More Video Streaming Questions

Hi,

Don't know if this has been covered but if i have a cool movie on DVD that i wanted to stream into SL how would i do it? I have the servers etc i just need to know how to covert my DVD into a file i can upload to the server.

Any ideas????

If you're new to creating compressed media, this is going to be a tough one.

1) First, you have to get the media off of the DVD and onto the hard drive of your computer. There are many "DVD Rippers" out there. I personally use "DVD Decrypter" available from http://www.dvddecrypter.com.

Once you have that program you can move the media from the DVD to the HD. Be aware that in the US, it is illegal to decrypt and store movies to your hard drive unless you own the copyright, have permission from the copyright holder or the DVD has media that is part of the public domain.

2) Now you have your media on your HD. Currently, the media is in the form of IFO, VOB, and BUP files. Many DVDs have multiple titles on them, extra features and menus that you do not want to encode into a .MOV or .MP4 file. You'll want to use a VOB viewer in order to select the VOB files that you will want to encode. I use DVD2AVI which you can find at The AfterDawn Forums.

3) Once you have downloaded this piece of software, use it to open the VOB file VIDEO_TS.VOB and you will NORMALLY see the menu for the DVD. You don't want to encode this file. So click on FILE --> OPEN and delete this VOB file and move on to the next VOB file, VTS_01_1.VOB. When you load this, you may see the media that you want, or you may see something that you don't want to encode at all. Use the scroll bar to scroll through the file and see if it is or not. When you select a VOB file that has other VOB files it depends on, it will load them all up at the same time. This is when you'll know that you have selected a whole movie. Once you figure out which VOB file will load your film and ONLY the film you want, write down the VOB file you selected that allowed you to get to that point and move on to the next step.

4) You have to take these files and turn them into something that many editors / compressors can use. The VOB and IFO files generally are not accepted by many editors and compressors because a VOB file may rely on other VOB files, and most editors just dont know how to handle them. Because of this, I use a program called TMPGEnc to encode the file into an MPEG-1 file. You can get a trial version of TMPGEnc that will encode MPEG-1 files until the end of time at the TMPGEnc Website

5) Encode your movie to MPEG-1 with TMPGEnc and you now have a workable media file on your hard drive that you can now turn into a .MOV. Before we move on, there's a couple of things that you should know about streaming to SL before you go on. You need to decide if you are going to use an actual streaming server to produce your files or if you're going to just slap the file on a website and go.

This is an important distinction because SL handles the video differently depending on which you choose. If you choose to just put the .MOV up on a website, SL handles it as what is called "Progressive Streaming" which means that your machine downloads large chunks of the video at a time and then watches the chunks. If it is a large movie, this means that it will take some time for the movie to start (depending on your connection and the size of the file.)

If you decide that you want to go the streaming route, then you have to either a) Contract a streaming server operator to stream the media for your or b) Compile and use Apple's free Darwin Streaming Server to serve the video for you. I won't go into how to compile the server. If you don't know how to do it, you don't want to try... it is not for beginners. Also, if you have decided you want to stream your media, you have perform a process on the file called "Hinting". Apparently you can purchase QuickTime Pro for $30 to do this for you but I had very little success with this method. I use Sorenson Squeeze 4 to compress and hint my MOV file in about 12 minutes for a full-length movie.

Yes. The process is completely complicated if you've never moved media off of a DVD before. There's probably another way to do it that is a lot easier, but I haven't found it. In any event, your main goal is to turn that MPEG-1 file you created into either a self-contained .MOV file to upload to a website, or a "HINTED" .MOV file for uploading to a streaming host (either your own or one you have contracted.)

If you have any questions, be sure to post them here and I'll help to any extent that I can.

I'll be glad to encode the video for you for a few $L!

Spuds

A warning: As per the Terms of Service, you may not use Second Life to infringe on others' rights, including copyrights. This includes not uploading or transmitting copyrighted content, including virtually all commercial DVDs.

And it's just not a very wise idea.

See the Terms of Service and our DMCA page for more info.

I put the disclaimer in my explaination, as well.

Spuds

lol and i never said i was gonna stream a copyrighted film in either. Thanks for that info by the way it was very helpfull. Im looking at what licenses etc would be needed if i actually wanted to stream these to the public though i suspect it will be to costly. Would i be breaking any rules if me and ONE friend watched a movie together and only allowed access for us two on the land? Thats just like asking a friend over to atch a movie.