Guide for converting DVDs to MP4

I have been asked numerous times about how to encode purchased DVDs into the video equivalent of MP3. For me, and many others, this is MP4.

The below steps will explain how to convert a DVD into a MP4 format, complete with metadata and artwork. (The process is nearly identical on Windows and Mac – Sorry Linux fans, I have yet to dabble with this on that platform, but I’m sure it’s almost the same too)

Even though you own the DVD, the act of ripping it and converting to another format is still very much a legal grey area. (I hope this guide doesn’t get pulled because of this!)

You will need a few applications;
MacTheRipper (Mac) or DVDShrink (Windows)
Handbrake (Mac & Windows)
MetaX (Mac & Windows) or Subler (Mac)

And a few sites to help with obtaining the metadata;
IMDb (General Data)
Netflix (Genre and Outline)
Barnes & Noble (Chapters)
tagChimp (General Data and Chapters)
Wikipedia (General Data)
Get Video Artwork (High resolution artwork)
Blockbuster (UK Ratings)
Internet Movie Poster Database (Last resort if you cannot find decent artwork)

Ripping the DVD

Handbrake can convert straight form the physical disk itself, but I prefer to rip it to my Hard Drive first.

With MacTheRipper, it’s easier to insert the disk and click “Go!”. This will rip the entire contents of the DVD, allowing you to pick out the parts you need later. Ripping a specific Title can be a bit fiddly.

DVDShrink can do the same thing via the “Entire Disk” button. But it is much easier to rip just the Title of the Main Feature using the Re-Author option.

To save getting into unnecessary detail, for the purpose of this guide, rip the whole Disk.

Encoding the Movie

1. Launch Handbrake. You should be prompted for the Source File(s). If not, select File>Open.

2. Handbrake will scan the Contents. Once finished, open the Preset tray and select Universal.

3. In the main screen pick the Title you want to encode. This is usually the longest one for the main feature. Play the DVD elsewhere and take note of the Title number to be sure.

4. Type in the location and name of your desired output file (for the Windows version, all special characters must be removed. You can change the filename after).

The default setup here should be fine for most people, so it is safe to skip onto the Audio and Subtitles Step – you will be left with a perfectly acceptable video file. If you’re interested in some of the finer points, read on…

5. In the Video tab click Picture Settings.

5a. Set Anamorphic to Strict – this will force Handbrake to keep a pixel-for-pixel resolution of the original (no scaling like with the loose option)

Because of this, you have to adjust the Cropping to keep the video the correct shape;

5b. Set the crop to Custom and adjust the numbers so that they are multiples of 16 (this is to do with macroblocks – there are numerous post online explaining this, but for now trust me, 16 is the magic number) and even numbers (e.g. if you find you have 71 and 73 for the top and bottom, you should change them to 72 and 72 – this is to do with efficient encoding).

Keep note of how much of the video you are cutting away or adding back. adding too much back may leave more black edges than you would have liked. Cutting too much away may take away too much of the film. The last one is highly unlikely as, when overscan on CRT TVs was an issue, the extreme edges of the film were cut off anyway.

5c. If your source is interlaced or Telecined (again, plenty of posts about this elsewhere) select the relevant Filters. Decomb can be left on if you are unsure, as this is like a ‘safe’ de-interlacer that will only be brought into effect if needed.

5d. Now check your Source, Output and Anamorphic numbers;

The Output should be the source minus your crop values, exactly. The Anamorphic should with the same height as the Output. This can be ignored if you have chosen “Loose Anamorphic”. I prefer strict as you are left with an exact pixel-for-pixel copy of the original without any scaling.

6. Onto the Audio and Subtitles Tab.

6a. The default here is for track 1 to be an AAC Pro Logic II mix-down of the 5.1 AC3 source, with Tack 2 being a passthru of the source. This is fine in nearly every case.

The two tracks are for compatibility. The Apple TV and Media Players can pick off the AC3 5.1 track (Amplifier friendly) whereas the iPhone and iPods can use the Pro Logic II track, as it’s just stereo. The ProLogic II allows those with PLII amps to playback the pseudo-5.1 from the portable devices too.

