General Video Question

[stsleeper94]

I have a DVD(VOB) and I would like to cut it up into ~13.6 mb sections into a new format (mp4). Is there a program that would do this for me.

The reason for this inquiry is my work would like to make available our airplane runs of land survey's available to the public. 5minute videos work best on our web host provider. Currently they have the web department using I-movie to do the task but I was wondering if a PC solution via a porgram was more viable. Ty for your time.

[Dr.Khron]

the web department using I-movie to do the task but I was wondering if a PC solution via a porgram was more viable.

Ummm.... what does "more viable" mean?

Yes, of course you can do this on a PC, and you can do it with the free tools availible on this site, but it likely a lot more complicated then you think. If the current output files are acceptable, you probably better off sticking with the status quo.

The problem is: you don't realize how complicated the task you want to do really is. When you use I-movie, it pretty much hides all the complicated steps from you.

How? Well, this is completely subjective. I would use MeGUI, but Staxrip and Handbrake do pretty much the same thing. Please don't ask which one is "best", thats a rule violation around here.

So, if you are serious, you need to do a LOT of reading up on this site... its all here for you. To get you started, the first thing you need to figure out is what the form the final files will take, a decision that should be entirely based on your TARGET AUDIENCE.

For example:
-Container: AVI, WMV, MP4, MKV
-Video format: Mpeg (several kinds), Divx, Xvid, x264
-Audio format: WAV, MP2, MP3, AAC

(and since this is for web distributuion, have you looked into Flash or Real Player?)

All of these have different strenghths and weaknesses...

[stsleeper94]

More viable refers to the current method in which each DVD is loaded into I- movie and manually cut up by hand. Stopping the track at Exactly the 13.6mb (5min mark by frame), etc.

I will look into the programs mentioned by you here in order to better address my attempt at getting something "more viable".

I was lucky enough to use a few programs here that turned out to be a lot of set up but once that was done it was load and go (AVIsubdetector).

So thank you for the start up nudge.