Easiest way to save an excerpt from DVD to MP4?

[sdsumike619]

I have a bunch of DVDs that I need to make some product samples from. Is there a tool out there that will simply let me mark in and mark out the section I want, and then let me save it to a 640x480 MP4? If not, what would be the easiest (least amount of steps) way to get this project done? The DVDs audio is AC3.

[poisondeathray]

If I were to do this task:

1) Rip the DVD if retail/copy protected with DVD Fab (or DVD Fab HD Decrypter)

2) Avidemux to mark in/mark out, resize to 640x480, and encode to .mp4 (you can use x264 or xvid video, aac or mp3 audio, or several other options)

[sdsumike619]

I don't want to rip the whole DVD. I just need to get 1 or 2 minute samples. I'm looking in the DVD to MP4 tools list now for something...

[poisondeathray]

If it's not copy protected, you can use mpg2cut2 to cut sections out of vob's. Then feed these .mpg segments into any encoder (e.g. ripbot264, xvid4psp, megui). You could even open a vob segment directly in avidemux, resize, encode (1 tool instead of 2)

If it's copy protected, chances are you have to rip the whole dvd first, or the segment might come out looking funny /distorted

[sdsumike619]

No they're not copy protected DVDs. They're our learning products that we sell and I just want to make some sample videos for the product pages on the website. If I use mpg2cut2 to cut a section out, is the cut out section audio saved as WAV or is it still in AC-3 format? If it's not AC3, then I can just take the section and drop it onto a Vegas timeline, correct?

[poisondeathray]

mpg2cut2 is limited to cutting at the gop level on keyframes (not frame accurate), but that's what you get for free.

videoredo can cut on exact frames.

Both do not re-encode (original audio & video preserved), except the few frames around the cutsite for videoredo if not on an exact keyframe

Vegas sometimes has issues with AC3 depending on your setup

[sdsumike619]

I've never been able to import AC3 onto a Vegas timeline. Have you?

[sdsumike619]

Handbrake looks like it might work!