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Technical Tool Investigation: How to Rip Clips off of a DVD
Mac The Ripper and MPEG StreamClip
(click their icons to goto source websites)
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Capturing YouTube video is easy with Keepvid.com, but what if you have a segment of a DVD you would like to capture for classroom use? Having just the clip you want will save time from having to get the movie and finding just the segment you want. When I originally tackled this problem I called the Media Education Foundation to see how they ‘got’ clips for all their great movies and how to do it on a educator’s budget.
This solution is for Macs only, sorry PC. This solution is a two-step process:
1. Rip the DVD to disk
2. Identify the segment and create a movie
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A freeware program called MacTheRipper (appalling name) allows you to copy your DVD to disk. Have it copy the entire DVD. It creates .VOB, .IFO, and .BUP files (look in VIDEO_TS directory). You are interested in the .VOB files. Find the first one that is at least one gigabyte. The smaller ones are usually preview clips.
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Once the DVD is copied to disk, start MPEG StreamClip. Using the File/Open files… menu option, open the .VOB file. It will prompt to ‘open all the files in the stream’ and you will say yes to get the whole movie loaded. Once loaded, MPEG Streamclip allows you to select the beginning and end of the desired clip and save it to multiple file formats. I always export to MPEG-2 and use the clips in iMovie and/or iDVD to burn compilations of clips.
Neither program is consumer friendly and can require some experimenting to get the results you want. I have had trouble using some of their other options, but have gotten good results with the process above. (for instance, MPEG StreamClip can open a DVD directly, but I never got it to work) If you get easily frustrated with computer technology, buy your geeky friend a six-pack
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MPEG Streamclip is free of charge but requires the MPEG-2 Playback Component is $20. You can buy it online from Apple:
http://www.apple.com/quicktime/mpeg2
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REMEMBER TO RESPECT COPYWRITE LAW. You or your school should own the source media. You are simply making its use easier. “Fair Use” also provides you some flexibility in reproducing material for academic use. You should take time to understand your rights.
http://www.copyright.gov/fls/fl102.html
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