds, DVD Catalyst will recognize that you inserted a DVD, and it will perform a scanning procedure on it. The scanning procedure is performed by DVD Catalyst to gather information about the DVD, which is uses to optimize it during the next step for the best possible quality on your iPod Nano. Depending on the DVD itself, if it is a TV DVD or a Movie DVD, it might take a little while before the scanning is complete.

Step 2: Starting the conversion.

*Using the dropdowns at the left, select Apple > iPod Nano (DVD Catalyst 3) or at the bottom (DVD Catalyst Free), select the iPod Nano profile. If there are more profiles listed (DVD Catalyst 3) ignore them. These other profiles are more specific, and do not serve a purpose or an explanation in this particular “How To” guide.

*Click the Go button to start the conversion. The conversion will take a while, depending on the speed of your computer.

What DVD Catalyst is doing at this point is converting the video from one format to another format. The video on a DVD is created in a specific video format called MPEG2. While there are many devices that can play this particular video format, the iPod Nano cannot play video in this format, so to be able to watch the DVD on your iPod Nano, it has to be converted into a format that will play on it. In addition, DVDs are intended to be viewed on a bigger screen, and to have a good quality on even bigger TV screens, the quality setting used to create the DVD video makes it quite big in file size (4 GB or more). If the video just gets converted to a compatible format, this would mean you can barely fit 2 movies on an 8GB iPod Nano. Because of the smaller screen on the iPod Nano, it does not need to be that big to maintain the same quality, so during conversion, DVD Catalyst changes the format to make it compatible, adjusts the screen size to make it fit properly on the iPod Nano screen, and adjusts the quality itself to reduce the file size. This way, movies that would normally take up more than half of the space on your iPod Nano, you end up with 10 times as many movies and TV shows.

Step 3: Preparing iTunes for transferring video files.

This is where quite a few people experience some complications. iTunes, Apple’s software for transferring music and video files to your iPod Nano, is quite powerful in options; however, if these options are not set a certain way, it actually blocks other options.

*Connect your iPod Nano to your computer with the Sync-cable. iTunes should start automatically after a few seconds. If it does not, double-click on the iTunes icon to start the program.

*On the left side, find your iPod Nano. It should be listed under “DEVICES”. Click on your iPod Nano’s name in iTunes, and on the left side it will show some information about it, a few buttons for update and restore, and below that a couple of checkmarks. While iTunes has numerous options to automatically transfer videos and songs, the easiest to transfer videos to your iPod Nano is by enabling the checkmark for “Manually manage music and videos”. If you do not have this selected, it is hard to manually select the movies you want to transfer.

*Once you have enabled the “Manually manage” checkmark, click on Apply to have it set.

Step 4: Transferring the movie to your iPod Nano.

When the conversion is finished, DVD Catalyst automatically opens the folder where it stores the video files. By default, the files are stored in your “My Video” (for windows 2000/XP/2003) or “Videos” (Vista/Windows 7), so if you closed the dialog, you can find it again by opening on “My Computer” and browsing to your “My Documents” folder or your “user” folder.

There are a few different ways of transferring the files to your iPod Nano. If you are like us, and have a big collection build-up with movies and TV shows, it might not be desirable to have them all in iTunes. Rather than having 1000’s of files in iTunes, which makes it a bit slow, we prefer to bypass the iTunes library feature, and just transfer the files we want directly to the iPod Nano.

Method 1 (preferred), bypassing the iTunes library.

*In iTunes, click on your iPod Nano on the left, so that right underneath it, it will show Movies, Music (and your playlists if you have any on there) Click once on the movies so it shows the movies that are already on your iPod Nano (if any) on the left side. Now go to the Windows Explorer dialog that shows the video file(s) created by DVD Catalyst. Left-click and hold the file, and drag it over to the video selection of your iPod Nano. The mouse arrow should show a green “+” icon after a few seconds. Once this happens, left go of the mouse button, and iTunes will transfer the file.

If you already use iTunes for your music collection, you might want to have it manage your video collection as well. If this is the case, just add the video file to the library.

