Brash's guide to DVD editing.....ON A MAC!

Well I've been visiting these forums for years, back when I edited on a PC, and always found ADigitalMan's Guide to MPEG2/AC3 Editing to be indispensable.

But I began wondering recently, "where are all the Mac guides?"

So after researching tirelessly and hitting many brick walls where some useful programs no longer worked under Snow Leopard (mac3dec for example), I think I've finally come up with the most streamlined and flexible solution for going from DVD into your editing application.
This guide assumes you'll be using Final Cut for your editing. If not, you'll need to change what Audio/Video format you encode to based on what your editing software prefers.

For this tutorial you will need 2 programs:

MacTheRipper
and
Mpeg Streamclip

Got those downloaded and installed? Ok! Let's begin!


Step 1: Ripping the DVD to your Hard Drive

* Insert the DVD you want to work with.
* Open Mactheripper
* MacTheRipper should automatically detect the DVD in the drive. If not, drag the disc drive from your desktop into the MacTheRipper window
* Leave the UOPS button alone
* Leave 'New Region' set at 'ALL'
* Leave De-Macrovision TICKED.
* If Disc RCE displays 'DETECTED', select the region of your disc in the drop down options next to 'RCE Region'. If bought in the USA, select Region 1. If bought in the UK, select Region 2 etc
* If DISC RCE hasn't detected a region, leave it at 'OFF'
* Click FILE>SAVE TO and select your preferred save location.
* Click 'GO' and be patient. When Bomberman pops up to warn you about piracy, you're done!
Yes, really. Bomberman.

**Note** On certain films, the alternative language opening credits are embedded in the main feature's VOB and can mess up the film you have in your preview window in Mpeg Streamclip, and any subsequent encode. If you are having this problem in Mpeg Streamclip, just rip the main feature separately from the rest of the DVD by using the following instructions.

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Alternatively, if you only want to extract the main feature without the rest of the disc, we can do so directly with MacTheRipper:

* Insert your DVD
* Open Mactheripper
* As before. Mactheripper should automatically detect the DVD in the drive. if not, drag the drive (a DVD icon) from your desktop into the MacTheRipper window.
* It will take a minute to scan the disk. Once it's done, ensure the following:
* Leave the UOPS button alone
* Leave 'New Region' set at 'ALL'
* Leave De-Macrovision TICKED.
* If DISC RCE displays 'DETECTED', select the region of your disc in the drop down options next to 'RCE Region'. If bought in the USA, select Region 1. If bought in the UK, select Region 2 etc
* If DISC RCE hasn't detected a region, leave it at 'OFF'
* Click the 'MODE' tab button, then in the first drop down list, select 'Title Only Extraction'
* The drop down list below this is where you choose which video you want. If it's the main feature you're after, it will have (MF) after it.
* Ignore the 'D' button.
* Click FILE>SAVE TO and select your preferred save location.
* Press 'GO' and wait for Bomberman.

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Step 2: Encoding the Video Stream and separating the Audio Channels

* Open up Mpeg Streamclip
* Click FILE>Open FILE
* Navigate to the VIDEO_TS FOLDER extracted earlier and select a VOB. This takes some trial and error to find the movie you require unless you extracted a specific video in MacTheRipper. Press OK.
* If it asks if you'd like to open all the files of the stream together, click 'Open All Files'
* If it detects possible timecode breaks, press 'Fix Now' then when another prompt comes up, ensure that 'Do not skip any frame' is TICKED and click proceed.
* On this page your video can be previewed so you can tell if it's the correct one. Just press play or drag the slider to preview it. If it's not the correct video, repeat these steps with a different number VOB.
* You should now have the correct video in front of you and you can now trim it appropriately if you desire. If you want the whole thing, skip this step. If, however, you want only a small scene for your edit and don't want to have to encode the entire movie, find the point at which you want the video to start and click EDIT>SELECT IN (or keyboard shortcut 'I'). Then choose the point where you want your clip to end and click EDIT>SELECT OUT (or keyboard shortcut 'O'). You can move back and forth more accurately than with your mouse by using the arrow keys on your keyboard. *TIP* I prefer to give it a few seconds margin on either end just for peace of mind (I'm not sure if Mpeg Streamclip is frame-accurate, plus you're gonna be editing it anyway, right?)

