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Is quicktime pro worth it?

kuyu

kuyu

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Sep 16, 2003
694
0
Louisville
I'm thinking up buying qt pro, but am not sure if it's worth it or not. I have a couple of questions.

1) will qt pro convert vob's to mp4?

2) will it edit mp4?

3) what other useful tasks can it do?

Thanks to all who reply.
 
I would think its worth it just to get rid of that annoying pop up everytime the player comes up, lol
 
For how much it costs, QTPro is definitely worth it. Full screen MPEG watching, the ability to export into a variety of video codecs and the elimination of that annoying pop up make it worth it and the list of features extends longer than that!
 
Re: Is quicktime pro worth it?

Originally posted by kuyu

1) will qt pro convert vob's to mp4?

Thanks to all who reply.
Click to expand...

This is illegal (DMCA and MPAA lobbying can be thanked for that.) Quicktime Pro is not a DVD ripper.

FYI.
 
let me clarify. I wish to backup my own collection of dvd's which I bought fair and square. My intention is to be able to stream the converted mp4 across my network, but i'm not quite sure qt pro is the solution for me. I already know how to stream with VLC, but my conversion software is soooo slow.

*DISCLAIMER* Stealing anybody's hard work is wrong, and I by NO means meant to imply or condone that such activity was my intention.

Which reminds me, how long until we have an iMovie video store?
 
Originally posted by kuyu
let me clarify. I wish to backup my own collection of dvd's which I bought fair and square. My intention is to be able to stream the converted mp4 across my network, but i'm not quite sure qt pro is the solution for me. I already know how to stream with VLC, but my conversion software is soooo slow.

*DISCLAIMER* Stealing anybody's hard work is wrong, and I by NO means meant to imply or condone that such activity was my intention.

Which reminds me, how long until we have an iMovie video store?
Click to expand...

Ohh, that wasn't a attack on you or your ethics/morals... since vob is a digitally encoded/encrypted format, decoding it (even for fair-use reasons) is illegal. Just pointing that out (also pointing out the corruption of our rights by the DMCA) The only way programs like X Copy and so on are legally sold in stores is due to the fact the copy process never circumvents the digital encryption but is a bit-by-bit copy (well, that's how they present it to the courts the MPAA has challenged them in... )

Still pointing out, ripping vob is illegal for ANY reason. Hence, Apple would not allow QT Pro such a task. Your best bet is to look for illegal products (not condoning the action, just pointing out it is illegal in the US just by being able to do such a thing)
 
Re: Re: Is quicktime pro worth it?

Originally posted by legion

(converting vob to mp4)
This is illegal (DMCA and MPAA lobbying can be thanked for that.) Quicktime Pro is not a DVD ripper.

FYI.
Click to expand...

Ahm, why should converting one format to another be illegal? Yes, with the MPEG2-Plugin (sold seperately) you can open vob and m2v files and convert them to almost anything. And this is not illegal. Ripping DVDs to your computer where you don´t have the rights to, this is illegal. I use QT Pro and the MPEG2 plugin all the time, because I create DVDs... sigh... is this illegal now? ;) :eek:
 
You can create DVDs, you just can't rip DVDs from studio DVDs, whether you own them or not. It's part of the main principle of the DMCA... you can't circumvent or break digitial encoding. DVDs from studios are all encoded through the vob process, so when you rip to mp2, mp4, or mpv, you are breaking the law. Techinically, there is an encryption key (if you're in the pro market, you buy the right to an encryption key to encode your created DVDs in the exact same way) that is being defeated. It may not be "just", but that's the way it is in the current legal system. QT pro will not allow you to do something illegal (if it could, the MPAA would have been up-in-arms about it.)
 
I just realized I should follow up my statements with this... you can record DVDs for your own use if you own the DVD under the "fair-use" act to VCRs fed off of the DVD analog signal or DVD burners that take the analog signal and convert it back to digital. The reason why is that you are allowing the DVD player to export an analog signal and therefore operating within the normal operations of a DVD player (and thereby, not circumventing or breaking the digital encoding... this is the same principle behind the legality of iTunes bought songs exported to CD and then brought back in as mp3s. If you had a program that did this without exporting out and then retrieving it back, it'd be illegal since once again you're circumventing digital encoding encryption by doing a direct conversion)

Isn't the legal world fun!!!</sarcasm>
 
Re: Re: Re: Is quicktime pro worth it?