Ideally you would do away with both of these and choose the 6-Channel discrete AAC, as this is the ideal equivalent to AC3 5.1. But due to a slow uptake on this standard we are forced to use the 2-Track method above, breaking the MP4 standards. Plex and XBMC can down-sample 6-Channel discrete AAC to AC3 5.1, but they are the only ones, leaving you with a file un-playable on the iPods and iPhone and a mix-down to something non-AC3 from the Apple TV. A real shame, but what can you do?

You can set the 2nd Track to None if the source is only Stereo or Dolby Surround (no point have two sets of 2-Channel tracks).

6b. Choose any subtitles you would like hard-encoded to the movie file. These will be ‘burnt’ onto the video itself so be sure before you choose any (such as Forces Subtitles where some Movies may have translated scenes). I will post another guide for adding soft-subs to your files once I have found a bullet-proof method.

7. The Chapters Tab.

7a. Fill in the chapters via whichever method suites you (copy and pasting from one of the sites listed above, manually from the DVD box, or choose your own by watching the movie).

The Advanced Tab can be left alone, as this is really reserved for the hard-core tinkeres.

8. Click Add To Queue or Start depending on how many DVDs you are encoding. Depending on your Computer, the encoding process can take anywhere from 1 hour to 1 day (yes my 8 year old PC used to take a whole day to do this!).

Adding the Metadata, or ‘tags’

If you’re only interested in a file to playback the Movie, indifferent to cataloguing your collection, you can skip adding any data to the file. I, however, like having all the information stored within the file, like with MP3s (it’s only Apple Media players and various Operating Systems that can read this data for now, but this will change).

Open your weapon of choice, be it MetaX, Subler or one of the more obscure ones and populate all the required fields. The sites listed above are great for this.

Once complete, Save/Write the data to the file.

You’re done!

The file you are left with is about 33% to 50% the size of the DVD Title and can be imported to iTunes with all the data intact. It will be exactly the same resolution as the original (if you choose the ‘strict’ method) and can be played back on almost any device – one file the rule them all!

I will post a guide for Blu-ray and High Def rips once that process has been more streamlined and standardised.

Some likely questions and things to note

Why choose the ‘Universal’ Preset?
This is the most compatible format to use. It leaves out all the unnecessary ‘extras’ that make it un-playable on some devices. One example is the B-frames added for the Apple TV preset – this only saves about 10% more file space but makes no improvements to video quality.
The consoles are always changing their requirements and therefore rendering their presets useless too often. They are being removed from the next release I believe.
The AVI container is a dying format and will also be removed from the next release of Handbrake.
The device-specific presets reduce the resolution for playback via the device’s screen only – too low for TV use really.

Be careful of blank chapters at the end of a Title.
Some DVDs are authored with a chapter at the end of the movie no more than about 3 seconds long. This is to help with the menu navigation (I think) and can be left out (select the previous Chapter as the last one in Handbrake’s main screen). leaving it in will result in an unwanted entry at the end of your Chapter List – not a huge deal, but irritating non the less.

Double-check your Movie duration once encoding is complete.
Handbrake will add or remove a few frames here and there to keep things in sync (nothing that can be spotted during playback, don’t worry) so the output file’s duration should be the same as the original, give or take a few seconds at the most. The movie studios are very aware that programs like Handbrake can circumvent most attempts to prevent encoding, so have started adding deliberate errors to the DVDs. These errors are handled by stand-alone players no problem, and skipped over, but many can cause Handbrake to choke. I am suffering from this issue with Iron Man – selecting the subtitle track for the bits of translation at various scenes causes Handbrake to drop whole scenes from the movie, leaving me with a file a full 15 minutes too short. This is because they haven’t kept that particular subtitle track’s time-stamp in sync with the main movie… sneaky cretins.

You can set the Constant Quality to anything from 59% to 62%.
Anything lower will result in noticeable artefacts. Any higher and you are wasting space. In this version of Handbrake, the percentage is in relation to the original film source, not the DVD – setting it to 80% will result in a file the same size as the original DVD, any higher and the size balloons. In comparison, a Blu-ray is considered 95% percent of the original film source.

The same method can be followed for TV Shows and 4:3 sources.
Just select the required Title, or Chapter range, that relates to the episode you’re wanting.

Some DVDs will flat-out refuse to rip.
For these you can plump out for DVDFab.

Please post any questions relating to this guide in the comments below.
I will respond as best I can.

Take THAT Samsung Advertising Types!

