ABELLE  Very practical and fast way to convert different videos, I use Popcorn from the beginning and I am always satisfied.  
(Version 4.0.1)

JALOM  I can't seem to upgrade. when I go to the site and select to upgrade my Mac product and I select Popcorn it takes me to the page to upgrade to the latest Popcorn with a nice image of Popcorn 4 but when you add it to your basket is is Popcorn 3. All text on the page refers to 3 .. strange!  
(Version 4.0.1)

HELMO HASS  WHAT'S NEW

Version 4.0:

* Now requires Mac OS X 10.5 or later and an Intel-based Mac.

Absolutely not true, since its perfectly workning on my G5...

but the most hylarious thing is that Roxio on their upgrade page

indicates as minimum system requirements, a mac intel... go figure!  
(Version 4.0)

DONPERREAULT  Roxio has a terrible upgrade policy. I am done upgrading Roxio products. Popcorn 3 was horrible and know they want me to buy Popcorn 4. DON'T WASTE YOUR MONEY!  
(Version 4.0)

MONTY LEE  Today, 13 Oct, I called to ask about Popcorn 4 and if there was an upgrade path. The Roxio web page for upgrades (http://www.roxio.com/enu/upgrade_center/default.html?rTrack=m_sto_upgrade) results in a Toast page (for Mac) regardless of which software you click. So I called to find out and Customer Support said they had no idea about upgrades, no idea why the links were all messed up on the page, and said they could not help but to check the web site in a few hours to see if it got fixed. I think this is consistent with many comments and reviews that while the product is acceptable, the support is terrible.  
(Version 4.0)

PEDRO FARDILHA  According with the info, there's still no support for subtitles.

Can someone who has a copy of it, please, confirm this?

Thanks!

Pedro Fardilha  
(Version 4.0)

R33C3  Im a user of Toast Not popcorn. So I downloaded popcorn and gave it a try. Really its the same thing. Except theres more options for compression whether you want it quickly or slow for maximum quality.

However Im starting to use popcorn for movies now. And I like it.  
(Version 3.0.2)

DANWAY  Poor programming, only takes advantage of one cpu. If you have multiple cpus with dual or quad cores it doesn't use them during compression.   
(Version 3.0.2)

MONTY LEE  Version 3 doesn't seem to work with .flv files. I've tried several different files and the percent complete stays at 0 for hours and nothing every happens. I've rebooted, repaired permission, turned the Turbo.264 option off, and just about every other thing I can think of all with the same results. If you click STOP, then the program freezes and you have to Force-Quit. In fact, you can't quit without the force-quit.

This is on a MacBook Pro running 10.4.11. Oh, and if you go to their site to check updates, you get the "Server is too busy" at all times.

Terrible support, terrible product. I would not recommend this company any more.  
(Version 3.0.2)

TEXINICK  I won't EVER give Roxio another cent, nor will I EVER recommend their products.

Their products are good, but once you've bought it, you're locked in with extortionate upgrade fees. Look at the likes of RapidWeaver and Coda.. nice, well priced programs, with very enticing upgrade costs.

But Roxio? Never again, there are alternatives to Toast and Popcorn, and I'll use those thanks!   
(Version 3.0.2)

TIMWAYNE  WARNING: Popcorn 2 will NOT work on Leopard! No patch from the developer has been released, two weeks after Leopard's debut.

Upon hitting the burn button, we get the error "Could not record the disc because of a Mac OS Error. Result Code = -13780

Technical Support at Roxio consists of a portal. All attempts to login to the portal have been unsuccessful (I have read about this particular problem in other posts, even in this thread). Calls to Roxio to fix the login problem (new login, new password, etc.) have been unsuccessful.

If I had known Popcorn and Leopard were incompatible, I would have held off my upgrade.   
(Version 3.0)

GRADGRIND  This software did not work, creating an iPod compatible movie from a (mac-the-ripper) Video_TS folder of a DVD (one I own incidentally). I tried technical support, who simply replied:

DVD manufacturers encrypt the data that provides us with the high quality presentations of films and other programs. The reason for this is to prevent unauthorized duplication of the DVD. Encrypted DVDs can not be legally copied and can not be copied at all using Roxio software.

