Compressor shows wrong frame rate

I have a video file ripped from a dvd using Handbrake. If I open the m4v file in quicktime, it shows a frame rate of 23.98. When I open the same clip in Compressor, it shows a frame rate of 19.98.

If I use the ProRes 422 LT preset, which is set to 'use current frame rate', it generates a 422 movie with the 19.98 frame rate.

This is a problem. I need to edit the ripped file in FCP and I want to do it at 24 (or 23.98).

How do I get Compressor to acknowledge and preserve the source file's frame rate?

If this question came from anybody else, Tom, I'd launch into a lecture about piracy. Seeing as its you, I'm sure you're extracting stuff from DVD for both lawful and legitimate reasons, but what you're describing is the exact same workflow that kids use to steal movies.

The short answer is you're using the wrong tool for the job. Use MPEG Streamclip instead. Handbrake is a consumer-grade MPEG-4 transcoder. That's not a slam; I've used it myself before to generate low-data-rate movies from high-data-rate movies for emailing and stuff. It's a handy tool to have when Compressor isn't available. But it's not meant to be used the way you're trying to use it.

Your workflow should look like this: Open the DVD's "VIDEO_TS" folder in MPEG Streamclip. It might nag you about timecode breaks. Mark your in and out points, then export the clip directly to whatever production format you want to use: ProRes 422 LT, in this case. Streamclip will decode the MPEG-2 data, pass it to Quicktime for encoding to the format of your choice, and write out a Quicktime movie that will work reliably in Final Cut, or any other application you choose.

Streamclip has a pretty intimidating UI, unfortunately. You might need to do a couple of tests to find just the right combination of settings. In particular, you want to make sure you choose the "720x480 (unscaled)" frame size option. Whether your DVD is flat or anamorphic, that's the right choice. Field dominance shouldn't be an issue if your DVD is 23.976, but if it's 29.97, you'll need to get that right; it's usually lower first. And of course you have a choice of audio codecs; you can use 4:1, but I usually just leave it as uncompressed.

Once you get your settings dialed in, you can save them as a preset for resuse later.

MPEG Streamclip is free, by the way.

Thank you, Jeff. (To allay anyone's concerns, yes, this is for a legitimate purpose. It's a quick-turnaround presentation reel for the producer and director of the film; I was the editor on the film. They couldn't get the unencoded master to me in time for their Monday deadline so I'm improvising....)

I tried Streamclip before I turned to Handbrake, but Streamclip keeps reporting an error ("File open error: the file is too short" when I try to open it in Streamclip. So I turned to Handbrake, which was able to do the extract, except only going to these weird uneditable formats, which then have to be converted again (ie through compressor).

In Streamclip, I get the error regardless of whether I open the VIDEO_TS folder or any of the individual VOP files. Is there some secret to this that I'm missing?

Thanks again.

Maybe. I just pulled out a DVD I made myself, to try it out. What I did was open Streamclip, then go to the "Open DVD" menu option. I navigated to the VIDEO_TS folder, like actually inside the folder, but selected no files. Then I hit "open," and Streamclip did what Streamclip does.

Try that?

When I do that, Streamclip responds with a menu: "Please choose which DVD movie you want to open:" and a drop-down to choose 1-9. Regardless which I choose, I get the "file too short" error.

Wonder why I'm getting a different result than you are.

Sounds like some sort of piracy protection mechanism. Try ripping it with Mac the ripper.



www.strypesinpost.com

That, or it's possible that the DVD is just screwed up in some way. Try copying the VIDEO_TS folder to your hard drive, though I don't think that's likely to help.

Doesn't help. At this point I have to move on, so I'll settle for editing in 19.98... weird, but I can get the reel done; it'll get them through their thing Monday, and next time I'll insist they come up with a proper master.

Thanks for your efforts.

Then it sounds like a broken DVD to me. Bummer, man.

alternatively, get it off a set top player and capture it.



www.strypesinpost.com

The irony is, the movie has long since been ripped by other people and posted on BitTorrent, so if I were so inclined I could probably find it there. I just have never explored that stuff because a) I am adamantly against piracy; b) I'm paranoid about downloading a potentially infected file.

That's gonna look pretty crappy.



www.strypesinpost.com

Anything you can download from the web in a realistic amount of time would probably look far too bad to be used. You're better off playing the DVD and then using screen capture to get it.


www.derekmok.com

Download 'Fairmount', launch it, insert the DVD, and try MPEG Streamclip again with Jeff's settings. Should work if the DVD plays normally.

HTH,
Doug