Remember my rant a few months back, venting my anger towards Samsung’s misleading “LED TV” Ads? Well, looks like it’s Score: 1 for the UK Advertising Standards Authority.

They’ve ordered Samsung to change they way they portray the new TVs, to make general consumers more aware of what they’re buying.

Samsung are still trying to worm their way around it though. Gees, why is everyone in such a rush to be first? It just makes a mess of things.

[Via: Engadget HD]

Umbrella using Avon to peddle T-virus

This has been posted about plenty of times already, but I felt like bringing it to everyone’s attention once again.

Avon’s latest skin Serum, Derma-Full X3, looks shockingly like Umbrella Corp’s T-Virus!

A harmless coincidence by a cosmetic company, or Umbrella’s sneaky attempt to turn us all into brain-hungry flesh-eaters?

I’m going for the latter. So, be warned if you’re looking to try this ‘serum’ – it takes more than soap and water to rid yourself of the effects of it. You’ll need to ask someone to remove your head with a shotgun…

Samsung have an “LED” TV… apparently

Well it looks like Samsung can’t resist jumping on the Buzzword Bandwagon either.

Samsung have recently released their “LED” TVs. “But surely that’s a good thing” I hear you say. “I thought LED TVs were the next best thing, to supersede LCD TVs” you tell me.

You’re mistaking this for the OLED TVs that are due to start making their way into our homes later this year, and Samsung are counting on this. Sony already have an OLED TV available, albeit only 11 inches in size and a naff resolution of 940×540.

Samsung could have easily named the news sets “LED edge-lit LCD TVs”, but they have decided to move away from the convention of naming sets based on their panel/screen type (CRT, Plasma, LCD, OLED) and start calling them based on their backlight type.

Another excellent example of confusing the crap out of the unsuspecting public with more marketing twaddle!

This is not an attack on the sets themselves. I have read that they’re very, very nice. The edge-lit LED magic allows the sets to be wafer-thin. But there is NOTHING on the site that mentions them being standard LCD TVs, with a different type of LED backlight (LED backlighting is usually ‘direct’ from behind the panel, not from the edge). So they are clearly, falsely, marketing this as an LED TV. They even have it in a separate section, away from the LCD TVs!

Samsung….How very dare you. If I fit a car battery to my car made by, say, a company called ‘Rocket’ – could I then say my car is “Rocket Powered”?!

P.S. I have just noticed that they are calling the USB 2 port on the TV a “USB 2.0 Movie” port. As if there’s any difference. Give it a rest!

Mac vs PC, Transformers Style

Impressive Transformers twist, on the ongoing Mac vs PC debate.

Video by Nick Greenlee

[Via TUAW]

BBC Drops Crufts

After their broadcast, Pedigree Dogs Exposed, which revealed the barbaric practices that go on behind the scenes of Pedigree dog breeding, the BBC will no longer be televising Crufts.

This is due to the Kennel Club’s refusal to comply with the broadcaster’s request to exclude certain breeds from the show.

This is a minor victory for the poor dogs that are put through these practices, but a victory none the less, as the BBC refusing to publicise it will hopefully put some breeders off.

[Via Animal Aid]

When the Stupid get tough, the Tough make logos

One of the articles in my feeds a while ago (yes, back in November. Apparently I have a ‘backlog’), reminded my of yet another pet hate of mine – the marketing stickers and logos found on almost every piece of (usually techie) equipment in department stores.

What ever happened to researching your next big purchase via books, reviews and on-line forums?

I’m not sure which came first – the consumer’s lack of knowledge, or the big shiny “look what I can do” logos – but this dumbing-down is getting worse.

I first really noticed it when the “HD Ready” logos started appearing on flat panel TVs. I’m planning a whole other rant about the ins and outs of HD TV, resolutions and connections, so I’ll leave the major details until then. But this logo just caused more ignorance and lead folk to purchase expensive equipment that would soon be below-par for the use they had intended it for.

For a TV to be “HD Ready”, it had to have at least 720 horizontal lines of resolution in a wide screen ratio (1280 x 720). Yet the sticker was placed on “480 panel” (848 x 480) Plasma TVs and wide screen LCDs with resolutions like 1024 x 768 (NOT wide screen, so the pixels are stretched). Now, because of consumer’s blind trust, they have TV sets that will take an HD Signal, but not display the full detail of a proper HD picture, not even a mid-range 720p picture! And in the case of the saps with the 480 panels – they are viewing resolution LESS than that of UK Standard Definition.

