[ale] [OT] Videotape Ripping and TBCs

[Jeff Hubbs]

aaron wrote:
>
> In general, working with Video on Linux is not a
> point and click process yet, so congrats!
>
>   
I had gotten it to work before in a MythTV rig that never actually made 
it into regular use and AT&T Uverse deprecated all that in my household.
>> Given that the objective here is to rip the tapes and actually get rid
>> of them, I'd like a *decent* rip job.  I plan to edit things in iMovie
>> '09 and burn to DVD.
>>     
>
> Check your formats on the capture.  I believe iMovie will only
> deal with DV quality video, since that is kind of the bottom
> line in editable formats; higher compression formats like MPeg2
> and MP4 and H.264 and AVCHD don't have all the actual frames
> any more; temporal resolution is severely compromised with all
> the high compression formats; compressed HD looses all claim
> to actually being HD.
>   
I thought that the bits and pieces I need are MPEG Streamclip ($0) and 
Apple's QuickTime MPEG-2 Playback Component for Mac ($20) so that I can 
get something that's capable of producing output that iMovie can 
understand.  But is it true that the MPEG2 files that are coming out of 
the card don't contain any audio encoded along with the video?  If so, 
do I need to be capturing video output from /dev/video0 and audio output 
from /dev/video24 at the same time, and, if so, at what point would the 
two streams get encoded into the same file?
> >snip>
>
> Also of note is that Apple severely broke the iMovie program
> starting with iMovie 8.  They took away the timeline (making
> the 2008 release a flashback to the 1992 Amiga Flyer interface),
> and thoroughly crippled the usability to make it SEEM more
> "user friendly" -- the worst Steve Jobs "User Handicapping"
> decision since the one button mouse.  I recommend getting
> a copy of iMovie 6 Universal Binary (officially labeled
> iMovie HD since it can be used with Panasonic 720p DV).
> There was such an uproar over iMovie 8 that Apple made iMovie
> HD available for free download, so iMovie 6 may still be
> available on their site as a free upgrade from iMovie 9.
>   
I went from iMovie HD straight to iMovie '09.  So far, I find iMovie '09 
usable but if I get myself into a situation where I feel pain I am 
willing to go back to iMovie HD if it's still available. 
> If you want to stay in a Linux domain for the editing (and
> the editing is thus appropriately basic), you might look at
> KDEnlive.  It has been getting some attention in Linux Format
> of late, including a tutorial in the current issue, and seems
> to be a fairly stable and usable option. When I get a Linux
> play PC with enough horsepower for video I intend to check
> it out.
>   
I think I'd like to do it in Mac-land; being able to edit vids as a way 
to kill time on the MacBook when waiting for what have you is important.
>   
>> How important is it that I get hold of a time base corrector before
>> attempting this, and can a useful one really be had for tens of  
>> dollars
>> as opposed to hundreds or thousands?
>>     
>
> <snip>
>
> Using a Time Base Corrector on your input to the PVR 150 will
> probably not make a very noticeable difference in quality.
Then I'll probably do without.  A lot of this video wasn't laid down 
with great source quality to begin with; much is 2nd-generation.
>> Also:  by simply redirecting the device output, one can capture a  
>> MPEG2
>> stream directly to disk but it seems that iMovie can't do anything  
>> with
>> that.  What do people typically do format-wise to accomplish what I'm
>> trying to do?
>>     
>
> Covered in the notes above.  Only thing to add is that MPEG2
> is the native DVD format, but Video DVD specifications require
> that they be "packaged" on a DVD disk in VOB wrappers (with a
> max of 1 Gig for the VOB file size).  High end DVD authoring
> packages like (Apple) DVD Studio Pro will allow you to directly
> author from pre-encoded MPEG2 files, so long as their bit rates,
> audio format and audio multiplexing are compliant with Video DVD
> specs. (Apple) iDVD requires it's source material to be DV format
> in .MOV wrapper files and does the Mpeg / VOB encoding from those
> (and, TMOMK, only those) sources.
I'm expecting to use iDVD '09, FWIW.