Convert small clips from Set-top DVD+R to CD-R avi or mpg ?

[joisey]

My wife lectures at a university and uses TV commercials as examples. We save programs on Tivo, and had been transferring to VHS tape, then feeding the tape to the Video input on our ATI Radeon card, capturing as MPG files, then editing the desired portions with MS Windows Movie Maker. The small clips (30 sec. to 1 min) were then saved as wmv files and incorporated in presentations using PowerPoint or Windows MediaPlayer.
We just acquired a set-top DVD recorder and are burning several hours a week of programs. The actual saved segments are usually 1/2 hour or smaller, so a single dvd disk has 8-20 titles.
We need to convert each title to a file suitable for editing on a PC (avi or wmv or mpg). The eventual output must be saved to a CD-R with separate short files for each commercial, saved as as wmv or mpg so that we can be sure whatever computer we display it on will be able to play it. (almost any windows computer has Media Player) .
Since the lecture hall computer is set up for projection on a large screen, we would like the output to be in maximum DVD quality resolution and 29fps with good audio lip synch.
Since we are dealing with many small files, the process hopefully should not have a lot of steps.
Can anyone help, I would hate to have to use the brute force solution of playing the whole DVD in a window and using streaming screen capture software.
Thanx........joisey

[Cobra]

OK, I'm afraid this might get a little complicated.

Get a hold of DVD Decryptor. Use this to rip the title you want to get the adverts out of.

Next, open up the video files in DVD2AVI. You'll see a slider at the bottom. Find the start of an advert you want, and press the "[" button. Get to the end, and press the "]" button. This selects the advert only for output. Go to File and Save as AVI. Select the output destination and hit Save.

A box will pop up. You can select and configure your compression here. I would use DivX one-pass quality based as this will maintain high quality, like you need. Play with these settings to balance size and quality.

The final file can be played back on the machine you use in lectures using this codec:

https://www.videohelp.com/tools?tool=444#comments

There are other ways to convert this to AVI, but I think this is simplest for you just now. I like Gordian Knot, but as you rightly say it's a lot of steps for a small segment.

With regards to being able to play it on any computer, why not burn the DivX Lite installer onto the CD the files are on? It's just the decoder, nothing else (so it's a small file, too). This codec allows Windows Media Player to play back the files you have made.

I hope this helps. It certainly feels good to know more about at least something than the all-powerful lecturer! :P

CobraDMX