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**oldgeek** · Dec 29, 2017, 09:51 AM

I used the latest Open Shot version (appimage) to splice and connect mp4 files of my two trips abroad this year. It was pretty easy to use and the results are satisfactory. I did not use the fancier tools as I only wanted to get rid of extraneous video segments in order to copy onto a dvd, but I thought the learning curve was very tolerable. The one timesaver I learned was to chop up the original video (about an hour long) into smaller segments and then do the fine tuning from there.

**oshunluvr** · Dec 29, 2017, 10:46 AM

Originally posted by oldgeek View Post

I used the latest Open Shot version (appimage) to splice and connect mp4 files of my two trips abroad this year. It was pretty easy to use and the results are satisfactory. I did not use the fancier tools as I only wanted to get rid of extraneous video segments in order to copy onto a dvd, but I thought the learning curve was very tolerable. The one timesaver I learned was to chop up the original video (about an hour long) into smaller segments and then do the fine tuning from there.

Thanks for the comment. I'm installing Openshot now...

**flamboyant** · Jan 06, 2018, 06:26 AM

i suppose it's understood that every ripping/rendering implies transcoding and every transcoding leads to a more or less perceivable loss in video quality and takes time.

usually if i need a one-file movie from a DVD i use MKVToolNix [with GUI]. it doesn't transcode the video so i get the quality and size of the original and it's done very fast.

if i need to extract an episode [cut out a segment] from a video file i use FFMPEG and its -ss and -t or -to options. again, i do it without transcoding [-c copy] so i retain the original quality and save time. AVIDemux can do that as well.

and only if i need to apply some video filters/effects to my ProRes videos and deliver them as H264 videos then i use KDENLiVE and transcoding.

**oshunluvr** · Jan 06, 2018, 08:35 AM

Thank you for your comments. I have used the command line version of that tool (or something similar) in the past. Of course, it depends on the desired outcome whether one wants the original video or a lesser-sized one. There are use-cases for both results. In my case, I'm most often converting a DVD to a video file for local viewing but also remote viewing via the internet so bandwidth and byte count can be important. Transcoding, removing the side or top/bottom black bars that are sometimes hard-coded with the video (think older DVDs when our TVs didn't handle varying resolutions gracefully), extra audio tracks, etc., is a benefit. In some cases, I desire the best image possible so I may take other steps.

Interestingly, I care less about video quality than audio. I always rip CD's to FLAC. I believe most people would notice a downgraded audio stream before a video resolution drop. 4K video in most instances, at least in the home market, is indistinguishable from HD at the distance we typically watch TV from.

**flamboyant** · Jan 06, 2018, 09:55 AM

i didn't get what you tried to do with those MP4 files in KDENLiVE. to compress them more? or what?

Originally posted by oshunluvr View Post

I believe most people would notice a downgraded audio stream before a video resolution drop.

i agree. sound is very important. and you can easily end up with a poor 4K video after a few generations of transcoding and a noticeably better HD video made without unnecessary transcoding.

**oshunluvr** · Jan 06, 2018, 11:22 AM

Originally posted by flamboyant View Post

i didn't get what you tried to do with those MP4 files in KDENLiVE. to compress them more? or what?

Not really. The videos in question were a two-part mini-series. What I was trying to do was trim the closing credits off of part one and the opening credits off of part two, then merge the two files. My media server has no trouble stopping a movie and letting you resume it in the future so there was no need to have two files for this particular show.

Part of the issue turned out to be the strictness of mp4 files over other containers which I was unaware of. Randomly clipping an mp4 in the way I was attempting required a re-encoding of the entire file. Once I finally figured out the limitations, I got it done easier. Next time I'll use MKV until I'm ready to store the file on the server, then I'll convert it to mp4 and tag it.

**Parka Boy** · Jan 16, 2018, 11:10 AM

For backup a DVD I use lsdvd, dvdxchap, mplayer, ffmpeg on the commanline:

Find out what the longes track, Main Movie:

Code:

lsdvd /dev/sr0 |grep Longest

Copy track to HDD:

Code:

mplayer dvd://n -nosub -v -dumpstream -dumpfile movie.vob

only som chapters:

Code:

player dvd://n -v -chapter 2-19 -dumpstream -dumpfile movie.vob

find your language audio track:

Code:

mplayer -identify -frames 0 movie.vob

extract audio:

Code:

mplayer movie.vob -aid 128 -dumpaudio -dumpfile audio_de.ac3

save chapters:

