Customer Reviews

Roxio Popcorn 2 [OLD VERSION]

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(7)

 

 

This program doesn't seem to work for many people. Be sure to read some of the online forums describing problems. Mine was: "could not complete the last command because of a MAC OS error
error code = -5". This occurs when copying from a Video_TS folder... what you have to do when you have only one cd drive (iMac). Customer support was some of the worst i've ever experienced; the whole gamut: bad english, accusing me of trying to violate copyright, short non-sensical solutions: "change permissions" and then closing the help ticket without resolution. Do yourself a favor a buy a different program. Many people recommend "Toast", also from Roxio. i am cautiously thinking about trying it. Overall i'd have to say the best thing to do is to email/call Roxio to ensure that the program will do what you want and expect it to. Good Luck.

I find it unusual that there is such a targeted program for portable conversions and dvd copying. Toast will handle more dvd authoring formats, but Popcorn 2 has unique portable player file conversions. If you use any portable video player or are thinking of getting one, this program is for you. I have tried some smaller shareware type programs to do compression. However i noticed that POP2 produces sharper, better looking video with its compression. I noticed there is a drop in price for the program, welcome news since we need so many media specific programs now.

There's a lot of enhancements made to Popcorn 2 so I don't know how another user could say it doesn't work. First it is faster than iTunes for converting video so you won't need to buy QuickTime Pro to do your iPod video conversions. Vers 2 is also faster for compressing and burning DVDs. For everyone who has had to endure miserable burning times this is a welcome improvement. The defaults were chosen smartly so that many tasks are only one-step. For those who still like reference books like I do (I don't like reading a lot online) there is a printed manual which is well written. I was able to figure out a lot of the procedures with the help of this manual. The program worked the way it was supposed to without any complications. Certainly worth the investment.

At first, I was truly disappointed in this product. I knew it couldn't rip encrypted DVDs so I downloaded Mactheripper. However, even after I ripped the encrypted movie with Mactheripper and converted it to a Video_TS file, Popcorn would never convert it to mp4. Some of the errors were "OS X Error = -50" or "can not compress the file". Luckily, after some searching of the Internet, I have a solution for those of you that have the same problems. First, it isn't Popcorn's fault that nothing converts; you need to download version 3.0 R14d of Mactheripper (I found it by googling "mactheripper 3.0" or something like that. Make sure you don't download version 2.6.6 of Mactheripper because it won't work. Anyway, I found my 3.0 version through Azureus and bit torrent. I downloaded it, unzipped it, and began using it. (If you don't know what bit torrent is, then type in Azureus in Google and download the Azureus program. Bit torrent allows you to download large files or programs i.e. Mactheripper.) Once you rip the file using Mac 3.0, open Popcorn and convert the file to your iPod. It is really that simple after you download the right version of Mactheripper.
Hope this helps everyone.

This is an easy to use product, and between it, Toast Titanium, and MTR. I can mostly do what I want to all the movies in my collection. Sometimes it gives errors without more info... like "Cannot compress" this kinda sucks, and is why I won't give more than 3 stars. When It works, which is most of the time, it works great.

a fairly simple program to use. i would like to change and add some features. I like DVD2xOne but bought this becuase it was $10 less. With Popcorn you cannot save a compressed image file of your DVD to your hard drive, only a full size disc image.

We Mac users don't have as many software options as pc users so available software better be good. Roxio's Toast is a good program so I tried Popcorn for the portable conversion features. The same user friendly interface is there. The compression is also good enough so that the viewing quality is really affected. Another great effort for the Mac.

I am at a loss to see the use for this program. I have used Toast 5 and 6 and found them both to be well thought out applications. Aside from compressing (and therefore reducing the quality of) video to fit on a 1 hour DVD (unnecessary if you have a dual layer burner) I can't see much you can do with Popcorn that you can't already do with iLife or Toast. It is very frustrating that the .mov, mpeg 4 and other such file formats can only be used when you are transferring to a portable. Dropping those file formats into the program when you want to burn a DVD produces an error message. Save your money for something useful.

I'm used to anything Mac being on the high side price wise, so I'm also glad that the price is lower. I was having trouble getting a 3GP phone converter software and was surprised that this mac software has the feature. My phone plan doesn't include video and photo mailings so it gets pricey too for sending media. I can manipulate the video files much better with Popcorn and then use my phone as a viewer. When my contract expires I'm going to change plans, but I know I could still use the disc copy, dvd compression, iPod converter features. Good deal.

This is a portable player software program with some extras. That's how I see it. The software does all the things needed to convert video to portable players. The specs tell the story. As for user experience, it's easy to use. I can fit a lot on my iPod now. You can make dvd copies too, but you will probably need something else to handle music cds/dvds.