Help extracting clips

[klg111]

I just installed Roxio Popcorn 4 on my Macbook Pro running OS 10.5.8. I am trying to extract clips from DVDs I created of home VHS movies. I want to create a video file of selected clips from multiple DVDs, then burn new DVDs of the combined selected clips.

 

I'm trying to follow instructions in the thread "How to extract DVD clips and audio with Popcorn 4" but am confused. Step 4 says "When the DVD-Video folder is dragged into the project, you will see the Extract DVD Clip dialog," but I don't see that. Instead when I click on the video file I dragged into the project, Toast comes up. I am able to use the Clip Start and End markers to mark the clips I want in the media browser, but have a couple of questions:

 

1. How do I add the clips to my project in Popcorn? (I don't see a + button anywhere.)

 

2. I don't need to extract audio and video separately, right?

 

3. Do I need to select and add one clip at a time? I can select more than one clip using the Clip Start and End markers, but will they all be added to my project when I figure out how to do that?

 

4. Also it took a very long time (15-20 minutes?) for the contents of my hour-long DVD to copy into the project window. Is this typical?

 

Thanks in advance. (Obviously I'm new at this!)

[klg111]

I just installed Roxio Popcorn 4 on my Macbook Pro running OS 10.5.8.

 

I went back to try again and got the message that I needed to upgrade to 4.0.1, which I did. That gives me the Extract DVD Clip dialogue window that I was missing and also loaded my DVD in much faster.

 

So never mind on those questions.

 

But another question: As I am reviewing the DVD contents in the Extract Clip window, the video keeps stopping, though the audio continues. I have to move the cursor forward to get the video playing again, but it makes it really difficult to select exactly the clips I want. Is it something I'm doing, or a recognized problem? Anything I can do about it?

 

Thanks.

 

[klg111]

Unhappy. Was working on clipping files from various DVDs for a Convert Video Files project as per instructions in "How to extract DVD Clips and audio with Popcorn 4" above. Still having the problem that the video keeps stopping that I noted in my last post. But basically getting it to work as described. About my eighth clip in, Popcorn 4 hung up while copying a DVD into the project window. Was not responding for a long time & I had to Force Quit. Of course I lost all of the work I had done.

 

I am hesitant to start again because why would I figure I'll get to the end of my project without it hanging up again?

 

So the question: Can I save these files periodically as I go? My intent is to combine multiple clips from multiple DVDs to burn onto a single new DVD. If I clip and save one at a time, is there anything I need to know about combining them back to burn to one disc?

 

Popcorn 4's instructions are pretty meager. Hoping to get some help from somewhere!

 

Thanks

[tsantee]

Unhappy. Was working on clipping files from various DVDs for a Convert Video Files project as per instructions in "How to extract DVD Clips and audio with Popcorn 4" above. Still having the problem that the video keeps stopping that I noted in my last post. But basically getting it to work as described. About my eighth clip in, Popcorn 4 hung up while copying a DVD into the project window. Was not responding for a long time & I had to Force Quit. Of course I lost all of the work I had done.

 

I am hesitant to start again because why would I figure I'll get to the end of my project without it hanging up again?

 

So the question: Can I save these files periodically as I go? My intent is to combine multiple clips from multiple DVDs to burn onto a single new DVD. If I clip and save one at a time, is there anything I need to know about combining them back to burn to one disc?

 

Popcorn 4's instructions are pretty meager. Hoping to get some help from somewhere!

 

Thanks

I'm presuming that your source DVD was recorded on a standalone DVD recorder. There is a time-code breaks issue with many of those recorders. My guess is those time-code breaks are the reason for Popcorn freezing the video at certain intervals. There are two different approaches you can try.

 

One approach is to use the Popcorn Media Browser to extract the clips rather than the method you are now using. Choose DVD Video as the format in the Copy window. Now choose DVD with the top button of the Media Browser. If your source DVD is inserted you should see some text in the Browser window. Double-click on that text to display the video titles recorded on the DVD. (If you double-click on titles you'll see a list of chapters within the title). Drag the content you want from the browser to the main window. You will see an edit window where you can select the portion(s) of the video you want to extract. When you're done selecting your clips click OK. Popcorn extracts the video (with audio). Do the same with other DVDs you want in the compilation.

