Popcorn 3 debuts

Roxio has debuted a new version of their video conversion, recording, DVD duplication and burning tool, Popcorn 3. We spoke with Vito Salvaggio, Vice President of the Mac division at Roxio about the new release, what it means for current users of the program, and how first time users will benefit from its significant changes. Like previous releases, Popcorn 3 allows you to take a Video_TS disc and encode video for the iPod, Sony PSP, and other platforms. Also, like, previous iterations, it allows you to modify the DVD options for disc/video output; you can choose from among the various choices for languages, subtitles, etc, for instance. New in this release, however, is TiVo to Go support, allowing you to automatically convert your TiVo recordings to the format of your choice. It also sports compatibility with Elgato's EyeTV.

Also new to Popcorn 3 is the ability to take one or more videos of various formats and create DVD compilations with menus, etc. The time limit on video content has also been increased. You can now create DVDs that have 4 hours of DVD content. In the past the restriction was 2 hours.

One of the more simple, but most useful features in Popcorn 3 is the ability to pause processing of projects. This lets you put processing on hold, allowing you to perform other operations on your Mac, then go back to encoding/processing later. Salvaggio told us "To be honest, it wasn't the hardest feature to implement, but it really adds a lot to the product."

Also new is a batch mode for converting multiple Video_TS folders into multiple DVDs or individual video files. "H.264 encoding is a slow process," said Salvaggio. "The batch mode allows you to set up several videos for processing overnight."




Popcorn 3 introduces support for Elgato's recently released H.264 hardware accelerator, the Turbo.264. Popcorn will use Turbo.264 to encode video. According to Salvaggio this frees up CPU, meaning that Mac OS X won't appear as sluggish as it might otherwise.

With regard to performance, in addition to enhancements to the Popcorn 3 application itself, the new release utilizes QuickTime 7.2, which purportedly delivers a significant increase in the encoding speed of various file formats. It also increases the quality of exported videos according to Salvaggio.

Popcorn 3 is priced at $50 for new customers, or $30 as an upgrade. It requires Mac OS X 10.4.10 and a PowerPC G4, G5 or Intel-based Mac. It will be available at retail in late August or early September.

by MacNN Staff