DVD to QT

[a_10]

Quick question.

Which apps can I use to take a clip of a DVD( a couple of seconds) and export it to Quicktime?

Thanks

[havema-1]

DVDxDV can do this with unencrypted DVDs. Another alternative is MPEG Streamclip but it doesn't currently support AC3 audio.

http://www.dvdxdv.com/

http://www.alfanet.it/squared5/mpegstreamclip.html
http://www.apple.com/quicktime/products/mpeg2playback/

[maetel99]

You can also use Cinematize to do this. If you don't need audio, you might be able to do it with just the QuickTime MPEG-2 Playback component and QuickTime Pro.

[havema-1]

> If you don't need audio, you might be able to do it with just the QuickTime MPEG-2 Playback component and QuickTime Pro

This doesn't properly work with PAL because QuickTime Player imitates 4:3 by squeezing 720x576 vertically to 720x540. This seems to affect export to .dv, too, because interlacing lines are distorted.

For NTSC interlacing is preserved because 720x480 is squeezed horizontally to 640x480.

[maetel99]

This doesn't properly work with PAL because QuickTime Player imitates 4:3 by squeezing 720x576 vertically to 720x540. This seems to affect export to .dv, too, because interlacing lines are distorted.

Big deal, just set the frame size to 720x576 when you export. For playback, you can even override QuickTime's adjustment and save it as a movie wrapper. Just do the following steps in QuickTime Pro:

1. Movie > Get Movie Properties
2. On the left popup choose "MPEG Video Track", on the right choose "Size".
3. Click on Adjust and set it to 768 x 576 or whatever you want
4. Click on Done.
5. Choose File > Save As if you want to save the settings for import into iMovie or whatever.

[a_10]

Thanks for the help all and maetel99

The reason I want to do this is so that I can have a movie clip on a loop as my either my screen saver or my desktop so Audio isn't needed

[havema-1]

> just set the frame size to 720x576 when you export

Yes, this preserves the interlacing. But I forgot another issue that seems to plague exporting PAL MPEG to DV:

For some reason in the exported video every other frame is duplicated so the movement is jerky. With NTSC this is not an issue.

[maetel99]

For some reason in the exported video every other frame is duplicated so the movement is jerky. With NTSC this is not an issue.

I believe this happens if you have badly encoded PAL video taken from a progressive source. The field order is reversed, so instead of encoding progressive frames you have one field from each frame combined together. There are some filters out there that can fix this problem.

[a_10]

Ok so I've now been able to find time to try the apps mentioned in the 2'nd (dvdxdv and streamclip) but I can't get them to work.

Now I've not got MPEG-2 Playback component so can I do anything?

Also how long will it take to convert a vob to QT? I let it go for about 10 mins and nothing had appeared on the progress bar in streamclip.

ANy help would be good

Thanks

[TugBoat]

You don't mention your plans for this clip. I'm assuming that you want to import to iMovie. Note that iMovie only deals with 4:3 video and any other aspect will have to have letterboxing added to maintain aspect in iMovie.

First, use Yade X to rip the scene you want to streams. Next use DIVA to convert the m2v stream to DV/DVCPRO-NTSC. Then use mAC3dec to convert the AC3 to WAV or AIFF. You should be able to drag and drop the converted AV files into iMovie.

If you want something other than DV video, you can open the m2v with ffmpegX, select the appropriate preset, go to the 'Audio' Tab, choose 'Add audio', and point it to the AC3 or WAV file. You will get a complete movie of your clip. Note that I had problems with ffmpegX's new DV mode using 16:9 video, which is why I don't recommend ffmpegX for DV at this time.

Cheers
8)