* Now we're going to separate the audio from your selection into 6 separate AIFFs. Having these isolated audio tracks (or 'discrete elements') gives unparalleled audio flexibility when it comes to Fan-Editing.
* Underneath the video, you'll see a dropdown list with the heading 'Audio Mode'. Now what we're going to do is switch between the relevant channels one by one, each time exporting out a different audio channel.
* First of all, select 'L/R Ch.' then click FILE>EXPORT AUDIO. In the box that comes up, select the following options:

Format - AIFF
Channels - Stereo
Sample Rate - 48KHz
Bit Rate - Should be greyed out at 256 kbps

**Before you go any further, it is important that in naming these files, you include the kind of channel they are so that you're aware while you edit. So include the labeling 'L/R' in this file name, and name the others accordingly**

* Click 'OK', choose a suitable file name and location then click 'Save'.

* Repeat the same steps after selecting 'LS/RS Ch.'
* Repeat the same steps for 'Center Ch.' however select 'Mono' rather than 'Stereo'
* Repeat the same steps for 'LFE Ch.' again selecting 'Mono'

Now we have 4 files. One for the Center Channel, one for Low Frequency Effects, one stereo file for Left and Right, and another Stereo file for Rear left and Right. The stereo files can be unlinked to Mono in Final Cut if desired or needed.

* Now for the video. Click FILE>EXPORT TO QUICKTIME
* Under Compression, choose 'Apple Prores 422'. It is what is recommended for importing DVD footage into Final Cut and there's apparently no benefit in going any higher in quality than that. If you absolutely insist, there's 'Prores 422 (HQ)'

Prores 4444 is higher again in quality but this isn't really discernible to the naked eye and certainly wouldn't make a difference when working with DVD resolutions. It's only really useful if you're doing effects work as it has its own alpha channel. Personally I've found it to be more trouble than it's worth as it has randomly gamma shifted my footage in the past, resulting in washed out colours.

*NOTE* 'Final Cut Express' users will have to settle for 'Apple DVCPRO50 - PAL' or 'Apple DVCPRO50 - NTSC'  depending on where the DVD was purchased.

* After choosing the desired compression setting, move the quality slider to 100%
* Under 'Sound' select 'No Sound'.
* Under 'Frame Size' select the option that ends with '(unscaled)'. The dimensions will differ by region.
* Leave everything else as is and click 'Make Movie'
* Choose a location to save your file (I recommend the same folder as your AIFFs) and then click 'Save'.

CONGRATULATIONS! YOU'RE DONE! The resulting movie, along with the AIFFs can now be imported into Final Cut with ease, where the 6 discrete channels can make some ingenious things possible.

- Brash

I wouldn't recommend using uncompressed if you're editing DVD or Blu-Ray material.  I'd suggest ProRes 422 (HQ) or ProRes 4444.

brash_stryker said:

* Under Compression, Apple Prores 422 is what is recommended and there's apparently no benefit in going any higher in quality than that.

.....

Just edited my post to address an issue with alternative language credits embedded in the main feature. Also made things clearer for ChainsawAsh ;-)

Very good. I'm also into fanediting. if i ever actually do one ill be sure to use this. thanks again.

There is actually a much easier way to perform some of those steps.  First off, in MacTheRipper you can choose to demux the audio and video at the same time the ripping is being performed, and select which items you actually want to end up on your hard drive.  Six individual AIFF files can then be obtained by decoding the AC3 with a program called A52decX.

I haven't yet found how to get a precise list of a dvd's chapter timings, though, so I've always had to create new ones myself.  Still looking for a way to do that.

Are you sure about that? I'd actually looked into A52decX previously and it says nothing about it being able to split 6 channel audio into it's individual channels. Everything it says about it indicates it just converts the ac3 into an individual AIFF. No discrete elements.

The only program I've seen that's meant to perform the task you say is mac3dec (which I mention in my guide) but it no longer works under leopard or snow leopard, otherwise I'd be using it.

And yes, you can of course demux the audio and video into m2v and ac3 in MacTheRipper without ripping the entire DVD, but you'd be doing it blind without being able to preview the clip to be able to tell what part it was. It's only really useful for the main feature as it is labelled (MF).

