[markw10]

Now that I have AppleTV I plan to convert my most frequently watched DVD's to AppleTV. What is the best program to do this? I have heard some are good at converting to Video iPod but I'm not sure what kind of quality I will get on a big screen with AppleTV.

[dpicardi]

I'd use MediaFork.

Framerate is 29.97
Deinterlace
and for a high quality encoding make sure you have your kbps to at least 1000 (preferably 1500).
FFmpeg encoding is faster. Though H.264 is better quality and I think it creates smaller files.

That's my two cents.

Hope it is helpful.

[AC Rempt]

I was using ffmpeg, but now, I'm giving VisualHub a whirl. So far, it's doing a nice job, and doing it pretty quickly and easily. I read somewhere that VH is simply a front end for ffmpeg, making it a bit more user friendly, but I don't know if that's the case (about it being the front end).

I like how it has a preset for AppleTV, and it'll import the finished file into iTunes, too.

PS
I can confirm it's a front end for ffmpeg! Activity Monitor lists its process as "vh123ffmpeg."

[elmerxu]

See this DVD and Videos to Apple TV site(Mac/Windows) for help...the windows converter works great for me.

[dawho9]

Let me second the vote for MediaFork/Handbreak. Its fantastic and easy to use. Here is what I have been using for settings:

File Format: MP4
Codec: H.264
Enable 2 pass encoding
Average Bitrate: 1450

I leave everything else at the defaults. Files are about 1 GB in size when finished. If you are concerned about playing on an iPod Video then you need to modify the picture size to the max pixels but it works great. You can also set a target size in MB if you are a person who wishes to have the highest quality file that fits on a CD for instance.

dw9