Method 2: Add to the iTunes library, and then transfer from library to your iPod Nano

To add files to the iTunes library, just drag the video files to it in the same way as mentioned in method one, however, instead of selecting the “Movies” item underneath your iPod Nano, select the “Movies” item underneath the library. You can also use the “File > Add file to library” or “File > Add folder to library” in the iTunes top menu as well. Once you have your movies in the iTunes library, transfer of the movies to your iPod Nano works the same as for music.

Requirements:

*An Apple iPod Classic. (Any model or version will work)

*An Apple iPod Classic Sync cable. (The cable that came with it)

*A Windows-based PC. (Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows 2003 (Server), Windows 2005 (MCE), Windows Vista or Windows 7)

*Apple iTunes installed on Windows PC (the latest version is recommended, but as long as it is compatible with your iPod Classic, it will work just fine)

*A DVD drive in Windows-PC. (Needed for DVD conversion) If your computer has more than one DVD drive, we recommend using the DVD burner instead of the DVD-ROM drive. DVD Burners are usually better in reading DVDs, and especially for your first time, it would reduce the chance of any complications that might arise.

*DVD conversion software. (DVD Catalyst 3 is recommended, but DVD Catalyst Free will do as well)

Step 1: Initial Setup.

*Install DVD Catalyst onto your Windows-based computer.  At the end of the install, it has options to open the user guide and to start the program after install. For convenience, uncheck them both.

*The installer puts a shortcut for DVD Catalyst on your desktop. Double-click it to run the program.

*Open your DVD drive tray, and put the DVD you want to watch on your iPod Classic in the drive. Close the drive-tray.

*After a few seconds, DVD Catalyst will recognize that you inserted a DVD, and it will perform a scanning procedure on it. The scanning procedure is performed by DVD Catalyst to gather information about the DVD, which is uses to optimize it during the next step for the best possible quality on your iPod Classic. Depending on the DVD itself, if it is a TV DVD or a Movie DVD, it might take a little while before the scanning is complete.

Step 2: Starting the conversion.

*Using the dropdowns at the left, select Apple > iPod Classic (DVD Catalyst 3) or at the bottom (DVD Catalyst Free), select the iPod Classic profile. If there are more profiles listed (DVD Catalyst 3) ignore them. These other profiles are more specific, and do not serve a purpose or an explanation in this particular “How To” guide.

*Click the Go button to start the conversion. The conversion will take a while, depending on the speed of your computer.

What DVD Catalyst is doing at this point is converting the video from one format to another format. The video on a DVD is created in a specific video format called MPEG2. While there are many devices that can play this particular video format, the iPod Classic cannot play video in this format, so to be able to watch the DVD on your iPod Classic, it has to be converted into a format that will play on it. In addition, DVDs are intended to be viewed on a bigger screen, and to have a good quality on even bigger TV screens, the quality setting used to create the DVD video makes it quite big in file size (4 GB or more). If the video just gets converted to a compatible format, this would mean you can barely fit 2 movies on an 8GB iPod Classic. Because of the smaller screen on the iPod Classic, it does not need to be that big to maintain the same quality, so during conversion, DVD Catalyst changes the format to make it compatible, adjusts the screen size to make it fit properly on the iPod Classic screen, and adjusts the quality itself to reduce the file size. This way, movies that would normally take up more than half of the space on your iPod Classic, you end up with 10 times as many movies and TV shows.

Step 3: Preparing iTunes for transferring video files.

This is where quite a few people experience some complications. iTunes, Apple’s software for transferring music and video files to your iPod Classic, is quite powerful in options; however, if these options are not set a certain way, it actually blocks other options.

*Connect your iPod Classic to your computer with the Sync-cable. iTunes should start automatically after a few seconds. If it does not, double-click on the iTunes icon to start the program.

*On the left side, find your iPod Classic. It should be listed under “DEVICES”. Click on your iPod Classic’s name in iTunes, and on the left side it will show some information about it, a few buttons for update and restore, and below that a couple of checkmarks. While iTunes has numerous options to automatically transfer videos and songs, the easiest to transfer videos to your iPod Classic is by enabling the checkmark for “Manually manage music and videos”. If you do not have this selected, it is hard to manually select the movies you want to transfer.

