VIDEO EDITING SOFTWARE
Working with DVD's

Since appearing just a few years ago, DVD's have quickly replaced the VHS tape as the preferred video storage and playback medium for most football coaches. Unfortunately, its taken more than a few years for software technology to evolve so that DVD's are also video editing friendly.  We think that time has finally arrived and have included a few frequently asked questions about DVD ripping and video capture below.

Question:  Why do you say DVD's are not video editing "friendly"?

Answer:   In short, because what most of us think of as a DVD - a "video" DVD, stores video in a way that is not ideal for editing.  For this reason, DVD Video almost always needs to be captured or converted in order to be fully compatible with sports-specific video editing software.

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Question:  What's different now ?

Answer:  A few very important things.... 

1. Video has finally reached "ubiquity" as an integral part of personal computing. From YouTube to iPods, video editing software has attracted the attention of more and more software developers and companies. The resulting competition and commoditization of video editing software has produced more and better video-oriented software and utilities at lower and lower prices.

2. DVD and digital video have experienced a relatively rapid adoption rate when compared to VHS and analog video.  Consider that, by comparison, the first VCRs appeared in the early '80's but video really did not become an important part of computing, at least in the Windows world, until the release of Windows XP in 2002. 

DVD's began to gain popularity shortly thereafter, and in just a few years were "natively" supported in Microsoft's new version of Windows, Windows Vista. In turn, computer "processor", component and system manufacturers included technology to make working with video easier, faster and less troublesome.

3.  DVD "ripping" and Digital Media Converter software products are now widely available, inexpensive and work better, faster and more reliably than ever.

While still far from perfect, and prone to more problems than capturing video directly from a camera, depending on the DVD ripping software used,  better results can be obtained than just a few years ago.

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Question:  How does this affect football coaching software that is designed for video editing?

Answer:  In a few very important ways:

1. Since football coaches often exchange video on DVD, DVD "ripping" software that is designed to optimize performance on today's processors offers a fast and convenient alternative to capturing video. Also, many coaches now receive a DVD shortly after playing a game, which can be viewed at a time and place that is convenient.

2. Since most computers include at least a DVD player, increasingly no additional "equipment" beyond the computer is required in order to perform typical video editing functions.

3. "Capture-free" video editing is often possible and practical for many coaches who choose the better quality (and usually not free) DVD ripping software and are satisfied with the quality and results they get from "ripped" DVD's.

Question:  Are there specific DVD "ripping" products that you recommend?

Answer: YES.  We have long recommended DVD Copy Plus from Corel and still think it is a great product because it can  "rip" DVD's AND also convert video from an "HDD" (hard-drive based) camcorder to an editing-friendly format.  Corel's new Digital Media Suite includes this time tested technology with an impressive collection of Video and DVD creation tools at an attractive price.

We also like a product called, appropriately, Rip DVD Plus from Deskshare . Rip DVD Plus can convert DVD's to a number of formats, including a few that work well with Easy-Scout Pro and can also work well with Easy-Cut under normal conditions.

Finally, many of our customers attain satisfactory results using the DIVX for Windows software, which includes a Digital Media Converter and MPEG2 (for DVD) plug-in. Easy-Scout Pro and Easy-Cut work well with DIVX AVI files created with this software.

While the video from "ripped" DVD's is often slightly lower in quality than video that is captured through a firewire connection, either from a mini-DV camcorder or through a firewire capture device, the quality is often satisfactory and the file sizes are amazingly small and convenient to work with.

...see what we mean