I'm technologically challenged. Help.

June 24, 2010 5:02 PM

I'm so lame with this stuff and you guys always help... so here goes. I have a DVD of a 26 minute video I need to put onto youtube. I just don't know how to extract it from the disk. I'd like to then divide it into multiple parts for viewing. I know I can't do this stuff in imovie. Suggestions? Free solutions are always preferred... :)

Thanks for your help!

posted by miss lynnster to Computers & Internet (10 answers total)

Use Handbrake to rip it, then edit it however you want.
posted by 47triple2 at 5:09 PM on June 24, 2010

I asked a similar question a while back. This is one of those things that's harder than it should be.

I think I ended up paying $40 for DVDRemaster, due to my utterly crumby experience with Handbrake. maybe you will have better luck though.
posted by drjimmy11 at 5:28 PM on June 24, 2010

Since it sounds like you're on a Mac, can't help with specific software. But thought I'd add that it doesn't matter what video format you use, if that ends up helping at all. So you can keep it in MPEG-2, or if it gets converted to h264 or whatever that's fine too. Arguably you want to transcode it as little as possible -- if it wasn't for the 10 minute limit, you'd basically just want to upload it as-is.

I don't know if there's any tool on the Mac that will easily let you take the VOB/MPEG data and chop it into 3 pieces.
posted by wildcrdj at 5:51 PM on June 24, 2010

Response by poster: Yes, I'm on a mac. forgot to mention that. Sorry!
posted by miss lynnster at 6:07 PM on June 24, 2010

Handbrake or Mac the Ripper to extract the clip. I've used Mac the Ripper, it works fine. I think you can also use MPEG Streamclip. That's also free.

To split up the clips use iMovie or Quicktime/Quicktime Pro (Pro costs money but I think you can cut n paste - just don't use Quicktime Player, that won't work)

Good luck
posted by scuza at 6:09 PM on June 24, 2010

Handbrake for the rip. Use a high-quality setting with the suggested resolution.

I know from a previous question that you have QT Pro. Output the Handbrake .mkv file to an uncompressed .mov (assumes you have the HD space. If not, mefi mail me and we can discuss work-arounds)

Edit the uncompressed .mov in iMovie. Output the resulting clips to .mp4 with approximately 1500kps video bitrate plus 128k stereo for audio.

Upload the resulting files to Youtube.
posted by Mayor Curley at 6:29 PM on June 24, 2010

Or if you don't need fades or any real editing, cut the uncompressed .movs in QT and export them to mp4 (same specs) from there. If you can do that, that's easier and quicker.
posted by Mayor Curley at 6:33 PM on June 24, 2010

nthing Handbrake and Mac the Ripper
posted by bloody_bonnie at 6:52 PM on June 24, 2010

Depending on your connection, you could also just upload the uncompressed .mov if you can save the clips that way in iMovie (no idea, never used it). The less transcoding/compression you do the better. I'm assuming this is standard def so if you do need to convert to get it out of iMovie Mayor Curley's settings should be pretty good.

(Highest we'd produce for a standard def upload is the "480p" format which will come in under 1000kbps).
posted by wildcrdj at 6:54 PM on June 24, 2010

RipIt (the screenshots at the bottom say it all.) The newer version has a compress button which gets a full movie to ~ 1 gig.

It's as easy as pressing one button. For a full length movie, it takes over an hour but shouldn't take long in your case. Then just chop that up in imovie.
posted by special-k at 4:08 AM on June 25, 2010