Hack the iPhone

How to rip your DVDs

(intel / PPC Mac)

Ripping DVDs and putting them onto the iPhone is very easy to do. The only program you need is HandBrake which you can get for free right here.

Once you've installed the program, insert the DVD you want to rip. Close DVD Player which, most likely, will launch automatically. Now launch HandBrake. Select the "Detected volume" button, then click "Open".









You'll now be at the main program screen where you have a lot of different settings to pick from. Keep in mind the iPhone has a maximum display of 480 x 320. Since we have limited storage space, we might as well encode the movie as close to these dimensions as possible. You'll notice there is a window for "Presets" that has an Apple TV, iPod, and PS3. We are going to create a preset for the iPhone.




Click the "Picture Settings" button. Make sure the "Keep aspect ratio" button is checked, then click the down arrow next to the "Width" text box. Adjust it to 480. You'll notice the "Height" text box is set much lower than 320, that's because this movie is widescreen. Click the "Close" button. Note: the image below is cropped to fit this page.







Back at the main screen, click the "+" button at the bottom of the "Presets" window. We are going to use our screen settings for an iPhone preset. Enter "iPhone" in the "New Preset Name:" box, then make sure the "Apply current picture settings to this preset" box is checked. Then click the "Save" button.




Now click the "Start" button and you will get an estimated time of completion. After awhile you will get another status bar.






When HandBrake finishes ripping the DVD, close the program. Here is the file that HandBrake made. It has a pretty lengthy name and I hate all capitals in file names so I renamed mine to be easier to read.




Drag this file into the iTunes library. It will take a few minutes to import.






Connect the iPhone to the computer and once iTunes recognizes it, go to the "Video" tab in the selection window and scroll down to "Movies". Click "Sync movies:", then select the movie you want to sync. Click "Apply".




It wil take a few minutes to copy the movie to the iPhone.




When the sync is complete, click the disconnect button.




On the iPhone click the iPod button and go to videos and enjoy your movie. Click the double arrow on the screen in the top right corner if the movie looks zoomed in too much. Sometimes the iPhone does this to fill the screen.