Problems ripping from DVD...

[jabbason]

Hello, i'm currently working on a film project that uses some film clips ripped straight from PAL format DVD. I'm using a trial version of Magic DVD Ripper, ripping the film straight to AVI format. I have set the resolution of the rip at the default PAL widescreen, but when i import the clips into a PAL widescreen project on Premiere it appears far smaller than the preview window, (would therefore have to scale the clip up thus losing quality). Am i doing something wrong here?

Also, when i export a rendered clip on a 4:3 and a 16:9 project, the exported films say that they are both 720x576, how is that possible?

Hope someone can help!

 

[Akribie]

What version of Premiere are you using?

720x576 is PAL DV for both 4x3 and 16x9. The pixels are elongated horizontally for WS.

 

[jabbason]

Oh i see, i didn't realise that. I'm using Premiere cs3.

What resolution should the rip be made at? The rip i made was 640x360 although i was ripping from a pal version of the film i'm using. Do i have to increase the resolution of the rip for it to be used in a 720x576 project without rescaling? The film i ripped was 2 hours in duration but only takes up just over 1Gb as a ripped AVI, does this sound right?

Cheers for getting back to me Akribie

 

[Akribie]

Pity about CS3. CS4 nows allows VOB on the timeline.

If you start with a PAL DVD, the source will be 720x576 for both 4x3 or 16x9. Your AVI should be the same size.

If you want to convert to AVI for editing in CS3, then the sensible format to choose is DV AVI, which occupies 13Gb of disk space per hour.

Virtual Dub is free and is the way most people seem to recommend doing format conversions. Personally, I use ProCoder, but that is expensive.

 

[jabbason]

Thank you for that. I guess i'm having trouble with my ripping software, i tried to rip from the dvd with a resolution of 720x576 for widescreen, but it just captured at 4:3! Could you recommend a good alternative to MagicDvd Ripper?

 

[Akribie]

I already did - Virtual Dub.

Copy the VOB files onto your hard disk and use Virtual Dub to convert them into PAL DV AVIs.

 

[jabbason]

Oh ok, thank you for that, will give it a go. Cheers Akribie

 

[jabbason]

Akribie, i was also wondering if i could ask your advice concerning improving render times with DV and HD footage. I currently only have 1Gb of RAM and a 3.19 GHz processor. My question is, could i improve render times by increasing my RAM, or will i need to upgrade my processor too?

 

[Akribie]

Have a look at RAM usage during render using Windows Task Manager. If you see physical memory getting fully employed during render, maybe extra memory might help a bit.

For AVCHD timeline editing, even my Core2Duo 2.8 with 2Gb RAM system struggles, and that is much faster than your system.

I therefore suspect that to make a serious difference you will need to change to a really fast i7 processor on a late-model motherboard (to get the best memory bandwidth) with lots of fast RAM.

 

[jabbason]

Thank you i will check the task manager the next time i render. As for the HD rendering i thought my system was inadequate for the task. When money allows i hope to build a new system, it probably isn't worth just upgrading the memory if i plan to use HD in the future i suppose. Thanks alot for your help!

 

[jabbason]

Hi Akribie, i'm still having trouble with Virtual Dub. I have converted a piece of film from DVD to Vob format, virtual dub didn't recognise the format so i downloaded the AC3ACM codex. When i then click on the Vob file to import i get a message reading...

Mpeg import filter:invalid pack at position 3: marker bit not set; possibly mpeg2 stream

What am i doing wrong?