Converting analog to digital

[Evergreen]

Before buying Toast 8, I called Roxio and asked if I could convert an analog DVD to a digital DVD using Toast 8 and was assured I could and so, I bought the software and now want to do the conversion to use it in my Mac iMovie. I had an old family 16mm film transfered to a VHS tape and then had the VHS tape transferred to a DVD so I could import it to iMovie; however after the transfer was done, and paid for, I was told that it was an analog transfer. I can't import analog into iMovie. They recommended I use Toast 8 for this. I read the user guide, but I couldn't find the instructions on how to do this. Now that I have Toast 8 installed, how do I do this?

[Evergreen]

The problem is that Toast is showing there are zero titles on the DVD. So it doesn't see anything to import. This is strange because you say you can play it on your Mac.

 

Let's try it again with a difference. In the Finder open the icon of your mounted DVD. You should see a folder titled VIDEO_TS. Drag that folder to the desktop. When it is finished copying eject the DVD. Now go back to Toast and the Media Browser. Does the browser now show any titles? If so, proceed with the extraction. If not, I'll think more about this after breakfast.

 

By the way, when you open the mounted icon of the first DVD in the Finder, what kind of files are inside? It may be that we need to use it instead.

 

When I opened the first disk made by the media company there was nothing there - 0 items and it is completely blank; however, when I insert the disk the DVD Player will open the film and the movie will play with no problem. Opening the second disk which was done by Wolf/Ritz Camera co, there is a VIDEO TS file. I dragged it to the desk top and it copied 8 files, I ejected the disk. I opened Toast and Media Browser and there were no titles. In the Media Browser, instead of choosing DVD at the top, I opened Files and then opened Desktop and there appeared what I just copied from the disk. I clicked the + button and in the content area there appeared listed VTS_01_1 and a popup window that said : " 5 files are in an unsupported format and cannot be imported" (on the desktop, the icon says that there are 8 files?) I clicked on the OK button and the popup widow closed, leaving the VTS_01_1 file. Please have a hearty breakfast. Thanks once again.

[tsantee]

When I opened the first disk made by the media company there was nothing there - 0 items and it is completely blank; however, when I insert the disk the DVD Player will open the film and the movie will play with no problem. Opening the second disk which was done by Wolf/Ritz Camera co, there is a VIDEO TS file. I dragged it to the desk top and it copied 8 files, I ejected the disk. I opened Toast and Media Browser and there were no titles. In the Media Browser, instead of choosing DVD at the top, I opened Files and then opened Desktop and there appeared what I just copied from the disk. I clicked the + button and in the content area there appeared listed VTS_01_1 and a popup window that said : " 5 files are in an unsupported format and cannot be imported" (on the desktop, the icon says that there are 8 files?) I clicked on the OK button and the popup widow closed, leaving the VTS_01_1 file. Please have a hearty breakfast. Thanks once again.

It's a good thing I enjoy a good mystery. I must go ponder this.

[Evergreen]

Well, pondering hasn't done much.

 

You say both discs play with DVD Player. I'm presuming they both have the same menu. If so, the Wolf/Ritz DVD is merely a copy of the first one. They did nothing to the video itself. DVD Player can only play video that's within an authored VIDEO_TS folder. That means both discs have that.

 

What is baffling is why the full contents of those discs aren't appearing in the Finder. Because they don't show in the Finder Toast doesn't see the contents either. This could mean that somehow these folders and files were designated to be invisible. That makes no sense to me. More likely is that your Mac is having some problem with the Finder reading the disc contents. I suggest getting and running DiskWarrior or at least running the disc repair in Disk Utility to see if that fixes this issue.

 

If you have a friend with a Mac or even a PC try placing those discs in their computers to see if the contents are visible.

 

After breakfast this morning, I took my DVD back to the media co. and explained to the person what was happening He inserted the disk in his computer and no file showed up, then he clicked a couple of more times and viola, the files appeared. He said that the files were not put on the disk and that is the reason they won't register. I asked why and he said that they wern't instructed to include the files and that it would be an additional charge. I suppose he was using equipment I don't have, or maybe this is one way of getting more money out of people - I don't know. He suggested that I play the disk in a DVD player, hook it up to a digital camcorder and with a firewire export it to my computer. He had this very same hook up going on another computer. Someone suggested that I could do this if I downloaded MPEG Streamclip 1.8 and Mac MP4 Converter and used them to do what Toast 8 won't do. I looked this up in the internet and it reads very well. Do you know anything about this? I guess that my best bet will be to go through a camcorder - out of a DVD player, into the camcorder, firewire into my computer. I really do appreciate the time you have given me trying to solve my problem - thanks.

