[MacDV] Video project - VHS to DVD to DV to DVD

[Robert L. Vaessen]

All -

So far I've received two responses to my project posting. Thanks for 
the replies.

Unfortunately, both responses suggested that I go back to Step-2; 
purchase/acquire a video camera with DV capability, and reconvert the 
film (VHS) to DV format using a newly acquired video camera.

As my project is already past Step 2, I do not plan to back up and 
perform Step 2 over again. I do not have the money to purchase a DV 
capable video camera (with Analog in Digital out capability) at this 
time.

I appreciate the input I've received so far and I'm glad I posted.

- Robert

On Sep 15, 2004, at 18:45, Robert L. Vaessen wrote:

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> The challenge defined
> ---------------------
> Here are the steps that define our project. Steps have changed/evolved 
> as the project moved forward. I've spent well over three weeks just 
> getting to step 2, and I've got two coasters already.
>
> + Step 1: Obtain original footage on VHS.
> Completed: Two VHS tapes were located. One raw footage, one edited 
> production copy. Quality was poor but legible.
> + Step 2: Convert analog VHS to DVD. We probably should have gone 
> straight to DV, but we didn't...
> Completed: Two DVDs produced using a hardware analog to DVD converter. 
> The conversion process stabilized the tracking, eliminated some video 
> artifacts, and improved the overall quality of the movie. The DVDs 
> contain a VIDEO_TS folder with the following contents (from now on I 
> will only refer to one of the DVDs).
> + Step 3: Take the DVD and read the data back into the computer. Need 
> to do this in order to perform video and audio editing of the movie 
> using iMovie.
> + Step 4: Take the DVD data, now that it's back on the computer and 
> convert it into a format that iMovie can read.
> + Step 5: Edit the movie using iMovie.
> + Step 6: Save the iMovie output in a format that can be read by iDVD.
> + Step 7: Use iDVD in order to add menus, and burn the re-mastered 
> data back onto a DVD.
>
>
> The players
> -----------
> Now that I have defined the steps, I will provide a list of video 
> software that I currently possess:
>
> 1: QuickTime Pro 6.5.1.
> 2: QuickTimeMPEG2.component 6.4 (found in the /Macintosh 
> HD/System/Library/ directory). Where can I verify the use/existence of 
> MPEG2 in QuickTime?
> 3: MacTheRipper 2.0.1
> 4: DVD Player 4.0
> 5: DVD Imager 1.2
> 6: iDVD 4.0.1
> 7: iMovie 4.0
> 8: MacTheRipper 2.0.1
> 9: mpgtx-14-beta-4 (Is this version 1.1 or 1.4b4?)
> 10: Sizzle 0.5
> 11: VLC media player 0.7.2
> 12: yade X 0.95b
> 13: Dragon Burn 4.0.22
>
>
> The current state of affairs
> ----------------------------
> Given all the components listed, here is what I've used them for so 
> far (Steps 1 & 2 have already been satisfied):
>
> A: Used MacTheRipper in order to create a disc image of the DVD data. 
> When mounted, the disc image duplicates the contents/directory 
> structure of the DVD containing the movie. This satisfies step 3. The 
> data is back on the computer at this point. Data is now contained 
> within a mountable disc image. The data in the disc image resides 
> inside a VIDEO_TS folder.
>
> B: Used QuickTime Pro to play one of the .VOB files from the mounted 
> disc image (.VOB files are inside the VIDEO_TS folder). Created DV 
> output using QuickTime Pro's export function.
>
>
> How to complete the quest
> -------------------------
> This is where things fall apart...
>
> I now find myself stuck at step 3. Every time I try to move forward, I 
> find myself stymied by the myriad depth and complexity of this quest. 
> Given the tools listed above. How do I get from step 3 to step 7? Here 
> are some specific questions regarding each of the remaining steps...
>
> - Step 4: What format should I convert the DVD data into?. Do I need 
> to convert the audio and video separately? What format does the audio 
> need to be in? What format does the video need to be in? Do I need to 
> somehow separate/demultiplex the audio and video streams? Is QuickTime 
> Pro (With MPEG2 plug-in) capable of generating an output that can be 
> imported by iMovie?
> - Step 5: Do I need to make sure that the files going into iMovie are 
> no larger than a certain size? What do I use to segment the DVD data 
> prior to iMovie import? Do I need to segment the audio and the video?
> - Step 6: What format does iMovie output? What format do I need to 
> output if I want to add menus/prepare the data for DVD burn?
> - Step 7: Can iDVD burn data to a DVD so that the DVD will play in a 
> commercial hardware DVD player? (Not a data disc) Should I use Dragon 
> Burn to produce the DVD video disc? Is there any benefit to using 
> Dragon Burn over iDVD?
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