Roxio Popcorn 3 [OLD VERSION]

by Roxio

Product 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

Product Details

• Shipping Weight: 3.2 ounces
• Shipping: Currently, item can be shipped only within the U.S. and to APO/FPO addresses. For APO/FPO shipments, please check with the manufacturer regarding warranty and support issues.
• ASIN: B000SRVPOU
• Item model number: 236000
• Date first available at Amazon.com: July 8, 2007
• Average Customer Review: 1.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #5,636 in Software (See Top 100 in Software)
  • #69 in Software > Video & Music > DVD Viewing & Authoring

Product Description

Roxio: Popcorn 3

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

19 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Don't buy for Tivo-to-Go, January 5, 2008

By 

David K. Watson "DKW" (Ojai, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Roxio Popcorn 3 [OLD VERSION] (CD-ROM)

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.

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Flat out terrible, December 30, 2007

By 

D. Henry (OH USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Roxio Popcorn 3 [OLD VERSION] (CD-ROM)

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.

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars TiVo, bad; DVD burn OK, January 8, 2008

By 

Owen Densmore (Santa Fe, NM USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Roxio Popcorn 3 [OLD VERSION] (CD-ROM)

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.