[jrs]

Hello-

This is my first post here. I am not *yet* a mac owner, but considering purchasing one if I will be able to do the things that I need/want to do. I have looked through what seem to be the pertinent forums, but haven't seen some of the specifics that I am looking for.

I have a number of home movies already DVDs, and I currently have a sony dvd camdorder (in other words, i am not trying to pirate copy protected dvds)

What I would like to do is be able to import the contents of the dvds (note that the dvd camcorder does not have a firewire connection, only USB) and use apple tools to create new, edited, dvds. In the future I will upgrade to an HDV camcorder, but can't afford to buy both computer & camcorder right now.

The questions that I have:

1. I understand that there will be some quality loss using this process (essentially dvd -> dvd), but how much loss? Most of the DVDs are in 'best' mode, if that helps.

2. I do see from various searches that there are a couple of ways to go about this, such as dvdxdv, or handbrake, but I haven't seen much information on how well these tools work. Anyone have any experience with these tools?

3. I am considering a 2x2.5 powermac, probably with 1gb ram to start. Should this be able to deliver ~real-time (or faster) conversion?

4. Which software tools are the best for editing/converting mpeg-2? I understand that iLife comes with iMovie HD & iDVD, but would I be better off starting with the "production suite"? Does the production suite offer any assistance in importing/converting DVDs?

5. If I took in a 'sample' dvd to an apple store, would the machines that they have be configured such that I could try their tools for my tasks, or will I need some third party (handbrake or dvdxdv) to even get started?

I currently do my editing on a 2.5ghz p4 w/ 1gb ram, using tmpgenc & tmpgenc author. I have tried other solutions, but none seem worth the money to me-- the apple tools seem soooo much nicer.

(Note that when I say 'edit', I mean slice and possibly reorder, nothing too extravagent.)


Thanks in advance for the info,

-jamie

[Steve SpotOn]

Here's the way I would do this.

To convert from a DVD to a DV file that iMovie or any of the other editing programs Mac's use, I would use a programme called 'Mpeg Streamclip' it's free from
www.alfanet.it/squared5
Quality of the conversion is excellent.

You can then edit away in iMovie for simple cuts or look at Final Cut Express.
iDVD will convert your final edit back to a DVD.
There will be quality loss in the converting from DVD to DV then back to DVD, but it should be fairly small (depends how critical you are).

I would say a dual 2.5 Mac is perhaps over the top if you are simply a home user. You could do all the above on an eMac with a superdrive, or perhaps a sensible choice would be an iMac (again with superdrive). I'd also look at adding an external fire wire drive as video can take up lots of space.

Have fun

Steve

[jrscarolina]

Thanks for the reply Steve.

I will check out the software that you recommend & add it to my list.

Part of the requirements that I have are that it needs to be a conventional desktop. It will be hooked to a KVM with my other hardware (PCs). I also want to be able to pretty much replace the primary PC that I normally use for photo backups, tivo desktop music server, etc. I also plan to digitize my photos/negatives for archiving- so there is (in my mind) justification for the higher-end.

I hope to have fun-- that is part of the problem. Doing this on a pc isn't fun, and I end up just stuffing videos together.

I do plan on getting some sort of external drive enclosure that would allow me to use the 2x160gb drives that I currently have in my current desktop (actually one of the few things that i like about my current pc, onboard raid controller & connectors)

-jamie

[jrs]

I just got off of the phone with an apple rep. He told me that the iLife '05 can import directly off of the non-copy protected dvds (which surprised me a great deal).

I won't have a chance to get to the apple store in the near future. Has anyone tried to import a dvd with the new apps? Again, I am not referring to copy protected dvds, but rather one that they have authored? If it actually DOES work, does it work well?

After Steve's comments, and what the apple rep said, I am most likely leaning towards a more middle-of-the-road 2x2.0 ghz pm rather than the 2.5, an putting the difference in to ram.

Thanks,

-jamie

[lewd0006]

You can also buy software that decodes the encryption on copy-protected DVDS, rip them, and edit with those clips in iMovie. It's perfectly legal as long as youre just distributing it for "personal use."

I do professional video editing, and I have the dual 2.5 system. It's more than enough, even for my needs. I use Motion a lot, and the only things extrea it requires is a ton more ram and a great video card (ie 6800 or X800).

A dual 2.0 with 1GB ram would do you fine!