[Frameworks] Tech help - extracting clips from DVDs

[Dave Tetzlaff]

> I have a relatively new Mac laptop and I've uninstalled/reinstalled both programs.

Be aware that every new release of the Mac OS breaks old reliable tools for ripping clips from DVDs. MPEG Streamclip doesn't work past 10.6. 

There are a few dozen or more similar software packages sold by a variety of interconnected brands (all in China, IIRC) - Aimersoft, Iskysoft, WinX, Wondershare, Xilisoft. Each brand offers a handful of similar programs with slight feature variations at different price points. They're all basically front-ends for the same Unix-based open-source command-ine engines that actually do the work. (e.g. FFMPEG)

Handbrake does two things:
1. Extracts the data from the .VOB files inside the VIDEO_TS folder of the DVD, and 'demuxes' it into its component video and audio streams (usually MPEG-and AC3, respectively.
2. Re-encodes and compresses the streams into a single h264 file, either in an .mp4 or quicktime container.

I don't know about what works and doesn't with PPT, but in general, lf you're using files for teaching and running them off a local computer, you don't really need all the compression Handbrake creates, which adds a lot of time to the process. The best thing about Handbrake is it incorporates the x264 software encoder. All h264 encoding software is not equal – Apple's is notoriously sucky - and x264 is the best. But what it's for is making small files for web streaming that still look pretty good (though you have to master the settings). Handbrake will not defeat copy protection.

As an alternative to Handbrake, you can rip the streams from the DVD and convert them into some other codec besides h264/.mp4. You'll get bigger files, but the process will be faster, and the quality should be closer to the original. There are any number of options for codecs to use, and software to get there -- but again the problem is the tools keep breaking with every OS update.

For most commercial DVDs, old or new, you need something to get past the CSS copy-protection. All software that cracks CSS is supposed to be illegal in the US under the DCMA. There was a program called Fairmount that was similar to AnyDVD on the Windows side: that is it fools the computer into mounting the DVD as a data drive, making it accessible to any program as if it wasn't copy protected. It's no longer available separately, having been rolled into a product called Mac DVD Ripper Pro. It works. It's $25. 
http://www.macdvdripperpro.com/

The problem is it won't extract a short clip, only the whole title. So you have to take the time to rip the whole film, then use some other program to extract just the clip(s) you want. You can just have Mac DVD Ripper Pro mount the disk with Fairmount, then use some other program to extract clips. MPEG Streamclip was great for that, but, like I said, it doesn't work with the newer OS versions.

If I was still teaching, I'd get a cheap old Mac, and set it up with Leopard and/or Snow Leopard, just to do convenient video rips with the old reliable tools.

Another possibility is to use virtualization software to set up either Windows XP or 10.5/10.6 inside a virtual machine on a newer Mac running Yosemite, El Capitan or whatever. I've never been able to go through the headache of getting that all going, but once you do, it should be reasonably stable, if a tad slow. 

An old (long dead) piece of Windows freeware called DVD-Shrink could not only defeat CSS, but (if you dug down into the interface enough) let you rip short clips. It only saved files as VIDEO_TS folders though - which VLC can play, but i don't know about PPT. I had that set up on my Mac for awhile using Crossover, and it worked OK IIRC, but that was awhile back, and I don't have a reason to rip clips anymore...

Another option for teachers, for mainstream films anyway, is to see if there are pirated versions on The Pirate Bay or MickAss Torrents. These will typically be highly compressed h264s, in either .mp4, .avi, or .mkv containers. You might need to extract from the Matroska containers first, but Quicktime Pro should open the files, and let you edit them down to short clips. One advantage of this is that the pirate copies may be HD (720p or 1080p) where your library DVD is just good ol' SD 480i.