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Mac Digital Video Conversion/Compressor Guru/Gurette Sought
I’m converting Tivo-recorded DVD’s for editing for my personal reference library. I’ve been doing this in iMovie successfully, although to make the process more efficient I recently bought FC Studio so I could do batch compressing of the files I eventually end up loading to the web. The bottleneck I’m encountering at this point is not knowing the best practices to maintain the integrity of the original DVD recording while converting it to a file I can edit in FC. What I’m currently doing is converting the DVD’s to MP4’s and then importing them into iMovie. iMovie then automatically converts the file into a .mov file. Apparently this automatic conversion doesn’t work with FC, so I’m using MPEG Streamclip to convert my .mp4 files into .mov files. Here’s where I have a couple of problems – obviously I’m adding an additional generation compromising the DV. Also, I’m seeing a “stutter effect” occur when I import the new .mov file into FC. So, before I begin editing I’m faced with 2nd generation, stuttering clips to work with. I’m also running into some disks that seem to resist conversion. I don’t know what to do with this either, but I’d like to include these disks in my library. If you feel you can offer help via phone, email or by visiting me to walk through the various workflows I’m trying to establish I’d like to hear from you and I’ll be pleased to pay you so I can get back to work quickly. Please email me first so I know you’ve read this and we’re on the same page. Thank you!
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7 Replies
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karl,
Get yourself a DVD recorder and make your life easy.
DRW
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Hi David,
I’m not sure what you’re suggesting. I have an iMac G5 with a DVD reader included.
Karl
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Karl,
I’m suggesting that you play out of your Tivi into a standalone DVD recorder, thereby relieving yourself of the chores of encoding and re-encoding, etc. It sounds like the stuff you’re doing is for home viewing, so its hard to understand why you would want to take so many steps in the process. With a DVD recorder you could simply pause your show on Tivo at the very beginning, hit record on the DVD recorder, and the hit play on the Tivo. This way you end up with a very high quality DVD in real time with very little work and no encoding time or issues.
DRW
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David,
You’re making a lot of unfounded assumptions.
Karl
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Well Karl, my “unfounded assumptions” are founded upon what you wrote originally. So, excuse me if I have somehow misconstrued your statement, “I’m converting Tivo-recorded DVD’s for editing for my personal reference library.”
DRW
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Karl,
Check out DVDxDV Pro, a software DVD extractor. I recently purchased it for a project in which a client wanted me to produce a DVD of material edited down from a previous DVD he had made.
https://www.dvdxdv.com/DVDxDV.overview.htm
The software works quickly and transparently, making it very easy to re-edit DVD material in Final Cut Pro or other applications. It’s worth every penny.
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Thank you Alan. I appreciate the suggestion.
Karl
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