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TICKET ARCHIVE -> Ripping *sections* of a DVD

tigrr - Jan 18, 2007 - 8:54 am

I have a stand-alone Pioneer DVD harddisk recorder which I use to record TV shows, movies etc. on, then transfer whatever I want to keep for later on recordable DVDs.

Is there a way I can extract a small section from that DVD as opposed to ripping/importing the entire DVD on to my Mac?
It seems pointless and a lot of wasted time to rip 2 hours of video just to edit everything away apart from 1 minute!

I know that I can import DVDs using tools such as "MacTheRipper" or "Handbrake", but they don't allow me to choose which sections to import.

LKT - Jan 18, 2007 - 11:11 am

Hallvard,
There is a very nice sort-of free program that allows you to do just that. It is called MPEGStreamclip. Their website is
http://www.squared5.com/svideo/mpeg-streamclip-mac.html

I say it is sort-of free because you may need to purchase the MPEG Component for Quicktime from Apple. Give it a try first, though, because you may not need the component or you may have it already.

Please let me know if this has helped you or not, or if you have any further questions.

Leigh

tigrr - Jan 19, 2007 - 10:13 am

Yes, you're right -I seem to need the MPEG2 component from Apple because that's what MPEG streamclip tells me as well.
Apparently I don't already have it (someone suggested to me that since I had Quicktime Pro I might already have it included, but that doesn't seem to be the case).

However, I do see that there is a "Select in"/"Select out" option (the "edit" menu) in MPEG streamclip which is what I was looking for. Hopefully, with the aid of the MPEG2 Quicktime component together with MPEG streamclip I will be able to insert a DVD and extract just the section I want. What do you think?

What is actually the MPEG2 Quicktime component? Is MPEG2 the format which DVDs use and on the Mac is used to read/understand the DVD?

I read somewhere else (http://machouse.mhouse-j.com/?p=95) near the bottom:

"Make sure you have MPEG-2 Playback component installed. If you don’t have it, use ffmpegX."


I did try out ffMPEGx, and it does indeed read the .VOB files (there's a "Play" button in the "Summary" section), but I can't find any option for extracting just a section of the DVD -do you know if I can do that with ffMPEGx? Or is MPEG streamclip the only application that will allow me to do this, while all other "ripper" applications on the Mac only import the entire DVD clip?

tigrr - Jan 21, 2007 - 4:08 am

Your suggestion worked!
I was at first hesitant deciding to buy the MPEG2 component from Apple, because several reader reviews at their Apple store page were giving negative feedback, complaining that audio would be missing from the DVD imports. I later heard that the problem isn't with the MPEG2 component, but with Quicktime itself.

I'm told that MPEG streamclip uses the MPEG2 component and bypasses all of the bugs that Quicktime obviously has (Quicktime surely does seem to have issues; I've come across one myself where I couldn't get audio from Flash movies at Youtube.com even though Quicktime supports Flash files. However, after following someone's suggestion to install the latest Flash Player from Macromedia/Adobe it worked!).

I tried ripping a tiny section off a DVD-R that I had previously burnt from a stand-alone DVD-recorder with great success. Here's what I did (in case someone else is interested):


1) After having installed the MPEG2 component from Apple (bought via their Apple store online) I started the MPEG streamclip application.

2) I inserted the DVD into the Mac's drive. With the DVD icon on the desktop I double-clicked it to open up its contents. It reveals a folder named "VIDEO_TS" which I double-clicked to open.
This folder may contain just a couple, or several .VOB files.

3) I dragged one of these .VOB files to the MPEG streamclip application window. At this stage it might either open the file or tell you that the file seems to be part of a stream, and if you'd like to open them all or just the one clip. You'll most likely want to open them all.

4) OK, by now you should see a still picture from somewhere in the video. You can navigate back/forth in the movie by dragging the slider in the horizontal timeline just below the movie window. You can also play/pause using the space-bar, or the buttons next to the timeline and below it.

5) What you want to do now is find the clip you want to extract. Use the slider and/or playback functions for this. When you're at the section you consider the beginning of the clip, press "i" (IN) or go to the "Edit" menu and choose "Select IN".

6) Now move forward into the video until you're just past the section you want to keep. Press the "o" button on the keyboard which stands for OUT, (or go to the "Edit" menu and choose "Select OUT").
You'll see the section you've selected as a dark-grey section in the timeline.

7) At this stage you can choose between a variety of formats to save the clip as.
If you go to the "File" menu and choose "Save as.." you will be able to save it as a new .VOB file, though with just the clip you've selected.
You can for example save it as an MP4 file by choosing "Export to MPEG-4" from the "File" menu.
From then on you have a working video file on your computer which you can further edit, extract audio from, paste into iMovie for use with other clips, transfer to your mobile phone, iPod etc.

Although this works fine I was also suggested a free alternative. An application running under X11 on the Mac called "Avidemux" (http://www.videohelp.com/tools?tool=AviDemux) will do the same job as MPEG2 streamclip, but doesn't need the MPEG2 component.
Unfortunately, although the application launched, I couldn't figure out how to import the video, so I gave in and bought the MPEG2 component from Apple and used MPEG streamclip instead. Others may have better results and end up with a free (though not as elegant) solution to MPEG streamclip/MPEG2 Apple component.

In any case I'm happy, so thanks for the suggestion!