Roxio Popcorn copies non-encrypted DVDs, disk images and VIDEO_TS files and compresses them to a number of other formats mostly for mobile devices.
Roxio Popcorn 4 introduces several new features including the ability to stream DVDs from your Mac to your TiVo DVR. You can also publish videos directly to YouTube, burn up to 4 hours of video to DVD and now extract audio to several different formats.
Even though the Roxio Popcorn lacks a proper startup tutorial for first time users, you can easily understand how to use it from the options on the left side of the interface. It reads DVDs, image files and Video_TS files. Roxio Popcorn includes a media browser, which hovers in a separate window, from where you can look for the videos you want to compress. Unfortunately, this browser is limited to list view, which feels odd on a Mac, where you can browse folders by many different other views.
Once you've selected the videos to compress press the big red button at the bottom right. It'll open up a separate window, from which you can choose the format you want to compress to. Advanced users will be disappointed to find that Roxio Popcorn has only presets and that video quality can only be set via a slider bar. However beginners will like being able to quickly choose the best format for your device.
You can select an option to fit to DVD compression and even create a compilation of VIDEO_TS files. If you're not sure of the format you want, just create a quick preview. Roxio Popcorn also lets you gauge to maximum size, such as 256 MB or 1 GB. You can follow the compression process thanks to the progress bar over the Dock icon and if you're away from the computer, even schedule compressions and conversions.
Roxio Popcorn comes with three additional applications. Tivo To Go, Disk Cover RE and a video player. The Disk Cover application is very intuitive to work with and already includes a number of templates for CD or DVD covers. The video player, even though a little basic, has a nice sleek interface and includes all the necessary playback tools. Tivo To Go is great for sending TV programs to any handheld device.
Roxio Popcorn 4 is the best version of Popcorn yet and fulfills almost all of your burning and conversion needs in a slick interface..
