DVD question

[dazie]

I have a DVD that shows a newscast that Tim is on with his marching band.  Homemade.  How do I get the file off the DVD so that I can send it or upload it to youtube?

[Gamplayerx]

Is it a commercially made DVD or just something someone burned for you?  If it's the latter, can't you just open windows explorer, browse over to the dvd and copy the file?

[dazie]

HOmemade- not commercial at all.

I can't find the actual file. I'll look again.

[dazie]

I got it off the DVD and on to my desktop, but I can't make it play without using the DVD-ROM software. 

Can I email it to someone to be converted?

[ReBurn]

I used to go here for all of my free DVD ripping goodness:

http://www.clonead.co.uk/

You might look there for something fitting for the job.  It has interesting technical DVD information, too.

[Beefy]

What kind of file is it?  What's the extension?

[dazie]

I don't remember.  I'll check when I get home.

[Beefy]

If it's an avi/mpg/QT/rm/asf/wmv file then you ought to be able to manipulate it like any old data file.

You saying that you need the DVD-Rom software to view leads me to believe we're dealing with a video DVD and not a data DVD.

Look at data contents of the DVD and see if you can find a .vob file.  If you can, make a copy of that file and try renaming the file extension to .mpg and see if it will play.  Many non-professional video players and editing programs will disregard everything else included in the original .vob file and look just at the video and audio.

If you don't find a .vob file on the DVD, then it gets more complicated and you'll likely need to look at finding a software package that can capture the video and export it as whatever type of file you want.  You could probably find such things via bit torrent if you were so inclined, not that I advocate such things.  I do not.

[dazie]

The file itself is a .dvd file.

I'll see if I can find a VOB file.

[dazie]

OO!  Found it.

I can make it play with Windows Media Player, but it's 128 MB!  How on EARTH do I make it smaller??

[Gamplayerx]

OO!  Found it.

I can make it play with Windows Media Player, but it's 128 MB!  How on EARTH do I make it smaller??

You can try messing with it with Windows Movie Maker (which you should have in your Accessories -> Entertainment folder) - I think you can tell it the maximum size you want the file to be and it will compress it for you.  I don't know how well or with what results, but you could play around with it and see what you come up with.

[dazie]

I'll give that a shot.  It says it doesn't like vob files, but I'll see what I can do.