Product Description

POPCORN 3

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Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #3890 in Software
• Brand: Roxio
• Model: 236000
• Released on: 2007-08-27
• Platform: Mac
• Format: CD-ROM
• Dimensions: .25 pounds

Features

• DVD-conversion software saves time and offers flexible options
• Faster encoding; batch conversion for DVDs and video files
• Quality preview; pause and resume; 4-hour DVDs; disc labeler
• Universal video conversion and encoding; TiVo and EyeTV support
• Video file to DVD compilations; media browser; improved interface

From the Manufacturer
Save time with Roxio's Popcorn 3 DVD-conversion software. Experience faster encoding, batch conversion for DVDs and video files, quality preview, and pause and resume. It also offers flexible options, delivering universal video conversion and encoding with the broadest selection of device support available on the Mac, including exclusive TiVo and EyeTV support.

Popcorn 1

• DVD 9-to-5 conversion

Popcorn 2 Added…

• DVD to portable player conversion (e.g., iPod, PSP)
• DVD copy options (main movie and audio)
• Video file re-encoding to different file formats (DivX, MPEG-2, H.264, 3GP)

Popcorn 3 Adds…

• TiVoToGo support
• Video file to DVD compilations
• Four-hour DVDs
• Higher quality encoder
• Pause and resume
• Quality preview
• Batch conversion
• Disc labeler
• Broadest device support

Features:

• TiVo support: watch your favorite TV shows with exclusive TiVoToGo support and automatically convert your TiVo recordings to the format of your choice
• Media browser: find and preview your video files quickly and easily
• Disc Cover RE: create beautiful labels and inserts for your disc projects
• Bookmarks: add bookmarks or preserve existing DVD-Video chapter markers for easier playback on Apple TV, iPod, and iPhone
• Pause/Resume: pause your Popcorn project, take over your Mac, and resume later
• Quality preview: preview a few seconds of encoding to ensure the end result will meet your quality standards.
• Batch DVD conversion: kick off hours upon hours of video conversions--load them up and walk away
• Hardware acceleration: speed up your Popcorn 3 video conversions with support for Elgato's Turbo.264 USB hardware accelerator
• Improved interface: easy navigation through new user interface that displays all available projects
• Broad player support: comprehensive video presets optimized for an easy transfer of video files to a wide variety of devices including Apple TV, iPhone, iPod, BlackBerry, Xbox 360, and PlayStation 3
• Faster encoding: improved video-conversion technology delivers faster performance when encoding H.264 video
• Four-hour DVDs: combine multiple DVD sources and video files and watch up to four hours of video on a single 4.7 GB DVD
• Dolby Pro Logic II: support for Dolby Pro Logic II support retains a true surround experience

Highlights:

• TiVo transfer: now Popcorn supports TiVoToGo--save shows to DVD or take them with you
• Quality preview: preview quality settings before encoding the complete video file
• Pause and resume: pause your project to regain full control of your Mac--and resume later
• DVD compilation: create four-hour DVDs using your favorite video files
• Batch conversion for DVD: queue up multiple Video_TS folders for copying
• Batch conversion for player: queue up multiple Video_TS folders for playing back on player
• Player profiles: broadest device support ever
• Disc labeler: create beautiful labels for your discs or use LightScribe

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Customer Reviews

Don't buy for Tivo-to-Go
If you are thinking of buying Popcorn to use the Tivo-toGo feature to encode Tivo files for your iPod or to burn onto DVD, do not spend your money before checking out Tivo and Roxio discussion forums to see if some well-documented problems have been fixed.

Popcorn worked well until the Tivo Fall '07 update was pushed out in October. Tivo files transferred since the update will usually play on your laptop or desktop, but there are serious problems with the export for iPod and DVD functions. At first, the export functions would not work at all in many cases. Roxio eventually got a fix out that allows it to work most of the time, but there is a continuing problem with audio synchronization. Audio is often out of sync with video by anywhere from a half second to three or four seconds.

The annoying thing is that it's completely unpredictable; some programs encode perfectly, some are all but unwatchable. There is no pattern except that 30-Minute programs seem to encode correctly more often than longer shows. My own experience is that you have about a 50/50 chance that it will work correctly.

There are alternatives out there; they may not be as fast or convenient as Popcorn, but they actually work every time. Toast 8, by the way, has the same set of problems.

Flat out terrible
Roxio continues to disappoint with this product. Video quality is mediocre at best. This product does a lot of strange things that are annoying, such as tagging all converted video as TV in itunes. The software will let you create a dvd with multiple video_ts folders (with menu), but it will not let you shrink to fit before burning, which is just plain stupid as it will shrink to fit almost every other option. I have encoded many dvds using popcorn and the free handbrake software produces much higher quality video files, there really is no reason to own popcorn.

TiVo, bad; DVD burn OK
DVD Burning: Popcorn 3 has done fine burning DVDs, and indeed the new version successfully burned a VIDEO_TS that the my Popcorn 2 failed to do.

TiVo: It only half works: it has a good viewer of your networked TiVo recordings, and can download them just fine .. although it pretty slow. But it simply cannot convert to a format without the audio getting out of sync.

So for Mac users, you can likely get along with tivodecode + Visual Hub for transforming from .tivo to .mpg + conversion to other formats.

This is, however, one more example where Roxio simply doesn't give a damn about Mac users. I try to avoid them and will do so much more in the future, unless they exhibit a considerable change of heart.