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DVD to DVD editing on PC or Mac


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What's the golden road to sucking scenes off a collection of miniDVDs, assembling them into a single movie, then burning it to a regular-sized DVD?

 

I've got a Sony vidcam that records onto mini DVDs. We've made dozens of these 30-minute mini DVDs over the last couple years. But only a parent could watch one from start to finish. No outside person could stand to see yet another shot of a baby gurgling or the dogs at the jikka. This pile of DVDs can all be edited down to a single short flick for family and friends abroad.

 

But I can't seem to find any easy way on either a Mac or a PC to grab scenes from a mini DVD.

 

I can hook up my vidcam via USB or firewire, but this is a clumsy way to do it. The setups I've seen want me to copy the entire DVD to my HD. If I do that, then the editing software can't open it up or select scenes. And I don't want to copy the entire stack of 30-minute miniDVDs, only to take 15 or 60 seconds off each for the final cut.

 

Also, the DVD editing software that came with my new MacBook doesn't seem to allow for sucking video off DVDs. Maybe this is a copyright protection goof, but let's face it, these miniDVDs are mine and I own the content. Shouldn't I be able to pop in the source DVD, copy only the scenes I want, then assemble/edit them into a single flick and burn it to a blank DVD?

 

I can think of a few ways and workarounds to do what I want, but it all just seems so kludgy.

 

Is there a way I can put a series of miniDVDs into the DVD drive, use editing software to pull off the scene or scenes I want, then burn the final product to a regular DVD?

 

Do I have to spend $$$ to get "Final Cut Pro" or the PC equivalent? Say it ain't so. What are people using to do this?

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this is why dvd camcorders suck.

 

I have a pc but it should work the same. If you can get your camera to play a minidvd while it's hooked up to your computer via firewire, then in the editing software you should be able to get to the spot you want and only capture that scene. If this is not possible, then you will have to rip the entire dvd to your hard disk into the mac equivalent of an avi file, chuck that in your video editor, do your cuts & deletes and then render it to a new file. repeat until you have all your files done and then go back and edit them together with music etc.

I hope you have a powerful computer because if not you'll probably crash it with a 30min video file in your video editor.

You should be able to do it with imovie

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Thanks, Kpix. I guess this confirms what I found. It's not enough to simply connect a device that can play the source miniDVD (or put it in the computer's optical drive). None of iDVD, iMovie, Roxio's latest PC DVD suite or another one I tried on a trial version will edit from source this way. You first have to transcode or convert the ENTIRE DVD file into another format, then you can start editing. The conversion part is always some clunky add-on or command-line type process that doesn't always work right and takes a long time. It's just too much fiddling for this to be an easy or regular, let alone fun, pasttime.

 

Additional annoyance:

Slot-type CD/DVD drives, such as on MacBooks, don't take miniDVDs. You need a tray-type drive for this.

 

I love the vidcam and the miniDVDs are so easy to burn copies of, but the editing part truly sucks.

 

This would be the case for editing from any DVD, not just vidcam-made ones. So I am hoping that an easier software solution is out there, or will be soon.

 

As for crashing with 30 min. video files, is that right? If so, I better just drop this and come back in 5 years. That, or buy a dual-processor machine and Final Cut Pro. If I end up making 5 DVDs, it will work out to maybe $1500 per DVD. That's Hollywood I guess.

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Another possible workaround would be to train the baby to gurgle in all its most fetching variations and induce the dogs to behave photogenically using Pavlovian psychology and then record them interacting intensively for 30 minutes. That should probably satisfy everybody.

 

Screw DVD technology. It obviously isn't there yet.

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Can't you just connect the vid cam with the dvd in it and take what you need using iMovie?

Then export it any way you want ie. iDvd, quicktime etc.

If you want to rip the whole thing, try mactheripper and import it into imovie and got from there..

as for PC'z, I have NO idea.

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I haven't looked at this stuff in a while so I'm a bit rusty. Dvd's can't be edited (ie captured while they are in the dvd drive because they are mpeg2. You need to convert that to a file your computer can read. What you need to do is find a dvd ripper. There used to be free ones on the net. dvd decrypter was a great one but was taken out by sony I believe. Once you rip it, you can then edit it and then delete the rip straight away. 30min files on your harddrive are not a guaranteed crash. Just turn off all programs you have running. ie anti-virus progs.

 

Check what came with your camcorder - there should be software included that lets you transfer your files to computer. It seems really stupid to sell cameras that output non-editable footage

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I just finished doing a similar thing myself. I converted about a 1000 hours of kids stuff from VHS onto my Mac.

I borrowed my brothers camera that has a AV in function to convert the video. Maybe this would work with your DVD camera.?????

TIP. If you try this, make sure you have a tape inserted in the ' middle ' converting camera and it's wound to the end.

 

Failing that try These guys. What they don't know about Macs and DVD's isn't worth knowing.

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Yeah, as Kumapix noted, iMovie can't grab scenes off the DVD camera even when its plugged in.

 

I will have to figure out how to import the source DVD from vidcam into the computer. I thought it would be simple, but after 30 pages of user manual and dozens of screenshots and choices and acronyms, I gave up. I couldn't figure it out. I thought it would be simple, but it isn't.

 

In addition to weird and unexpected complexity, it seemed that each DVD would take the full 30 minutes to download...there is no "4x" or "8x" type speedup involved. With over 25 of these 30-minute DVDs, we are talking 12+ solid hours of downloading, all done piecemeal. Talk about a major project.

 

At my house you only get 15-30 minutes to handle something before my toddler comes up and sweep you away. I had expected to be able to quickly rip then edit with a few clicks, but it is just not so.

