iPod Tip #6
Play DVDs on Your iPod
I have a lot of “live concert” DVDs in my collection. What I have been doing for some time now is recording the audio from these DVDs on my Mac, importing them to iTunes, syncing with my iPod and having some great concerts to listen to on the road. CDs can be “ripped” into iTunes fast and easy. But DVDs cannot be ripped the same way in iTunes.

It is easy to record any audio playing on your Mac using either WireTap Pro $19

You can record audio from streaming media, Internet radio, or DVDs and listen to them on your iPod.

What will you need?
Any Mac running OS X
WireTap Pro $19
Any DVD you want to record

WireTap Pro
Download and install WireTap Pro. Install and open the application.

Recording the DVD using WireTap Pro
Put in your DVD. DVD player should start automatically, if not, launch DVD player. Cue up and pause the DVD where you want to start. Launch WireTap Pro.

Click the middle button on the WireTap Pro interface (under the picture of the mic and speaker) to open WireTap Pro’s preferences. The speaker and microphone icons are actually buttons. Click on these to easily switch your source.

Sessions – Preferences – EQ buttons

Choose the source you want to record. Mac Audio to record the DVD. Click the drop down menu labeled “Record” to decide what you would like to include. Here you can also decide if you want to trim the leading and trailing silence on the recording. this could help if you are not planning on editing the audio.

Click on “Saving” pane. Decide where you want to save files and what application you may want to open the recording in. You will want to use iTunes.

Click on the “Format” pane and decide which format you want to save your recording. If you plan on sync with your iPod AAC is a good choice at about 128 to 192 bit rate. I use AAC at 192k Stereo for recording my DVD concert videos to iTunes to play on my iPod.

Pick Your Format

Click record button on WireTap Pro, then quickly press play ion DVD Player.

Record – Stop – Pause

Finishing the Recording
Once you’re finished recording, click stop. The audio file will be saved where you specified. If you choose iTunes it will be there. When recording the live concert DVDs this way you will end up with one long track that will play without gaps. The only way to skip around is to use click wheel on iPods.

ID3 Tags
Next, add the ID3 tags so you will have Title, Album, etc. Using iTunes to do this is easy. Highlight the audio file in the iTunes Library, and Control + mouse click (right click for you multi-button mouse users) and choose Get Info. Fill out the information.

If you have an iPod with video playback and are interested in watching your DVDs check out iPod Tip #10: DVD Video on Your iPod on this website.

    | Tags: dvd, iPod