Making a DVD music video compilation

[casper44]

Hi,

I'm interested in making a DVD music video compilation (from my own collection of music DVD's) but being new to all this, I'm not particularly sure the best way to go about it. I'd be really grateful if some kind soul could talk me through the processes involved, best software to use etc.

For the record, I've got a 12" PB G4 Rev C with superdrive, running 10.3.5.

Thanks in advance,


Casper

[tgpo]

Best and Easyest:
Rip with YadeX
Author with DVD Studio Pro
Burn with Toast

[casper44]

Do I really need a $500 piece of software for this?

I've got MTR which I thought should be ok, but for some reason it's only extracted the vob files and not the audio. How do I rip both the video and audio together - or is that not how it's done? (Am I right in thinking I should have both a video_ts file and an audio_ts file?)

Also, is there a FAQ somewhere that has a glossary of the various terms and file types? That would be a help. I've had a look through the Mac OS FAQ's but can't see anything which seems to apply.

Apologies for being so clueless but this is all completely new to me. Thanks for your reply, tgpo, but I think I'm gonna need more of a brief step-by-step guide if possible?

Thanks for your help,

Casper

[sdm]

Also, is there a FAQ somewhere that has a glossary of the various terms and file types? That would be a help. I've had a look through the Mac OS FAQ's but can't see anything which seems to apply.

There is a glossary on this site. look on the left had side.

I don't own any music dvds, so I may not help too much.

But normal dvds only have info in the video_ts folders. - audio is part of the vob file.

Once you rip, you'll need to look at your VOBs .. to get your content organized. (vlc or Quicktime with mpeg2 component)

If you go the Quicktime route, you could download and learn to use 'mpeg streamclip' to chop up your vobs if necessary.

then you can download and learn to use 'Sizzle' to author your compilation dvd.

Burn your dvd with 'Toast;

I haven't been very thorough, but hopefully this can get you started.

good luck.

--sdm

[willrob]

I did this very thing recently, but not with the greatest success. I used Yade to extract the songs from various DVDs, which gives one a video and audio file for each vob. The audio file needed to be converted (Sound Hack is what I used) so that I could combine the two pieces in Quicktime Pro.

i then assembled the exported dv clips in Final Cut Pro. You could also do this in iMovie. I then gave the songs a Chapter Marker which had the names of the songs. When I imported the finished film into iDVD, the chapter menu was automatically created with the song names. I had the option to play all and navigate with the chapter button, or to select an individual song.

When I said earlier that I didn't have the greatest success, this is what I did wrong: First, in FCP I should have adjusted the sound level on all the songs so they played at the same volumn—I find some songs play quieter than others. Second, I ended up with a project that is 1 hour and 52 minutes long. I should have made two one hour discs—iDVD's compression on rapidly moving scenes produces pixelation, especially on long films. Studio pro would have made a better quality disk, or perhaps I could haver used Compresor from FCP and then burned the disk in Toast. I might have been limited to simply playing all, but would I think still be able to move from chapter to chapter.

[casper44]

Thanks for the heads up on the glossary, sdm - don't know how I missed it!

I've ripped a couple of tracks so far with MTR, which has given me a VOB file (BANDNAME_SCN) for each track in its own VIDEO_TS folder. When I play the VOB file with VLC, I'm not getting any audio. The video looks fine but there's no sound (yes, I have got the volume turned up!).

Any ideas why there's no audio and how to rectify it?

Btw, I also tried yadeX and got the same results.

I know its probably something simple but I just can't figure it out.

Thanks again for your help.


Casper

[willrob]

>>I've ripped a couple of tracks so far with MTR, which has given me a VOB file (BANDNAME_SCN) for each track in its own VIDEO_TS folder. ...
Btw, I also tried yadeX and got the same results.
<<

I'm not familiar with the SCN file format. It's possible that the disk in question using a sound format that quicktime and VLC don't support. When I use YadeX, it gives me a video file and an audio file (which I translate with Audio Hack to a format that can be combined easily with the video in QTPro—this step isn't necessary, really; one can combine both files in toast automatically without the conversion; but I wanted to burn in iDVD)

So if YadeX isn't giving you a seperate sound file you need to check your preferences to make sure you sasked it to.

[BernieR]

How about rip with MTR. Then pull out the chapters you want with Cinematize. then combine in imovie and burn (in toast if necessary)?

Bernie

[casper44]

Man, this is a giant headache! The more I try to get things right, the more confusing it seems. I've tried ripping umpteen different tracks from 4 different music dvd's (both with MTR & yade), 2 of which have ripped successully i.e. both video & audio, and the others which I only have video for, no sound.

MTR is a hassle to use because you have to guess which is the correct chapter number, whereas yade has a preview screen which makes it easy to select the right one. (I'm sure MTR would be fine for ripping a whole movie but for individual tracks it's not the easiest.)

I've had more success with yade X, but only just. The confusing thing is that although it gives you both an audio_ts and a video_ts folder, the audio folder is blank/empty (or so it appears). But the 2 tracks that I ripped successfully were from a dvd whose audio file was supposedy blank!

The only explanation I can see is that some music dvd's have compatible sound files and some don't. This doesn't make sense to me, though. Surely if an audio track exists at all, it's copyable?

I'm severely pissed off that I can't get this to work, and I'm sure there has to be a simple solution out there that I haven't figured out yet.

Thanks everyone for your help - any further suggestions would be warmly appreciated. I guess this is what happens when a newbie jumps in at the deep end!


Casper