Anyway, I’m straying here.

We’re now at the stage where people just do not bother researching anything about what they are about to buy. You’d think that buying that expensive something your family are going to use to view nearly all their entertainment with – and spend (unfortunately) most of their free time in front of – would cause a person to at least have a quick glance on-line as to what they might want. But no. Instead they expect to walk into a shop at 13:00 and, governed by the stickers and the (lack of) knowledge by Mr Salesman, be out of there with a shiney new ‘does-everything’ TV, DVD player, Hi-Fi etc by 13:30!

Some of these stickers seem to be aimed at the Super-Dumb range of shoppers too. Those with the “the more stickers the better” mentality. These stickers don’t even offer any useful info, but instead just state the obvious. Such as;

Fake logos created with LogoMaker

What? That LCD TV has an LCD Panel, Red, Green and Blue Pixels, and a Standby Light? NO. Really? Wow!

This all makes me wonder where it will go next. Where will the idiocy spill over? Can I expect to walk into a car dealership soon and see these staring me in the face?;

Sad, isn’t it?

Yet this progression of ineptitude will not cease unless the manufacturers, (or even just the stores, where the manufacturers haven’t etched the logos on), put a halt on their logo-lust. Force buyers to delve into the how’s why’s of that new purchase. Make the floor staff read up on what they’re selling. And Dixons – Stop copying and pasting those useless little info tags, cos it’s obvious you nearly always forget to edit the pasted info!

So next time you feel yourself being drawn towards the promise of “dynamic contrast ratio“, that new “Super-hyper true-motion chip” or “intelligent picture control” because of those precious little stickers… Run. Run for your lives!

Merge In Turn

Road works – they’re inevitable, you can’t really avoid them, they’re a necessity that we all have to deal with on many occasions. But it’s not the road works that are the subject of this rant, it’s the “Idiot Queue” that forms on many of them.

What’s an “Idiot Queue”? It’s those queues you see where someone has started one, with no thought or reason, and has everyone following suit, making life that much more difficult for the rest of the, more intelligent, population.

Another good example is the single-file 30-shopper-long queues that from in front of say 5 open checkouts (with the front-most shopper claiming the next free one), instead of 5, shorter queues of 6 shoppers. Come on people, relax, get a clue, your life isn’t that dependant on squeezing those extra few minutes from the supermarket. And if you accidentally stumble into one of the free checkouts, not seeing the ‘proper‘ queue, god help you. You’d think you’re about to be lynched, judging by the looks you get!

Anyway, I’m straying slightly.

These “One Lane Closed” road works are a great place to pull up a chair and watch this phenomenon unfold. Drivers see the “Lane Closed Ahead, 800 Yards” sign as an instruction to get in the open lane as quick as possible. Why?! The other lane is open for the next 800 frickin Yards, use it!

Because of this, you find tailbacks stretching for miles sometimes, with a lane completely devoid of any vehicle, for absolutely no reason, causing more, unnecessary headache further back.

I believe people do this due to some kind of “must claim my place in the queue” mentality. But if everyone used both lanes, merging in turn at the point of lane closure (like you should do!) they’d all leave the road works in the same order anyway. Yes, you do get the odd prick refusing to let anyone in. But so what if you’re a few cars back from where you would have been? You’re stuck in the road works anyway, moving through them at the same speed. And does that extra few seconds really make that much difference?

If you can’t quite grasp my meaning, please take a look at my crude diagrams below (click each one to view a larger version). You see that car in the “correct” diagram, turning left into the street? That would have been me the other day, if it wasn’t for the shocking amount of monumentally mindless bell-ends in the many cars before me. Instead, I was stuck trying to get around the round-about, behind the morons trying to claim their spot in the queue. As you can see, if everyone used both lanes, there would have been no problems on the round-about.

And lets not forget that golden example of pure stupidity – the guy in the 4×4 driving on top of the dotted line, refusing to let anyone past to use the free lane. Well done you Goit. You’re now one step ahead of your fellow man claiming their spot in the queue – you’re actually stopping the good-eggs from showing how it’s meant to be done! If you see this shining beacon of moronic behaviour, please feel free to remove him – a nice spud up the exhaust pipe should get him off the road for a while.

