posted 02-19-2001 07:29 PM
Heh...well, I'll see what I CAN tell you, and I'll see what I SHOULD.TECHNICALLY, the only ways to get DVD video onto your hard drive is to either (A) capture it with an analog captuer card, or (B) use a program (which the courts have declared illegal in ites executable form) called DeCSS to basically DECRYPT the video onto your hard drive. Finding this program isn't a problem, but be warned, post it on your site and expect a nice little Cease and Desist letter to arrive in your mailbox within the week, listing all of the studios who are very, very pissed at you. 
Now, if you live in the US, you're not really "supposed" to do this, but certain countries still have SOMEWHAT reasonable laws concerning fair use of copyrighted works (the DMCA basically erases that in the US), so this is why I'm telling you this information.
Once you've basically ripped the files from the disc (and they are LARGE files, anywhere between 4-8 gigs a movie, sometimes more), you'll probably want to recompress the movie into a different format (most popular is probably DivX). This can bring the file size down to 500-800 megs, which allows you to work with it better. However, remember that this is the ENTIRE movie, so you'd be bringing a 120 minutes or so into Premiere in one large file, which could cause some synching problems.
Speaking of synching problems...most likely, when you rip and recompress the video, the sound and video will either gradually go out of sync, or will be off by a second or so straight from the start. Also, don't expect to have this done anytime today or anything. Depending on the speed of your processor, it can take anywhere from 8-18 hours to recompress the video, only HOPING that it went without any errors. So, not only is it not practical, its also very time consuming.
My advice? If you want to fiddle around with some scenes on a dvd, just record them using an analog capture card, it'll probably be good enough for what you're doing compared the hassle of going the other way. I'd also post some links that can better help you, but the (not so) Honorable Judge Kaplan has declared it illegal to LINK to a site that MIGHT has DeCSS on it. 
Even though that is incredibly stupid, and basically defeats the whole purpose of the internet (I guess we'd have to outlaw search engines, huh?), I really have no other choice than to comply.
If you have any further questions regarding that, you can always send me an e-mail and/or find me on IM. Be warned though, (as some others can tell you) I don't take kindly to people who would use this for any "illegal" purposes beyond the normal fair use. You've been warned. 
[This message has been edited by BIG JIM SLATE (edited 02-19-2001).]
posted 02-19-2001 04:07 PM
