How to Sony DVD 100 to FCPE

[rhmarkuson]

I have some video shot on a new Sony DVD cam that I would like to edit in FCP express. What is the easiest (or best) way to get this footage into my Mac (a G5)

[tgpo]

DVD Cam? You mean one of those new ones that record directly to DVD?

[rhmarkuson]

Yes a DVD 100 - has a USB 2.0 port but no FW. iMovie does not recognize the camera and both Apple and Sony says they are incompatible but I know there must be some way to do it.

[tgpo]

Do the DVDs mount?

[rhmarkuson]

Yes and no. Before it is "finished" it does not mount under the finder. After the disk is "finished" by the camera, it auto launches DVD player and the clips show up as a menu in player.

[tgpo]

How about finishing the DVD, rip it on to your computer, edit it, then reauthor.

[rhmarkuson]

Pardon my ignorance but what do I use to rip it?

[tgpo]

Oh, you're running Panther......hmmm....

All the rippers seem to have problems with Panther, but sometimes they work.

The two main rippers are osEx and DVDBackup. I'd suggest osEx.

[galactica]

Im running panther and have NO problems with the rippers

i think it was a 10.3 issue
10.3.1 seems to have cleared whatever it was.....

[MikieV]

How about finishing the DVD, rip it on to your computer, edit it, then reauthor.

Pardon my ignorance but why do you need to "rip" a non-copy-protected, non-commercial DVD

Can't you just quit DVD player, drag the files to your hard-drive, and then de-mux the ".vob" file(s) to get the elemental streams?

WARNING: I've been lurking here long enough, you might think I understand what the above actually means!

I'm one of those people who aswered "I've got questions, they've got answers" to the recent poll - although "making fun of TGPO" was a tempting anwer".

Mike

[tgpo]

If they didn't put any copy protection on the disks, them yes you can just copy them over. I just assumed that they had some form of protection on them, it seemes like everything these days does.

[rhmarkuson]

OK - how, again - pmi, does one "demux" a vob? Unless a Sony camcorder puts copy protection on a home video, there should be none - this was not a "commercial" product. Many thanks to all the suggestions!

[MikieV]

OK - how, again - pmi, does one "demux" a vob?...

Don't you just LOVE all the "jargon" that goes with technology? (or any hobby, for that matter).

Check the web-links at the bottom of Galactica's and TGPO's postings - their web-sites have some good info.

A progam like Serbian's MpegWorks (sp?) should be able to separate ("de-multiplex") to audio and video from the DVD's "Video Object" (.vob) files - and do it on a "drag and drop" basis. There are other options, for the more technically-inclined. (Serbian's program may even do the conversion to QuickTime - but I am not that familiar with the software).

Then, you should be able to import the audio and video into QuickTime Pro (if you have the additional MPEG2 codec - I got mine with DVD Studio Pro 2).

Once it is in QT, FCE can open it - but I don't think FC Express can open the MPEG2 files (compressed format which is used on the DVD) directly.

I am not the person to give you the details, but you've come to the right place.

Good Luck.

Mike

[MikieV]

I did a search on VersionTracker for "mpeg":

Serbian's program is called "MPEG2Works".

Also listed (two pages worth) were other programs often mentioned on this forum: bbDEMUX, DiVA, ffmpegX...

Take a look, read the reviews - take'em for a spin and kick the tires.

EDIT: for a commercial program - checkout Miraizon's Cinematize at http://www.miraizon.com/

Mike[/url]

[pixeljammedia]

As much as I like Myraizon's Cinematize, there is a freeware option that seems to work just fine for me.
1. Use DiVA http://www.versiontracker.com/dyn/moreinfo/macosx/17899 to take the .vob file and transfer it directly to the Quicktime Codec of your choice (I would use DV NTSC 28.97FPS as that works best in FCP)
2.DeMux the vob using BBDemux or Mpeg2Works or FFMPEGX or MissingMPEGTools etc.
3. Take the resulting AC3 and convert it to aiff
4. In FCP Express do an i"mport file" and bring in both files for editing.
5. Chant the words "Owah Dagoo Siam"
6. "There is no step six" <---read in Jeff Goldblum while chuckling voice.

[MikieV]

5. Chant the words "Owah Dagoo Siam"

This is why I have decided my next camcorder will be a DV-format one, vice a DVD-format one. Having to import DV in real-time is frustrating, especially when I have 20-30 tapes sitting around that I eventually want to import and edit, but the "de-compress from DVD -> edit -> re-compress to DVD" workflow just doesn't sound very appealing to me. I'd rather work from DV, where the compression to DVD-format happens just once - in a software program like Apple's Compressor - where I have some options on the quality of the compression, vice having two compressions take place - with the first being the hardware compression in the camcorder.

On the other hand, a program like CaptyDV - which allows trimming DVD-compressed files, and re-arranging their order - would probably work for me, since I don't do anything beyond that in FCE, anyway.

But, someday - I might want to do more than just the simple edits. Although, that is about as likely as me winning the Lottery.

Back on topic - Your Item 3. "Convert the AC3 to aiff"

What do program(s) do you use for that? Inquiring minds want to know!

Mike

[pixeljammedia]

MAC3Dec decodes AC3s to AIFF files, Download it at http://www.versiontracker.com/dyn/moreinfo/macosx/14479 It too is freeware and does the job quite nicely. I've been using it since it was on classic and have never had a problem.
On another point, If you want DV conversion without having to buy a new camcorder think about an analog to DV converter like the ADVC-100, or the one I use, the Sony DVMC-DA2. With that and good shielded cables, the video quality is actually quite nice. I offload most of my old master tapes to an S-VHS vcr this way.

-Ry[/url]