film studies project

[tilmazio]

Hi!

I am new here, and I have no clue about video software, so bear with me.

For a film studies project I want to take clips from DVDs to show in a presentation. I have by now used most of the converters recommended on this site, and there is a problem with each and every one of them. With the player of AVC you cannot fast forward and the converted file does not show subtitles, XMedia Recode is not very precise with the times, so clips are longer than I want them to be, Super is blocked by my virus scanner etc.

All I want to do is mark the beginning and the end of a clip that I want to use, choose the subtitle and the audio track, and save/export it as a avi file from the DVD with an image quality that is equal to that of the DVD. That can´t be so difficult, right? Maybe my approach with the converters is wrong? Please help me out.

Thanks.
T.

[manono]

All I want to do is mark the beginning and the end of a clip that I want to use, choose the subtitle and the audio track, and save/export it as a avi file from the DVD with an image quality that is equal to that of the DVD. That can´t be so difficult, right?

Wrong. It's not just difficult but impossible. How about cutting sections from DVDs and saving them joined together in a new DVD? Will that do?

[Cornucopia]

Not difficult, nor impossible, but you are going about it the wrong way.

Either cut on GOP boundaries (which will only get you roughly to your intended edit points) and concatenate.
Or
Convert to lossless/I-frame lightly compressed (AVI, MOV, or whatever works with your NLE), then edit/cut, then concatenate, then convert to you intended final format.

Scott

[budwzr]

Like mentioned above, do a DOS concatenation of the .VOB files, then render to an all i-frame format, then have at it.

[manono]

Not difficult, nor impossible...

To make an AVI (XviD or DivX, I assume) the same quality as the source DVD? And he's going to get the subs back, already synched with the cut up DVD converted to AVI?

[Cornucopia]

For option #2, bad to assume divx/xvid (that's why I said lossless, etc).And better NLEs will work with syncing subs, throughout the cutting. But again,it's not cut-convert, but convert-cut/edit-convert.

Scott

[budwzr]

Yeah, just pick and choose the subs and burn them in.

[ezcapper]

This avidemux video tutorial might point you in the right direction:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yentvKi_AKk

I'm not sure if subtitles will make it harder, but I would think there is a subtitle tutorial for avidemux also. Choose the audio track in the top menu.

I think I know how to do what you're asking without any quality loss or file size increase, but can't explain it well. (edit: since you will have to hardcode subtitles, there will be loss of quality or file size increase unless you can avoid that somehow) But still is possible using avidemux filter. will have to youtube.

Avidemux can also convert and vobs, joined vobs, or split vobs losslessly to avi, mkv, etc with no file size increase.

vob file is a section of your dvd video

[ezcapper]

maybe choose the right subtitle and audio track in the newest version of vlc and hit the red record button to record your clips. Then use avidemux to join the clips. You will have to google vlc and avidemux videos, but if it works, it is a very simple process, and won't have quality loss or file size increase. I personally cannot get the subtitles to work with avidemux output. VLC will record them and output them, but can't get avidemux to carry them over.

this part below from your post the vlc record button does very well:

All I want to do is mark the beginning and the end of a clip that I want to use, choose the subtitle and the audio track, and save/export it as a avi file from the DVD with an image quality that is equal to that of the DVD. That can´t be so difficult, right? Maybe my approach with the converters is wrong? Please help me out.

[tilmazio]

Thank you all very much for your help. The idea just recording the clips with VLC seemed genius, however in reality what you get is a clip that has the audio first with a black screen and then the video. Very weird. With avidemux I can edit clips and they are in good quality and relatively small. I did not find a way to include the subtitles (hard-coded would be ok), so I guess I have to do without them.

First converting the file and then editing it seems more time-intensive, however I might have to do this with longer clips, where I do need the subtitles.

Btw, I do not want to edit them together, I just need the clips.

Again, thank you so much for your help!

[manono]

For option #2, bad to assume divx/xvid...

Wanna bet? A new member admitting he's new to all this and you suppose he's thinking of anything but XviD or DivX AVI? You know as well as I when rookies mention AVIs they're not thinking of Lagariths or UTs.

My idea is to cut the pieces from the DVD and join them (although he's just said joining isn't necessary), both using DVD Shrink to reauthor them. That way there's no reencoding and (I think) he gets the subs as well. Then afterwards he can do anything he likes with the pieces he's collected. With the reauthored DVD pieces he can even use something as ancient as AutoGK to make an XviD with the subs either 'burned' into the video or external. Once reencoded to a lossy codec (such as XviD or DivX) he won't get "an image quality that is equal to that of the DVD" which was my point from the beginning, but he may get something suitable for his purposes.

