DVD ripping INTO FCP
 

Here's a very abridged version of my past week:
My church asked me to pull some video from a movie they had purchased (some America's Funniest Home Videos footage), and I knew of no Mac based programs that did that, nor could I find any at Besy Buy. So, I went with the PC version, and figured I could just save the files on an external and import them to the mac. Well, that went over about as well as BBQ at a bar mitzvah. The audio would never import. 6 hours of converting for nothing. My friend then told me about Handbrake, and it was a free program, so I was excited. Well, I used that, but none of the files I could get from it would open in FCP. Even converting the .avi to .mov in QT wouldn't give me anything. Long question short:

Is there a way to get copywright protected videos into FCP without setting a camera up in front of a TV? I say copywright protected to ensure you I tried logging the footage from the DVD player into the GL2.

Any help would be great!

Use a analog to digital converter. Hook up your DVD player into a converter box (Wal-mart for about $25, I have a Canopus ADVC 110) and the box into your firewire port. Change the Easy Setup to recognize the converter and then open up the capture window. You'll probably have to use Capture Now and then hit play on the DVD player. This should capture it right into your timeline.

That being said, respect copywrite. We all loose when piracy happens...

Thou shall not steal...I'm sorry isn't that 1 of the 10 commandments?
How ironic that a church would ask you to do such a thing.
We really don't condone that sort of thing on this board.

Please don't misunderstand, they purchased the videos to be played at church, and the company was fine with it, it's just that they need certain sections only, and they don't want to have to play the entire video to have that part. Is this still considered piracy? I know there's fine lines, and the last thing I want to do is get anyone in trouble.

Also, I checked into that, and I'm not finding it for $25. Walmart doesn't carry it (online, at least), and the chops that do are selling it for just under $300.

Yes the Canopus ADVC 110 is going to be $300, but you can get other analog to digital converters for about $25 on up to $1000s. Just goto the electronics section of the store or your local Circuit City / Best Buy and ask for an analog to digital converter. The simple explanation for the salesperson that helps you out would be to say that it is for getting old VHS or Hi8 camcorder tapes into your computer.

If this is going to be a regular part of your presentations then I would recommend getting a higher end mode, like the 110. But if this is a once or a couple of times thing, then you could probably get away with a less expensive model, like the ones they sell at local retailers. One of the major differences for the price is that as you get more expensive, the circuitry for keeping the audio in sync with the video gets better - FYI. Hope this helps...

Kevin

Alex:

1-Mac The Ripper to pull the contents of the DVD onto your hard drive

2-MPEGSTREAMCLIP to then take the VOB you need from the drive, and convert to Quicktime DV.

Not the fastest process, but it's not too bad either.

Or even simpler, get the program DVDxDV, it's great and simple to use.

Compusa has its own brand name analog to digital converter for 49.95. The 25 dollar one is also at Compusa but in the software section. There is also a good one for PC and Mac that sits on your table about the size of a router that's 199 but it works very well.

The commercial program Cinematize also works well for this.

Wow, thanks guys. I'll definitely check into these.

You mentioned that you went the PC route so I recommend either...

DVD2AVI > quicktime

DVDShrink > VOB > MPEGStreamclip

Both only available for windows.

I guess I never thought of the Quicktime conversion BEFORE transfering to the mac.