Disclaimer

The information provided in the following article is intended as an educational resource and is provided as is. Serato Audio Research does not develop HandBrake and as a result does not offer any support aside from issues relating to using this preset. Should you have any other questions about the operation of this product then please contact the developer of the software at the Handbrake homepage. If you have any questions about using this preset with HandBrake, please start a help thread here. Make sure to include as many details as possible.

NOTE: It is illegal to encode material that you do not own the copyright on. Please respect the copyright of the content owners.

Intro

Many production facilities now supply their outputs on DVD. If you own footage that has been provided on DVD and need to play it in Video-SL here is a guide on how to convert it using the freeware application HandBrake.

Before we get started please visit our article on Video Files 101 to give you an overview of the terms used in the following tutorial.

Setting up HandBrake

Download and install HandBrake from here

At the time of writing HandBrake is version 0.9.5.

HandBrake can convert VOB files/DVD's to various formats with many different settings. We have created a preset for files that will work well in Video-SL.

IMPORTANT: You MUST have Perian 1.2.1 installed to play video files created using this preset. You can get Perian here.

Downloading and installing the Video-SL preset

1. Quit HandBrake.

2. Download the HandBrake Video-SL preset for Mac and unzip it to your desktop.

3. Open HandBrake.

4. Click the Presets menu and select Import. Browse to your desktop, select the Video-SL - preset version 2.2.plist file and click open.

When you launch HandBrake there should now be a new preset option titled (import) Video-SL - preset version 2.2 which contains all the necessary settings to convert video files which are optimized for Video-SL.

The Settings in the preset are for an MP4 file with H.264 codec, an average bitrate of 2000kbps, a decomb filter and a keyframe rate maximum of 25 as we have found that these settings have produced a good balance between file size and CPU usage. Once you are comfortable with HandBrake you may want to further tweak this to suit your needs.

Converting a VOB or DVD

Converting a DVD to a format Video-SL can read is a fairly straight forward process.

1. Launch Handbrake

When you launch HandBrake you will be greeted with:

2. Choose a File or Disc to convert

This is where you choose what you want to convert. You can either choose a whole disc, a folder containing the contents of your DVD or individual VOB files. A VOB file (Video Object) is what DVD-Videos use as their container format. It contains Video, audio, Subtitles, and Menu content.

3. Load the Video-SL preset

Once you have made your selection you will be presented with the following screen:

Click the (import) Video-SL - preset version 2.2 preset in the sidebar to load it.

4. Choose Destination

Click Browse next to the destination box to choose where you want to save the file.

5. Convert

Click start to begin conversion, this can take quite a long time depending on the length of what you are trying to convert.

Converting multiple files using HandBrake

It's also very easy to convert more than one video file at a time from a promo DVD using Handbrake.

1. Choose a Disc to convert
Click Source and navigate to the DVD you're using then click Open.

2. Select Chapters to convert

The HandBrake Chapters drop down menu will show you all the available chapters that you can import directly from the DVD. To select multiple chapters, choose the first chapter number through to the last video on the list that you would like to convert.

For example if you only want to convert the first video on the disc, choose Chapters: 1 through: 1, and if you'd like the first 10 videos choose Chapters: 1 through: 10. Select the Video-SL preset, then click the "Start" button.

3. Converting multiple jobs
If there are videos which you do not want to convert within a range of numbers you've selected, choose a different range, allowing a gap for the excluded videos and then create a new range with the other chapters you want. Each time you select the desired chapters, choose the Video-SL preset then click the "Add to Queue" button, to store your selected "jobs" until you're ready to convert them all.

You can check and edit the jobs in the queue by clicking "Show Queue". When you're happy with your selection choose the converted file destination on your computer, then click "Start".