So, I dug out my old 'angle-poise' iMac G4 and copied Popcorn 2 across. This now works.

If you can get hold of Popcorn 2, do it. This upgrade is pointless, and support is useless.  
(Version 3.0)

RAZORMAID2  Popcorn 3 is broken in Leopard. The icon bounces a few times.... then NADA!

I hear Popcorn 2 will work in Leopard, but their web site will not let you login - no matter how many times you change your password.

What is up with this company? The whole programming community has had their hands on Leopard for months (almost over a year in fact), yet when you call them they act so surprised to learn their software isn't working in Leopard? You telling me... no one at Roxio who had a copy of Leopard... ever tried to launch their own software... EVER?

You're kidding me, right?  
(Version 3.0)

SJK  Does Popcorn 3 consume large amounts of virtual memory "swap space" (like Toast 7 & 8) when multiplexing EyeTV 200 recordings (Long Play (DVD 180 min) quality) that's never reclaimed by the system?

On my freshly restarted iMac G5 (2GB) and eMac (1.5GB) the number of swapfiles in /var/vm *always* increases from 1 to 3 or 4 during multiplexing and Menu Meters reports a relatively high amount of "total swap space" has been used, even when no other applications (other than system daemons) are running at the time. There are other ways both Toast and Popcorn can trigger these symptoms.

In general, overall system performance significantly suffers for extended periods of time while Toast 8 and Popcorn 2 run long tasks, often making it intolerable to use other apps. Restarting or, to some degree, at least a logout/login is required after using Toast or Popcorn for my systems to regain normal performance. I wouldn't mind if processing took longer if it prevented them from bringing my systems to their knees so easily.

Having to dedicate systems for what's essentially standalone usage of these Roxio apps is unacceptable, made worse by never getting support acknowledgment of this resource-consuming misbehavior being a problem whenever I've reported it.  
(Version 3.0)

MARIOZ  ok, this software said it is working w/h EyeTv files but it is not (it claims the files are in a not working format).

Encoding options relays over QT options w/t all the limitations it has, and also some of them they don't work (for ex. the crop option in the resizing does not work).

I bought this software hoping it was better than Turbo 264 own software but it is a big disappointing delusion. Maily the fact to use QT makes it absurd, if I wanted to use QT I can do it without a software.  
(Version 3.0)

DLWHITE  So, if I already own VisualHub and the newest Toast, is there a compelling reason to purchase this version of Popcorn?  
(Version 3.0)

ROBACKJA  You buy Toast, then they update Popcorn with the same features. Then they update Toast to the new features of popcorn. etc. what a gimmick.  
(Version 3.0)

SHOCK J  This hasn't been updated in 6 months. If they're going to claim support for the PSP then they need to keep up with PSP firmware updates. PSP can now handle H264, higher screen resolutions, and has a "Video" folder at the root level of the system that can handle both video formats and jpgs as thumbnails. Roxio needs to catch WAY up.  
(Version 2.0.1)

THOTH  This product is a huge waste of money if you want to copy CSS-protected DVDs to your iPod or other portable devices. Many Hollywood movies and DVD sets of TV series have CSS encoding and are totally useless with Popcorn. Skip this program and get the FREE, functional, and easy-to-use DVD2Pod, or use Handbrake.

Although Popcorn is easy-to-use in itself and has a polished interface, the ease of use and stability of the program have zero value if the basic function of the software -- copying DVDs to my iPod -- does not work. That's why I give this program one star in those areas. If Roxio enables the major function of this software, I will revise my rating.  
(Version 2.0.1)

DRTYRELL969  BE WARNED: This company is all about product SPAMMING. They force you "register" to their company to get updates to their products, and then sell your email address to the friggin planet. I created an alias email address roxio@mydomain.com and have since received literally THOUSANDS of emails to this account. I since have shut down the account, but know that this company practices ethics you can do without.   
(Version 2.0.1)