But, leaving on a good note, I actually found myself on the better end of this behaviour a few months back…

During one of my many trips across the country, I hear on the radio about a two mile, stop-start, tailback on the motorway I was on, causing about half an hour of delays. Bugger. Not able to turn around, there wasn’t much to do but carry on. Imagine my delight when, driving in the right-hand lane, I pass the “Road Works Ahead” sign with a stream of stationary cars to the left of me. Carrying on, still nothing in my lane, until 2 miles later, I’m met with the Lane Closed Sign. About 20 seconds later, someone lets me in, and I’m through the 100 Yard Road Works in a matter of a couple of minutes! Wahoo! See ya later losers! I did spare a thought for all those choosing to from that huge queue, honestly, I really did.

So, next time you’re in this situation, please, please, think for a second and use all of the free road. Don’t add to the unnecessary problems caused by following the sheep.

Windows Update rant, from Bill Gates

You’re the head of a multi-Billion Dollar company and part of the product that has bought you said Billions is getting on your nerves… What do you do?

You have a good ol’ rant!

Part of Bill Gates’ day-to-day activities is picking fault in Windows to “make things better”. But one particular email caught the attention of Todd Bishop when it was turned over in the antitrust suits against Microsoft.

There’s nothing ground-breaking or controversial about the email, and it was sent back in 2003. But it’s somewhat interesting reading the thoughts of Bill’s experiences with Windows Update.

—- Original Message —-

From: Bill Gates
Sent: Wednesday, January 15, 2003 10:05 AM
To: Jim Allchin
Cc: Chris Jones (WINDOWS); Bharat Shah (NT); Joe Peterson; Will Poole; Brian Valentine; Anoop Gupta (RESEARCH)
Subject: Windows Usability Systematic degradation flame

I am quite disappointed at how Windows Usability has been going backwards and the program management groups don’t drive usability issues.

Let me give you my experience from yesterday.

I decided to download (Moviemaker) and buy the Digital Plus pack … so I went to Microsoft.com. They have a download place so I went there.

The first 5 times I used the site it timed out while trying to bring up the download page. Then after an 8 second delay I got it to come up.

This site is so slow it is unusable.

It wasn’t in the top 5 so I expanded the other 45.

These 45 names are totally confusing. These names make stuff like: C:\Documents and Settings\billg\My Documents\My Pictures seem clear.

They are not filtered by the system … and so many of the things are strange.

I tried scoping to Media stuff. Still no moviemaker. I typed in movie. Nothing. I typed in movie maker. Nothing.

So I gave up and sent mail to Amir saying – where is this Moviemaker download? Does it exist?

So they told me that using the download page to download something was not something they anticipated.

They told me to go to the main page search button and type movie maker (not moviemaker!).

I tried that. The site was pathetically slow but after 6 seconds of waiting up it came.

I thought for sure now I would see a button to just go do the download.

In fact it is more like a puzzle that you get to solve. It told me to go to Windows Update and do a bunch of incantations.

This struck me as completely odd. Why should I have to go somewhere else and do a scan to download moviemaker?

So I went to Windows update. Windows Update decides I need to download a bunch of controls. (Not) just once but multiple times where I get to see weird dialog boxes.

Doesn’t Windows update know some key to talk to Windows?

Then I did the scan. This took quite some time and I was told it was critical for me to download 17megs of stuff.

This is after I was told we were doing delta patches to things but instead just to get 6 things that are labeled in the SCARIEST possible way I had to download 17meg.

So I did the download. That part was fast. Then it wanted to do an install. This took 6 minutes and the machine was so slow I couldn’t use it for anything else during this time.

What the heck is going on during those 6 minutes? That is crazy. This is after the download was finished.

Then it told me to reboot my machine. Why should I do that? I reboot every night — why should I reboot at that time?

So I did the reboot because it INSISTED on it. Of course that meant completely getting rid of all my Outlook state.

So I got back up and running and went to Windows Update again. I forgot why I was in Windows Update at all since all I wanted was to get Moviemaker.

So I went back to Microsoft.com and looked at the instructions. I have to click on a folder called WindowsXP. Why should I do that? Windows Update knows I am on Windows XP.

What does it mean to have to click on that folder? So I get a bunch of confusing stuff but sure enough one of them is Moviemaker.

So I do the download. The download is fast but the Install takes many minutes. Amazing how slow this thing is.

