Product Reviews

Popcorn 3 converts DVDs and movie files to an even wider range of devices than before, including Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. Popcorn now makes use of Elgato's Turbo.264 encoder, if available. A welcome decision indeed, given the increasing support for this codec.

In typical Roxio fashion, the main window is very simple. The left part lists the two kinds of output that can be created: DVDs and video files for devices. Beneath each is a list of valid sources, such as unprotected DVDs, image files and VIDEO_TS folders. In addition, several DVDs can be merged into one - handy for compiling home movies spread across several discs. However, we tried to combine two DVDs that totalled just under 7.2GB onto a dual-layer disc. Popcorn complained of an error during recompression, even though it was unnecessary. Other compilations worked fine, but the error shown made no sense.

Items are added to the queue by dragging and dropping them onto the window's right side. The queue is limited to converting one type of source at a time; converting multiple DVDs and video files requires running one batch after the other.

The Media Browser window lets you quickly browse video files, EyeTV recordings and DVDs, and there's a wonderful integrated Spotlight search that lets you find movies without having to leave Popcorn and browse with the Finder. It's a neat way to find your movies, though hardly an essential or distinguishing feature.

The handling of DVD titles and chapters is baffling though, due to a lack of fine control. With video files set as the source, dragging multiple chapters or whole titles from the Media Browser to the queue results in separate files for each chapter - you can't choose to convert just chapters one through five to one file, six through ten to another, and so on. Dragging in a VIDEO_TS folder at least lets you keep whole titles as single files, but further frustration

ADVERTISEMENT

comes when you discard any embedded chapter markers. They are replaced with new ones at preset intervals (set in the application preferences). Overall, this lack of finesse is a letdown.

Converting DVDs this way allows you to choose which features are converted. The audio track can be chosen, but subtitles aren't supported at all. With DVD Player installed, the selection can be previewed, although we found the same audio track was previewed regardless of the selection.

The red button in the bottom right of the main window opens a window to select a preset - or customise the encoder settings. For video files, you can preview a 15-second sample of the settings, but only the first queued item is shown, while the preview disabled for DVDs. This inconsistency is a real shame, though the feature is unlikely to get much use once you know what to expect. Sensibly, Roxio has recognised that you may need to pause the conversion too.

Strangely, the PSP preset encodes plain Mpeg-4 rather than H.264, ignoring Sony's support for H.264 on Memory Stick and use of the native screen resolution. Popcorn isn't alone in the latter, but the former is baffling as support was added some time ago.

We also ran into problems playing content on Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. A movie converted from DVD was unrecognised by the PS3, which claimed it was corrupt despite the video playing in QuickTime. The Xbox returned a typically vague error code without a truly useful explanation, though it did play a video converted from QuickTime DV.

Searching online for this code revealed similar problems with other software, so the problem could be a more general issue with the player. Roxio's documentation refers users to the player's documentation, but that doesn't always yield helpful answers. We tried re-encoding movies and rewriting discs without success, and ultimately gave up.

The issue that concerned us most, however, was the addition of black frames to some movies. This occurred when converting specific DVDs - not all of them, nor all features from the same DVD. When it did occur, the frames could last for as long as 30 minutes. Repeatedly converting the same DVD gave the same results, so we presume it's specific to certain discs.

Until the issue of unwanted empty frames is resolved, we recommend waiting for an update. We'd also like to see refinement in the handling of DVD titles and chapters, as well as a queue that can convert multiple source formats in one batch.