Browncoat in need of semi-legal assistance. by Cybersnark

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Browncoat in need of semi-legal assistance.

POSTED BY: CYBERSNARK
UPDATED: Wednesday, September 10, 2008 13:08
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Wednesday, September 10, 2008 10:52 AM

So, it turns out the Film/TV school I'm attending doesn't have the capability to rip clips from DVDs.

It would be possible, I'm told, if I brought in my own in-no-way-portable DVD player and remote (alongside the six DVDs I need to rip from and my personal hard-drive to handle the extracted files), and the scratchbuilt RCA-to-BNC and/or S-video-to-BNC adapters to hook the DVD player to a computer, and access to the "other" Avid room (which has the equipment that works and is intended for the film students, and not us TV students [who have to use the 8-year-old barely-functional PCs]

).

Of course, it'd also be possible if my own computer wasn't four years old and had a working DVD-reading drive, or if the school computers could actually sustain the shareware DVD-rippers and go two hours without crashing and erasing everything back to default.

The clips I need are B-roll for a student documentary (I'm talking about fandom, why people become fans, and the effect fans have on the industry). I got a lot of footage at FanExpo a couple of weeks back (if any of you were there wearing Jayne Hats, I may have spoken to you; I was the short guy with the camerawoman following me around), but fans can't exist in a vacuum. "B-roll" is all the little inserts and visuals that pop in over the narration or between segments.

See, I can't really talk about fans without mentioning us 'coats, and I can't really do that without showing at least one clip and a bit of Joss' intro to Serenity (the bit that ends with ". . . in my world, they're called Browncoats"). (Which would entail the "Your coat is kind of a Brownish colour" bit from TTJ to explain the term).

Which is where the "semi-legal" part comes in. I do own the disks (and have been lugging them around with me for a week), and I'll be using the footage for an academic-only project (which, according to my contract with the school, can't be sold or used professionally), which makes it Fair Use. . . It's just that DVD-ripping tends to require questionably-legal software (unless of course you happen to be a professional with your own Avid suite). Plus, I hate asking for charity.

And yet, here I am. Don't suppose anybody could send a couple of vid files my way?

-----
We applied the cortical electrodes but were unable to get a neural reaction from either patient.

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Wednesday, September 10, 2008 12:28 PM

SIGMANUNKI

If you don't need good quality vids, then this:

http://versaphile.com/download/firefly.html

Otherwise, you will probably be able to get some stuff off of youtube and like sites.

Other than that, you should have friends that would be able to provide you with a computer for a couple hours for the ripping purposes.

As a comment on the legality, IANAL, but it depends on where you are. Sometimes it illegal to rip period, other times its illegal if you have to circumvent copy protection, other times its perfectly legal. Check your local listing. That said, if you can use the clip(s) because of Fair Use, it *should* be legal *for you* regardless because of its intended purpose. Your Film/TV school should have people to talk to about these things if you're really worried about it. If so, I'd recommend talking to them.

----
I am on The Original List (twice). We are The Forsaken and we aim to burn!
"We don't fear the reaper"

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Wednesday, September 10, 2008 1:08 PM

CALIFORNIAKAYLEE

Receiving or downloading high quality clips will be at least as hard on your computer as just ripping them yourself. I've used DVD Shrink 3.2 with very very good results, and haven't ever paid anything for it. I've also used the Xilisoft Video Converter 3 trial version (also free, though can only convert up to 5 minutes of a file) to convert the files DVD Shrink outputs (they're mpegs, though they're called something else odd) into AVI. You may not need that step depending on how you're editing your videos together.

Good luck!

~CK

You can't take the sky from me...

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