Quick help: dvd to to imovie...

[scooterguitar]

Shot and edited video, created simple imovie. Burned to DVD. (had to erase tons from macbook), deleted from mac.
Copied the dvd to the freshly clean macbook...
Folder comes opens with audio_ts and video_ts
Nothing in audio folder
video folder has files ts.bup, ifo, vob extensions...

What do I need to do to open the files, which app, etc?
I basically need to reload this footage into imovie for for more editing.
Thank you!

 

[spice weasel]

There shouldn't be anything in the AUDIO_TS folder, so don't worry about that.

As for getting your DVD into iMovie, you need to convert each of those vob files to DV. There are several applications that can do this, but the easiest to use is MPEG Streamclip, freely available.

After converting the vobs to DV, import into iMovie and edit away. But for future reference, you should keep any and all iMovie project files until you are 110% certain you won't need them again. You lose a lot of picture quality by burning to a DVD (mpeg-2) and then transcoding again back to DV and then again back again to mpeg-2 for a DVD.

 

[KeithPratt]

The two ways I know of to do this are to use Handbrake to rip the DVD to H.264, then MPEG Streamclip to convert that to Apple Intermediate Codec (AIC), or buy the Quicktime MPEG-2 component and use MPEG Streamclip to rip the DVD directly to AIC.

I recommend ripping to AIC rather than DV because, without going into detail, AIC is a better fit.

 

[spinnerlys]

I recommend ripping to AIC rather than DV because, without going into detail, AIC is a better fit.

Though I read that AIC is better as DV, can you point me to an article or three, that point out why AIC is a better fit for SD material than DV?

Has it to do with colour sampling and less compression (higher bitrate)?

 

[KeithPratt]

Though I read that AIC is better as DV, can you point me to an article or three, that point out why AIC is a better fit for SD material than DV?

Has it to do with colour sampling and less compression (higher bitrate)?

Simply because DVD and AIC both use 4:2:0 subsampling, and NTSC DV uses 4:1:1.

 

[spinnerlys]

Simply because DVD and AIC both use 4:2:0 subsampling, and NTSC DV uses 4:1:1.

Ah, I'm used to that other broadcasting standard, called PAL, which has 4:2:0 subsampling, thus always my proposal to use DV in such cases, as I often forgot the NeverTheSameColor broadcast standard.

 

[martinX]

Ah, I'm used to that other broadcasting standard, called PAL

And a superior standard it is, too. None of this "oh, should I use 30 fps or 25 fps for the 'film look' ?" no sirree, it's 25 fps all the way.

 

[scooterguitar]

Thanks for the replys, but wow...way over my head
I'll maybe try the streamclip convertor and see what I can figure out.
Appreciate it.

 

[spinnerlys]

Thanks for the replys, but wow...way over my head
I'll maybe try the streamclip convertor and see what I can figure out.
Appreciate it.

You need the QT MPEG-2 Playback Component for that though, unless you go via Handbrake.

A. Get footage from a video DVD into an editing application

1. Get the footage from DVD
2. Transcode the footage to an editing friendly format​

1. Get the footage from DVD - copied and pasted from How to backup/copy/rip video DVDs to your HDD and transcode them to another format.​

As commercial video DVDs use a copy protection scheme called CSS (Content Scramble System), additional software is needed to copy the content of a video DVD to your HDD, which is called "ripping". There are several applications to accomplish this.​

1.1. MacTheRipper 2.6.6 (free)

Insert the video DVD into your DVD drive and open MacTheRipper and click the GO button, after which you can select the place you want the video DVD's content saved to.
As this version of MTR is quite old, it will not read many modern DVDs.​

1.2. RipIt (19.95 USD, trial with 10 rips free)

Insert the video DVD and press the RIP button.​

1.3. Fairmount (free) - needs VLC 32-bit to decrypt the CSS (thanks to Satori for that information)​

1.4. Mac DVDRipper Pro (9.95 USD)

Insert the video DVD and select a destination folder, then press the RIP button.​

2. Transcode the footage to an editing friendly format​

As Handbrake does not offer any options to transcode into an editing friendly format (see here for details), one needs to use MPEG Streamclip to have more transcoding options like the .mov container format and a variety of codecs (DV, Apple Intermediate Codec, ProRes, ...), which makes buying (19.99 USD) and installing the QuickTime MPEG-2 Playback Component a necessity, in order to open ripped video DVDs in MPEG Streamclip.
​

2.0 Opening a ripped video DVD in MPEG Streamclip​

2.0.1 MPEG Streamclip > File > Open DVD (SHIFT+CMD+O)

2.0.2 Browse to the VIDEO_TS folder of your choice and click Select

2.0.3 Many video DVDs come with several titles (menu, trailers, extras, film, ...), thus make sure you select the correct title, which might involve some trial and error though.

