Video editing

[appalachian_fox]

A friend of mine wants to show a section of a video to an Intro to Climatology class he is teaching. Is there a way (totally on the level, please!) that we can take a section of the DVD-Video and put it into, say, an .mpg file so we don't have to set the DVD up before class starts? We have a DVD player in the classroom, but a simple point-and-double-click solution would be ideal.

 

The budget is $0, and this is not likely to happen often enough to justify an increased budget, so please no commercial applications.

 

We are willing to be creative, but again it all has to be totally legal and relatively simple (we're not willing to jump through a whole lot of hoops here.) Fly, video gurus! Bring me answers!

 

P.S. -- Google returned pretty much only ways to rip copies of commercial DVDs or commercial products to rip video...I did give Google a half-hearted try.

[Guest zerodamage]

First thing I can think of is use DVDShrink to rip it onto your HDD. IT is free and it also compresses the video down to a smaller size. You will then have the movie in MPG files on your HDD where ever you did the backup of your dvd to.

 

Then do a search for TMPGenc to edit the scene you want and to encode.

 

Also, Divx is offering this for free today only.

Just register with an email to get the code to use the software.

http://www.divx.com/anniversaryoffer/

[stutters]

good find on the divx anniversary offer.

 

<scribbles down registration key>

[mookie]

To rip a DVD, you can use DVD Decrypter, which is free. The maker took the site down, but you should be able to find it by Googling for it. This will let you rip DVDs onto your HDD, and let you select particular scenes to do it. The resulting files will be playable on any machine that can decode MPEG-2 files, so if you don't have an MPEG-2 (DVD) decoder you'll need something like VLC to play it. The file you get from DVD Decrypter is VOB (Video Object) which is the same as MPEG-2. If you want to cut the clip down any smaller, you'll need some more complicated tools to do it. You can use VirtualDubMod to get it done, but if you do you'll need to recompress it into an AVI, probably using XviD. Otherwise if you know much about video conversion tools you can do whatever you want with the VOB file.

[mookie]

C'mon ZeroDamage, XviD surpassed DivX a long time ago, and it's free 365 days a year.

[Guest zerodamage]

Let me also add that Windows Media Encoder is really good and I use that for all of my encoding. Great quality at a fraction of the size of Divx.

 

Mookie, I know but Divx is still the most common and the software is free, grab it while you can.

 

Yes, Xvid is much better, no doubt about that.

 

I personally use Windows Media Encoder for everything though.

 

See my results here: http://www.zerodamage.com/gc/video/

[appalachian_fox]

Well,

 

(1) Divx isn't free anymore: Offer's over.

 

(2) Xvid appears to be just a codec...I admit I didn't put a whole lot of effort into Googling it, am I missing something?

 

(3) Anything that requires installation, setup, changes or, in fact, anything more than double-clicking an already present icon is not an option on the computer to be used for presentation: Installing XVid codecs would be right out. The computers are locked down by the department.

 

Windows Media Encoder...Can that pull out a clip from the .mpg from DVD Shrink? If not, I will check out this TMPGenc (sp?). Keep in mind I am not using a whole "chapter", rather a one minute segment that I would need to cut out.

 

Thanks for the help, it will be much easier to provide an .mpg for use in the classroom.

Edited September 29, 2005 by appalachian_fox

[Guest zerodamage]

Well,

 

(1) Divx isn't free anymore: Offer's over.

 

(2) Xvid appears to be just a codec...I admit I didn't put a whole lot of effort into Googling it, am I missing something?

 

(3) Anything that requires installation, setup, changes or, in fact, anything more than double-clicking an already present icon is not an option on the computer to be used for presentation: Installing XVid codecs would be right out.  The computers are locked down by the department.

 

Windows Media Encoder...Can that pull out a clip from the .mpg from DVD Shrink?  If not, I will check out this TMPGenc (sp?).  Keep in mind I am not using a whole "chapter", rather a one minute segment that I would need to cut out.

 

Thanks for the help, it will be much easier to provide an .mpg for use in the classroom.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

 

THen what you want can not be done unless you want to give it a shot with Windows Movie maker via Windows XP if you have that OS. Otherwise, it isn't going to happen. Can't operate without your scapel. Can't repair the engine without your tools. Can't rip the dvd and edit the results without the ripper and video editer.

