Capturing DVD off comp with DV camera, possible? URGENT !!!

[mplutodh1]

I am working on a school project and we want to use some clips from some DVD's in our video. We are having problems with hardware issues on trying to copy the video onto the computer. We only need a few mins of footage on each DVD.

Is it possible to play a DVD on a Macintosh G3(i think thats what it is) lap top and hook it up to a DV camera with a firewire and record the footage? Is there an easier way? we dont want to rip because we dont have the hard drive space on the computer we are using for the video creation. Plus as I said we only want a few mins of the movie not the entire 2 hr multi-gig files.

This is very urgent to our project because it is for an end of the year video that will take us several weeks to complete. The sooner the better. Thank you in advance for any help and suggestions.

-Mplutodh1

[bugster]

AFAIK it cant be done that way, sorry. Probably your best bet would be to use some form of TV out if it is available. This could then be hooked up to the analog in of your DV cam or any other video recording device (VCR, another comp with analog capture etc) and capture your clips that way.

[burned_once]

Almost anything you try will be defeated by macrovision, unless you care to aim your camera at a screen. You can get around this by finding a standalone DVD player that doesn't have macrovision copy protection, or one you can hack to defeat it (extensive info about players on this very site!), but unless you already have one it won't be quick.

In general, MPAA's army of litigators keeps manufacturers from releasing products that allow DVDs to be copied. This applies equally to standalones, software, and video cards.

If you want to go beyond the confines of DMCA as imposed by these parties, you'll need to rip. Just pick a ripper that supports decss or some other decryption, source range (so you can tell it where to start and stop), and 4:1 resize (turn 720x480 into 320x240 to limit the size of the files). Confine yourself to fair uses of the ripped material (don't make copies, don't share data, etc.) and you should be safe enough.