At some point I get told I need to go get Windows Media Series 9 to download.

So I decide I will go do that. This time I get dialogs saying things like “Open” or “Save”. No guidance in the instructions which to do. I have no clue which to do.

The download is fast and the install takes 7 minutes for this thing.

So now I think I am going to have Moviemaker. I go to my add/remove programs place to make sure it is there.

It is not there.

What is there? The following garbage is there. Microsoft Autoupdate Exclusive test package, Microsoft Autoupdate Reboot test package, Microsoft Autoupdate testpackage1. Microsoft AUtoupdate testpackage2, Microsoft Autoupdate Test package3.

Someone decided to trash the one part of Windows that was usable? The file system is no longer usable. The registry is not usable. This program listing was one sane place but now it is all crapped up.

But that is just the start of the crap. Later I have listed things like Windows XP Hotfix see Q329048 for more information. What is Q329048? Why are these series of patches listed here? Some of the patches just things like Q810655 instead of saying see Q329048 for more information.

What an absolute mess.

Moviemaker is just not there at all.

So I give up on Moviemaker and decide to download the Digital Plus Package.

I get told I need to go enter a bunch of information about myself.

I enter it all in and because it decides I have mistyped something I have to try again. Of course it has cleared out most of what I typed.

I try (typing) the right stuff in 5 times and it just keeps clearing things out for me to type them in again.

So after more than an hour of craziness and making my programs list garbage and being scared and seeing that Microsoft.com is a terrible website I haven’t run Moviemaker and I haven’t got the plus package.

The lack of attention to usability represented by these experiences blows my mind. I thought we had reached a low with Windows Network places or the messages I get when I try to use 802.11. (don’t you just love that root certificate message?)

When I really get to use the stuff I am sure I will have more feedback.

[Via Todd Bishop's Microsoft blog on SeattlePI.com]

Apple: The Scrooge Years

Before a start this rant, I feel I need to confess that I’m somewhat of an Apple fan-boy. I love Apple products. But there are  few things that bug the crap out of me. One being the apparent dwindling generosity of the company where it’s media players are concerned…

I remember a time when Apple didn’t think twice about showering new iPod owners with accessories included with the device. Not to mention keeping all 3rd party accessories compatible through the release of new generations of the media player, and keeping all revisions as up-to-date with each other where it’s feasible.

Now it seems that they are cutting back as much as possible and attempting to see just how much they can squeeze a few extra bucks out of us.

My first iPod was a 20GB 3rd Gen back in 2003. A device that’s still running strong even today (albeit with less and less use as the years role by). With this was included;

1. 1.8 metre FireWire cable, with cable clip
2. FireWire Wall Charger
3. Headphones
4. Foam Headphone Covers
5. In-line Remote Control
6. Protective Case, with belt clip
7. Dock
8. 2 Port Covers

Quite a list, eh?

Now take the list of included accessories with my 160GB iPod Classic;

1. 1 metre USB Cable
2. Headphones
3. Foam Headphone Covers

… That’s it, not even a frickin Wall Charger!

Come on Apple – Stop being so tight and start making your customers feel like they’re getting great value for money again!

It’s getting like this with compatibility too – I have a stack of video cables, docks and adaptors that will work with almost every generation of iPod going… except the latest.

It’s nice having better features like Component-out, but I’m sure they could arrange the pins in such a way that keeps nearly everything compatible. I can see accessories becoming defunct with every new iPod revision. I feel this cross-compatibility was lost after the 5th (and “5.5th”) Gen iPods, which are, in my opinion, the best iPods to date. Apple even screwed up by changing the audio hardware.

The Firmware doesn’t seem to be immune to this either. The new iPod Classics have the Genius Menu, but Apple will not release an update for the current Classics to add this. WTF?

The iPhone has fallen down this hole too. The 1st Gen iPhone included the Dock, whereas the iPhone 3G does not. again, pointless and Scrooge-like.

I only hope they pull their head from their arse and stop making us fork out for this, that and the other, so we can start enjoying our iPods as fully as we used to.

Anyway, upon looking for more dock port protectors (I lost my handy little slithers of white plastic) I came across the following video from when the 1st Gen iPod was unleashed onto the world. Back then no one knew the impact Apple’s “First Attempt” at an MP3 player would have on the market.

1,200 tunes on something the size of two cassettes? Have you ever imagined such a wondrous thing?