Quick DVD Scene/Fragment of Scene Ripper?

[Nikos]

In the past I have tried and found a simple DVD ripper but have not had any success. It seems there are several programs that can burn entire DVD's onto the computer into some weird format....

But is their any simple program that can RIP selected areas (10 seconds, 3 seconds or whatever area of the DVD I choose)? I have not found one simple program that does this.

Anybody know of one? I want to take portions of many of my DVDs in my collection, and I am real frustrated that I cannot find a program that can do this.

Any help or input on this would be GREATLY appreciated.

Thanks

-Nikos

[guns1inger]

Shrink can do this in reauthor mode. DVD Decrypter can also do it, although not quite as nicely. You cannot rip exactly what you want - you are restricted to cutting on i-frames with most tools, because otherwise they would have to be able to re-encode, which most rippers cannot do.

In shrink, click on reauthor, drag the title across from the righthand to the lefthand pane. Right-click, and choose Set start end point (or similar) and choose the start and end of the section you want to keep. When you are done, hit backup. Shrink will make a compliant DVD structure with just this section in it. Repeat for as many discs as you require. When you are done extracting all the pieces, open Shink again. Open the first extracted section, hit reauthor, and drag the title to the left. Still in reauthor mode, open the next section, and drag, repeat until you have all the pieces in the one disc. Hit backup to produce a single disc with all the highlights in it.

That is about as simple as it gets. If you don't like the output then you are looking at re-authoring with more complicated tools, something you seem to be trying to avoid.

[Nikos]

I just want to find the most efficient method time wise and in terms of creating a high quality file.

Is this the best way?

Thanks

[guns1inger]

This method will give you the sections from the original DVD, so the quality will be 100% identical. It does have one major draw back - every disc becomes a new title on the new disc, which means you don't get seemless playback, and you have a limit as to how many you can string together. But it is quick and simple.

As a general rule, quick and quality don't go together. If you want everything - all the sections, plus smooth playback, etc, then you may have to put a little more effort in.

You also don't say what you want your output to be - DVD, avi file etc ? Each will require different methods as well.

[Nikos]

So there is no program that can simply cut out video similiar to how Soundforge allows you to cut and save audio?

On a lot of my DVD's I want to simply take out some of my favorite fragments of favorite scenes. Is this really not possible with any type of program?

Any help or extra input on this would be great.

I want my output just to be some form of compressed Video/Audio that can later be viewed on my comptuer, and possibly archived on a DVD and later watched on TV. I guess the best form of compression without a large quality loss....which would that be? And is this possible with ANY DVD ?

[guns1inger]

Yes - they are called video editors. In same way that Sound Forge is an audio editor. However you need to understand more about video and what you want to do with it before choosing one.

Programs such as Vegas Movie Studio (or it's big brother, Vegas), or Premiere Elements (and it's big brother, Premiere Pro) can do this easily, but it is not just a matter of grabbing a little bit here and there. You need to get the parts you want to the HDD, then edit them together, then output.

As for compression - again, something you need to learn about and experiment with. Pretty much every compression requires a relatively high-bitrate to maintain the quality of the original. As for archiving - if you want to hold the quality for possible conversion to newer (or as yet unreleased) formats, I would get a large external HDD and store using a lossless codec if possible, or DV if not possible.

[Nikos]

Are there any free programs or cheap programs that allow for this?

When you say you need to get the parts together, then edit, then output -- what do you mean exactly?

Is it not possible simply to cut out the part, then edit it -- and then watch it later on? For example if I have an existing mpeg I can easily edit it with Windows Movie Maker (although it is a limited program) -- I compress it to 2.1mbps and it looks decent on my computer and on playback on a DVD+RW.

I also have Adobe Premeire, and I have used it to edit videos I already had on my computer, but I have never actually ripped snippets/scenes from actual DVD movies.

How can I learn about how to 'get the parts you want to the HDD, then edit them together, then output' as you say?

Any links or more in depth explanation would be greatl.

Maybe I am not making myself clear with what I want, but the basic idea is: I want to cut out my favorite fragments of scenes on my DVD movies/collection using Premeire or any other available program that works like Soundforge/Premeire does for Audio/Video -- but allows me to edit relatively easily.

Later I want to be able to watch these snippets on my hard drive, or possibly put them on a DVD+RW to watch on my HDTV. As of now I don't want to save it in lossless format, I want to save it at a reasonable compression rate. (Even this compression is not important to me right now as the actual capturing of DVD scenes).

Sorry if I repeated myself or have been unclear, but I guess I am finding it hard to explain. Any further help would be greatly appreciated.

[mats.hogberg]

It's a 2 step process.
First, get all your DVD fragments ripped. This can be done with DVDShrink.
Then bring them together using Premiere or other editor.
DVDs can't be treated as files, like you suggest.

/Mats

[Nikos]

How do you rip Fragments using DVDshrink? Isn't it primarily a program that rips entire DVD's? Not fragments?

[guns1inger]

Go into re-author mode, drag the title you want a part of across to the left-hand pane. Right-click on the title and you can set the start and end points of the section you want.

[Seeker47]

How do you rip Fragments using DVDshrink? Isn't it primarily a program that rips entire DVD's? Not fragments?

guns1inger described this in his first reply of this thread. (There is a basic guide here somewhere that covers the same procedure, step by step.) So far, this is the only method I have used for clip extraction, I've done a fair amount of it, and it definitely works. I have mostly done it with DVDs that were pre-ripped first (whole DVD), to take care of copy protections, deliberately introduced errors, etc. These would have been rips using Decrypter, Fab Decrypter, or RipIt4Me. (It's not clear to me whether the clip extraction via Shrink would still work on a heavily Arcos'd disc, or something like that.) As mentioned earlier, the main shortcoming in using Shrink for this extraction ==> compilation (which is otherwise pretty straightforward) is the lack of seamless playback or an organizational menu for the result.

In due course, I would like to advance to fancier methods, though I expect that will take me into DVD authoring territory. I'm wondering if tools like Womble MPEG Wizard or Video Redo might address some of what you are looking for ? Not having used them, I can't say. But they are far from Free !

[Nikos]

It's a 2 step process.
First, get all your DVD fragments ripped. This can be done with DVDShrink.
Then bring them together using Premiere or other editor.
DVDs can't be treated as files, like you suggest.

/Mats

How do you simply bring one fragment/edited scene into Premeire? I have a 7 second clip for example, but I have no clue how to SAVE IT or IMPORT IT into Premeire?

I mean it saved as a VOB file, but how the heck can I do anything with that?

Any help would be awesome!

[Nikos]

I gave it a try and VIDEO RE-DO seems to work well for me. I cut the area I want using DVDShrink, then I use VIDEO Re-DO to save it as an MPEG.

It plays back great with Windows Media Player. But in WinAmp for some reason it plays in slow motion. What is the reason for that?