To begin with, Thank you in advance to everyone who does help me out with my dilemma. I have to make a documentary that involves film clips. I had heard that it is illegal even for educational purposes to clip out scenes and rip DVDs. Does anyone know if there are exceptions to this rule? Furthermore, I need a program capable of clipping chapters (Specifically) from DVD movies. I won't need to rip full DVDs. So essentially, I need a program that is effective and fast, that gives the option to rip single chapters from DVDs that I will then need to easily collaborate with Final Cut Express 4? Any recommendations? I keep hearing recommendations for Hand Brake, Mac The Ripper, and RipIt. Which is the fastest, best quality, most user friendly? Are their any words of wisdom or forewarnings I should know about these programs? Thanks again.
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Which is the Best DVD Ripping Software for Me
- Thread starter RodTheBod
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MacTheRipper is best for ripping entire DVDs, RipIt is an alternative, though it's not free. They output in DVD VIDEO_TS format, which can be used by HandBrake.
Handbrake can rip individual chapters easily from either DVDs or from DVDs copied using MTR, and rips to a standard video format, and needs VLC installed if you want to rip protected discs.
Handbrake can rip individual chapters easily from either DVDs or from DVDs copied using MTR, and rips to a standard video format, and needs VLC installed if you want to rip protected discs.
Only if your a forum member of RipDifferent.com
You can find everything there about MTR 4.0.
Ok, well I downloaded Hand Brake and successfully ripped a chapter in the Mp4 format. However it seems that Final Cut Express doesn't recognize or accept this format. What is my recourse? i tried ripping an avi format of the same chapter and when I tried to play it, no video appeared. Can anyone help?
Yes I tried that process, and every time I would attempt to import the DVD clip a pop-up would say that it doesn't recognize the file, I think I have to convert it into another format. Has anyone had this same issue, and found a solution?
By transcoding the ripped vob you went from mpeg-2 to mpeg-4, and then tried to import that into Final Cut for editing. MPEG-4 is not an editing-friendly format.
Since you only need short clips, I would use Fairmount, a program that decrypts and then mounts commercial DVDs as a regular drive. Then you can copy only the vob(s) you need. You can use Mac the Ripper to rip the whole movie if you like. Then use something like ffmpegx or MPEG Streamclip to convert to an editable format, like DV. Import it into your Final Cut project.
If your a student I think you can use copyrighted material in your research. This counts for written material but I'm not sure about movies.
This is the "fair use" doctrine. I'm not a lawyer, but my understanding is that it is not considered copyright infringement to make use of small portions of copyrighted material if it serves an educational or research purpose that is non-commercial in nature. Under the fair use doctrine, utilizing small clips of movies in an original documentary that will not be sold for commercial purposes should be okay.
However, there is also the issue of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, which makes it illegal to circumvent encryption schemes used in commercial DVDs. So, breaking the CSS encryption to copy even small clips of films is illegal.
I'm not advocating for one position or the other, just stating things as I think they are. I would say that if it is for a student project, then the reality is that no copyright holder is a) going to know about any possible infringement, or b) going to bother to do anything about it anyway.
So, good luck with your documentary!
I appreciate all the help and advice, Currently my procedure is to rip specific chapters of the DVDs using hand brake, and then convert them to the DV format using MPEG Streamclip. The process is a little slow, but I have not found a program that will do both: clip individual chapters directly into a Final Cut Express friendly format. Unless this Fairmount program would do the job well. Does anyone recommend Fairmount? Additionally, I was concerned that the downloading of all this freeware: Hand Brake, VLC, MPEG Stream Clip, and other trial and error programs would give me a virus. Should this be a concern of mine, are there any known viruses for these ripping software? I would hate to put a virus on my mac, I don't normally download software off the internet. Anyways thanks again, much appreciated, now my only obstacle is to figure out how to use Final Cut Express proficiently.