[appalachian_fox]

THen what you want can not be done unless you want to give it a shot with Windows Movie maker via Windows XP if you have that OS.  Otherwise, it isn't going to happen.  Can't operate without your scapel.  Can't repair the engine without your tools.  Can't rip the dvd and edit the results without the ripper and video editer.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

There's no freeware rippers and editors out there? Cmon...I KNOW DVD Decrypter can rip video, and DVD Shrink can work with video...The problem I'm running into is DVD Shrink won't cut out sections of video, at least not that I was ever able to figure out. I only need a minute.

 

I would be glad to give it a shot with Windows Movie Maker, since I run XP...But can Windows Movie Maker cut out a chunk of video from the middle of a .vob file? Can it save it as an .mpg?

 

I must be missing something, because I KNOW freeware rippers exist and have USED one.

[mookie]

Here's what you need to do:

Get DVD Decrypter, or any other ripper you can find.

Rip the DVD, preferrably only the scence you need.

Get ffmpeg, which is free just like DVD Decrypter.

ffmpeg is a command-line tool, so you'll need the documentation.

Use ffmpeg to cut the file to the length you want, and compress it to a format playable on the target machine. Your simplest good bet is to format it for VCD, which will be MPEG-1 video and MPEG-1 layer 2 audio.

This command should look something like this:

ffmpeg -ss (starttime) -t (length) -i (infilename) -target vcd (outfilename)

The format for times should be hh:mm:ss.xxx.

 

EDIT:

Don't be mad at Zero, I think he's assuming you mean you can't install any software on any machine to get this done. I'm assuming that you have some machine you can prepare the clip on, and it's the target machine that can't have installations done on it.

 

EDIT:

Make sure that when you set the start time and length, the start time is relative to the start of the VOB file, not the whole movie. You may need something like VLC to view the VOB if you don't have a DVD player installed on the system.

Edited September 30, 2005 by mookie

[Guest zerodamage]

THen what you want can not be done unless you want to give it a shot with Windows Movie maker via Windows XP if you have that OS.  Otherwise, it isn't going to happen.  Can't operate without your scapel.  Can't repair the engine without your tools.  Can't rip the dvd and edit the results without the ripper and video editer.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

There's no freeware rippers and editors out there? Cmon...I KNOW DVD Decrypter can rip video, and DVD Shrink can work with video...The problem I'm running into is DVD Shrink won't cut out sections of video, at least not that I was ever able to figure out. I only need a minute.

 

I would be glad to give it a shot with Windows Movie Maker, since I run XP...But can Windows Movie Maker cut out a chunk of video from the middle of a .vob file? Can it save it as an .mpg?

 

I must be missing something, because I KNOW freeware rippers exist and have USED one.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

 

I listed them above, but you followed with this:

 

Anything that requires installation, setup, changes or, in fact, anything more than double-clicking an already present icon is not an option on the computer to be used for presentation: Installing XVid codecs would be right out. The computers are locked down by the department.

 

That tells m you can not install jack. You have to install these apps to use them

[appalachian_fox]

EDIT:

Don't be mad at Zero, I think he's assuming you mean you can't install any software on any machine to get this done. I'm assuming that you have some machine you can prepare the clip on, and it's the target machine that can't have installations done on it.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

That's what I was trying to get at, but I admit it may have been a bit comlicated (emphasized below). Nobody's mad, I'm just trying to clarify. I don't get mad at what people say on the internet. Waste of time and energy.

 

 

I listed them above, but you followed with this:

 

Anything that requires installation, setup, changes or, in fact, anything more than double-clicking an already present icon is not an option on the computer to be used for presentation: Installing XVid codecs would be right out. The computers are locked down by the department.

 

That tells m you can not install jack. You have to install these apps to use them

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

I added the bold italics for emphasis. If I package it into an mpeg on another computer, then all I have to do is double-click on it on the computer to be used for presentation. I don't have to build the video clip on the computer in the classroom...just play it there when it's done.

[Guest zerodamage]

Then the steps I gave or the steps Mookie gave will work. Make the file you need on one system. Then run it on the other. If you have the latest updates on the other computer, then WMV files will play via WIndows Media Player.

 

p.s. No one is mad. Just confused at first.

[appalachian_fox]

Sweet! Thanks, guys! Sorry I'm a bit slow, but that's why I come to y'all. One last question, does that Windows Media Encoder (?) do the same thing (pull out a section of video)? If so, thanks mookie but I think my command line days are behind me for now...I've executed my last make for awhile

 

And VLC Rules!

 

Sorry for the confusion, all!

[Guest zerodamage]

Windows Media Encoder just encodes, no editting.