PEDRO FARDILHA  Not bad but the player area lacks the burning of subtitles.It seems better than DVD2One for DVD re-mastering but still lags behind handbrake for iPod conversions (although I think Handbrake needs to be updated for the new iPods, the subtitle optin alone makes it the best of the pack).It's not a general conversion app (like Visual Hub) but the way that it let create a custom DVD makes it worth the price.  
(Version 2.0)

DRTYRELL969  This is a great product. It burns beautiful DVDs of your originals. The only complaint I have is that it deletes its compressed version of the burns after each burn session. So everytime you have to burn a new set, you have to wait through the compression phase everytime. I've checked the options, and I can't find a way to have the program leave the compressed source in a directory for additional burns at a later time. This would make the product a 5 out of 5 in all categories IMO.  
(Version 2.0)

ASHMADUX  Better than version 1, but...

The biggest draw for me, psp export, is such a piece of shit i wonder why they included it in the first place. I have been looking for an app to replace the STERILE PSPWARE to process movies for psp- but for the love of good no matter aht settign i choose the quality is stinking garbage. I MEAN STINKING CRAPPY garbage. I mean, its not even o.k. by any means, sheesh roxio. i guess they were hell bent on not using the ffmpeg/xvid encoders, becuase ive never seen anything quite as bad as this.

The fit-to-dvd- compression is as good as ever. And If the video quality level approaches good, or medium, you are better off burning to a dual layer, as depending on the material it introduces too many artifacts.

THE KILLER with this upgrade is that once you deslect any extras- a new pick and choose feature- it automatically turns off the menu.....if I could make a dvd backup with only the menu and the main track , it could save a lot of disk space to reduce the compression rate- or just get rid of the crap you don't want all together. C'mon Roxio, add this PLEASE??!???

All in all, nice upgrade, but the compression engine for formats other than dvd sucks a lot of ass. I forced my friend to get this app for me and now I am so sad....

P.S.- one of you great, appreciated mac developers out there need to de-vein pspware- tepid at best compared to the pc versions of anything psp related.  
(Version 2.0)

VOBBLER  says that blodwyn got his problem resolved... so you may want to ignore that one.  
(Version 2.0)

BLODWYN  I am a Toast 7 user and ordered the Popcorn 2 upgrade. In the email from Digitalriver the space where the CD Key should be was blank and no follow up emails (checked my spam folder too).

Navigating the support site was a joke. Calling the support line numbers ended up with 2 groups directing me to call each other. Nobody had the ability to help me with a key so I've requested a refund. My conclusion is that if you buy a Roxio product you are on your own as far as support is concerned. If it doesn't work out of the box, forget it.  
(Version 2.0)

WJB3WVU  Somewhat disappointed in 2. I've been waiting for this release before I activated my trial of DVDRemaster Pro. I was hoping for the ability to strip out all extaneous chapters (previews, etc) but keep the menu, like DVDRemaster Pro will, but Popcorn 2 deletes menus as soon as "custom" setting is seletcted. This is a huge deal, and Roxio missed the boat on this one.  
(Version 2.0)

ASHMADUX  you peopl complaiing about this program must be crazy or something. i've been using popcorn for over a year and have backed up almost a hundred dvds. it rarely, if ever fails. never any problems over here. it does seem to have some issues with built in appe drives- some dvds wont burn to the max speeds unless i use my firewire dvr-109.

the process: rip with macthe ripper. burn with popcorn. can it get any easier than that?

And it is a hell of a lot more stable than the last toast- now that program has soem serious bugs, kickin g up my bad disk ratio almost 50 percent.

-madux  
(Version 2.0)

CUBITUS  I bought Popcorn as a software download and got a version of the product that wasn't the latest patch (1.0.2) and I cannot download the update to 1.0.3 from Roxio's site.

It's impossible to get support for this product. It's not listed in the support page, asking their automated web support result in the answer: "we can't answer questions about Popcorn" and there is no email contact for support. So I'm left with an unusable product. Waste of money.

Try DVD2oneX2 instead.  
(Version 1.0.3)

KATINNY  I've used Popcorn to make backups of a couple of commercial disks that were skipping in my cheapie DVD player. The first backup was fine, and did not skip at all, unlike the source. No problem with screen ratio, because the source was made for TV.

