Rip DVDs To Your Mac To View On AppleTV And iPod.

AppleTV is cool but it has a couple of major flaws. The first is no DVR—digital video recorder for TV. The second is no DVDs. AppleTV can’t play DVDs, so…

How easy is it to rip DVDs to your Mac and have them play on AppleTV or an iPod with video? It’s easy and painful.

I’m probably going to wait for AppleTV 2.0. That will give Apple time to work out the bugs and add functionality that AppleTV really needs.

DVD playback and a digital video recorder. Add them to AppleTV and the product will own the living room.

For now, hacking together an AppleTV and Mac to record TV shows, convert them to iTunes to get them to play on your TV is cumbersome and expensive.

What about the gazillions of DVDs you have in your collection? Won’t those play through AppleTV? Nope, not without that cumbersome and expensive hack.

Sure, buy a Mac mini, use Elgato’s EyeTV, convert all the TV shows to work in iTunes, and you’ll spend about $750, and still wait forever to watch a TV show in AppleTV.

Sure, take your DVDs and rip and convert them with Mac the Ripper or Handbrake, and you’ll still wait forever to watch a DVD movie in AppleTV.

These are the solutions to the two major flaws in AppleTV. Time and money. As Al Borland would say, “I don’t think so, Tim.”

What a pain in the rear. It takes forever to rip a DVD to your Mac, legalities notwithstanding. Elgato’s DVR solution is nice, but expensive and slow.

Hello? Is anyone at Apple listening? Unfortunately, some folks with grammar problems are listening. They feel your pain and have a solution for AppleTV and your iPod.

MP4 Converter offers two products that convert movies to iPod and AppleTV. This solution, however, is pretty much like the hacks above—expensive and time consuming, not to mention the time required to read through their grammar challenged web site.

I so want a solution to the AppleTV flaws. I’m willing to pay but there are limits to my willingness. And limits to the trust I’ll give to anyone struggling through basic English while trying to sell me a product—even one that I want to buy.

I’ll give these folks credit for trying. They know there’s a need to get video from DVDs to iTunes for AppleTV. Ditto for the iPod with video. I won’t give them money for trying.

It’s just a trust issue. For example, consider the following advertising copy for the DVD to AppleTV Converter:

It gets worse from there. “Enjoy the visual feast with your iPod.” Hey, it’s an iPod. It’s a visual snack at best, OK?

As I cobbled together all the off beat phrases in my search for the ever elusive “trust factor” so required to buy a new product, all I could do was think, “What are they trying to say?”

What does MP4 Converter’s DVD to AppleTV Converter do? It looks like it rips DVDs and converts them to run in iTunes so they’ll work in AppleTV. What kind of DVDs? Copy protected DVDs? I hope so, otherwise, why bother?

Unfortunately, it never really says that in web site ad copy, though it comes rather close.

Close is good enough in hand grenades and horseshoes, but not when it’s my money at stake. $35 isn’t much money but it’s still an incomplete solution so I’m going to wait until Apple finishes AppleTV. You know, version 2.0 when it’ll also be a DVR and play DVDs.

What’s your view of AppleTV’s lack of DVD playback and inability to record TV? What’s your solution? Share in the Comments section below.