[Evergreen]

Before buying Toast 8, I called Roxio and asked if I could convert an analog DVD to a digital DVD using Toast 8 and was assured I could and so, I bought the software and now want to do the conversion to use it in my Mac iMovie. I had an old family 16mm film transfered to a VHS tape and then had the VHS tape transferred to a DVD so I could import it to iMovie; however after the transfer was done, and paid for, I was told that it was an analog transfer. I can't import analog into iMovie. They recommended I use Toast 8 for this. I read the user guide, but I couldn't find the instructions on how to do this. Now that I have Toast 8 installed, how do I do this?

 

Thank you tsantee for your instructions. I must not have done something right because I can't make it work. I inserted the the DVD in the computer, when it showed up on the desktop, it opened automatically and I closed it. Launced Toast 8. In the formats and settings area, I chose Video and under Video, I clicked on DVD Video. Then from Window I opened the Media Browser, selected DVD in the top button and in the space just below it, All Discs came up, and in the space below that, the DVD video came up. I highlighted this and then I clicked the +button at the bottom of the Media Browser Nothing happened. What did I do wrong? Why won't Toast extract from the disk? Will appreciate any clarification. Thanks

[tsantee]

After breakfast this morning, I took my DVD back to the media co. and explained to the person what was happening He inserted the disk in his computer and no file showed up, then he clicked a couple of more times and viola, the files appeared. He said that the files were not put on the disk and that is the reason they won't register. I asked why and he said that they wern't instructed to include the files and that it would be an additional charge. I suppose he was using equipment I don't have, or maybe this is one way of getting more money out of people - I don't know. He suggested that I play the disk in a DVD player, hook it up to a digital camcorder and with a firewire export it to my computer. He had this very same hook up going on another computer. Someone suggested that I could do this if I downloaded MPEG Streamclip 1.8 and Mac MP4 Converter and used them to do what Toast 8 won't do. I looked this up in the internet and it reads very well. Do you know anything about this? I guess that my best bet will be to go through a camcorder - out of a DVD player, into the camcorder, firewire into my computer. I really do appreciate the time you have given me trying to solve my problem - thanks.

I'm very familiar with MPEG Streamclip. However, I think you'll have the same problem with it if the files don't appear in the Finder. The suggestion to play the DVD into a camcorder for transfer to the Mac via Firewire is excellent.

[tsantee]

Thank you tsantee for your instructions. I must not have done something right because I can't make it work. I inserted the the DVD in the computer, when it showed up on the desktop, it opened automatically and I closed it. Launced Toast 8. In the formats and settings area, I chose Video and under Video, I clicked on DVD Video. Then from Window I opened the Media Browser, selected DVD in the top button and in the space just below it, All Discs came up, and in the space below that, the DVD video came up. I highlighted this and then I clicked the +button at the bottom of the Media Browser Nothing happened. What did I do wrong? Why won't Toast extract from the disk? Will appreciate any clarification. Thanks

I'm not sure what didn't go right. When the DVD is selected in the media browser some text appears in the browser's window. Double-clicking on that text (or using the button below the top button) causes the DVD's titles to appear in the browser window with small thumbnail images. If there is only one title on the DVD there will be only one thumbnail image. Since selecting and clicking the + button didn't work, what happens when you drag the title from the browser to the Video window? Make sure you have DVD video selected as the format for the Video window and not DVD video from VIDEO_TS.

[tsantee]

Your DVD is digital. They all are. It was created from an analog source--the VHS tape. The problem you are experiencing is the video is MPEG 2 encoded and iMovie cannot read an MPEG 2 file. Here's what you need to do.

 

Insert the DVD and open Toast. Choose the Video window. Choose DVD video as the format.

 

In the Media Browser choose DVD with the top button. Your DVD will appear in the browser window. Select it and click the + button. Toast extracts all video titles from the DVD. (You can choose specific titles or even chapters on a DVD by using the button just below the DVD button, but that shouldn't be necessary in your case).

 

When the extraction is complete you can eject the disc if you want because it isn't used any more. Now select the title (or titles if there are more than one) in the Video window so they are highlighted in blue. Click the Export button at the bottom of the Toast window.

 

In the window that appears click on the button next to Format: and choose either DV or MPEG 4. I prefer DV but that takes more hard drive space. If hard drive space is tight choose MPEG 4 instead. Click the Save button and choose a location for the exported video.

 

When this is done you will have a video that can be imported to iMovie.