I noticed a problem on the other two disks, though: the correct aspect ratio of the source (widescreen) was lost once Popcorn had processed it. So Popcorn seems to be completely useless for backing up most movies, unless you just don't care about the quality.

I've posted a question about the widescreen problem elsewhere. One person responded that it's a Quicktime problem: that Popcorn uses QT for compression and that QT screws up the aspect ratio.

Sounds like DVD2One would be a better solution. Popcorn has major limitations.   
(Version 1.0.3)

TRICHA  I have lost all patience with this program. I use MacTheRipper to decrypt the dvd movie. Then I moved the video file to Popcorn and the program quits EVERY time. I have tried to find some resolution as to what I am doing wrong but it seems that many users are having this problem without any resolve. The Roxio support for this program is highly disappointing; never availble to chat, does not respond to emails and cost $$ to call tech support. I feel I have already lost enough money on buying this plus no one else seems to have the answer to this issue either. If you don't believe me do a search on apple.com support discussion for "quit unexpectedly" and see how many users have this same problem.

If by chance someone reading this has a reasolution I would LOVE to hear it.

Peaceout!  
(Version 1.0.3)

MAC-O-LANTERN  Actually you can combine the rebates plus a credit card and get $60 off if you want.

So you can get it for $19 at Buy.com.  
(Version 1.0.3)

ANONYMOUS  TOAST 7 $49 AT BUY.COM.

After rebates.

Free shipping. No tax.

http://www.buy.com/prod/Roxio_Toast_7_Titanium/q/mp/65/loc/105/201934669.html  
(Version 1.0.3)

VERSANICK  I'm sure he'll heed your advice. And I'm sure that your comment about his piracy will reflect well on yourself, even though no one knows who you are. Buy your software, and get a life.

Great program. My 1.0 won't run in Tiger, but I'll be updating soon. Doesn't do a lot, but does what it does well. I don't know if it's worth $100, when other programs will do it cheaper or free, but streamlines an otherwise somewhat involved process.

If you're looking to replace Toast, this program just won't substitute. Toast is more feature-rich, and worthy of the money you pay for it. Either has great GUI, and as easy to use as OS X.  
(Version 1.0.3)

ANONYMOUS  puh-leeez... previous poster - just come out and say it like it is... "hey! i've pirated the software... can you please give me a key to unlock it!"

don't make up some stupid story about how you lost your key.  
(Version 1.0.3)

ANONYMOUS  Agh, I lost my CD key, threw away my box and CD after I copied it. Can someone please email me the update or something?

andrew@smashstatusquo.net

Thanks.  
(Version 1.0.3)

ANONYMOUS  works greaqt but not quite as advertised IMO- if you have selected "main movie only" you can leave off exra languages, unneeded audio formats, stuff like that- but not if you have selected multiple episodes on a DVD or video_ts folder containing episodes. To get multiple episodes, you also get all the extra fluff- which takes up your video space.

So you are losing some video quality that could be retained if you were doing multiple epidoes yet tossing out foreign audio etc.

But it does a nice job and their upgrade pricing for owners of any other Roxio product simply cannot be beat. I'm happy.  
(Version 1.0.3)

ANONYMOUS  Pick this up from buy.com for $30. Love it.

Only downside is it doesn't break copy protection... but theres free stuff that does... and then I used me PopCorn with that to burn.  
(Version 1.0.3)

GLOVEDWONDER  Got my MacTheRipper and my Popcorn and I am copying all my DVDs piece of cake!  
(Version 1.0.3)

WALLY  I cannot get popcorn to copy a video-ts file. A window keeps coming up witha message saying

`Popcorn cannot handle the contents of this Video-ts folder.`

I have upgraded to 1.0.3, but nothing works. Any ideas?  
(Version 1.0.3)

STEPHEN  Does anyone know how to get Roxio Customer Service to respond to Emails?

Do they just not answer their Email? Do I have to call long distance to Toronto to get any response?

They seem to have no problem taking $$ from my credit card - but they don't have the resources to respond to my problem of not being allowed to download what I purchased.

