Lois & Clark Forums Forums General Discussion Technical Help and How To's Any Interest in a Clip Making (from DVD) tutorial?

(Is this the right place for this?)

So, I've been thinking about making a tutorial about how I rip video clips from DVDs and make them AVI files. I'd try to make it as simple as I could, since that's the best way I seem to learn...

The only thing is, I don't know if it would work in Mac computers, or anything nonWindows, or maybe it would but with bigger files? Hmmm...

Well, if there's any interest please let me know! I also found a way to use one of the programs to get individual clips from the larger AVI files, so yay!

Programs that would be in there:

DVDShrink
Virtual Dub
WMP9 VCM Codec

And since the avi files that come from there don't really like to reverse in Sony Vegas (the editor I use) I'd prolly go over DVDx a little bit.

And the good thing is, the video clips would run about 5 MB each, depending on how long the clip is of course, instead of the 50 MB it could using another program...

And the good thing is that the above files mentioned are freeware (I believe?), so yay! All they would cost is a little bit of room on your harddrive.

Okay, I'm rambling now, aren't I?

So yeah, if there's any interest, please let me know! And there are probably easier and even better ways out there, but I'm quite fond of this one, really.

(I'd probably make it even if there seemed to be no interest, but I was just curious...)

Some time ago I did myself a tutorial on another boards on the same subject, but using only one software. One that is free, and the most simple to use know. It's perfect for debutant.

I repost my tutorial here:

Personally, I use Rippack (more options). But I think Fair Use is the most simple one, so I'll explain with Fair Use.

When you open Fair Use, you have that window:


You name your project and you choose a place on your harddrive to save it with the button "browse", and then you click on Next (that's the button "Suivant" on my capture because I'm french), and a new window appear:



You choose your DVd Drive. For me, it's the F:
Then you click on OK, and then a third window open, with the contents of your DVD:



This image can be scary, but don't be afraid. For my exemple, I choose the last DVD of the seacon season of Lois and Clark. I explain what you see on the picture:
- the line with unknown information and the line without information are the menus of the DVD.
- the line selected on the picture is the entire video of the DVD put all together on one file.
- the three lines below are the three episodes of this DVD (as you can see with the duration)
- the last two lines are the special features of the DVD

So, when you're here, you choose what you want to ripp: the entire DVD or only an episode. You select what you want to ripp and you click on "Next" (that's still "suivant" on my pictures), and the program start to extract the .VOB files, etc... on your harddrive (For my exemple, I choose to ripp the special features about the FOLCs). When he do it, you have that window:



and when it's over, you have that window:



As you can see, you have a video preview. The video doesn't play, but it's for you choose to change some settings if you want to. I advice you to let all the settings as the software made them and just click on next. But I explain to you anyway what the settings are:
- the box named "frame range" at the left of the video preview: you can use it to indicate to what frame of the video start the ripp and to what frame of the video end the ripp in case you want only a scene and not all the video. To know precisely the number of the frames, you use the curser just below the movie preview, and the number of the frame of the pictures in the preview is indicated at the right.
- the box named "cropping region": you use that if you don't want to keep the entire image but just a part of the image. You change the coordonate to cut off the part of the image that you don't want.
- the box named "subpicture options" is for the choice of the subtitles.

So, you click on next and you have that window:



the button "Auto Detect" always gives the best results. Then you click on Next, and you have that window:



- The first box is for the video encodings. You choose DivX or Xvid. They are both very good. (Note: you need to have the codecs DivX or Xvid on your computer, of course)
- the second box is for the audio encodings. MP3 is a good choice. My advice, don't touch nothing in the audio box.
- the third box is for the resolution of your video. If you want a precise resolution, you choose here. If not, you let the software's choice.
- at the right of the resolution box, you can choose the size of your video. For an episode of a TV series, 350 Mo is the most common choice. Or if you don't care, you let the software do it automatically, using the space he needs. You can too choose here if you want the ripp into one single video file or more (for a movie split on two CDs for exemple).