 

Next, prepare the menu the way you want and choose either Save as Disc Image (if you want to preview the result with DVD Player before burning a DVD) or click the red button to burn the DVD. If you choose Disc Image you can select it with the Image File setting to mount it. When it appears mounted in the Finder DVD Player opens and will play the disc image. Don't have a DVD inserted when you do this or DVD Player will play the inserted disc instead of the mounted disc image. The disc image is burned to disc using the Image File setting in Popcorn.

 

The other approach is needed if that one doesn't work. It involves using the freeware application MPEG Streamclip to repair the time-code breaks in the video before adding them to Popcorn. Although MPEG Streamclip is free you'll need Apple's $20 QuickTime MPEG 2 Playback Component for it to work. I'll explain this if the first approach doesn't do the job.

[klg111]

Thanks for the detailed response! Unfortunately, the first method (using the media browser) still resulted in the video stopping. So if you could explain the second, I'd appreciate it.

 

Also, I came up with my own trial and error method of doing what I want to do. Could you please comment or let me know if there's a better way?

 

1. I follow instructions in "How To Extract DVD Clips and Audio with Popcorn 4" to select any clip I want from a particular DVD. After I add them to the Convert Video Files project, I click the red save button and convert them to .dv files. I save them to a folder in my Movies folder. I am going through all my DVDs doing this for each. After I get all the clips I want, do I select DVD video under the copy menu and drag my saved .dv files into the window, then burn the DVD?

 

I tried a sample and it seemed to work, but not sure if this is the best/easiest way.

 

Thanks in advance!

 

[tsantee]

Thanks for the detailed response! Unfortunately, the first method (using the media browser) still resulted in the video stopping. So if you could explain the second, I'd appreciate it.

 

Also, I came up with my own trial and error method of doing what I want to do. Could you please comment or let me know if there's a better way?

 

1. I follow instructions in "How To Extract DVD Clips and Audio with Popcorn 4" to select any clip I want from a particular DVD. After I add them to the Convert Video Files project, I click the red save button and convert them to .dv files. I save them to a folder in my Movies folder. I am going through all my DVDs doing this for each. After I get all the clips I want, do I select DVD video under the copy menu and drag my saved .dv files into the window, then burn the DVD?

 

I tried a sample and it seemed to work, but not sure if this is the best/easiest way.

 

Thanks in advance!

While it is okay to convert to DV and then have Toast re-encode back to MPEG 2 for DVD there is a slight loss in quality due to the conversions and a lot of time spent that otherwise isn't necessary. It works, though, and that makes it worthwhile.

 

Here is how to use MPEG Streamclip to remove the timecode breaks: Insert the source DVD and open it using the Open command in MPEG Streamclip. You'll be asked to choose a specific title if there is more than one on the DVD. You'll also want to open the entire video stream, if you're asked. Streamclip may alert you that there could be timecode breaks and ask if you want to fix them now. Choose yes. You'll be asked if you want a quick fix or to search every frame. The quick fix is all you need. When that is done you can also use Streamclip to trim out sections of the video you don't want. When you are done choose Convert to MPEG and save the video file.

 

The saved mpeg video can now be added to the Popcorn window with DVD-video selected as the format. Here you can create the menu the way you want. You can choose the frame that appears as the menu button by clicking on the thumbnail image. A scroll bar appears below the image that you can drag to select available frames for the menu button.

 

When you are done preparing the menu you can choose Save as Disc Image of click the burn button. I prefer to Save as Disc Image and then select that using the Image File setting. This mounts the disc image so it can be previewed in DVD Player. Be sure to eject any inserted DVD before mounting the disc image or DVD Player will show the inserted disc rather than the mounted disc image.

