Blog

Archive for the ‘Ripping’ Category

Editing at the consumer and pro-sumer level

Sunday, June 1st, 2008

Following is an actual email thread from one of our contacts who is mac-based.

Dear Kirk at BetaSPtoDVDcom,

Does final cut pro or final cut studio output to flash format for the web?

I have a client who wants a promo video to do double duty--display on the
web AND to play on DVD at trade shows and such.

But since I have yet to get the software, I thought you may know--maybe even
point me to pro vs. studio--vice versa--or even another video editing
solution.

I'm simply not happy with the image quality of iMovie.  I'm guessing the
slicker programs will produce TV-quality images.

Also, is it possible to grab footage from DVD movies and use them in Final
Cut?  Y'know--grab some war footage from Saving Private Ryan, or something?
Or a full moon shot from a Werewolf movie?

S'all fer now.  Enjoy the rest of the weekend.

Joe

___________

Hi Joe,
First of all, iMovie is TOTALLY broadcast quality. If you are not 
getting great quality, then you either have low resolution source 
footage, have an old version of iMovie, or have are using some incorrect 
settings. In fact, iMovie even supports HD!!! So I wouldn't spend the 
money for Final Cut solely based on the broadcast quality issue.

Final Cut can make .FLC files, but it is not great at it and the files 
are usually bigger than they should be. For making Flash files, I sometimes use a 
program called Sorensen Squeeze and it works pretty well.

As for ripping footage from a copy protected DVD, you are going to need 
a DEMUXING program. Then you are going to need 
a DVD ripping program like Cinamatize. 
Cinematize is a great tool and we use it all the time. It can rip any DVD that is 
not copy protected. If the DVD is copy protected, then you have to start 
with the aforementioned demuxing application.

The other way is to do it analog style. Just patch cables from the dvd 
player though a professional video deck or TBC (timebase corrector). 
Those will strip off the copy protection in real time.

One word of caution though... we do not advocate using any copy-protected material unless you are legally allowed to do so!!

On the issue of Final Cut Studio vs. Final Cut Express, I would go Final 
Cut Express.  The Final Cut Studio has tons of stuff you will never use 
like heavy-duty motion graphics and pro sound editing. The learning curve 
on those tools is huge.

Anyway,  hope I helped a little.

Kirk

Transferring professional tapes for editing? Go to MiniDV tape, NOT DVD!

Wednesday, September 26th, 2007

A great number of our clients want to edit at home or the office but their origina masters are on a professional videotape format such as BetaSp, Digital Betacam, 1″, 3/4″, or DVCAM. The clients usually request that we (www.betasptodvd.com) transfer their masters to DVD for later importing and editing in Final Cut Pro, Avid, Vegas, or Premiere.

Don’t transfer to DVD for editing!! There is far too much video compression. Not only that, but the material has to be “ripped” off the DVD prior to being editable. This ripping, especially on longer videos, can have a sync drift between the audio and video. There are also other artifacts that can pop up depending on the method of ripping used.

Additionally, a DVD makes a terrible archive for this purpose. We can assume that the original professional tape format of the master is fading out of its technicalogical lifespan. While it’s a good idea to archive them, DVDs are not a great format for archiving of professional material. DVDs are suseptable to scratches, warping, and being technologically outdated over time.

We always suggeset transferring to MiniDV tape standard defition editing and archiving. MiniDV tape is very robust as a format. Many people consider the image to be of poor quality these days, but that couldn’t be farther from the truth. MiniDV looks pretty bad when shot is someone’s camcorder with poor lighting and a cheap lens. But when you transfer to MiniDV directly from a professional source, MiniDV looks absolutely phenominal. That’s because it is all digital and encoded in good old 1’s and 0’s. we have done blind testing where we show people MiniDV footage and Digibeta footage and nobody can discern the difference. They can’t tell which was played back from which!

The MiniDV tapes are very small, easy to store, and deliver a crisp and vivid image.

It’s such a great format that HDV (the first format for consumer high defintion video) is based on the MiniDV tape.

IMPORT USING A CAMCORDER AND FIREWIRE OR A BASIC DV CABLE!

The tapes import for editing with any standard MiniDV camcorder using the firewire or DV cable that comes with the camera.

Plus, the MiniDV camcorder is the most ubiquitious camcorder ever made. It’s everywhere. So if you don’t have one, call up your neighbor and ask to borrow the camcorder so you can digitize your footage into your editing system. It’s really easy!