Ripping DVDs to your iPod, iPhone, or Nokia S60 phone with Free Software

The latest series of Nokia S60 third edition phones, such as the N95, N82, and E90, and iPods, such as the iPhone, iPod classic, and iPod touch, support the latest MPEG4 video encoding called H.264/AVC, also known as MPEG-4 Part 10, or MPEG-4 AVC (for Advanced Video Coding). H.264/AVC brings good video quality at a relatively small size to your phone.

For the small screen size of a phone, the quality and size of a H.264/AVC video is on par with DivX but with one major advantage: the iPhone/iPod and built-in Real Media Player in S60 will play H.264/AVC videos.

How to convert your DVDs into H.264/AVC using free software

Screen Resolution:
Most Nokia S60v3 phones, iPod nano (3rd generation), iPod classic (5th, 6th generation): 320 x 240 pixels
iPhone (1st generation) and iPod touch (1st generation): 480 x 320 pixels

Software you'll need:
DVD Decrypter (unofficial site)
Videora iPod converter

For my tutorial I have DVD Decrypter 3.5.4.0 (setup file size: 899,414 bytes) and Videora iPod converter 3.07 (setup file size: 7,151,050 bytes) running on Microsoft Windows XP SP2 and converting for 320x240 pixels.

Ripping video from DVD to VOB

• Open DVD Decrypter and place DVD into DVD drive (DVD Decrypter will automatically detect the largest video on the DVD and select it)
  


• Click Mode -> IFO


• Click Tools -> Settings -> IFO Mode (Change File Splitting to None) and click OK


• Change the destination of the export file as needed


• Click the DVD -> HD icon (Decrypt)

Converting the VOB to H.264/AVC

• Open Videora iPod converter
  


• Click Settings, select iPod_5G
  


• Click New Profile, enter a name and select "iPod 2-Pass - FFmpeg VINB". 1-pass is faster but videos can come out "blocky".
  


• Click Video and fill in below:
  Video Codec: H.264
  Profile: Baseline Profile
  Level: Level 1.3
  Mode: ABR
  Bitrate: 256
  Width: 320 (iPhone/touch: 480)
  Height: 240 (iPhone/touch: 320)
  Aspect Ratio: Original
  Framerate: 30
  Max Resolution: 320x240 (iPhone/touch: 480x320)
  Mod16 Size: unchecked
  Total Pixels: unchecked
  


• Click General 2 and fill in below:
  (values here depend on the aspect ratio of the DVD)
  
  Wide screen DVD (16:9)
  Crop Top: 0
  Crop Bottom: 0
  Crop Left: 40
  Crop Right: 40
  
  TV-series DVD (4:3)
  Crop Top: 0
  Crop Bottom: 0
  Crop Left: 0
  Crop Right: 0
  
  iPhone/touch: Leave above all 0
  
  Additional CLI parameters: -async 1
  


• Click Audio and fill in below:
  Codec: AAC-LC
  Mode: ABR
  Bitrate (kbps): 128
  Channels: Stereo
  Sample Rate (Hz): Original
  Volume (%): 100
  


• Click OK


• Click Save Settings


• Click Convert, click Video File, click Power user
  


• Select file, browse output directory, click "Start Converting"

Typical file size: 350MB for 2 hours at 320x240

List of phones that support H.264/AVC (all S60v3 with FP1 or higher are supported):
N71, N73, N75, N77, N80, N91, N92, N93, 6110, 6120/6121, 6290, E51, E66, E71, E90, N76, N79, N81, N81 8GB, N82, N85, N95, N95 8GB, N96
Source: Forum Nokia Feature Table

List of Apple Support:
QuickTime, iTunes, iPod nano (3rd generation), iPod classic (5th, 6th generation), iPhone (1st generation) and iPod touch (1st generation)