 

If the content of the disc image is too much to fit a single-layer disc, Popcorn will do additional fit-to-DVD compression should you want to burn it to a single-layer DVD.

[klg111]

Thanks again Eugene. I realize you are not my personal instructor, but could use your continued help! I downloaded MPEG Streamclip & purchased & downloaded Apple Quicktime MPEG2. I fixed timecode breaks (although it took quite a few minutes and the question was a little different: gave me a choice to check or uncheck "Do not skip any frame;" I unchecked it). However, when I select File & Convert to MPEG, I get a message "Error: Can't create the MPEG file."

 

Tried to look it up in Help and saw "The following commands are available only if the source stream is in MPEG-1 or MPEG-2 format." Is that the problem? or something else?

 

arghh ... I really appreciate your help!

[tsantee]

Thanks again Eugene. I realize you are not my personal instructor, but could use your continued help! I downloaded MPEG Streamclip & purchased & downloaded Apple Quicktime MPEG2. I fixed timecode breaks (although it took quite a few minutes and the question was a little different: gave me a choice to check or uncheck "Do not skip any frame;" I unchecked it). However, when I select File & Convert to MPEG, I get a message "Error: Can't create the MPEG file."

 

Tried to look it up in Help and saw "The following commands are available only if the source stream is in MPEG-1 or MPEG-2 format." Is that the problem? or something else?

 

arghh ... I really appreciate your help!

I'm wondering if you used the DV video instead of the original DVD in MPEG Streamclip. I've never seen that error before. The video on the DVD already is in MPEG 2 format so Streamclip is merely copying it from the DVD with the fixes as an mpeg file on the hard drive. I don't know why that would cause any problem.

 

If you did use the original DVD as the source in MPEG Streamclip then a workaround may be to drag the VIDEO_TS folder from the DVD to your hard drive. You can then open the video in MPEG Streamclip by choosing Open DVD and pointing to the VIDEO_TS folder. Maybe Streamclip was having trouble copying from the DVD disc.

[klg111]

Tried it again making sure I used the DVD & got the same thing. Here's the clip stream info, if that tells you anything:

 

Stream: VTS_02_1.VOB

Path: /Volumes/DVD_VIDEO_RECORDER/VIDEO_TS/VTS_02_1.VOB

Type: VOB program stream

 

Duration: 0:57:58

Data Size: 3.87 GB

Bit Rate: 9.55 Mbps

 

Video Tracks:

224 MPEG-2, 720 × 480, 4:3, 29.97 fps, 9.10 Mbps, upper field first

 

Audio Tracks:

128 AC3 2/0, 48 kHz, 256 kbps

 

Stream Files:

VTS_02_1.VOB (1023.53 MB)

VTS_02_2.VOB (1023.51 MB)

VTS_02_3.VOB (1023.53 MB)

VTS_02_4.VOB (891.23 MB)

 

Dragging the VIDEO-TS folder takes forever to copy & I have lots of DVDs to do, so probably not practical. If I can't figure out why Streamclip isn't converting it, I guess I'll stick with my first option (.dv conversion). How much quality degradation would you estimate would occur?

 

thanks again!

[tsantee]

Tried it again making sure I used the DVD & got the same thing. Here's the clip stream info, if that tells you anything:

 

Stream: VTS_02_1.VOB

Path: /Volumes/DVD_VIDEO_RECORDER/VIDEO_TS/VTS_02_1.VOB

Type: VOB program stream

 

Duration: 0:57:58

Data Size: 3.87 GB

Bit Rate: 9.55 Mbps

 

Video Tracks:

224 MPEG-2, 720 × 480, 4:3, 29.97 fps, 9.10 Mbps, upper field first

 

Audio Tracks:

128 AC3 2/0, 48 kHz, 256 kbps

 

Stream Files:

VTS_02_1.VOB (1023.53 MB)

VTS_02_2.VOB (1023.51 MB)

VTS_02_3.VOB (1023.53 MB)

VTS_02_4.VOB (891.23 MB)

 

Dragging the VIDEO-TS folder takes forever to copy & I have lots of DVDs to do, so probably not practical. If I can't figure out why Streamclip isn't converting it, I guess I'll stick with my first option (.dv conversion). How much quality degradation would you estimate would occur?

