From DVD to (mpg/avi to) Flash

[Flash Gordon]

Hey Guys (long time),

I have a fellow musicians friend that just released a DVD of his band playing. He wants me to be able to put some of the video from the DVD on his website. I know (at least I think) how to do it once I have a short mpg/avi/flv clip, but how in heavens do I get that from a DVD? I'm guessing I'm going to need an expensive 3rd party software to rip the video from the DVD and break it into smaller sections.

Does anyone have any clue about this or can point me to a tutorial or thread?

As always, thanks for your valuable time and help.
FG

[Rossman]

Well, doom9.net is probably the best place for tutorials, but the general steps and software are:

Software:
DVD Decrypter
AutoGK

1) Insert DVD
2) Rip DVD in IFO mode
3) Run AutoGK and the files produced.

You will have an Xvid encoded AVI at the end of this.

4) Now, grab yourself Riva FLV Encoder (free and pretty damn good IMHO), and crunch that AVI into an FLV.

5) ...

6) Profit!!


EDIT: URL Correction.

[billingsgate]

I have an (I think) obvious question: if it's your friend (or his friend) who released the DVD, surely he has in his possession the original video files used in mastering the DVD? You'll have an easier time and get better quality by working directly from those, whether they're Quicktime, AVI or whatever format.

DVDs use MPEG compression, but to make these files web-usable they need to be compressed further. So what you'll end up doing is recompressing a compressed file. Ever tried that with music files or JPEGs? You'll lose significant quality. If you work straight from the source and then use just about any video compression program, you'll have finer control over the end product, and have much cleaner video, than if you work from the DVD.

If you wanted to put your music online, would you take an MP3 of your music and recompress it? Or would you work straight from the source file to create a new MP3? A musician with knowledge of the process would get sick to the stomach at the thought of taking an MP3 and using that as the source for further compression. Same principle for JPEGs, MPEGs and so on. You always get the best quality at the smallest file sizes, and with the most control over the process, by working straight from the source.

[Rossman]

While the billingsgate is technically correct (working from source files is *always* preferable), since you are crunching the video down to FLV to a size which is conveniently downloadable on the web, I really don't think you're going to see much, if any, quality degradation, coming from the DVD.

I convert DVD's to FLVs and you really can't tell, unless you use to too high a resolution with too low a bitrate for the FLV. Play around and you can get some good results.

[billingsgate]

Rossman, I've done a lot of video compression for web deployment. I've tried all methods. I've been shocked sometimes at how small I can compress a video into Windows Media or MPEG format when working from the original source, while maintaining good to excellent picture quality. Yes, of course you can still work from the DVD MPEG, and get an acceptable picture. But I'll bet if you tried working both from the DVD MPEG and from the original source, and reduced them both to the same file size, you'd see significant difference in the quality in terms of haloing, dithering and color saturation.

My point is, in the same time it's taking to find software to rip DVDs, and play around with that, our friend could call up the guy with the DVD and ask for the source file.

[CyanBlue]

My point is, in the same time it's taking to find software to rip DVDs, and play around with that, our friend could call up the guy with the DVD and ask for the source file.
That's absolutely ideal thing to do, but sometimes the client have no idea what source file is or where you can get it from... Sad, but it happens quite often... :mad:

[Flash Gordon]

Thanks guys for the help, but before I get started with all of that Rossman, using thoses tools will I be able to cut a 2 minutes section out of the entire DVD? I thought you might know as it seems you may have done so before. (Ah.....yes, I believe I can once I get it to flv using Sorrenson Squeeze...maybe :confused: )

@billingsgate,
Thanks for the imput, but I simply don't have access to the masters.

Once again,
THANKS :)

[Rossman]

There are many tools out there to slice and dice video, such as VirtualDubMod (for AVI files, not the final FLVs). Again, doom9.net is probably the place to go to get your answers, as I haven't actually sliced up much aside from splitting videos to span my storage media (I used EZ Video Splitter, but thats a pay-for program. There are free ones out there).

If you are just going to do a one off cut, the trial version of EZ Video Splitter (http://www.doeasier.org/splitter/) is probably the way to go, though.

What options you get in Squeeze, I'm not sure.

[Flash Gordon]

1) Insert DVD
2) Rip DVD in IFO mode
3) Run AutoGK and the files produced.
You will have an Xvid encoded AVI at the end of this.
4) Now, grab yourself Riva FLV Encoder (free and pretty damn good IMHO), and crunch that AVI into an FLV.
5) ...
6) Profit!!


What a pain the the arse!

for a 4:30 file:
20 mintues to rip it with DVD gen
44 mintues to convert it to AVI, (which Quicktime can't open and I had to download addtional codecs for M$ Media Player to play it )
15 for Squeeze to convert it to FLV.

Boy...It works (I guess) by I'm not a huge fan of this method! And why can't QuickTime play and Xvid AVI? that is how I normally Squeeze it.

Geezzzz....

But hey, thanks for the help. I finally had another client ask me to rip a DVD for them and post it.

Thanks again. Oh....and I'm open to suggestions on how to do this faster and better.