Is there a way to rip my DVDs for AppleTV, but retain the DD/DTS 5.1 audio soundtrack as well? I'm sure AppleTV will support passthrough for this at some point, so I would love to have it when that's available. So, I don't want to lose that audio track.
Will I have to rip twice? That would be time consuming. Any options?
If you'd like to rip DVD movies onto Apple TV with 5.1 surround sound, you just need to set the audio codec to AAC/AC3 and set the Channel as '5.1'. There are lots of video format container for you to convert, such as MPG, VOB, MP4, MOV, M4V, MKV, etc. But there're only some Apple TV supported video formats like MP4, MOV, M4V.
There are many dvd ripper tools that are capable of ripping and converting DVD movie to videos. However, just some of them can support ripping DVD movies to videos for Apple TV having surround sound. Finally I found a DVD ripping tool called iFunia DVD to Apple TV Converter for Mac on Google. This software is a free trial application for Mac OS X that accomplishes this task quickly and easily.
Step 1: Download & install iFunia DVD Ripper for Mac
We’ll be using a very nice DVD Ripping tool for Mac OS called iFunia DVD to Apple TV Converter (Mac OS only) for ripping DVD to Apple TV with 5.1 surround sound, head over here and download the free trial version.
Step 2: Run iFunia DVD to Apple TV Converter software for Mac
Now get your DVD disc and insert it. Then run iFunia DVD to Apple TV Converter on your Mac and click the big button "Load..." to load your DVD movie, you may see the name of DVD Movie disk if you insert DVD disk before running this Mac DVD converter software.
Step 3: Select the titles you'd like to convert
A movie DVD usually has several titles. However, only the first title is the content of DVD movie ( you may recognize it from the 'Length', see the image below), the other titles are the theatrical trailers. You may un-check the options not to convert these useless titles. Just check the first title option and convert all chapters of DVD movie content to one single video file.
Step 5: Change the output settings to output the video with 5.1 surround sound
If you'd like to rip DVD movie to Apple TV with 5.1 surround sound, you need to set the output video audio codec to AAC/AC3 with Channel '5.1'.
Here I set the output video format to 'Apple TV MPEG-4 480p Video (*.mp4)', Video Codec as 'H.264', Bitrate as '768', Frame Rate as '30', Audio Codec as 'AAC', Channel as '5.1'. Do remember to set the Channel to '5.1' from the default '2'.
Step 6: Start ripping DVD movies to Apple TV
Now you may click the big button "Start" to begin converting DVD movies to Apple TV. The Convert progress bar shows you how much of the convert process is completed. The longer your movie and the larger its Bitrate, the longer the convert will take. The ripping time will depend on several variables including: the duration of the video file, the speed of your computer, what other activity your computer is currently doing, the codec you selected and the bitrate you set.
Once the convert is complete, iFunia DVD to Apple TV Converter will place a new version of your movie that will play on the iPod. Double-click the new file and play it to make sure it looks as you expect.
DVD to Apple TV Converter for Mac is an easy-to-use Mac DVD ripper software to rip a DVD movie to Apple TV having 5.1 surround sound. You may use DVD to Apple TV Converter for Mac to rip encrypted DVDs and enjoy movies with Apple TV. It helps you convert DVD content to Apple TV video with high-definition and 5.1 surround sound.
(PC user? Get Windows version here)
(File Size: 5.4 MB)