I knew it wasn’t going to start well because I had to fire up my Windows XP laptop – something I hadn’t done for a month or so. So, after the slew of updates sent from Microsoft were finished installing, I started the setting-up of the BBC iPlayer.

After downloading the relatively small iPlayer installer and entering a pretty obscure username and password provided in an invitation e-mail, I was off. The installer ran without problem and then prompted me to log-in to iPlayer. However, after carefully typing in the username and password several times, it wouldn’t accept them. A few attempts later, I realise that there’s an option to create an account (apparently this isn’t the one I was supplied with, and I was supposed to guess this). Account created and I’m in, but not feeling that ping-ponging from browser to software is very friendly. I could browse all the programming that’s available to download and tried to download the latest Nigella Lawson episode (I wasn’t actually going to watch this, it makes me bilious), but was presented with a message and then tons of instructions relating to the fact that there’s a problem with my DRM certificates. Following the instructions on how to fix this (it told me how to show hidden files and protected system files, smooth!) by renaming some non-existent DRM folder and then following a link to an MS page that is supposed to sort things out. Back in Internet Explorer which is now whinging at me that there’s some Active X software that’s trying to do something, and which I agree to, there’s a page where my only option is a disabled button. I guess this means that I don’t get to watch anything.

So my initial thoughts contain the phrases: “cobbled together”, “badly thought out”, “badly executed”, and “are they fucking kidding?” – in no particular order.

For general DVD quality movies:

• File format/Codecs: MP4 AVC
• Encoder: x264 (h.264 Main profile, options: me=umh;no-fast-pskip=1)
• Quality: 62% Constant quality
• Picture settings: Anamorphic (if available)
• Audio: Stereo, 44.1 KHz, 128 kbps

This should result in an approximate rip speed of 18 frames per second on first generation Macbook Pro.

For TV (4:3) formatted animation:

• File format/Codecs: MP4 AVC
• Encoder: x264 (h.264 iPod)
• Quality: 50% constant quality
• Picture settings: 640 x 480
• Audio: Stereo, 44.1 KHz, 128 kbps

This will also playback on a 5G video iPod as well as being a fairly optimal compromise between quality and file-size.

I saw ‘40 year old virgin‘ at the cinema which I’m going to have to recommend. It could have been really fucking awful, but it’s not. I cared about the characters and it even had me laughing, which is rare lately.

I finally got around to working out how to copy DVDs onto my mac – not as simple as it sounds as you’ll know if you’ve ever tried. I won’t go into great detail as I’m sure it’s not legit, but I want to keep the movie’s I’ve bought on my computer. I’m not really sure why copying ripping CDs onto my iPod is okay, but copying a movie from a DVD isn’t? Anyway, Mac The Ripper works a treat for extracting the DVD content, removing the region code and macrovision protection. FFmpegX (after a fidly installation) will encode your VOB files into just about anything you want, and for any device. I’ve been going for the H.264 format as at 1/10th compression with very little loss in quality it’s a minor miracle. Sadly, I need a bit more oomph in processing power than my powerBook can muster as currently the average DVD encoding process is taking about 8 hours.