putting video on YouTube

2006-10-07 22:06:56

I'm almost a  complete newbie to video archiving, but  I did recently transfer some old VHS tape recordings I made years ago, to DVD-R using a stand-alone VHS-to-DVD recorder (set to highest quality capture).  Now my question is, how does one take scenes from this and put them on YouTube?  What's some good software to 'rip' a scene from one's DVD-R  (DVD-R-, to be precise in this case) to hard drive, and is there some sort of conversion or compression that needs to be done before uploading it to YouTube?  (I confess don't even know what the format of files is on a DVD-R  -- some variety of mpeg?). Do I even need a DVD-reading drive to rip the scene to hard drive, or can it be done as 'data' from a CD drive?

putting video on YouTube

Reply #1 – 2006-10-07 22:40:43

http://www.youtube.com/t/help_makevideo

You will need to convert your DVD video to AVI, MOV or MPG.

As your DVDs will not have any macrovision etc. you can use the VOB files direct (unlike backing up commercial DVDs where you'd need a program like DVDecrypter), so it's just a case of selecting an app to convert your VOB files to a PC format.

YouTube recommend MPEG4 at 320x240.  With that in mind I would probably recommend XviD with something simple like (Auto) Gordian Knot.  There's many ways to do it though.

Perhaps you should look at the guides on Doom9 for something to suit you.

putting video on YouTube

Reply #2 – 2006-10-07 23:27:41

That was quick and most helpful, thanks.  One last question -- I recorded to VHS-->DVD-R as one or two long files; for uploading I need to 'split' them into shorter, separate scenes the way a long .wav can be split and output as separate files -- is this best done after conversion via AutoGK, or before,  and if so, what's good free software for doing so?

putting video on YouTube

Reply #3 – 2006-10-08 18:53:47

(Seeing as no-one more knowledgeable has answered...)

I would personally use DGIndex to create a project file that points to just the part you want, and then use this project file with Gordian Knot, but I'm sure there are a lot easier or better ways, I'm quite a noob.  I'm not very familiar with Gordian Knot, there may be an easier app that can handle DGIndex project files.  I'm more familiar going to MPG with TMPEGEnc (which may allow you to go to XviD as well).

Using DGIndex then Gordian Knot would ensure that the video only gets transcoded the once, before you upload (and it no doubt gets encoded again).  The DGIndex project file basically provides an interface to the MPEG data in the VOB file, which can be read by some encoders.

I don't know anything about cutting XviD AVI losslessly.

Again, Doom9 is the best place to check.

putting video on YouTube

Reply #4 – 2006-10-09 16:47:14

Thanks.  I've bookmarked Doom 9 and will spend a few hours exploring it.