newbie... need help with file formats, software, etc.

[beamerxl]

ok, here is what i want to do. for an art project i am taking a song (which i already have the MP3 for) and combining it with various movie clips that match the lyrics. all of the movie clips will come from DVDs that i own. i also have a DVD-ROM on my computer, but not a DVD-RW (i plan on hooking my computer up to a projector instead of burning to DVD, so its not a problem). i am fairly computer-savvy but do not know much about video editing. so my questions are:

--what file format(s) should i be using?

--what programs am i going to need to rip the movies off of the DVDs, take out the clips i want, and put the clips back together in order with music?

--is there anything i should know that will save me a lot of time or trouble?

thank you in advance for your help.

[Supreme2k]

Use DVDDecrypter to rip. You can enable streams to rip specific chapters.

For editing (if you're running Windows XP), Movie Maker 2 is a great program for the type of project that you described. Simple wizard and drag 'n drop. Best of all, it's free. My daughter used it to make a great presentation, and she hates doing those things. You can save in uncompressed avi or one of the default Windows formats.

You may want to save the MP3 as a wav file (using Winamp, or any sound editor) to make it easier to work with while editing.

You may also want to convert to SVCD (or VCD, but better quality with the S), then you can burn it to CD-R and play it from a standalone, if it is supported.

[ZippyP.]

I used Womble Mpeg Video Wizard to do something similar to what you want. Rip chapters (as above), import VOB's and trim clips, add transitions and titles, adjust volume on original clips, add new soundtrack and commentary as desired, output as mpeg.

The original mpeg2 video is preserved and you can turn the adjust the original soundtrack down or right off.