[MacDV] Re: Importing DVD Content

[Mark M. Florida]

On 12/23/03 9:12 AM, James Asherman at jimash at optonline.net wrote:

> 
> On Tuesday, December 23, 2003, at 09:39  AM, Scott Wm Eastman wrote:
> 
>> I have a client who gave me their 15 minute promotional video on DVD
>> and
>> they want me to edit it down to a web-friendly 2 or 3 minutes... How
>> do I
>> capture the video from the DVD to pull it into iMovie?
>> 
>> Thanks in advance for your help!!
>> 
>> 
> 
> There are two ways. One is to actually convert the files on the DVD
> back to DV using some software solution that other listers are more
> familiar with. 

I use a shareware utility called DVDxDV -- it works great for just this sort
of thing, but it's a $25 shareware utility, but it also requires the Apple
MPEG-2 plugin, which costs $20 itself.  So for $45 you've got a VERY SIMPLE
way to convert from DVD to DV (or any other codec QuickTime supports).  I
know there are freeware apps out there to do this sort of thing, but I have
yet to find one that is as simple and foolproof as DVDxDV, that will
painlessly convert your DVD back to DV for re-editing (there is some digital
"generation loss" though, as with any conversion process like this).

http://www.dvdxdv.com/

> I go low.
> I just run the DVD into my Sony Media converter and capture the footage
> as DV . Once you reduce it and make Mpeg4's or whatever  it should
> still look pretty good.

Yeah, for the intended purpose of this conversion (web-friendly, low
bit-rate video), doing it that way (Digital -> Analog -> Digital) should
work just fine (I've done it this way many times at work before we got
DVDxDV).

- Mark