Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with mpeg4

No libdvdcss? Curse you, Handbrake!

dunkadunc — Sun, 09 Aug 2009 17:40:52 -0800

What's the best (free) way to back up DVDs these days? Back when I had a Mac, I used to use Handbrake to rip DVDs to MPEG4 files- It was quick and easy, you select the titles you wanted to rip and (shazam!) it ripped them for you to the format you wanted.
However, I'm using a PC now, and it's a couple years later. I've installed Handbrake, but much to my frustration they no longer include libdvdcss, which is needed to rip most DVDs. They do say it automatically detects an copy of libdvdcss on Linux and OSX, but I can't even find a Windows binary of the libary online to see if that would work.

So, what's a good, free (as in beer) program to rip DVDs to MPEGs these days? Everything I see people talking about online seems to either (a) involve multiple programs to decrypt and re-encode or (b) is something you pay money for. With the open-source community out there, I can't believe there isn't some slick program that can both decrypt and encode- is there some way I can just feed a copy of libdvdcss to Handbrake to get it to work, or is there another program out there now?

Efficient video editing workflow starting from a DVD.

jedicus — Sat, 15 Nov 2008 10:46:46 -0800

How can my video editing workflow be more efficient and avoid time-consuming conversion between formats? Part of my job involves taking videos of presentations and uploading them to our project website. My current workflow (on a unibody MacBook) looks something like this:

1. Rip DVD to mpeg-4 using HandBrake. This typically takes twice realtime.
2. Import mpeg-4 into iMovie '08. This typically takes 9-10x realtime.
3. Perform minor edits, almost always just removing silence or presentations that are not ours.
4. Export to mpeg-4. This typically takes 11-12x realtime.
5. Convert to FLV using ffmpegx. This also takes a pretty long time.

The presentations are usually about an hour long, which makes this process take about a full day. Clearly the conversion times are killing me. What techniques or different programs do I need to make this workflow go faster? Note that I have no choice but to start with a DVD video and end with FLV, but the intermediate steps are open to change.

iTunes/iPod conversion - temp file?

Sweetie Darling — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 19:52:23 -0800

Help me solve an iTunes problem I hope I won't have. My poor little Dell has been working hard all day, processing a .M4V file using the "Convert Selection for iPod" feature in iTunes. After 12 hours it's about 75 percent done, but it's raining here. Our power has a bad habit of going out during storms, and I'll be really depressed if I lose this in-process file if/when the computer reboots. I can't find a temp file in any of the logical places to look, even though I assume (?) iTunes creates a second file when it converts. I guess I don't know exactly what iTunes is doing right now. But I am basically screwed if the power goes out? Will I have to start over from square one, or is there any chance the process could pick up where it left off? If so, what do I need to do?

Bonus points if you can explain why I'm having to convert this file, in spite of using Handbrake's iPod presets.

Rain, rain GO AWAY.

Is there a better way (for Mac) to convert DVDs into a movie files than how I am doing it?

Hypnic jerk — Mon, 12 Nov 2007 15:33:51 -0800

Am I using the best process/set of applications for converting DVDs into Movies? Here's what I am using: Mac the Ripper to rip the DVD to hard drive, Cinematize to turn the DVD into a large .mov. I usally encode to a high resolution MPEG format, which usually turns it into a a 25-35GB file. Then I use MPEG Streamclip to encode to MP4 and reduce it in size, which results in a file ranging from 800MB to 1.5GB in size. Is this the best way to do it?

A drawback is that the whole process will take almost two days to complete. Is there a software package that can reduce steps? I'm hoping to rip my entire collection in this way, so I can share out my movies on iTunes to other machines in my home network, and don't want to embark on this massive project in this manner if there is an easier way to do it.

Video Archiving Server

chrisfromthelc — Mon, 07 May 2007 09:50:10 -0800

I'm looking for a server solution that I can stream video to be archived (in real time) for access at a later date. More after the break... I'm trying to find an server solution that will take on multiple video streams and archive them. I also am going to want to access these archives and pull a video clip by date/time ranges for download. This is going to be all done over the Interweb.