 

thanks again!

The only thing I notice is that the video was encoded at a very high bit rate. Some DVD players can stutter when playing back video encoded at that high a bit rate. Maybe this is the problem with Popcorn's editor, but that's just a wild guess. It doesn't explain, however, why MPEG Streamclip isn't saving the video. One thing I thought of is it might be trying to save it to the DVD rather than to your hard drive. Have you checked the destination when choosing Convert to MPEG?

 

The loss in picture quality is not significant using such a high-bit rate source and converting to DV which is also high quality. I doubt if you'll notice any difference.

[klg111]

The more I learn the more I realize I don't know! I guess when I decided to record my tapes to DVD at slow speed (figuring I'd get the best quality) that meant I was recording using a high bit rate? I'm trying to put together some DVDs in time for Xmas, so hope they don't end up not playing smoothly in others' DVD players. oh well ...

 

Two more questions (at least for now!): I went ahead and saved a couple of clips as image files, then tried mounting them and viewing them (worked well); then tried making a DVD with them (just to try this method & compare).

 

1. It took even longer to save the clips as image files than it did to convert them to DV files. Where would the time savings be doing it this way?

 

2. When I went to drag saved image files from Finder to the Copy DVD-Video window I got a message that they were an "unsupported format and cannot be imported." They're .toast files. Any idea what that's about? I'm guessing I did something wrong?

 

Once again - thank you!

 

 

 

[tsantee]

The more I learn the more I realize I don't know! I guess when I decided to record my tapes to DVD at slow speed (figuring I'd get the best quality) that meant I was recording using a high bit rate? I'm trying to put together some DVDs in time for Xmas, so hope they don't end up not playing smoothly in others' DVD players. oh well ...

 

Two more questions (at least for now!): I went ahead and saved a couple of clips as image files, then tried mounting them and viewing them (worked well); then tried making a DVD with them (just to try this method & compare).

 

1. It took even longer to save the clips as image files than it did to convert them to DV files. Where would the time savings be doing it this way?

 

2. When I went to drag saved image files from Finder to the Copy DVD-Video window I got a message that they were an "unsupported format and cannot be imported." They're .toast files. Any idea what that's about? I'm guessing I did something wrong?

 

Once again - thank you!

The last question is the easiest so I'll start there. Choose the Image File setting in the Copy window to burn the .toast file to DVD.

 

Your reference to the time it took to encode the video and make the disc image: I'm presuming the source was the DV video, correct? The problem with converting video to other formats (in your case from MPEG 2 to DV and back to MPEG 2) is the time it takes. What needs to work is the direct editing of the video from your DVDs so you don't need to convert the format. We've gone through that and I don't know why it doesn't work with MPEG Streamclip. Instead of choosing Convert to MPEG... in Streamclip try choosing Save As... . Make certain you choose a destination on your hard drive. If you can save it in this way (as a .vob file) Popcorn should be able to read it.

 

If you are successful in saving the repaired .vob file with Streamclip, you can still fit more than one hour of video to a single-layer disc without needing to have Popcorn re-encode the video. Choose Save as disc image. If Popcorn reports it is encoding instead of multiplexing, stop the process and go to Popcorn's custom encoder settings window (you get there by clicking the More button and then several other buttons that you'll figure out). In the custom encoder settings window choose Never next to re-encode. Now go back to save as disc image. If Popcorn continues to report Encoding instead of Multiplexing then Toast determined that re-encoding is needed to meet the video DVD spec. Just let it do it. If it says Multiplexing (which is much faster than encoding) then it will create a .toast image file that is too big to fit a single-layer DVD. When you choose that .toast image file using the Image File setting in Popcorn and click the burn button, Popcorn will "requantize" the video (which also is faster than encoding and better quality, too) to fit the single layer DVD and burn the disc.