Originally posted by Stike
Ahm, why should converting one format to another be illegal? Yes, with the MPEG2-Plugin (sold seperately) you can open vob and m2v files and convert them to almost anything. And this is not illegal. Ripping DVDs to your computer where you don´t have the rights to, this is illegal. I use QT Pro and the MPEG2 plugin all the time, because I create DVDs... sigh... is this illegal now? ;) :eek:
Click to expand...

at last, this might the answer to what i have been looking for : so if i buy qt-pro and also the mpeg2-plugin i should be able to convert the vob to something the imovie can import...right?

i am looking to edit a couple of movies to delete some scenes that i find objectionable; then, i will be able to watch the re-authored movie with my kids without qualms. am interested to hear opinions if this is technically feasible.

note - i own the original, store-bought DVDs, so please don't bother about the nuances of legality here; i am interested only in the 'how', not the 'why'
 
Re: Re: Re: Re: Is quicktime pro worth it?

Originally posted by radhak
at last, this might the answer to what i have been looking for : so if i buy qt-pro and also the mpeg2-plugin i should be able to convert the vob to something the imovie can import...right?

i am looking to edit a couple of movies to delete some scenes that i find objectionable; then, i will be able to watch the re-authored movie with my kids without qualms. am interested to hear opinions if this is technically feasible.

note - i own the original, store-bought DVDs, so please don't bother about the nuances of legality here; i am interested only in the 'how', not the 'why'
Click to expand...

Okay, there may be a problem - if you want to use iMovie to edit the movies, you better get ready to use tons of HD space. iMovie only imports DV Streams or Quicktime movies with DV codec. That means, a 2 hour long movie will consume about 26 GB of diskspace.

Technically, you are totally right: Quicktime Pro, the MPEG2 plugin and you can open DVD files. Those are to be exported to DV format. Just choose "DV-Stream" in export options. Then it may take some really long time (realtime, or even longer to convert, chances are good it takes a few hours).
Afterwards, you can import the file into iMovie.
OH! Be warned! Use Quicktime Pro to split the movie into segments of no longer than 9 minutes and 20 seconds each! Because stupid iMovie does not open files which are larger than 2 GB.

Then you can use iDVD (if the movie is under 90 minutes, that is ;) ) to export the movie to a censored, clean DVD-R :)

I hope everything is correct and said now :D
 
editing commercial DVDs

Thanks Stike, that gives me a perspective, particularly about the disk-space and time/effort involved.

My thought was, if i am able to identify the exact .vob file that i want to edit, and as each vob file is around 1 GB or less, i could do this -

import specific xyz.vob --> delete certain scenes --> export back to "xyz.vob" --> now combine with the rest of the .vob files from the original DVD (ripped of course), and burn.

this would mean i avoid importing the whole movie, saving time and hassle. whaddya say?
 
Re: editing commercial DVDs

Originally posted by radhak
My thought was, if i am able to identify the exact .vob file that i want to edit, and as each vob file is around 1 GB or less, i could do this -

import specific xyz.vob --> delete certain scenes --> export back to "xyz.vob" --> now combine with the rest of the .vob files from the original DVD (ripped of course), and burn.

this would mean i avoid importing the whole movie, saving time and hassle. whaddya say?
Click to expand...

Sorry, but you can´t create vob files with Quicktime Pro. Those are encoded files that are also encrypted - DVD Studio can create that, not Quicktime. You also need to have DVD Studio if you wish to export to MPEG-2.

That means, if you want to burn a DVD, try iDVD. But this only works for movies of max. 90 minutes. There are some programs on versiontracker which do not have this limit, but are also a bit more difficult to use.
 
Plug in

I purchased QT pro a while ago. Where do I go to purchase the MPEG-2 plug in? Can't find it on Apple's site.
 
While on the subject of QTPro, does anyone know if QTPro comes with DVD Studio Pro? My university had purchased version 1.5 and I could have sworn it came with it... or maybe it came with FCP, either way, I am looking at buying DVD Studio Pro with my new mac, will it have the QTPro key?

Thanks :D
 
Originally posted by zim
While on the subject of QTPro, does anyone know if QTPro comes with DVD Studio Pro? My university had purchased version 1.5 and I could have sworn it came with it... or maybe it came with FCP, either way, I am looking at buying DVD Studio Pro with my new mac, will it have the QTPro key?

Thanks :D
Click to expand...

I know when I bought the Academic version of FCP 3, it had QTPro included despite the fact I had already plunked down $29.99 earlier for it. Pretty sure it's included with FCP 4 but perhaps those that upgraded or purchased 4 can answer that question.
 
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