[seaj11]

I've purchased some TV episodes on iTunes and I'd like to burn them onto a DVD that can be played in a DVD player (or at least, in a DVD playing program such as DVD Player or Windows Media Center). Is this possible? I tried burning a playlist with the episodes onto a DVD-R from iTunes, but the disc won't play and my computer won't even read it. What program (I'd prefer a freeware) can I use to encode and burn the files (they currently have the extension "m4v") properly?

I have an iMac G4 with a 800MHz SuperDrive.

Thanks in advance.

[mduell]

It can be done, but you haven't paid (and can't pay) for the right to do it, so we can't talk about it here.

[seaj11]

Excuse me? I haven't paid for the right to backup my purchases? I suppose that means I'm never supposed to burn playlists to a CD that can be played in a CD player, and iTunes just added that functionality as a joke. This is an Internet forum for discussion of Mac issues. Where the heck else are we supposed to talk about it? I'm not trying to distribute the episodes, I just wanted a playable backup. I'm not a criminal.

[mduell]

You didn't ask to back them up (despite the title of your post), you asked to convert them into a format you could play on a "regular" (set-top) DVD player. Burning iTMS music tracks as CD Audio is also not a backup, but it is a conversion that you have paid the right to do a limited number of times. This is all clearly spelled out in the iTunes EULA you agreed to. There's no criminal activity mentioned here, but the forum rules prohibit discussing violating EULAs despite their dubious legality.

To backup your purchases, copy the m4p (FairPlay DRM'd audio tracks), m4a (iTunes Plus non-DRM'd audio tracks), and m4v (iTunes video puchases) files from your iTunes directory onto a data CD or DVD using Finder's disk burning capability. In the event you should lose the data on your hard drive, you can recover them by copying the files back to your library from the disk (after re-authorizing your iTunes account). The data on that disk will not be playable on standalone CD or set-top DVD players.