Newbies: How to make your first AMV

[Pierrot Le Fou]

Oh, *smacks self upside da head* you meant while you're ripping not
after. Well shit, of course I rip to VOB (with SmartRipper that for some
strange reason refuses to ever rip an entire DVD) and re-encode w/
DVD2AVI. Hah.

[hackerzc]

Oh, *smacks self upside da head* you meant while you're ripping not
after. Well shit, of course I rip to VOB (with SmartRipper that for some
strange reason refuses to ever rip an entire DVD) and re-encode w/
DVD2AVI. Hah.

When I do rip (I like my capture card because it makes the whole process a little faster, but I sacrifice a tiny bit of quality) I use SmartRipper also. Just make sure you have everything checked that you want to rip. Also a friend of mine turned me onto a new ripper that is suposed to be adjusted just for WinXP called "Clad DVD Xp" which I find really good. It does not allow you to rip segments of chapters or anything like Smart Ripper, but it seems to be a bit faster.

Has anyone every tryed ripping GTO (Great Teacher Onizuka) DVD's? I always have a problem with these. Rippers I have used (Smart, and Clad) can't seem to fully demacrovise these. I can't even watch them on the PC because of the protection. They are the only DVD's I have ever had a problem with, EVER!

[Pierrot Le Fou]

What exactly is macrovision anyway?

[hackerzc]

What exactly is macrovision anyway?

The software encoding on a disc that encripts the data on it. It is what keeps it from playing correctly when you hook a DVD player to a VCR then to a TV. If can also keep you from copying the data digitally. It was first used on VHS. The encripted data would be decripted by the TV, but if you tryed making a copy of it, the copy would turn out looking like a scrambled cable channel.

I have never had a problem with it because I always found a way around it. For instance, my suround sound system/DVD player has a VCR output on it that supports macrovision, but I also have a TV output on it that bypasses the macrovision.

For some reason the macrovision protection on the GTO DVD's is more advanced then what the rippers I have been using are equiped to handle. So I can't rip the DVD's.

[Jiima]

You guys sound pretty professional in all this... hehehe... if only you could see my studio. I think eyes would

I'm a little leary about sharing some of this stuff, but... I rip using a PS2... hehehe... Depending, I'll either copy that to a VHS, or I'll plug the PS2 straight to the video station we have here at the computer lab were I work. After that I go over the Lab's network and put the clips on my Laptop. Yeah, I run Adobe Premiere on an IBM ThinkPad, with a Pentium III, 128 Megs of RAM, and 28 Gig in Hard drive space. With all the crap I've got on it right now, that has dropped down to about 1.5 gig... *sheepish laugh*... Any questions, comments... put downs?

[hackerzc]

You guys sound pretty professional in all this... hehehe... if only you could see my studio. I think eyes would

I'm a little leary about sharing some of this stuff, but... I rip using a PS2... hehehe... Depending, I'll either copy that to a VHS, or I'll plug the PS2 straight to the video station we have here at the computer lab were I work. After that I go over the Lab's network and put the clips on my Laptop. Yeah, I run Adobe Premiere on an IBM ThinkPad, with a Pentium III, 128 Megs of RAM, and 28 Gig in Hard drive space. With all the crap I've got on it right now, that has dropped down to about 1.5 gig... *sheepish laugh*... Any questions, comments... put downs?

Hey I used to use worse. I WAS using a 450Mhz Pentium 3 with a 10GB hdd with a shit load of bat sectors , and the only way for me to get footage was with DVD ripping. And back then I knew nothing. I used smart ripper to rip then used something (forget what) to convert the vob to MPEG's to edit with (this is a BIG, NO NO!). To see what I did with that crap go here http://westware.8m.com/amv/amv.html.
That was a year ago. I made both those amv's within a months time, only took 8 hours for each, and only after playing with premiere for a half hour to get a VERY basic underatanding of how it worked.

After making that shit, I took a year off to actually LEARN some shit and update my PC. Still today I don't have a top-of-the-line editing system, I'm only using a 2000+ Athlon XP (that's 1.66Ghz) a gig of ram an ATI All In Wonder 7500 for capture and a 40GB Hdd dedicated to video capture (my system runs off of a second 40GB Hdd).
I have found that since I have been educating myself I am able to do more with what I have then other people can with higher end systems.
It's all relitive I guess. I still don't use AVISynth, simply because I can achieve the same results with different software. I guess I just found what works for me, and that is basicly what it boils down to I think.

I'm not an expert of even intermediate in my opinion, I'm still a beginner I think. And if I exclude the 1 year learning process I went through, and my first two vids which were for experimenting purposes, I guess I would have to say I have only been making AMV's for two months or so (because of the one I am currently working on)

Hey if you have AIM, look me up, I'm westware8m.

[LSM53]

i just rib them directly from the VOB files on the disc to mini vob files using MPEG2 CUt and rename the to .mpeg files and load that in premiere

[kearlywi]

I'm a new member and I have found this site to be an amazing source of information... for the more advanced users anyway. I downloaded serveral video editing programs (the free kind) to find they were very difficult to use. I eventually figured out Virtual dub 1.5.1 well enough to make a crappy AMV, but now my final product is a whole GIGABYTE! (3 mins long).

Ive downloaded several AMV's by members here, including doki doki probuctions and ERMAC, and even the biggest ones where less than 70 megs. What am i doing wrong? or is it just that virtual dub sucks donkey nuts?

Virtual dub requires the use of .wav file music, which is 10 times the size of mp3's. The size of an average song in .wav format is 40 megs, about the same size as most AMV's all together. Video footage that is cut in VD 1.5.1 balloons to about 75 times its normal size (hence the 1 gig AMV).

I'm sure the answer to this question is so simple I'll have many of you laughing at me . Please if you know any way around this "size" problem of mine, drop me a line at: Kearlywi@simla.colostate.edu

Also if any1 know of a better/easier to use video editing program than VD 1.5.1 thats FREE please let me know about it. Thank you.

I'm amazed there are so many other people out there who are into AMV's. I would have never thought there would be 50,000+ of us.

[Pierrot Le Fou]

You need to re-encode with a different codec to compress it. X Vid is
probably your best bet.

[omnikai]

What's up with Xvid? I had to use it to watch an episode of Gundam Seed and not only did I have a hard time finding a copy that was fully compiled, but when I watched the video it was horrible quality! I think the screen looked like it was constantly shaking.

Maybe I just ended up with an older version or something.......

By the way, I'm a n00b ^_^. I've made my first AMV which I am quite proud of (there are some mistakes here and there but overall...). How does the whole system work on this site? Do we submit them or...... I expect this question is answered elsewhere but I hate forum-crawling. If someone could just give me a quick answer...

I'm using Adobe Premiere (ver6 I think) and I find it works quite well and wasn't too hard to learn. If you haven't tried it yet you should definitely give it a try.

Thanx for reading ^_^