DVD rip and digital editing?

[SD_Ryoko]

I want to take some of our guys fights on DVD and make 30 highlight clips like the ones on our site.

So I just bought a LiteOn CD-RW / DVD combo drive.

It works, DVD plays.

So, under my system properties, on the combo drive, it has a pull down box for select region. It also says, you may only change your region 5 times.

I am not understanding all this - My sony DVD player for the entertainment center plays anything you put in it. It has no problem and doesn't require you to choose a 'region'.

So if someone can explain that, I would apreciate it.

I have ULEAD Media Studio Pro trial and Movie Maker (they come together).

When I follow the tutorial on the ulead site, and attempt to capture the DVD, I go to pick the drive and the okay button flashes and is grayed out.

I picked E:\VIDEO_TS just like the tutorial. It won't let me press okay.

Same thing for movie factory.

I downloaded a couple DVD rip programs instead for capturing. Only one works really well, but it saves it to a format that ULEAD can't import or capture!

The other programs are bunk of course.

In summary, I need help with DV capture, ripping, and explenation of system properties. I'm new to DV editing, and I'm kinda lost.

 

[Logical_1]

May wanna check the forums and guides at http://www.doom9.net for info on the ripping. As far as the region code changing, your set top DVD player never asked because it is most likely hard-coded at Region 1 (US) from the factory, whereas the DVD drive isn't hard-coded so they can sell them all over the world and after you have set the region a certain number of times, you can no longer change it.

 

[SD_Ryoko]

Okay. I'm an idiot.

Thats really complicated. All I want is DVD --> MPEG file.

I had a program that did it - ripped from dvd to mpeg. But it crashed a lot, and the quality sucked.

That site has all kinds of software you need, codecs, divx, stuff I don't understand by reading the guide. Not to be pessimist, I just dont want to get that deep into it. I'm not trying to copy a DVD or author them - Just get some team fight clips on the net.

All I want. DVD --> MPEG. This is what I have:
http://www.dvd-ripper.biz/

But its features are much limited.

I registered to ask my question, but it said:
"You are not allowed to post or reply until you have been registered for at least 5 days."

So, I guess I have to wait five days to ask my question. Serious dissapointment. If I had known that, I would not have bothered.

What about this one? I make the dollar, willing to spend cash if the program is solid, doesn't crash, and doesn't look like your watching it through a fish bowl.
http://www.shareup.com/super-dvd-ripper.html

 

[SD_Ryoko]

Okay, some result.

Easy DVD Ripper
This program is cute. But it will only rip the whole DVD. It doesn't allow me to rip segments or chapters. This is a major hinderance, as I just want one persons fight.

1Click DVD copy
Exactly what it says. Only copies a dvd. It can't rip and do other features nicely, so its generally one purpose. Though usefull, not for my application.

1Click DVD Ripper
This seems to be the winner. This program allows me to only rip lengths, chapters, or segments, which is nice. Supports several formats.

HOWEVER, it crashes periodically due to format combinations. ALSO, it does not have defaults for any bitrate, FPS, format, and encoding. You must do it all manually, and research what it should be. Nor does it save your settings. Major downside.

OMG
All in all, this process sucks. A half hour clip, 720x480, mpeg-2 takes about 2.5 hours to rip. If I had known this takes this long, I would have installed everything on a secondary PC, as it consumes the time use of this one. Sigh. Set it up at night, rip it while you sleep. Judging by system resources, the bottleneck is my pentium 1.6. Looks like it may be time to spend some money.

(For those who will post bragging about there CPU, shut up and buy me a better cpu, or don't comment. )

Size?
A decent file size (half hour, 100 megs) produces just acceptable quality. This is still to big. Basically, if you want it less than 100 megs, its going to half to look bad. This is even at 350x240 (not even 720x480). Sad indeed.

It seems like no matter the program I use, I will half to settle for 'almost works'. I'm running out of options.

Errors?
I get a lot of underrun and overrun errors. I'm not sure how to fix it. Program suggests HIGHER bitrate. Odd, if it can't keep up now. Increasing it doesn't seem to fix it.

(Long sigh.....)

720x480 MPEG-2 High qual isn't that great either, and its giant file:

[edit] Yes, I love Ryoko. Shush.

 

[XXXconanXXX]

Have you ever tried using Pro Tools? That's what I use, but it does have rather high requirements.

 

[SD_Ryoko]

Avid Pro Tools does not have the features I am looking for. Or at least, not on that list.

Tsk. Ryoko could kick her ass.