Customer Reviews

Roxio Crunch Win/Mac

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(14)
2 star:		(13)
1 star:		(14)

 

 

Installation proceeded uneventfully, requiring no more time than expected, although it did require a reboot, which I found a little surprising for this sort of application. The interface, while a little confusing to start with, did not take much time to figure out: 'Add Movie' to a 'Compilation', select the target configuration and 'Save As' that configuration.

That, however, is about all of the good news. Sure I figured out how to do the conversion process, but then I had to figure out just what I could convert. After trying a large random selection of DVDs from my 500+ disk collection, from early black and whites to current releases to documentaries to TV shows, I drew a complete 0% that I could convert. Wanting to at least have converted something when I wrote this review, I chose a 256Mb mpg file of my wife's graduation (about 5-10 minutes elapsed play time). Conversion time on my 2GHz AMD 64 system required just shy of 10 minutes. Running at normal priority effectively locked up my system as Crunch hogged 99% of the processor, in background priority it left me able to write this review while I reran the conversion. The resulting file was playable on my iPod with reasonable resolution and Crunched to 32Mb.

So what is the bottom line? If all that you are looking for is a tool to convert your home movies to watchable format on your iPod or similar device, Crunch, while a little slow in my opinion, will do the job. If, however, you are looking for a way to backup your DVD library or even make some of the movies available for portable devices, this is not the tool for you. Given what it can do, I have to conclude that Crunch is either over priced or under featured.

[I have to agree with another reviewer that AoA DVD Ripper does indeed seem to be a fine choice for those interested in backing up their DVD collection.]

P-)

When I saw this product it looked perfect for what I was hoping to do. I was hoping to get my wife a Video iPod and load some home movies of the kids as well as couple of our kid's DVD's so they could watch them on long drives. There are plenty of kludgy shareware options out there, but I was looking for drag and drop simplicity.

What I got was most of what I was expecting. The ease of use is great, it allows her to select her file and convert it to the format she needs easily. Getting video of the kids onto the ipod was great and straightforward. It took time, but she now has a video gallery of our kids to show to friends and family.

What I didn't understand was the definition of "your DVD's." This actually means DVD's you have created yourself, not DVD's in your video library. This is not a tool for ripping copyrighted DVD's. Somehow I was thinking it was like iTunes where you can rip your personal CD's for use on your iPod. In hindsight, this makes sense, but it didn't seem to be a limitation in the description, nor was there any disclaimer.

While it didn't live up to its "One-stop shop for your video needs" claim, it is what it is; an easy way to massage your personal videos into an iPod format. For that part, it lived up to my expectations.

As has been noted by other reviewers, Crunch will not allow you to rip DVDs containing copy protection. And, like other video rendering software, it is slow and clunky. It has, however, solved a problem for me that makes it worth using.

I recently tried to sync videos to my iPhone and found that many videos that played fine on my iPod would not transfer to the iPhone. These included a couple of movies I had transferred using Handbrake Lite and several QuickTime videos I had downloaded as part of an online course. The QT videos had been converted to iPod format using iTunes.

After doing some research online, I found this was a common problem because of slight variations in the encoding for iPod and iPhone video. Although some videos will play on both, others (including some converted through iTunes) will not.

The files converted by Crunch in standard iPhone format play in iTunes, and sync with both the iPod and the iPhone. I was able to successfully convert files that had previously played only in iTunes and on the iPod, and get them to work on the iPhone, too.

I tried this software on both a Windows XP PC and a Mac. Both worked well. The Mac interface is a bit cleaner and might be considered easier to use, although both are simple. The main advantage the PC version has is that in addition to a bar showing the progress of the file conversion, the percentage complete is displayed. It makes it easy to estimate the time remaining in the conversion.

So this is not the software you want to back up your collection of DVD movies. (Try Handbrake for that if you are on a Mac.) But if you want to convert video files to play in iTunes, and on both your iPod and iPhone, this will do what you need.

UPDATE: I wrote the following review after using several features of Roxio Crunch, but not all. I just tried to convert a VIDEO_TS file from my harddrive for use on my ipod, and after a few hours of trying and searching through forums for what I'm doing wrong I've finally given up. A website I found pointed out that everything Crunch can do is possible with HandBrake, a FREE application (just search for it), and so I tried that and it did what I needed in just a few minutes while the conversion on Roxio kept freezing up. This is a video file that I created, so there are no copyright or encoding issues. I would give this a single star if I were beginning the review again.

Here's what I wrote before:

Roxio Crunch is, as far as I can tell, just a customized and slightly more limited version of Roxio Popcorn 2. Whereas Popcorn allows you to convert between a wide range of different formats, with an emphasis on converting to or from existing DVDs, Crunch is tailor made for users who are primarily interested in just converting a range of files for use on their Apple products: iPhone, iPod, and Apple TV. For such users, this is a very simple to use, and quick application, and does exactly what it is supposed to, and no more than it claims to do.

That leads, however, to a fairly significant drawback. As several other reviewers have noted, and as Roxio's documentation makes clear, this product does not "rip" dvds -- it doesn't allow you to take commercial dvds with copy protection and convert them. That gives it limited usability for those who'd like to back up their dvd library or view their dvds on iPods or iPhones. The only dvds or other media files you can actually convert for use on your Apple equipment are those without copy protection -- i.e. home movies or other non-commercial media files. If your aim is to convert your commercial dvd collection for use on Apple portable media products, you'll need to look elsewhere.

I only came to the product page to see what the retail cost was. However, I did not expect to see all these lackluster reviews. So, I will try to provide as much detail as possible as to why I am giving this 4 stars.