Code:

dvdxchap -t n /dev/dvd > chapters.txt

Remove black bars:

Code:

mplayer -vf cropdetect=round:16 -ss 10:00 dvd://

Code:

mplayer -vf rectangle=704:420:6:78 movie.vob

convert to x264:
good quallty

Code:

ffmpeg -i movie.vob -an -vcodec libx264 -preset slow -tune film -crf 18 -threads 0 movie.h264

low quality

Code:

ffmpeg -i movie.vob -an -vcodec libx264 -preset slow -tune film -crf 20 -threads 0 movie.h264

convert DTS to ac3:

Code:

ffmpeg -i audio.dts -acodec ac3 -ac 6 -ab 448k -metadata:s:a:0 language=ger  audio.mka

Than you have a x264 video, ac3 audio track and an chapter file, that can merge into some new container, like mkv.

**oshunluvr** · Jan 16, 2018, 12:37 PM

Handbrake does virtually all of that with a fairly usable GUI. I figured out the easiest complete way to rip a DVD is "makemkv" even though I don't use that container. makemkv copies everything on the DVD. Then I can use handbrake to trim the black bars, set the quality, separate the chapters, choose which audio track(s) and/or subtitles, and re-encode to mp4.

The one thing I'd like to be able to do is rip the subtitles to a file easily, but have not yet been successful. I have a couple things left to try.

**Parka Boy** · Jan 16, 2018, 02:05 PM

Extract Subtitle

For subtitles you can use vobsub2srt https://github.com/ruediger/VobSub2SRT.
Locate the subtitle in your mkv by mkvinfo.

Code:

mkvinfo your.mkv

find id for subtitle
Extract the subtitle from mkv

Code:

mkvextract tracks *.mkv id:file.ass

thats get you a *.idx and *.sub file
Use vobsub2srt, only file name without extension sub or idx

Code:

vobsub2srt filename

Than you have a subtitle srt file.

**wizard10000** · Jan 16, 2018, 02:44 PM

OT, but I had a flash of brilliance a few days back -

Code:

alias convertavi="for i in *.avi;do ffmpeg -i "$i" -c:v libx264 -crf 14 -preset slow -c:a aac -b:a 192k -ac 2 "${i%.*}.mp4";done"

**Snowhog** · Jan 16, 2018, 03:01 PM

Pretty sure, that as you've written that alias, it won't work. The alias will include only this:

alias convertavi="for i in *.avi;do ffmpeg -i "

All after the second quote will result in a parsing (?) error.

**oshunluvr** · Jan 16, 2018, 03:25 PM

Might need some single quotes in there?

**oshunluvr** · Jan 16, 2018, 03:26 PM

Originally posted by Parka Boy View Post

For subtitles you can use vobsub2srt https://github.com/ruediger/VobSub2SRT.
Locate the subtitle in your mkv by mkvinfo.

Code:

mkvinfo your.mkv

find id for subtitle
Extract the subtitle from mkv

Code:

mkvextract tracks *.mkv id:file.ass

thats get you a *.idx and *.sub file
Use vobsub2srt, only file name without extension sub or idx

Code:

vobsub2srt filename

Than you have a subtitle srt file.

Awesome, thanks!

**jlittle** · Jan 16, 2018, 07:08 PM

Originally posted by Snowhog View Post

Pretty sure, that as you've written that alias, it won't work. The alias will include only this:

alias convertavi="for i in *.avi;do ffmpeg -i "

All after the second quote will result in a parsing (?) error.

The alias would usually run all the way to the done, but $i will be evaluated at the time of the alias definition. The first time the alias is defined, this will likely be blank, and ffmpeg will give an error trying to process a file called -c:v. If the alias is defined again, $i may now set to *.avi and convertavi will now have *.avi in its definition and might actually process an avi file. If there was one such file, and it has no spaces in it's name, it might seem that the alias worked as intended.

As oshunluvr suggests, alias definitions should almost always use single quotes around the contents:

Code:

alias convertavi='for i in *.avi;do ffmpeg -i "$i" -c:v libx264 -crf 14 -preset slow -c:a aac -b:a 192k -ac 2 "${i%.*}.mp4";done'

Even if there's no other quotes in the alias, $ and other expansions occur inside double quotes, so using them in an alias definition is treacherous.

This is a nuisance if one wants single quotes, aka apostrophes, in the alias. There's a few ways around this; the one I can remember is replace them with '"'"', that's single, double, single, double, single. f.ex.

Code:

alias foo='echo "I don'"'"'t like Mondays"'

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