 

When you quit Toast the video that was extracted from the DVD is automatically deleted. After you import the exported DV or MPEG 4 movie into iMovie you can trash that file as well because a copy is written into the iMovie Project file.

[Evergreen]

I'm not sure what didn't go right. When the DVD is selected in the media browser some text appears in the browser's window. Double-clicking on that text (or using the button below the top button) causes the DVD's titles to appear in the browser window with small thumbnail images. If there is only one title on the DVD there will be only one thumbnail image. Since selecting and clicking the + button didn't work, what happens when you drag the title from the browser to the Video window? Make sure you have DVD video selected as the format for the Video window and not DVD video from VIDEO_TS.

 

Thanks. Started sequence of steps again making sure that DVD video was selected as the format I opened Media Browser, chose DVD at top and just below this is All Disks and in the area just below this appears the disk DVD - Video and has a 0 Titles. I clicked the +button and nothing happened again. I dragged the title from the browser to the Video window and it didn't show up. I dragged it from the desktop to the Video area and it froze and I had to force quit Toast.

 

A history of this "Mess". I have an old family movie on 16mm film, and had it copied to VHS. It was recorded on a professional 1/2 inch tape. Years later I took this tape to a media company to have it transferred to DVD. They transferred it as an analog onto a DVD disk because, they said, they were unable to put it into digital format. It's titled: Sonata Volume DVD Video. I played it on my computer and it looks just fine. I wanted to use this in iMovie but it wouldn't import (because, as you said in your first answer, it was a MPEG 2 and iMovie does not support MPEG 2 -- something I did not know at the time). I took this disk to a Wolf/Ritz camera store that do a lot of transferring and they told me that they would transfer it from the analog to digital. I assumed they did -- I trusted them. Now I have two disks and neither will open in the Video window. I did try dragging the disk Wolf made directly from the desktop to the Video window and it said that it is in an unsupported format and could not be imported and showed up as a VTS.

[tsantee]

Thanks. Started sequence of steps again making sure that DVD video was selected as the format I opened Media Browser, chose DVD at top and just below this is All Disks and in the area just below this appears the disk DVD - Video and has a 0 Titles. I clicked the +button and nothing happened again. I dragged the title from the browser to the Video window and it didn't show up. I dragged it from the desktop to the Video area and it froze and I had to force quit Toast.

 

A history of this "Mess". I have an old family movie on 16mm film, and had it copied to VHS. It was recorded on a professional 1/2 inch tape. Years later I took this tape to a media company to have it transferred to DVD. They transferred it as an analog onto a DVD disk because, they said, they were unable to put it into digital format. It's titled: Sonata Volume DVD Video. I played it on my computer and it looks just fine. I wanted to use this in iMovie but it wouldn't import (because, as you said in your first answer, it was a MPEG 2 and iMovie does not support MPEG 2 -- something I did not know at the time). I took this disk to a Wolf/Ritz camera store that do a lot of transferring and they told me that they would transfer it from the analog to digital. I assumed they did -- I trusted them. Now I have two disks and neither will open in the Video window. I did try dragging the disk Wolf made directly from the desktop to the Video window and it said that it is in an unsupported format and could not be imported and showed up as a VTS.

The problem is that Toast is showing there are zero titles on the DVD. So it doesn't see anything to import. This is strange because you say you can play it on your Mac.

 

Let's try it again with a difference. In the Finder open the icon of your mounted DVD. You should see a folder titled VIDEO_TS. Drag that folder to the desktop. When it is finished copying eject the DVD. Now go back to Toast and the Media Browser. Does the browser now show any titles? If so, proceed with the extraction. If not, I'll think more about this after breakfast.

 

By the way, when you open the mounted icon of the first DVD in the Finder, what kind of files are inside? It may be that we need to use it instead.

[tsantee]

Well, pondering hasn't done much.

 

You say both discs play with DVD Player. I'm presuming they both have the same menu. If so, the Wolf/Ritz DVD is merely a copy of the first one. They did nothing to the video itself. DVD Player can only play video that's within an authored VIDEO_TS folder. That means both discs have that.

 

What is baffling is why the full contents of those discs aren't appearing in the Finder. Because they don't show in the Finder Toast doesn't see the contents either. This could mean that somehow these folders and files were designated to be invisible. That makes no sense to me. More likely is that your Mac is having some problem with the Finder reading the disc contents. I suggest getting and running DiskWarrior or at least running the disc repair in Disk Utility to see if that fixes this issue.

 

If you have a friend with a Mac or even a PC try placing those discs in their computers to see if the contents are visible.