With last wintertime ’s release of Toast 7 Titanium ( ) , the committal to writing seemed to be on the rampart for Roxio ’s DVD gemination software package , Popcorn . All of Popcorn ’s functionality was rolled into Roxio ’s more advanced and more expensive package .
Now , with the advent of television iPods and the increase popularity of Sony ’s PlayStation Portable ( PSP ) and video - subject mobile phones , Roxio has rethought how Popcorn should work . The result , Popcorn 2 , is a versatile and easy - to - exercise utility that take in it simple not only to simulate videodisc , but also to change over video and expose it on a variety of devices . Users of Toast 7 Titanium already have this functionality , but if you ’re not a Toast user , Popcorn 2 may do the task for you .
Zea mays everta 2 lets you back up an entire videodisk , disk effigy , or valid VIDEO_TS folder ( a rip , protected disc ) to your hard magnetic disk . If you ’re working with a exclusive - stratum DVD burner and you have a double - layer disc you ’re trying to copy , Popcorn can compact that content down using a Fit to DVD feature that mash the video but leave the sound recording unswayed .
What ’s more , you may make custom Director ’s Cut versions . Let ’s say you want the main feature article , but you do n’t worry about the making of the feature article , the movie trailers , and the Finnish outspoken track — you may excise any of that and keep what you want . Zea mays everta 2 helpfully allows you to preview the video you ’ll be cauterize to record , and it even include a screenshot feature . It ’s a neat caper that ’s missing from Apple ’s own DVD Player software ( which is included with the Mac OS ) .
Zea mays everta 2 also sports the ability to read from a variety of file cabinet formats , like QuickTime , DivX , AVI , VOB , MPEG1 , MPEG2 , MPEG4 , and others . And , it can spell out DivX , MPEG , and H.264 - encoded files to disc .
A variety of presets allow you to simply tell Popcorn 2 what form of twist you ’ll be watching your television on , including picture iPod , PSP , 3GPP - compatible mobile phones , and DivX - compatible handheld television players . This save you the trouble of receive to puddle through daunting options involving compaction schemes and framing rate . you may create custom preferences , however , to take vantage of some of that functionality .
With Popcorn 2 , you’re able to even add videos direct into iTunes , which stand for they ’ll sync to your iPod the next clock time it ’s relate . If you ’re using a Mac with Front Row installed , Popcorn 2 will , by nonremittal , output your change television to the Movies brochure , making it dead wide-eyed to find them from Front Row ’s user interface . you may even set apart your television ’s viewing lineament if you have your Mac attached to a home entertainment system .
Zea mays everta ’s video transition works faithfully , although it does n’t get videos that are as compact or as well - encode ( good color chroma , acute contingent , few artifacts ) as other video redaction software — HandBrakeandPodner , for example . But , for the mediocre drug user who does n’t need to bother with perplexing and dense screens full of technological background , Popcorn 2 is good enough .
Roxio has been pick apart in the past for offering a rebate political program in position of a true acclivity price for its intersection , but Roxio at last got it right with Popcorn 2 . It costs $ 30 to raise direct from Roxio , $ 20 less than the cover price .
Zea mays everta 2 is also the first Roxio product to ship as a Universal Binary to run natively on Intel - found Macs . It ’ll work on any G4 , G5 , or Intel - based Mac run Mac OS X 10.4 or subsequently . The software can apply up to 15 GB of disk space temporarily while it ’s pee copies , so verify you have mountain of free space on your hard drive .
Macworld’s buying advice
Popcorn 2 has found new footing as a video transcoding program that can convert DVD cognitive content to unlike format — including many hand-held gimmick formatting . you could produce higher - lineament picture with other video editing software system , but for comfort of purpose , Popcorn 2 is hard to beat .