2.0.4 A successful opened video DVD looks like this:

2.1 Transcode the MPEG-2 encoded video for iMovie, Final Cut Express and Final Cut Pro - Apple Intermediate Codec (AIC)​

2.1.1 MPEG Streamclip > File > Export to QuickTime ... (CMD+E)

2.1.2 Export Settings for the Apple Intermediate Codec for PAL DVDs

Choose the AIC for Compression (video) and Uncompressed for Sound.​

The following quote is taken from similar threads:

Mroogle would have answered that question for you many and plenty of times.
There is MacTheRipper, RipIt and Fairmount to rip (copy the DVD to your HDD while removing the copyright protection) the video DVD to your HDD. Then there is Handbrake to convert the ripped DVD to a file like .mkv, .mp4 and .avi with MPEG-4 codecs like Xvid and H264, which are not meant for editing though, as they don't store every frame of the video (video DVDs use MPEG-2 as a codec, which also only stores every 15th frame and the frames in between are approximations). After that you can use MPEG-Streamclip to convert the compressed video file to a .mov file encoded with the DV codec (or AIC - Apple Intermediate Codec), a codec iMovie can read and is meant for editing, as it stores every frame and takes up approx. 220MB/min. You can also skip Handbrake and use MPEG-Streamclip for converting directly to a DV/AIC encoded .mov file from the ripped video DVD, but you need the QuickTime MPEG-2 component (19USD) to be able to access the MPEG-2 encoded video DVD footage via MPEG-Streamclip.But it would save one encoding process.
OR
In order for you to edit your videos stored on the video DVD, you need to rip it via MacTheRipper/RipIt/Fairmount,ifthe video DVD is copy protected (all commercial video DVDs are). If it is not copy protected, you might be just able to copy the Video_TS folder onto your HDD.Now there are two ways to convert the MPEG-2 compressed footage.
1. Get Handbrakeandconvert the footage to an .mp4/.m4v file with the H264 codec. Furtherreading on Handbrake on transcodding video for iMovie. Then use MPEG Streamclip to convert/export the .avi or .mp4/.m4v file to a QuickTime (.mov - CMD+E) file encoded with the DV codec or the Apple Intermediate Codec (AIC) or to a DV file (CMD+OPTION/ALT+E). Both, .mov and .dv, can be read by iMovie.
2. Get the QuickTimeMPEG-2Playback Component from the Apple Online Store for 20USD, open MPEG Streamclip, in there go to File > Open DVD and select your Video_TS folder on your HDD. Then either export it as QuickTime with the DV codec or AIC or as DV file as explained in step 1. This saves you one encoding process, therefore time and image quality loss.
Screenshots:
MPEG Streamclip export options

Handbrake export as .mp4 - example

 

[scooterguitar]

Got handbrake, converting movie to mp4 format now, as that is my only option other than mk4, is this correct?
Then use streamclip to convert?
This is for school.

 

[KeithPratt]

Got handbrake, converting movie to mp4 format now, as that is my only option other than mk4, is this correct?
Then use streamclip to convert?
This is for school.

Yep. Couple of suggestions for Hankbrake: set an Average Bitrate of 6000, and under Picture Settings make sure that Crop is off and the Output dimensions match the Source.

 

[yarabella]

iMovie support DV, HDV, MPEG-2, MPEG-4 and even AVCHD. If you want to import DVD to iMovie for editing, you just need a right DVD converter to convert DVD to iMovie mp4/mov, then you can put the converted video into imovie program.For free you have handbrake, If you want to pay there is, I advice you DVD to iMovie Converter for Mac, it works pretty well. my friends recommend it to me, If you are interested in it, you can free download it to have a try too.