Question re: ripping then editing an exisiting DVD
 

Can a non-copy-protected DVD be ripped into something that can be edited? (This is not meant to spark a legal discussion; more on the workflow of accomplishing it).

I've been asked to extract minute-long excerpts from an approx. hour-long DVD that was "created on a Mac" (that's all I know, maybe using FCP, maybe not) that could then be editable for inclusion on a web site.

I've been under the impression that a privately made DVD can somehow be made into an MPEG file, and that MPEG file could then be edited to extract excerpts from it. Am I correct or mistaken?

If correct, how can I do that? I have the full Adobe Production Suite. What other tools would I need to accomplish this? What are the basic steps involved?

All suggestions are welcome.

You should be able actual view the contents of the disc and navigate to the video file folder, and see the .vob files on it. If you have a large DVD, you will have several .vob files that carry the content. The .vobs are usually just under a gig max size, if I recall right.

There is freeware to rip DVDs available on net, just do a Google search.

There are also conversion programs to convert .vob files to editable files.

I have heard some say if you can transfer the the .vob file to your hard drive, you will be able to change its extension to .mpg and do a straight edit. I do not know that for a fact, so if you can get to the directory, and copy the file to your hard drive, try that first.

Thanks, Chris
 

You've provided some hope that I might be able to satisfy a potential new client. I'll do my homeowrk and check out your suggestions.

Dvd > Dv
 

I had a similar problem with a project recently worked on. The solution wasn't as easy as i'd hoped (DVD is actually quite a frustrating format!). Infact I found far more software to rip copy protected DVDs that non-protected... what does that tell you!

Anyhoo this may be of some help http://www.dvdxdv.com/ its not free ware but its cheap, and it works!

Jim

I do this all the time, especially since many of my customers want their smaller camera shot dvd's edited.

The simpliest solution is to just capture the dvd footage just like you would a vhs tape. If the dvd's are non-copyright, then there should be no "block" from outputting from your dvd palyer to you capture card.

DVD can be reverse engineered , but you need some tools and a good knowledge of the structure of a DVD (cell, VTS, PGC etc....).

I checked my suggestion out on Vegas 7 just now. I had a DVD disk image on my computer. I copied one of the .vob files from it, and changed the extension to .mpg. I then started Vegas7 and pulled it into the time line. I worked on the time line. I didn't try any edits from there, but at least I got it that far.

I have Premiere Pro 2.0. Once previously when this topic came up I tried changing the extension of a .vob video file with a Dolby Digital (AC3) audio track to .mpg, and then importing it into Premiere Pro 2.0. It imported fine, and played back with audio on the Timeline without any problems.

I would suggest trying this route first before attempting to convert the .vob (MPEG-2) file to another format, or capturing the video feed from a DVD player. Not only will it be faster, but the quality will be better.

Yeap. I just took that same file, converted by merely changing the file extension, into Premiere Pro 2.0 also. Same effect. I attempted minor editing, and it worked.

It really depends on what you need to do with the extracted video. If you have to further edit it in your NLE, then you will have to decompress it back to .avi - editing and recompressing to put it on another DVD will come at the price of loosing quality. If you don't need editing, there is free software out there to mark your in an out point and it will extract the part you need with GOP accuracy.

Just Google for MPEG Streamclip. Save as mpeg and import that into your DVD authoring tool - voila, all done without decompressing and recompressing... no quality loss.

Oh if onle streamclip worked as well as you make out!

I had a lot of difficulty with it! Especially with audio sync. I'm sure there are workarounds (a few I tried but it all got quite tedious but maybe I was just being an idiot), the only system that I found that seemed to do a half decent jobwas DVDxDV.