Extracting small clips from DVDs and .mp4s

[CoffeeheadNYC]

Hi,

What's the easiest and cheapest way to extract and save short clips/
scenes from DVD movies or mp4 files on a Macbook with OS X? If I use Handbrake, how is it done?

'd like to make a compilation of interesting film techniques and effects (ranging from 5 seconds to 10 minutes) from my DVD collection. I'd also like to keep the sound. I don't mind if the image/sound quality suffers a bit. Do I
have to buy Quicktime Pro? Will iMovie do the 5- to 10-second clips I
want, or does it only do entire scenes? Do I have to convert the DVDs
to .mp4s with Handbrake, which I know how to do?

Thanks!

[cvk_b]

Hi,

What's the easiest and cheapest way to extract and save short clips/
scenes from DVD movies or mp4 files on a Macbook with OS X? If I use Handbrake, how is it done?

'd like to make a compilation of interesting film techniques and effects (ranging from 5 seconds to 10 minutes) from my DVD collection. I'd also like to keep the sound. I don't mind if the image/sound quality suffers a bit. Do I
have to buy Quicktime Pro? Will iMovie do the 5- to 10-second clips I
want, or does it only do entire scenes? Do I have to convert the DVDs
to .mp4s with Handbrake, which I know how to do?

Thanks!

Google "Yade X"

[whimpers]

If you want to be able to precisely select a scene from a DVD, you can use Mpeg StreamClip (free, but it needs the mpeg2 component for QuickTime). You can export to DV to use the clips in iMovie to edit them any way you want.
If you don't want to lose any quality, choose 'save as' to have a .vob file for the fragment. You can use that in Toast or Sizzle to make a compilation on a DVD while keeping original quality (but you won't be able to make any transitions or something).

Mpeg StreamClip can open mp4's too, so you can select parts of it to export to another format.

YadeX or HandBrake can only extract parts of a DVD at chapter level (or at object level in the case of Yade, which is already very precise). Yade won't let you convert to a format that you can use in iMovie, but you can use the .vob's in Toast or Sizzle.
(BTW you have to decrypt commercial DVD's first with MacTheRipper if you want to use them with Mpeg StreamClip)

[CoffeeheadNYC]

I now have YadeX, MPEGStreamclip, and Handbrake. I've used Handbrake to convert my DVD to an .mp4, but YadeX doesn't recognize it as a file that can be opened (when I browse to open it). I've tried using MPEGStreamclip to save it as an MPEG file, as a Quicktim file, and a couple other Save As options. But YadeX still won't open the resulting files. (They're grayscaled when I browse the files on my desktop in the YadeX "FicherFile/OuvrirOpen" window.)

Can someone help a newbie figure all this out? Basically I want to extract a small video clip (not whole scenes usually) from a movie, and save it to my Macbook and/or iPod.

Thanks again!

[whimpers]

If you already went through the trouble of converting your DVD to mp4 with HandBrake, just open that .mp4 with Mpeg StreamClip. Move the slider on the movie player to the desired starting point and choose 'Select in' from the edit menu. Then move to the slider to where you want the clip to end and choose 'select out'. Then choose save as (you can trim first if you want but it shouldn't be necessary) and select mp4 as format. That should give you a selected clip that you can play on your mac. No need for YadeX anymore, that was a suggestion that followed another route.

YadeX works directly from decrypted DVD material, so you just have to rip the DVD with MacTheRipper (leaving the DVD quality intact but taking off the disk protection). You can then select chapters or video objects from the DVD and extract them as a .vob file that you can play with VLC. Mpeg StreamClip can also work directly from a decrypted DVD and convert a selected part of it to another format if you have the mpeg2 compoenent for QuickTime installed. But since you already converted the DVD to mp4 with HB there's no real need for that anymore.

[CoffeeheadNYC]

One more question: Since converting a bunch of my DVDs to mp4s with Handbrake, I've transferred them to my iPod. I'd like to extract clips from those iPod files too, especially since I've lost/given away the DVDs I converted them from. But as with music transferred to iPod, there's no way to transfer the movie back from the iPod to my Mac. Or is there a program that will enable this?

[CoffeeheadNYC]

BTW, thanks for that last tip--it worked perfectly!

[deckeda]

... But as with music transferred to iPod, there's no way to transfer the movie back from the iPod to my Mac. Or is there a program that will enable this?

Your movies are still in iTunes, right? Somehow, I have the feeling the answer is "no."

Senuti and other apps can move music back to a Mac; don't know about video files. You might (i.e. should) try searching here: http://www.macupdate.com/search.php?arc ... &os=macosx

[CoffeeheadNYC]

you're right, i did delete most of my songsand all my movies from itunes. honestly it doesn't make sense that if you have an 80GB ipod you should have to set aside 80GB of laptop space too. (though i know i should be backing them up)

i've used senuti but i remember the song titles were garbled when i transferred them from the ipod to itunes. but that was a few years ago. i'll try it again. thanks

[CoffeeheadNYC]

i'll try that link too. tx