Ripping Sony DVD-RWs for editing purposes

upmeath

Hi all,

I recorded a family occasion using a Sony Handycam a while back, and I've finalised the DVD-RWs I used to record the occasion. My intention is to edit the content of these DVDs to create a film using an editor.

My problem is that when I insert these finalised discs into my D drive, they start playing like a regular DVD with chapters appearing. I want to access the data (either in mpeg or avi) and edit it using a movie editor, but when I follow the My Computer>D route I don't see the files I need in any tangible format.

Does anybody know how to rip the DVD data so that it can be edited? Any handy little programs that perform this action?

artvandulet

Here is no less than 3 options!

1. Look at the Video_TS folder and view details. The largest .vob files are the videos. Copy the .vob file to your PC. Rename the .vob as a .mpg and in most cases Bingo!

2. Use MpegStreamclip

3. Use DVDshrink

All these options are free too!:D

Bob Z

editing packages like final cut or premiere cannot read dvds. But you have a couple of solutiions

1) get an editing package like ulead studio. It can read dvds but there is limits on how much you can edit with it. It might annoy you if you are used to premiere or high end editing packages

2) Has your camcorder got an firewire output? can it be used to put the footage directly into premiere

3) get a program like cinematize pro. It costs money but i believe there are freeware alternatives

upmeath

Thanks very much for your responses, I tried artvandulet's first suggestion, renaming the .vob's as .mpg's, and that didn't work at all.
So I went for Plan B and converted using Mpeg Streamclip, which took the best part of 2 days to convert 3 hours of .vob to .avi, unscaled and maintaining original quality. I was delighted when I brought the .avi files into my editor, great quality and easy to work with, no watermarks or anything like that, but unfortunately Mpeg Streamclip decided to leave the audio track behind. Where do I go from here, should I start over with a new program or is there a simple tick box I missed, I scanned over the options in Mpeg Streamclip meticulously before conversion and I don't think I missed anything.

artvandulet

Maybe this is silly but you did actually rename the extension .mpg and not just the filename? Anyway as I said that don't always work.

Saying it took 2 days to convert 3 hours of DVD sounds entirely wrong! Some settings gone haywire there. I think. I've used it many many times to convert DVD's and should take about real time if not better. obviously as the audio didn't convert there's something amiss. Are you positive no audio got converted? Or did it just not play back on the machine. Because they are 2 very different things.
You say you took them to your editor? Surely he has the means to do the file conversion for you no? What is he editing with? Avi's may not be the best thing for him anyway.

When I get a chance, I'll do a conversion, and note the settings I use, and let you know.

Trust me its a great conversion tool. Our Post Production use it all the time.

decob

When you go to export - in the pop-up screen with all the export options, about 1/4 of the way down is sound. Pick uncompressed then any editor you bring it into should have no issues with it.

Plus 2 days to convert 3 hours... either you picked some mad setting or have an extremely slow machine.

upmeath

Thanks very much for the continued assistance. To be honest my laptop didn't come down in the last shower which may explain the length of time involved in conversion, I've since decided to start the project over on my father's laptop which is relatively new and probably a lot less virus-laden. On the sound subject, thanks decob, you pinpointed my problem there, I left sound in for compression to mpeg layer 2 instead of uncompressed.

Now I'm just wondering... I previously exported to:
File-->Export to Other Formats...-->AVI

Should I be exporting to:
File-->Export to AVI-->[ONE OF THE COUPLE DOZEN FORMATS IN THE DROP DOWN]

I was tempted to try the latter option the first time round but when the drop down offers everything except simple AVI I ran scared and went back to Other Formats, where I could find AVI

extopia

[QUOTE=upmeath;58279236unfortunately Mpeg Streamclip decided to leave the audio track behind.[/QUOTE]

More likely it was you who decided to leave the audio track behind (inadvertently, I'm sure).

Streamclip is a professional grade application, a fantastic tool. It doesn't make decisions by itself, however.

You must have forgotten to configure the audio conversion.

You should run short tests before you spend days doing long conversions to guard against precisely this kind of thing.

upmeath

Many thanks for all the advice. I'm trying again on a faster computer with Vista instead of XP so there shouldn't be too much trouble. Can anyone please direct me, am I using File>Other Formats or File>AVI?
File>AVI offers dozens of formats that don't sound like AVI, but I don't know enough about the formats to go ahead and pick one.
I've done a couple of test runs and the conversion runs nowhere near real time. I'm picking uncompressed audio and unscaled video, 50% quality. Is it an exaggeration to say it should be converting in real time or better? It's currently taking about 3 times the length of a clip to convert, and this computer isn't waterlogged like the last one.

Exporting to Other Formats (AVI), 50% quality, uncompressed audio, unscaled video, anything I'm missing?

extopia

What editing software are you using to edit this once you convert?

I ask because some editors require certain formats (for instance, if you're using Windows Movie Maker, you're limited to .avi or .wmv files, AFAIK). On the other hand, Final Cut Pro will allow you to edit almost any frame-based codec.

For this kind of work, you should be converting your material to 720x576 DV-PAL. Audio should be .aiff 48kHz 16-bit.

decob

AVI is a container format not a codec, so it can be compressed using any different codec and still called avi. Alot of the time you see avi's that are compressed using the divx codec or xvid.

Uncompressed as the name suggests means your not using any codec - which in your case is completely pointless as you source footage was mpeg-2 compressed in the first place. I know from experience that 30secs uncompressed comes out at about 1.2gig. I would suggest exporting it as DV, still going to be a big file but nowhere near as big if it was uncompressed. To be honest i don't have much experience using AVI with mpegstream clip as i mainly use quicktime or DV from it. As for the quality - i normally leave it at 100%.

Bob Z

upmeath wrote: »

Thanks very much for the continued assistance. To be honest my laptop didn't come down in the last shower which may explain the length of time involved in conversion, I've since decided to start the project over on my father's laptop which is relatively new and probably a lot less virus-laden. On the sound subject, thanks decob, you pinpointed my problem there, I left sound in for compression to mpeg layer 2 instead of uncompressed.

Now I'm just wondering... I previously exported to:
File-->Export to Other Formats...-->AVI

Should I be exporting to:
File-->Export to AVI-->[ONE OF THE COUPLE DOZEN FORMATS IN THE DROP DOWN]

I was tempted to try the latter option the first time round but when the drop down offers everything except simple AVI I ran scared and went back to Other Formats, where I could find AVI

Does it give you the option dv avi? if so pick that.

Did you shoot it in widescreen? if so and ask for screen format pick 16:9 If you didnt shoot it in widescreen pick

If you shot it with 12k sound pick 12k or 32000k if you shot it with 16k pick that(or 48000k)