Wednesday, March 26, 2008

Things You're Not Going To Get Today. An Apparently Recurring Theme.

A couple of years ago, someone in my family took a whole bunch of old super-8 films and had them burned onto a dvd. These films start in 1954, waaay before I made my grand appearance. The go through 1964, so I'm included from infancy to 4 years of age. I had intended to post some pieces from it today, but, alas, all the files are saved as things like VTS_01_0.BUP and .IFO and .VOB. Unfortunately, I don't even know what kind of files those are, much less how to post them to my blog. So no young Nathan for you today.

If anyone knows what those file extensions mean, and/or know how to make them into MPEGS, let me know and then you'll get to laugh at my early steps. (And my big sister in her cats-eye glasses is to die for.)

I've got iMovie and iDVD if that helps.

22 comments:

Jeff Hentosz said...

Put the disc in your Mac, fire up iMovie and click File>Import... and see what happens. I'm curious to know, because I have a 20-year-old VHS tape of my daughter that I'd like to have digitized and then move into the computer.

I procrastinate about it because I know what happens to old magnetic tape. A friend of mine converted some reel-to-reels once and they destroyed themsleves as they rolled. He said it was the freakiest thing -- even as the tape rolled over the head and sent a good audio signal into the player, the iron oxide flaked off, rendering the tape useless thereafter.

Nathan said...

Jeff,

It doesn't work. iMovie didn't recognize the files and wouldn't import them.

Steve Buchheit said...

There's a program called "handspring" (or something like that) that will rip commercial DVDs to iTunes compatible MP4 files. That might help.

Nathan said...

Steve,

I'm only finding Handspring as a company that was bought up by Palm. They listed a bunch of different software.

I'm not finding it as a specific program.

And why aren't you and Jeff signed up for our writing game? Hrmmmmm?

Jeff Hentosz said...

Onh, ho! The Steve, he ees right. Eet ees called, how you say, Handbrake. Ah had forgotten about eet. Once ah used it to rip a Looney Tunes from DVD. As you will see, eet is from France. Why else do you theenk ah have theese outrageous accent?

Nathan said...

yeah, yeah, yeah Jeff,

but are you gonna write with us?

Personally, I think your portions would be screwy as hell...therefore, most welcome.

(and thanks for the link.)

Jeff Hentosz said...

Uh. On reflection, I think I should clarify for the edification of the IP SWATbots that must surely peruse a forum such as Blogger, that I, er, um, maybe converted one little short, mostly as an experiment to see how the utility worked and also to put "Feed the Kitty" on my iPod as a surprise for my wife when she was traveling. It went no further than that, I swear. And I never watched that DVD anyway. On top of which my player was broken at the time.

Gah. It was such a good day; now I'm gonna have a paranoid stomache ache for a month.

Jeff Hentosz said...

Regarding the writing game: I appreciate the personal invite, very much, but as much fun as I have with blog comments, experience has decreed I am severely fiction challenged. Thanks, though. I'll be all y'alls most avid reader.

Nathan said...

So I downloaded Handbrake. I tried to convert just one chapter from the DVD. It grabbed the entire disc, took two hours to alter and now, I don't know how to post just part of it. I don't think any of you want 1 hour and 48 minutes of my family history (especially since I'm only in the last 10 minutes or so).

Jeff Hentosz said...

Checking in before lights-out and, boom, there you are.

Okay, so if it converted (i.e., you can double-click it and it plays in a Quicktime window or something), now open it in iMovie and just crop out the few minutes at the end that you want. Do an export to a web-appropriate sized .mov or .mpg and you should be able to post it.

Well, that is if Blogger has the capability to post video directly. You might have to post through an intermediary like YouTube or Revver or Blip.TV or the like. If you have a .Mac account, you can post it that way as well.

Aside: Do you have an iChat or AIM name? This kind of thing might be easier to hash out that way.

MWT said...

He doesn't, but we do have a UCF Back Fence. You can get to it either through http://snave.org/javachat.html or, if you're IRC-savvy, it's #UCFBackFence at irc.ircstorm.net. Getting Nathan figured out and in there was plenty challenging without explaining what IMs are. ;)

Nathan said...

Actually, I'm sure I have an AIM name and I totally have access to iChat, I've just never set them up...or I've forgot what I set up.

Hrrrmmmm.

Steve Buchheit said...

Ah, zee Jeff, my petite fromage. You are the correct one. You are zee light of my moon. You are the pear of my apple. Do not be afraid of the love...

Yeah, I happen to love Pepe LePew. Wish the current "Golden Collection" DVDs would have included more of him.

Random Michelle K said...

Nathan

If you have gmail, AIM is now integrated with gmail chat. SO if you're logged into gmail, it will automatically log you into AIM.

Since I have gmail open all the time, this is the perfect solution for me. :)

MWT said...

I sent forth a hail and you never responded! Clearly, Michelle hates me. T.T

Tom said...

Gmail chat is just one more thing that my employer has blocked. Clearly they want me to work, instead of play. Why would that be?

Random Michelle K said...

You sent me something via chat?!

hmmm.... gmail or aim?

Was I here? I've been running around a lot. How would you know that?

MWT said...

AIM. It says you're logged on as we speak, so I just sent another hail. :)

Random Michelle K said...

That was about 30 seconds before I turned off my computer to leave work.

Maybe if I add your e-mail into gmail?

Tania said...

Tom, it's because they are unreasonable bastards that don't realize that you do your job better by receiving a variety of stimuli. I have the same problem. I can see Michelle's page, but I'm not sure for how long.

Jeff Hentosz said...

So? What's the status of the infant Nathan footage?

Nathan said...

Well, Handbrake works but the first time I tried it, it copied and reformatted the entire disc (which is way to big of a file to drag into iMovie. So then I tried reformatting just one chapter off the dvd, but something went wacky with that too, and it was too big of a file for iMovie too.

I'll monkey with it again over the weekend and see if I can't make something work. If I can get it into iMovie, I should be able to put some captions and other nifty stuff on it.