How do I add movies to my iPad/iPod/iPhone?

So you have an awesome mobile device, but you want to take some flicks with you just in case you get bored?  Awesome!  I'll show you the way I do it that give me the results.

First off, a lot of DVDs today are encrypted to prevent people from copying them.  The only person that this inconveniences is you, the law abiding citizen.  Crooks can and do get around all of the protections that companies put on their products.  Anyway, for those encrypted DVDs you'll need a program that will give you the access you need to copy the movie.  I suggest a program called AnyDVD (http://www.slysoft.com/en/anydvd.html).  It runs in the background and decrypts the movie for you so that other programs can copy the movie onto your computer for you.

Now, let's get down to business.

1.  Download and install Handbrake (http://handbrake.fr/)

2.  Insert a DVD into your computer

3.  Click ‘Source’ in the top left corner and select the drive with your DVD

(in this case D:\VIDEO_TS (TANGLED)

4.  If you want the full movie, leave these settings at their default:

5.  Next, choose a destination for the movie file to go:

6.  Under Output Settings, the container should say MP4 File:

7.  There is a preset option for many Apple products.  By selecting this, your movie will be optimized for playback on that device.  For my device I'll choose the iPad.

8.  To start the encoding process click Start

9.  The progress bar at the bottom shows the status of the encoding job

10.  Once the encoding process is done, open iTunes

11.  Click Movies in the left navigation bar under Library:

 12.  In Windows explorer (if you use Windows), click and drag the movie into your iTunes movie library.

13.  Download the movie poster from IMDB and save it to your desktop

14.  Right click on the movie you just copied into iTunes and click Get Info

15.  Click the Artwork tab

16.  Click the Add button, and select the poster you downloaded previously.

17.  Click OK

18.  Connect you iPad to you computer

19.  Click the movies tab under your device and click the checkbox to sync movies

20.  Click Sync in the lower right corner of iTunes and your movie will transfer to your iPad for your viewing pleasure.

The movie I just transferred to my iPad and it plays beautifully.