Any help would be appreciated.  
(Version 1.0.3)

ANONYMOUS  I purchased "Popcorn" yesterday but the site will not let me download the program - it tells me there is no record of a purchase using my Email address. Also the confirmation Email was never sent (as the site said.)

Thankfully I saved the confirmation page on the website so I can check that everything was put in right with no typos.

Roxio has not responded to my Email for help.

On the Email support page, Popcorn is not even listed as an option in the dropdown menu.

My only experience with Roxio before this was with "Toast". I am very dissapointed with Roxio's professionalism (or lack of it).

Be careful about using the online purchase option of Popcorn, if it doesn't work, it appears that you are on your own because Roxio will not respond in a timely manner!  
(Version 1.0.3)

MAINEMANX  Just paid $29.95 to download... no biggie, but why was it Version 1.0. Easy to upgrade, but why?

Full review awaits evaluation.  
(Version 1.0.3)

ANONYMOUS  version 1.0.3 works great.  
(Version 1.0.3)

ANONYMOUS  Well, it works in Tiger now... but not really. I can burn stuff, but the actual discs I am spitting out are skipping all over the place in my player, where they did not before the upgrade to Tiger, and 1.02 of Popcorn. The source discs are fine.  
(Version 1.0.2)

DRKILMER  I went to the web site, input my email address, downloaded the update and it works great. This has FINALLY resolved a problem I was having with audio dropouts in 5.1 on my set top DVD player!! Gad, that was annoying. Thanks for the update, Roxio!!  
(Version 1.0.2)

ANONYMOUS  No hoops, I have a registered copy too. I inputed my email address and downloaded. That was it. The poster below must have been in a parallel universe.

This software works great. The only time I have problems is if I'm copying a DVD that is completely full. Those fail, even if it tries to compress.  
(Version 1.0.2)

ANONYMOUS  Nice post there buddy. That's some creative writing skills. Can someone post a direct link to the file? I'm not going to go through what this guy went through.  
(Version 1.0.2)

DOOBIE  THANK YOU.

Tiger, DVD-R dual layer, close caption fixes and AppleScript support. A nice update. Worth the wait.

(And thanks for not charging for the Tiger version like some developers are doing)  
(Version 1.0.2)

ANONYMOUS  Same problem upon upgrading to Tiger. Doesn't work for video folders. Reinstalling doesn't make any difference.  
(Version 1.0)

ANONYMOUS  Since upgrading to Tiger, Popcorn has not worked. Same problem as kirkbot.   
(Version 1.0)

KIRKBOT  anyone else having a hard time getting Popcorn to not crash while attempting to process a VIDEO_TS folder under Tiger?

Since upgrading I haven't been able to copy video_ts folders: as soon as I select the the app crashes.  
(Version 1.0)

BRIAN IN VEGAS  This was easier to use then anything else out there. My wedding video was done "professionally" (that's arguable) and they actually locked us out of the damn thing! If we wanted copies of our own video on DVD we had to pay up to $100 per disk.

Not anymore.  
(Version 1.0)

ANONYMOUS  Macworld review of Popcorn and DTOX.

http://www.macworld.com/2005/03/reviews/dvdcopy/index.php  
(Version 1.0)

MATT  Is there anything out there like Popcorn for Mac OS 9.1? I can't compress my Final Cut Pro movie. I'm trying to burn a DVD thru toast and an external burner.  
(Version 1.0)

SPAM ON TOAST  i tried to burn a DVD disc image with popcorn that [unbeknownst to me] contained a corrubted vob file. result - a machine frozen up so badly that even the force quit window couldn't be summonsed. i needed a forced reboot and lost a lot of unsaved work. not very impressive. when are roxio going to realise it isn't good design to let their apps completely take over the processor like this? [anyone ever tried to do *anything* else whilst toast was 'verifying' a burn?]  
(Version 1.0)

MR. RAY  The previous poster is a nimrod. Handbrake doesn't compress a 9 GB DVD to fit onto a 5 GB DVD or burn it. It's a GUI on top of a bunch of open source libraries to extract content other file formats. Even the FAQ from the Handbrake web site says...