 

Seems like these are my choices:

 

1.

Get a 3rd party ripping program, rip the mini DVDs to my PC (the MacBook DVD drive doesn't accept miniDVDs) in some friendly portable format, then put that file into the Mac and use iMovie to edit it.

 

2.

Screw it and get on with my life. DVD editing clearly just isn't ready yet. It's not worth the hassle considering the small benefit of succeeding. This is basically Ocean's recommendation and I like it a lot. At worst I can just burn quick copies of the miniDVDs then send them to the rellies. They can apply their thumbs to their remote control's "fast forward" button far more efficiently than I can make a highlight DVD.

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Well, thanks to Mantas's link to the Apple support forums, I found there are two products that supposedly make what I am doing simple. The cheaper one is DVDxDV. You put in the DVD, select the footage you want, and it converts it to a Quicktime file, which iMovie loves. Of course there is a quality loss, but for home movies of babies vomiting, dragging themselves across the floor on elbows like auto crash victims trying to escape the wreck, and the odd shot of Mogski embracing a shrub at downhill speed, this ought to do the trick. DVDxDX has a 30-day free trial and it costs $20 to keep. I'll give this a try and report back.

 

The lesson I learned here is that DVD is intended to be a "delivery format" only, it is not designed for editing. Something to consider when buying a vidcam.

 

Seems iMovie is pretty much designed to edit from the tape-style vidcams. I think the next wave is vidcams with flash or hard drives, which would probably be nice to have.

 

I do like the mini DVDs though. Easy to pop into the DVD player or take on a trip, and easy to copy and mail. Oh well.

 

Thanks everyone for the tips and advice.

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 Quote:
Originally posted by badmigraine:


The lesson I learned here is that DVD is intended to be a "delivery format" only, it is not designed for editing. Something to consider when buying a vidcam.

.
Yer I bought a camera a couple of weeks ago, it was the cheapest one in the cabinet, tape style. Sometimes simple is good.
That's why my wife married me. \:o
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 Quote:
Originally posted by badmigraine:
I think the next wave is vidcams with flash or hard drives, which would probably be nice to have.
Next wave of gimmicks you mean. When in doubt look at what's in the pro line, or even in the prosumer line. This is for hardcore users so they only use the best proven tech. Right now it's still mini-dv tapes.
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 Quote:
Originally posted by Kumapix:
Next wave of gimmicks you mean. When in doubt look at what's in the pro line, or even in the prosumer line. This is for hardcore users so they only use the best proven tech. Right now it's still mini-dv tapes.
Hate to sound like Ice T but, Word up man, U couldn't have said it any better!
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Last night I downloaded trial versions of both DVDxDV ($20) and Cinematize ($129). Here's the report.

 

DVDxDV

DVDxDV is for Macs only. I downloaded and installed it into my MacBook with no trouble. The MacBook slot loader can't take miniDVDs, so I had to use my PC to make a regular-sized copy of the source miniDVD using Roxio DVD Suite. Then, on my MacBook, I started up DVDxDV and inserted the DVD. The program opened the DVD with no trouble, but the audio and video tracks were out of synch. The built-in and online help menus suggested this was a bug in previous versions that has now been fixed, yet I still had the problem in the latest version. The help menu suggested I select "de-interlace" as this sometimes fixes out-of-synch audio/video. I tried this but it didn't work.

 

I went ahead and selected a segment and saved it in Quicktime format (the only choice available) to my desktop. Then I tried to open it with iMovie, but iMovie could not open it. iMovie gave an error message saying something like "unable to open file".

 

I fiddled for half an hour and tried various things, but I could not make this program work. It's a shame because the user interface is clean, operations are simple and the price is cheap. Maybe it would work with some other DVDs, but it didn't work with mine.

 

 

Cinematize

Cinematize is available for both Mac and PC. I downloaded the PC version, since my PC DVD drives accept miniDVDs (unlike the MacBook). Having Cinematize on my PC saves me the step of having to copy the source miniDVD to a regular-size DVD for MacBook use.

 

I downloaded and installed the program with no trouble. It recognized the source DVD. The user interface is clean but far less intuitive than that of DVDxDV. I had to spend 10 minutes reading the Help menu manual, then during operation, had to constantly check back to make sure I was doing the right thing. The basic version feels almost like a "Pro" version. I felt lost in a sea of video and audio acronyms, formats, ratios, codecs and technical choices explained to clarify their differences from each other, but with no indication why a person would want to do one or the other. You kind of have to be an AV head beforehand I guess, and I am not, though I learned a lot and next time could do it all much quicker.

 

Eventually, I muddled through and successfully marked and selected a segment and saved it to Quicktime format. This program will also save in over a dozen other formats, including for iPod.

 

Then I saved the resulting 3 files (a video file, an audio file, and an envelope file) to a USB memory stick and transferred them to my MacBook's desktop. iMovie was able to open and edit them with no trouble. This program works for me.

 

 

Conclusion:

Cinematize is rather expensive, but it might be worth it if I am really going to edit these miniDVD home movies. It's a shame that DVDxDV didn't work for me, it's so much easier to use. I'll play with it some more to see if I can figure out what is wrong.

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Ocean, mogski is a rather large, near-albino form of Kiwi who sleeps passed out next to toilets, once swore that rear-entry boots were the best he's ever had, and who even used a dental mirror to look under a door at someone who was undressed.

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 Quote:
Originally posted by badmigraine:
Ocean, mogski is a rather large, near-albino form of Kiwi who sleeps passed out next to toilets, once swore that rear-entry boots were the best he's ever had, and who even used a dental mirror to look under a door at someone who was undressed.
AKA Brad
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