Can anyone help with home video->DVD->computer->DVD?

Parent Cafe
1

<p>I had a tape from a videocam converted to DVD by a local camera shop. This DVD plays on my computer (Windows 7) using Windows Media Player. I need to copy the video to my computer disk, and then take pieces of it and burn them to a new DVD. And I need this to be high quality, because the videos are musical performances.</p>

<p>Does anyone know how to do this? I’ve been looking for information on the web, but most of what I find are instructions to get around DVD copyright (not an issue here).</p>

2

<p>I have used imovie (mac) and it is pretty simple. Do you have a movie maker program on your computer?</p>

3

<p>I only have Windows Media Player, so I will have to get something else to do what I need to do. There is something called Windows Movie Maker, but reviews are negative. There are zillions of programs out there, but I’m having trouble determining which one will work well for me.</p>

4

<p>Do you have a local cable access station near you? The kind of cable station that broadcasts school board meetings, etc.? If so, ask them if that is a service they provide, many do. They usually have pretty good equipment to handle the task.</p>

5

<p>I actually have done this!!! (I feel so smart)</p>

<ol>
<li><p>Use DVD Decrypter (or similar freeware) to get the video from the DVD onto your computer (a raw video file)</p></li>
<li><p>Then use Videora (or similar freeware) to make it into a video file that you can “see” in itunes or movie maker…</p></li>
<li><p>Use Movie Maker (or whatever video editing software you like) to edit as you want. It’d be here that you’d shorten the video or add captions, etc. That software should give you an option to “publish” to a dvd or something you could put on youtube if you wanted to.</p></li>
</ol>

<p>Hope this helps! It’s step 1 that’s the most “techie”.</p>

6

<p>Thank you so much, JustaMom! You are a genius! I’m off to try this out…</p>

7

<p>You’re welcome - let me know how you make out, or PM me if you have trouble.</p>

8

<p>I used a free program, Winx Free DVD to MPEG Ripper, and it did everything I needed it to do, very easily. Thanks so much!</p>

9

<p>Oh - I’ll have to try that one out! From the name, it sounds like it does both #1 and #2 using the same software. That’d be a time saver, for sure! Glad you were successful… :)</p>