How to create a 'Demo DVD' with iMovie and iDVD

[fenechy]

Hi there. I am on a mission to compile a Demo DVD containing a number of scenes from different movies so that I can demo home cinema equipment. Rather than fumbling through each DVD and trying to find the best scene.

I would like to end up with a DVD menu system that allows me to navigate to selected scenes from different movies as well as to access separate music tracks with still images showing during the audio playback.

So far I have managed the following steps.
1. I have ripped the desired scenes with Mac the Ripper.
2. I have converted the VOB's into AVI's with DiVA and have selected "None" under compression options so that quality is unaffected.
3. I have imported the AVI to iMovie.
4. I have recorded the movie's audio in stereo using Audio Hijack Pro and have added that to iMovie too.
5. I have pulled the iMovie project together with chapters and scene transitions and exported it to iDVD and I have managed to maintain the correct aspect ratio throughout resulting in a widescreen iDVD project.

The whole thing fails though because I need to have the movie Audio in the same format as if playing the DVD (i.e. DTS or 5.1 or whatever).

Am I going about this the right way or should I be trying something completely different and how can I get that 5.1 audio?

[rumplestiltskin]

Probably something in ffmpegX will help. You'll first have to rip the DVDs to your hard drive.

Possibly mpeg streamclip may work for this, as well as ffmpegX

[terryj]

This would be easily accomplished using Apple's Production Suite bundle,
alas, with iMovie and iDVD I can't begin to fanthom how you can pull this off.

What about simply cutting out the iLife suite,
and using Toast 7?

Rip your scenes with MTR.

Process your scenes with MpegStreamclip to uncompressed .avi
files, with the audio you prefer.

drag and drop these avis onto Toast 7's "DVD-Video" tab, and
choose a template, and then burn.

[Case]

Process your scenes with MpegStreamclip to uncompressed .avi
files, with the audio you prefer.

Wouldn't the Save as MPEG feature be better, as it requires no transcoding?

[terryj]

Yes, but Won't Toast 7 try to reencode if it was too big/deemed not
compatible? Better to let Toast 7 mux and do fit
to disc all in itself ( from avi), rather than risk double compression
(from mpeg)?

[pianoman719]

Here's how I would do the part of the project which involves compiling motion footage from different DVD's. I would do without transitions, since transitions require transcoding, which would lose quality (and also raise the issue of how to keep the 5.1 sound).

- I would use Yade X to rip chapters from the DVD - or if necessary, use Mac The Ripper to rip the whole DVD. I prefer to use Yade X to rip, say, a run of chapters 3-4 into a single .vob file. Yade X lets you preview frames so you can see what you're ripping. But in some cases, you may need to rip the whole DVD to get a good rip. For that I would use Mac The Ripper.

- Assuming you have a .vob from Yade X which contains a run of chapters with more footage than you actually need, open the .vob in MPEG Streamclip 1.7, and choose which audio track you want to keep. (See the built-in help for an explanation of the different audio codes. In many cases, the 5.1 track will be "128 AC3 3/2.") Set in and out points on I-frames, and choose Convert To MPEG.

- Repeat this process to collect clips from different DVDs into a single folder. Make sure the final size of the folder is under 4 GB to be safe (less if you also want to add slideshows).

- Use Toast 7 to create a DVD from the MPEG files. The final DVD should be identical in picture quality to the original DVDs, since there should be no transcoding anywhere along the way. If you chose to keep the 5.1 audio track back in Streamclip, that should be what's on the final DVD.

I don't actually have Toast, but I understand it can do slideshows. For raw material, I would capture some stills from MPEG Streamclip as follows:

- Open one of the MPEG files containing highlights. Look for still frames you like, and choose Export Frame from the file menu. I suggest these settings:

Frame Size: Either 4:3 or 16:9, depending on whether the source footage is 4:3 or 16:9

Pixel Aspect: Industry Standard (for TV viewing)

Deinterlace video (so your stills don't flicker on the TV screen)

Once you have a folder of stills, you should be able to use Toast to create a slideshow with music.

Since you're still trying out these methods, I wouldn't do the whole project. I would start out by ripping two short segments from two DVDs, and capturing just a few stills. Then do a short test project in Toast 7 and see if you can get the MPEGs and a slideshow onto one DVD, and if the final result meets your needs. If you want nicer menus and more control over chapters, you can try Capty DVD.

Note 1: It's possible Toast will like it better if instead of Convert To MPEG, you use Convert To Headed MPEG, or even Demux To Headed M2V and AC3. The latter will give you separate video and audio files which Toast will remultiplex.

Note 2: If Toast 7 wants to re-encode your MPEGs, you may be able to prevent this by following these instructions by Frobozz:

"Click the More button on the bottom left and then choose the Encoding tab and then the Custom button. Where you see Reencoding, choose Never."

Note 3: If you need more control over your slideshows than Toast gives you, you can try doing them in iMovie. This should allow you to set the duration of each still image you import, and choose different transitions between different stills. However, there have been complaints that some versions of iMovie don't render out good quality stills. Here too, a small test project will tell you if you can get acceptable results. Questions about doing slideshows in iMovie would probably be a new topic.

Note 4: People who don't have the commercial app Toast 7 can do a "quick and dirty" highlights DVD by using Sizzle 0.1, downloadable here:

http://www.thefridgeowl.com/sizzle/sizzle0.1.dmg

Two key points:

- With Sizzle 0.1, you must use clips which are the same format, i.e., all 16:9, film rate, with AC3 sound; or all 4:3, video rate, with MP2 sound, etc.

- Sizzle 0.1 works best with separate streams, so after opening a .vob in Streamclip and setting in/out points, choose Demux to M2V and AC3 (or whatever the audio format is.)

-Pianoman