Question:

2.1 I want to convert a movie so I can burn it on a VCD or a DVD-R. Is HandBrake the right application to do this?

Answer:

No. HandBrake only outputs MPEG-4, no MPEG-1 or MPEG-2.

So no... Handbrake can't do what this does. There's no free software on the Mac that can compress DVDs to fit onto a recordable DVD... this one is a great deal since it compresses and burns in one step. It's easy and cheap.

I learned everything you need to know about this stuff from this guy's web site.

http://homepage.mac.com/joeweaver1/dvdinfo/  
(Version 1.0)

LUCKY  Don't waste your time or money with this.

$50USD for this app?? Won't copy "encrypted" DVD's ?? Then whats the point?

Want an app that will? Search for HANDBRAKE on this site. Great app and its FREE. Developers at Roxio give your heads a shake what were ya thinkin????  
(Version 1.0)

SHIZZA MAC  GREAT! I downloaded the free Mac ripper software and bought this and am good to go. So easy. So Mac-like.  
(Version 1.0)

BRENT1A  DUH! "Margarine" you're a frickin genius! It's commercial software, of course it won't copy encrypted DVD's. Thats why there is freeware out there like MacTheRipper! Doesn't anyone have common sense anymore???????  
(Version 1.0)

MARGARINE BETWEEN SPAM AND TOAST  won't copy encrypted DVDs [which is most of them] so not much good for er... "backing up" your DVD collection.  
(Version 1.0)

BRENT1A  Not to mention if it could do that it would cost a LOT more money.  
(Version 1.0)

MACDOC  Does exactly what it says... perfectly. BEST purchase I've made for my Mac in a long time. PopCorn rocks.  
(Version 1.0)

ANONYMOUS  Can it make backups of PS2 Games that can be played without a mod chip?  
(Version 1.0)

DOG COW  Perfect. Easy. Just like a Mac should be.  
(Version 1.0)

ALEX  Works well. One thing I think that it doesn't have that I think is important is the ability to choose which chapters to copy. When a dvd has to be compressed I almost always leave out the last chapter (credits-not too important) to make room so there is less compression. It would be cool to have an option for this.  
(Version 1.0)

SOCAL  Matmook - aparently you haven't REALLY used Popcorn... since if you did you would know that the languages options do remove the audio tracks, and not just the subtitles. Nice try, but go back to your mom's basement.  
(Version 1.0)

MATTMOOK  Popcorn is a relatively easy program to use - you just drag your source to the main window, insert a blank dvd and click a button.

It's options are incredibly limited. It isn't possible to be selective over exactly which audio tracks you want which can make it useless if you have multiple language films without copying all audio tracks. The only audio selection is all or primary and it does not mention what language the primary audio track is associated with. One can only presume the 'languages' in the options dialog just refer to the subtitles.

I found the quality of the results poor when compared to the same movie being compressed with DVD2oneX. The image was much more noticeably over-compressed.

The speed of Popcorn is also lacking - the compression generally took twice as long as DVD2oneX when shrinking a 7GB multi-episode disc (using full disc copy running on a 1GHz iBook). The fact that if, like me, you prefer to save to disc before actually burning a dvd you have to wait another 15-30 minutes before the disc is complete whilst it copies from its temporary file store to the correct location also put me off.

Conclusion

If you want a very ease to use feature less application then this may be up your street. Cost wise it is incredibly cheap, but the poor image quality and slow speed doesn't make it something I would be willing to recommend. Stick with using something like DVD2oneX which personally is a lot more flexible especially for foreign films and discs with episodes. Of course the downside to DVD2oneX is price.  
(Version 1.0)

SHAMMY  Rocks. Easest way to copy DVDs. Got at amazon for $30.  
(Version 1.0)

MR. BOOMBASTIC  Great option for DVD copying. Works well with the free Mac ripper. Super easy to use, quality is excellent.

Includes the compress and the Toast burning for less than the cost of DVD2One and other options.

Best software purchase I've made in a long time.  
(Version 1.0)