You click on next and you have that window:



here, you can choose the language of your video if there is many languages available on your DVD. You click on OK, and then, you're back on the previous window where you can now change the audio settings (but my advice: don't touch it. MP3 is the best), and you click on next,and you hae that window:



The software is coverting your DVD into an .avi file. It can be very long (a few hours), depending of the speed of your computer and th lenght of the video to encode.

If you click on "shutdown computer when done", your computer will automatically go off when the encoding will be finished.

You let the software works without touching to anything else, and when it's done, you have the .avi file of your video on your hardrive, at the place that you choose at the beginning of the process. And you can use that video to make your music videos, or trailers... Good luck !

I don't see why not, Catherine - and Poussin, thanks for sharing your tutorial. It can't hurt to post as many options as possible.

LabRat

Poussin, I have to thank you a thousand times!!! )

I tried to "switch off" the video converting so that I would only get the mp3-audio-information but I didn't found a way to do that...

Do you have any idea how to convert it only to an mp3 so that I might be able to listen to L&C all day whereever I am?

Thanks!

Jana

Sorry I hadn't responded to you before. I just saw your message.

Yes, I know how to do it. I'll prepare another detailed tutorial and I'll post in here. I'll try to do it today.

Okay I've done.

When you open Fair use, you have this window:


You click on the Options button, and you have that window:



You disable the settings "delete intermediate files". That's the first setting on the list, and then you click "Suivant" (or Next if you have installed the english version of the software), and you're back to the first window of this tutorial. You click then on "I Agree", and you do your Ripp tha same way as I explained on my first tutorial. And when it'll be done, the file .mp3 that had been created during the conversion won't be deleted, and you'll be able to use it independently.

What's your trouble with the DivX option. can I help? And what's the problem with installing Xvid? tell me and I could be able to help you.

So, Jana, did it work?

Poussin, I used your very helpful instructions above to rip the Pilot, but, like Jana, it won't play. (I am using the XVid codec.) The audio track is fine, it plays in Windows Media Player without a problem, but the video track won't play in either WMP or Real Player. Any ideas?

Also, the files that came out of the ripping process (eleven!) for this one episode equaled something like 4GB. Does that sound normal to you?

Nope. No ideas. I'm sorry. I really don't know. I use the software often enough, and I never had any trouble with the .avi file I obtain at the end. It's probably a codec problem, but If you have the codec to play Xvid, then I don't know. I NEVER had this problem with Fair use.

I don't remember precisely how Fair Use works with its temporary files, since I always delete them automatically to keeep only the final file I want, but I do know that other ripping software, as Shush for example, create separated video and audio files, and then put them together to have the final file. Look into your temporary files. If you do have separate audio and video files, you can try to put them together yourself. If you don't have separate files, well... i'm sorry, I really don't have any other ideas. I'll think about it, and try to find where the problem come from.

That sounds about right to me. The temporary files take as much place on your hard drive as they does on the DVD. It's more like 2Go for an average episode, but the pilot is a double episode, so 4Go sounds correct. No problem there. As for the eleven files, it's normal too. That is the nimber of files present on the DVD to play the episode. No problem there either.

Well, if I don't succeed to find where the problem come from, I hope someone else will be able to help you.

Lisa, I had this same sort of trouble with a few Smallville episodes I'd downloaded.

Instead of trying Windows Media Player, I instead watched them in my DVD-Rom program, PowerDVD. You might try watching your ripped pilot with that.

Catherine, tutorials are always helpful.

Go ahead and post it, please.

And thanks, Poussin.

MrsMosley, I saw that you posted a video. I'm glad you sorted out the problem you had to play your ripped files. But i'd like to know what the problem was. I still hadn't figured that one out . What did you do? That could help to know if anyone else had the same problem in the future.

You know, I never actually figured out what went wrong there. I just deleted the files and started all over again and the second time it worked, thankfully!

Poussin!

This is awesome, thank you!