*Once you have enabled the “Manually manage” checkmark, click on Apply to have it set.

Step 4: Transferring the movie to your iPod Classic.

When the conversion is finished, DVD Catalyst automatically opens the folder where it stores the video files. By default, the files are stored in your “My Video” (for windows 2000/XP/2003) or “Videos” (Vista/Windows 7), so if you closed the dialog, you can find it again by opening on “My Computer” and browsing to your “My Documents” folder or your “user” folder.

There are a few different ways of transferring the files to your iPod Classic. If you are like us, and have a big collection build-up with movies and TV shows, it might not be desirable to have them all in iTunes. Rather than having 1000’s of files in iTunes, which makes it a bit slow, we prefer to bypass the iTunes library feature, and just transfer the files we want directly to the iPod Classic.

Method 1 (preferred), bypassing the iTunes library.

*In iTunes, click on your iPod Classic on the left, so that right underneath it, it will show Movies, Music (and your playlists if you have any on there) Click once on the movies so it shows the movies that are already on your iPod Classic (if any) on the left side. Now go to the Windows Explorer dialog that shows the video file(s) created by DVD Catalyst. Left-click and hold the file, and drag it over to the video selection of your iPod Classic. The mouse arrow should show a green “+” icon after a few seconds. Once this happens, left go of the mouse button, and iTunes will transfer the file.

If you already use iTunes for your music collection, you might want to have it manage your video collection as well. If this is the case, just add the video file to the library.

Method 2: Add to the iTunes library, and then transfer from library to your iPod Classic

To add files to the iTunes library, just drag the video files to it in the same way as mentioned in method one, however, instead of selecting the “Movies” item underneath your iPod Classic, select the “Movies” item underneath the library. You can also use the “File > Add file to library” or “File > Add folder to library” in the iTunes top menu as well. Once you have your movies in the iTunes library, transfer of the movies to your iPod Classic works the same as for music.

DVD Catalyst enables you to convert your own DVD collection to a format that can be played on a video-capable device that does not normally play DVDs. It creates video files from DVDs that are compatible with many different devices, including Apple’s iPod and iPhone, Blackberry, Pocket PC, PSP, XBOX 360, PS3, Zen and Zune.

Besides converting DVDs, it can also convert video files from and to a variety of different video formats, without the need to install codecs. No additional software is required for DVD Catalyst to do it’s thing.

Features

* Multi-Award Winning, DVD Catalyst has won major awards for every major version released.
* Works without the need to install additional software. (for some devices (PocketPC, Android) a decent (free) video player application might need to be installed.
* Converts recorded DVD, as well as commercial Movie and TV show DVDs.
* Converts DVDs using a “track” system, which displays all the video content on the DVD, including special features, trailers and easter-egg tracks.
* Supports subtitles, language selection and Closed Captions
* Converts ‘on-the-fly’, no huge storage space is needed, only the filesize estimated for the created video files.
* Supports ‘batching, multiple DVD drives, multiple video files, or a mix thereof are all converted in order. Add as many as you want, and let DVD Catalyst run overnight.
* Supports ‘profiles’, create your own custom settings, and save them as profiles for quick access.
* Supports ‘multi-device’, only DVD Catalyst enables you to queue up multiple different devices. Everything will be converted for all selected devices.
* Automatic DVD, DVD Catalyst detects new DVDs on insert, and ejects them when done.
* Folder monitor, DVD Catalyst can scan selected folders for new files, and select them for conversion.
* Automation options, most of DVD Catalyst’s options can be set to automatically perform certain tasks, such as language/subtitle selection and black bar removal.
* 0-Click. DVD Catalyst can be configured to run completely without any clicks. Insert a DVD, and it will convert it, new files found in a folder will be converted, subtitles, languages etc, all can be set automatically.
* Proven to be stable and fast and does not require additional software.
* Includes profiles for ALL the common devices (190+), and new ones are added on a regular basis.

System Requirements

* IBM-compatible PC with a minimum 500 MHz Pentium-class microprocessor and 128 MB RAM
* Windows 2000/XP/XP64/VISTA/VISTA64/7
* 40 MB hard-disk space + space for the created files