MPEG Streamclip Settings for Editing

[RowlandBTV]

Hi... love this site and have been soaking up all the good info and tips related to proper settings for MPEG Streamclip. Here is my situation.

My Goal: I am editing a project... my media is on DVD. My goal is to rip the media using MPEG Streamclip and edit it in imovie for now (my FCP is down) then to use iDVD to Burn the final. I am looking for the proper settings to export using MPEG Streamclip so that I can edit in imovie. Should I go Quicktime or MPEG-4?. If so, what are my best export settings for either. I did a test in quicktime with the export default being "Apple Motion JPEG A" and it looks great. The plan is to then import to imovie and then send to iDVD and make menu and burn it. It is not a complex project but I want it to run smoothly when I pop the finished DVD in any player.

Thank you in advance for all your help!!!!! ~Rowland

[tomlee59]

Streamclip is not a ripper; you'll have to do that with another tool.

Once ripped, you can import into Streamclip. For ease of editing and minimum quality degradation, export to DV for iMovie to chew on.

[RowlandBTV]

Thank you tomlee... yes... I used "rip" too loosely here.

Gonna try your advice!

[tomlee59]

Good luck -- and if you happen to run into some difficulty, post again. There are many folks here who can help.

[rumplestiltskin]

If you're planning to edit in iMovieHD (v6), then export as DV in the proper aspect ratio. I'm assuming you have Apple's MPEG2 codec installed (as you have FCP). If your DVD isn't DRM'd, MPEG Streamclip will "rip" and transcode it to DV-Stream in one step. Drop the first VOB on the app and okay the opening of the entire title. Export to DV... and wait...and wait. Remember it takes about 15GB per hour of DV.

(I just saw I'm overlapping tomlee59's advice. So it goes.)

[terryj]

rumple..don't forget to tell the OP that he/she needs to
"fix Timecode Breaks" first before exporting to DV from
MpegStreamclip.

[tomlee59]

If you're planning to edit in iMovieHD (v6), then export as DV in the proper aspect ratio. I'm assuming you have Apple's MPEG2 codec installed (as you have FCP). If your DVD isn't DRM'd, MPEG Streamclip will "rip" and transcode it to DV-Stream in one step. Drop the first VOB on the app and okay the opening of the entire title. Export to DV... and wait...and wait. Remember it takes about 15GB per hour of DV.

(I just saw I'm overlapping tomlee59's advice. So it goes.)

Your advice is much more specific and informative. So it goes well!

[RowlandBTV]

Hi Guys... okay... another question for ya. My final output will be on DVD. I just used the export tool from MPEG Streamclip for a DVD that is approx an hour long... yes the file is 13 gigs. I will then do some small editing in imovie to clean it up and export it to idvd to create a "Save as Image Disk" file. I did a test 'with a smaller file' and used Toast 9 and it worked great... my question is with my new file being such a large file size will I be able to burn it to DVD with the file being soo large or do I need to do a smaller export setting originally in MPEG Streamclip? OR... should I use an export of the DV file in Quicktime as an MPEG4 or quicktime? Any help is greatly appreciated!!!

[rumplestiltskin]

When you send your file to iDVD from within iMovie, it drops a "reference movie" (of your edited video) into iDVD. iDVD uses that file (which now contains all of your edits) to transcode the original DV-Stream footage (which would include any transitions, etc. that you added) into the required MPEG2 for video DVDs (which will be much smaller than the 13GB DV). Once iDVD is finished encoding and does the burn to the disc image, you'll then use Disk Utility to burn that image out to a physical DVD. Test that DVD thoroughly; if okay, then burn add'l discs as you require.

[RowlandBTV]

Thank you so much for the info... you guys are the best!!!! Much appreciated... I will try that! ~Rowland

[RowlandBTV]

Hi again... okay... now I have the video in... I exported it in dv format from mpegstreamclip... video looks great and I have been having great success in imovie then to idvd created the DVD. Perfect... thank you for all your help.

What I'd like to do now with some of the video is do some additional editing, effects & correct some of the color... I want to use After Effects. The DV file size as you cautioned is 13 plus gigs... I only need several clips of no more then 3 minutes total... I used Quicktime to separate what I need and want to work with it in after effects now. SHOULD I work with the individual files now as they are OR export/ convert it to Quicktime going 720/ 480 or should I use MPEG 4. The final output has to be under 100 mgs and each indivivual file size totals well over a gig and a half. This is for submission to be uploaded to the web for a talent competition. I can use any file format I want via MPEG (.mpg), QuickTime (.mov), AVI (.avi), Windows Media (.wmv), Flash Video (.flv), Real Media (.rm). Obviously I want the best quality for my buck. Any suggestions will be greatly appreciated. Time sensitive... I have to have it uploaded tomorrow any time preferably close of day! Thank you again... ~Rowland

[tomlee59]

The general rule is to perform edits on the highest-quality version possible (that is, as close to the source as you can get). The DV version would be a good choice. Streamclip easily allows you to extract short segments, so you might want to do that first, since all you want to do is create short clips in the end. There's no need in that case to drag around all 13gigs for each and every operation. After you've done your edits, then perform one final conversion to your ultimate delivery format.