Ripping DVDS

I am hoping that some of you kind people can be of help to me.
I have been trying to rip a DVD (and yes, it is totally legal)....and I have been having the
toughest time.
I am using Hand Break, the DVD is over 2 hours long (not a home movie...I promise), and each time I tried to rip the entire DVD in one shot, it failed. Next I tried taking 10 chapters at a time (there are 54)....I was not able to imort that into FCP.

Then I opened the ripped files in Quick Time and converted them to .mov files...FCP was still not interested.

Pulling hair out, because as you know, each of these steps takes HOURS.

I am new-ish to FCP...came from editing tape then Avid.

HELP PLEASE!!!

#7 DVD into FCP

Shane's Stock Answer #7:

To start, I will state that trying to capture any DVD you bought or rented, be it a Hollywood movie or exersize video, is illegal. I will not give you any tips on how to bypass copy protection. It is there for a reason.

To capture footage from a DVD, you have a couple options.

1) Route the DVD player to your DV camera or deck via the RCA cabling. Then you can put the footage you want ontp DV tape and have the benefit of timecode in case the need to recapture comes up.

2) You can get a great application called DVDxDV (Google it). This opens up the DVD and allows you to convert the video to DV/NTSC footage. And it allows you to only convert what you want by allowing you to mark in and out points. The free version puts a big watermark across the center of your footage, but if you pay $25 for the standard version, that goes away.

Or you can use Mpeg Stream clip. This is free.


www.shanerosseditor.com

Listen to THE EDIT BAY Podcast on iTunes
[itunes.apple.com]

Thank so much, I will try that software.
And I assure you, this is totally legal footage, not a movie!

Footage was shot by my client who has all rights to it!

i have had zero luck with handbrake.

there is a piece software of software that removes protection and copies dvd content to your drive (the step before using dvdxdv or mpegstreamclip) called mac the ripper. but from what ive gathered its largely useless on any recent content.

THANK YOU!!!

I just downloaded the trial version of DVDxDV...did a test....AND IT WORKED!!!!
When my FCP is happy, I am happy!!!

Now I can trash Handbrake, which for the record is not as easy to use as DVDxDV.

Katie

<<<is not as easy to use>>>

We have three licenses for DVDxDV. It's a lot easier to use than the other packages.

We do warn you to save the work as a lightly/not compressed PhotoJPEG instead of Final Cut Movie. For some reason the Final Cut exports don't look as good.

This may be a problem if you're trying to rescue a 2-hour show.

Koz

katie, what koz mentions is true of ANY of the software. the "export to fcp" or "export to DV" result in very poor quality footage.

use the expert option and choose photojpeg at 100%. you'll have to render it on your FCP timeline (im guessing thats what koz means about being "a problem for a 2 hour show" but the quality will be FAR better

<<<"export to fcp" or "export to DV" result in very poor quality footage. >>>

Oh, I clearly understand Export To DV with its 3.5:1 DCP compression and other problems, but what is it assuming during the Final Cut export? If that is another one of the standard lossy compressions, it would be good to know that. Double compressions is never, ever a good idea.

<<<a problem for a 2 hour show>>>

The arithmetic does get to you. Most people are used to one Meg of video information containing everything Cecil B. DeMille ever shot complete with color correction and commentary all in an iPod form. In The Land Of Uncompressed, however, one Meg of video is one television frame. One. 30 frames per second, 60 seconds per minute......

The number isn't exactly 'one Meg' and PhotoJPEG is a little forgiving (2:1 or 3:1 compression), but you will need to leave room...

Koz