Also, proprietary camera/PC software solutions are not ideal. We're talking enterprise level solutions here.

Thanks in advance for your ideas!

Sudden problem encoding video

ascullion — Wed, 31 Jan 2007 10:05:16 -0800

I regularly use ffmpeg to encode videos (from mpeg2 to mpeg4) for my ipod. I've been doing this for nearly a year with no problems. Now, every time I start an encode, my system is suddenly under a lot of pressure - I can't use any other application. If I go into the windows task manager and set the priority to 'below normal', all is fine again. Anyone have any idea why this change might have occured, or any idea how I can get around it (preferably without using task manager)? For info - i think this is a windows problem, rather than an ffmpeg problem. I suspect windows isn't allocating resourced properly anymore, for some reason. The same symptoms happen with other software sometimes - ffmpeg is just the one i use most.

ASF --> MOV?

10ch — Wed, 27 Dec 2006 06:24:42 -0800

Can I convert ASF to a mac-friendly format for editing? I was just gifted a very inexpensive video camera (it's an Aiptek MPVR+ if that matters). It's the type of digital video camera that writes directly to a SD card as an ASF (MPEG-4 encoded). I can play the video on my mac with VLC (it won't open in QT or iMovie), but I haven't found a way to edit it (preferably in iMovie), and that's a must for what I wanted the camera for in the first place.

Since I don't know if I'll actually use it like I hope to, I'd rather not spend additional $$$ to upgrade to something that'll play friendly with my mac just yet.

What are my options?

De-DRMing iTunes Music Store-purchases.

silusGROK — Thu, 02 Mar 2006 13:36:47 -0800

How do I convert an iTunes Music Store purchased track (MPEG-4 with DRM) into a plain old MP3? I own two tracks of the same song — both purchased at iTMS... and I want to give one of them to a friend... but iTMS music has DRM in it, and isn't letting me. Any suggestions? I'm on Mac OSX 10.4.5.

Windows equivalent to FFmpegX

weaponsgradecarp — Sat, 15 Oct 2005 22:33:03 -0800

MPEG4Filter: I'm looking for a windows equivalent to ffmpegx on OS X. I have loads of DivX 3.11 and Xvid (and even a few 3ivX) movies, about 700mb each, which i want to convert to MPEG4 SP (with B-frames) or DivX 4 or 5, at a resolution somewhere in the ballpark of 480x272, to play on an Archos AV500. FFmpegX is great for this on my powerbook, but i simply do not have the HD space to convert 20 gigs worth of movies. Any ideas?

Video Work

benjh — Wed, 06 Apr 2005 05:07:54 -0800

Want to do start doing some video work, curious what are my best options for some quick "post-to-web" type videos, as well as being able to store them. Problem 1: Camera
Do I do the camcorder thing, which I don't really like DV, or go with a camera such as a DSC-M1 from Sony, which records in MPEG4 30 fps 640x480 on a memory stick.

Problem 2: Software
I've looked at Adobe Premier Elements. It looks good, but I don't think it would import MPEG4 if I took that route. I've looked at purchasing a mac mini or something like that with a superdrive, and using iMovie, not sure if that's worth the cost there, or not.

Best "works-out-of-the-box" "all format" video player?

PinkStainlessTail — Tue, 21 Sep 2004 13:32:14 -0800

What's the best "works-out-of-the-box" player for watching DivX/XviD/MPEG-4/etc. videos on my living room TV?

Converting video to dvd

mecran01 — Fri, 09 Jul 2004 09:50:34 -0800

I have some mpeg4 (quicktime) video that I would like to convert to mpeg2 so I can watch it on my el cheapo Apex player. I am using OS X (Panther). Are there any free or cheap tools that will do this that won't make my head explode? I supplicated the Google gods and came up empty.