And even then, you'd still need a program to split the ac3 into 6 unique channels, and everything I've read about A52decX indicates it doesn't. If it does, they really ought to have listed it as a feature rather than just saying "a52decX converts an AC-3 file being used for the sound of DVD-Video into an AIFF file". Have you actually tried it yourself and can confirm it's resulted in 6 individual channels? e.g. LFE (low frequence effects) should just be an occasional low rumble and nothing else.

Additionally you have to use MPEGStreamclip for the video encoding anyway, so it's not like I've added an extra unnecessary program to my steps :-p

Yeah, I agree with you, brash.  I always use MPEG Streamclip for splitting 5.1 tracks.  You just have to make sure to label the stems correctly when you save them, so you don't mix up which channel is which later.

As a sidenote, I finally got Final Cut Studio 3.  I've been messing with it all afternoon - I like Avid better for editing a movie from scratch, but Final Cut lends itself much better to fan editing.

lol.  I can absolutely confirm that a52decX is capable of splitting 5.1 AC3 into six AIFF files, because I have used it to do exactly that several times.   This functionality is what enabled me to make my 70mm mix for Star Wars, since editing the LFE from the special edition and adding it to the original version of the movie was one of the key concepts behind the entire thing.

There is an option in the window to select output: by default it will downmix to plain stereo, but you can also select 'Dolby' which is presumably a matrixed Prologic version, and most importantly the individual output, which gives each channel its own AIFF file.  The channels are clearly named so you know exactly which one is which.  I agree that it would have been very helpful if the program description clearly spelled out this capability; Mac3dec never worked for me, so I had to look long and hard before I found how to do it this way.  But I promise you, it does work--it's like a hidden Mac audio gem that nobody seems to know about.

Have you ever used Avidemux?  Right now I'm looking into editing options and this one seems to have a lot of the things I'll need, particularly the ability to edit mpeg2 files without re-encoding.  Mpeg Streamclip can also do this but it lacks Avidemux's ability to precisely select individual frames.  Current version only works in Snow Leopard, which initially caused me to pass over it until I realised that my external drive has my dad's 10.6 install on it.  ;)

Very interesting! I'll have to have a look and possibly re-evaluate my guide. I looked tirelessly for an alternative for mac3dec but found nothing.I even asked on the Creative Cow forums and the best they could suggest was to import an AC3 into Final Cut, unlink the channels and export each channel one by one into its own file. LOL.

Having said this, my current guide is quite friendly to beginners in that it doesn't require guesswork in choosing which VOB to demux (no preview in MacTheRipper), and uses only 2 programs rather than 3. Adding a52decX into my current guide may automate the splitting of the 6 channels, but it adds its own 2 steps (demuxing with Mpeg Streamclip and then splitting with a52decx). Splitting directly in Mpeg Streamclip is only a 4 step process, so it's essentially a whole other program for the sake of 2 steps less than my current guide. Is it really worth it? The act of downloading and installing a52decX can count as the 2 remaining steps themselves. Lol ;-)

Obviously the demuxing in MacTheRipper and then splitting with a52decX is ideal if you're only ripping the main movie, but I'm trying to make this guide as flexible, and cover as many scenarios, as possible - DVD menu videos, deleted scenes, documentaries etc - things people won't be able to identify in MacTheRipper without trial and error. I could add this as an option in my guide, but I fear it may overly complicate it. Thoughts?

Also, another reason I favour demuxing in Mpeg Streamclip is that some videos (dvd menus for example) don't show up in MacTheRipper at all. Literally the only way to get hold of them is to open the individual VOBs in Mpeg Streamclip. Again, I've tried making this guide applicable to absolutely anything someone might want to rip, not just the main videos on a disc.

True, that is probably the most thorough way to go about it.  I was working with the audio by itself, and then recombining with the video afterwards, so it was ideal in that case, but all options need to be covered for greatest flexibility.

It can be somewhat frustrating that there aren't always Mac options for what's available in Windows.  For that reason, I got a program called Crossover, which is a limited implementation of WINE for OS X, so that I could install some applications that were known to work that way.  I use Aften for AC3 encoding, and AviSynth to frameserve video for mpeg2 encoding with HCEnc (indexed by DGIndex).  These programs work very well, but there are others that don't run at all, so of course it's not a complete solution.

Can MPEG Streamclip do the PAL 25fps to 24fps/23.976fps film conversion?

There is a Frame Rate option, tried taking Lee Thorogood's SE PAL with the frame rate set at 24 but it lost frames, wondering if I missed an option.