My actual rating is about 3.5. My only complaint is the price. As a evaluation copy, I don't know what the retail price is. So, now that I see it, I believe it's about $10 over my expectation. However, if the Amazon price is 30% off retail, this is acceptable.

So, with that said, this is a no frills video converter. And if you need to convert ANYTHING to an Apple friendly file, this is great. My main computer is Windows, so, dealing with the file formats is just a headache. Now, it is not.

We are not automatically sent evaluation copies, we have to request it, therefore, I really wanted this. I run several entertainer web sites and I have a couple of them with or about to start podcasts. I have a boxes of VHS and DVDs sitting here, as well as video files of all types sitting on discs. Trying to find something to deal with this mess was making me insane.

My current method of making an iPod ready file took up to three software programs. Windows Movie Maker, Pinnacle Studio Ultimate 11, and Super AV Converter. WMM is fine for quick projects, but I have to use it to resave a file I just created using Pinnacle and the SAVC. Running all three programs is just a system overload. Pinnacle alone is a memory killer. Pinnacle is ok, I use it and get by. But SAVC is just completely useless.

Now comes Roxio Crunch, and I am so happy. It's a light program, runs quickly, loads video with no problem. You can choose to make a file for iPod, iPhone and even AppleTV. You can also choose to upload directly to itunes for your next ipod update. For personal use, this is completely perfect. If you simply want your videos on your iPod, and the simplicity of opening the program, browsing for your file, and upload to itunes... you're done.

The only slight drawback is if you have a huge workload. It does take a few minutes to do it's conversion thing. But, in my case, I am working with recording artists and music videos etc. So my videos are 3-5 minutes long. And this is so perfect for YouTube too.

There are no directions. And it's a very simple interface. It's a very specific needs program that does it's job, and in my experience, the best at it so far.

I got this product as part of the Amazon Vine/Early Reviewer program. As a recent convert to Mac and Iphone, I wasn't initially sure how much use I would have for the Roxio Crunch program. Since you can't convert DVDs that have copy write protection, the only use I can find for it is to convert my home movies into a viewable format for my Iphone. And the only person I know who wants to watch that stuff on an Iphone is my 5-year-old son. The only benefit I can see from this product it that I don't have to tote a portable DVD player on the plane for my son anymore - for now he's happy watching "crunched" reruns of his birthday party on the Iphone.

The Roxio Crunch program downloaded easily enough onto my Mac, however it is very, very slow (as noted by other reviewers). Overall, I am really glad I didn't pay for this product, as it is very limited in what it can do, and what it does isn't that great.

then perhaps I wouldn't be so disappointed! Roxio product description is pretty misleading, as I can't convert any of my movies to play on my ipod. What a waste.

Roxio Crunch Win/Mac works, as far as converting video to an iPod formate--however, it can NOT rip DVDs that have copy protection, which most movie DVDs have. You will not be able to transfer your movies from DVD to your iPod.

I was very disappointed that Roxio did not make this clear in their product description.

I was disappointed with Roxio Crunch compressor/recompressor for iPod, iPhone, and AppleTV. It wasn't what I expected. It does several things that annoy me.

(1) It doesn't compress dvds for personal use. This is a legal problem, not Roxio's. I use Handbrake.

(2) It doesn't compress homemade movies with music bought from iTunes. The error message says use an Apple product. This is really frustrating.

(3) While it has some simple options for recompressing such as "automatic", "high", and "fastest" quality, I don't like the outcome. I found the "high" and "automatic" quality to be quite poor. The "fastest" quality is better, surprisingly. Not just a little better but a lot. Why is "fastest" better than "high" quality? I dunno. It does not seem intuitive.

(4) I use "custom" quality. For custom quality, the options become quite complicated. Fortunately, I have a background in compression, so I am able to understand most of the options. I would recommend that you have a decent background, too, if you want to buy/use this product.

(5) Roxio Crunch is a derivative product of Roxio Popcorn. I know this because when I get errors, the error messages are written for Popcorn and mention Popcorn by name, not Crunch. So it's confused.

(6) I was going to recommend Popcorn, but I noticed that it is getting panned, too.

The product does have some merit. I have recompressed video avi files from my Canon camera into iPod videos. I liked that.

I have a iMac running Leopard, Mac OS X 10.5. If you are not using the same system, your experience could be different.

I wish I hadn't bought this product. I would recommend Handbrake (which is a free download that generally works better). If you are still interested in Roxio Crunch, I would buy it on Amazon as it does seem to be selling for a good price (currently, $33 and change). I bought the product at an Apple store for $50 the other week.

Good luck.

Roxio's 'Crunch' video conversion software does exactly what the product box claims it can do - "helps you easily convert your DVD's, movies, and TV shows for use with Apple TV, iPod, and iPhone." What is somewhat misleading though is that if you carefully examine the fine print on the box you will learn that Crunch does not convert copy protected or encrypted DVDs. This is totally to be expected and personally I have no problem with such a restriction, but based on several user reviews posted here it seems that many were mislead on this point and it should be noted more clearly that this product is not an 'out of the box' solution to converting commercial DVDs for view on your iPod devices.

That being said, if you are in need of a software solution to convert a myriad of video formats (e.g. - AVI, DV, QuickTime, Mpeg 1-4, DivX, Xvid, etc.) for use and view on your iPod/iPhone/AppleTV devices, Roxio's Crunch is an elegant and streamlined solution to do just that. Installation is a cinch and the program's interface is simple and intuitive for anyone with a better-then-average grasp of Windows or Mac UI's.

My main gripe though is that the outputting process is a bit slower then I would've liked. Granted, my computer isn't exactly a speed-demon but she's no slouch either. If the output rate could be improved in future updates I'd definitely bump my rating up to 4 stars.