[tilmazio]

[Then afterwards he can do anything he likes with the pieces he's collected. With the reauthored DVD pieces he can even use something as ancient as AutoGK to make an XviD with the subs either 'burned' into the video or external. Once reencoded to a lossy codec (such as XviD or DivX) he won't get "an image quality that is equal to that of the DVD" which was my point from the beginning, but he may get something suitable for his purposes.[/QUOTE]

I think people here might have a different idea about image quality than me. I meant viewable, not too different form the original image, not EXACTLY like the DVD.

Thanks for your ideas. DVD Shrink keeps crashing, and now that I started to use AutoGk, it takes forever, like I remember it, and all that for three minutes of the film that I actually need. How can this be so difficult!

If I only could get the recording with VLC to work, that would be the easiest solution....

[tilmazio]

Ok, it turns out that cheesy Freeware program Freemake Video Converter does pretty much exactly, what I wanted to do. I can pick a title from the DVD, the main film or a bonus film or whatever, mark the beginning and the end of the sequence that I need in a player, pick one of the different audio tracks and subtitles and get it encoded as a avi file. The programm is stable, does not crash and works with the latest version of windows. The encoding takes as long as the scene is, which can be quite long, but you can line up a whole bunch of jobs and have the computer do it overnight.

[tilmazio]

On close inspection, in the final avis the sound is not entirely synchronous with the image with this programm! AAaaaaaaaaaargh!

[TreeTops]

Did you see this warning: "NOTE Freemake Video Converter will add a logo to the end for videos longer than 5 minutes."

[tilmazio]

Thanks for pointing that out: I find that neglectable, and you can always cut it out.

[manono]

Thanks for your ideas. DVD Shrink keeps crashing,

Can't help you there without more specific information.

...and now that I started to use AutoGk, it takes forever, like I remember it...

Because you're doing the entire film/DVD, right, and not just a part of it? If there are several sections from the same movie you want, you could let it complete and then cut out the pieces you want. That's pretty easy to accomplish.

Also, I suppose you're running 2 passes in AutoGK. You can speed it up considerably by using the 1-pass target quality-based mode at the default 75%. It'll take a little more than half the time you're getting now. The audio still has to be done and the muxing, but the video encoding takes about half the time. You could also lower the width to 640 from what I think is the default 720.

And you can fix the synch problem with what you have now by adjusting the delay in VDub. Make sure the audio and video are both set for Direct Stream Copy so nothing gets reencoded.

I meant viewable, not too different form the original image, not EXACTLY like the DVD.

I believe 'equal' and 'exactly like' mean pretty much the same thing.

[ezcapper]

Thank you all very much for your help. The idea just recording the clips with VLC seemed genius, however in reality what you get is a clip that has the audio first with a black screen and then the video. Very weird. With avidemux I can edit clips and they are in good quality and relatively small. I did not find a way to include the subtitles (hard-coded would be ok), so I guess I have to do without them.

First converting the file and then editing it seems more time-intensive, however I might have to do this with longer clips, where I do need the subtitles.

Btw, I do not want to edit them together, I just need the clips.

Again, thank you so much for your help!

That problem with vlc is strange to me, I've cut alot of clips with subtitles from that and not had that problem. Avidemux has an option to hardcode the subtitles using video filters -> subtitles, but of course you will have to reincode.

[tilmazio]

[QUOTE=ezcapper;2401823]

That problem with vlc is strange to me, I've cut alot of clips with subtitles from that and not had that problem.

Well, VLC produces a .ts file. I read up on that format on the internet, and the recommendation is to reencode these files in another format. If you have any idea how to produce avi files or something similar with VLC, please let me know.

What I do is, I play the file in question, wait for the scene that I want, and then press the red record button once, wait for the scene to end, and press the red record button again. Maybe that is the problem?

[tilmazio]

Ok, now I know what the problem with VLC was. I used the most recent version. Aparently you need to have version 2.0 to be able to record segments from a DVD. I wonder why this has been taken out of the earlier versions.

Anyway, what I get is a mpg file of reasonable size (26 MB for 30 seconds) that I can include in an open office impress presentation. Under Power Point the file cannot be played.