MPEG Streamclip question

[nyycavo24]

I am currently running MPEG Streamclip to chop my files up and convert them into smaller movie files for use in iMovie.

The movies I am using are home football videos and the quality isn't great to begin with, so I am trying to retain as much of it as possible.

I ripped them off a DVD into mpeg4 format and I am currently slicing and dicing them, then exporting them into Quicktime format.

Now when you export clips, you have the option of selecting a movie format resolution (640 x 480, 720x480 PAL, NTSC, etc) and quality percentage. Now, obviously the larger you set the quality scale the better (and larger) the video, but...

In which of those resolutions will I Get the best bang for my buck (size, quality, etc)?? I plan on ultimately making a movie and putting it onto a DVD...it needs to be as professional as possible.

Hopefully you all have followed this!

 

[Cromulent]

You are coming from a lossy codec (MPEG-2) which is what the DVD format is. So selecting a video format which is better than that to encode to is just going to result in a larger file with no better quality.

When you rip the DVD, rip it using Mac the Ripper. That will mean that the DVD will be copied and not lose any quality. At the moment you are copying the DVD to MPEG-4 which looses quality and then encoding again to something else which looses quality again. So you are degrading quality twice when you only need to do it once.

I am currently running MPEG Streamclip to chop my files up and convert them into smaller movie files for use in iMovie.

The movies I am using are home football videos and the quality isn't great to begin with, so I am trying to retain as much of it as possible.

I ripped them off a DVD into mpeg4 format and I am currently slicing and dicing them, then exporting them into Quicktime format.

Now when you export clips, you have the option of selecting a movie format resolution (640 x 480, 720x480 PAL, NTSC, etc) and quality percentage. Now, obviously the larger you set the quality scale the better (and larger) the video, but...

In which of those resolutions will I Get the best bang for my buck (size, quality, etc)?? I plan on ultimately making a movie and putting it onto a DVD...it needs to be as professional as possible.

Hopefully you all have followed this!

 

[nyycavo24]

Ok Great, Thanks.

So, in your opinion, Mac the Ripper is better than any of the other DVD ripping software out there? I think I was using something else.

When I take the ripped DVD and convert pieces of it in MPEG Streamclip, is there a preferred exporting format? .mov, mpeg-4, etc?

And if I am using standard def video in a presentation (iMovie and iDVD) set for HD, which resolution should I be using?

 

[Cromulent]

Ok Great, Thanks.

So, in your opinion, Mac the Ripper is better than any of the other DVD ripping software out there? I think I was using something else.

When I take the ripped DVD and convert pieces of it in MPEG Streamclip, is there a preferred exporting format? .mov, mpeg-4, etc?

And if I am using standard def video in a presentation (iMovie and iDVD) set for HD, which resolution should I be using?

Use standard def. Upscaling the video will just look bad, especially as your source footage is from a DVD.

I'd export in H.264 if I were you unless you want to edit the video in which case export it in an editing format.