DVD Commentary - Isolate Audio Track

[sub780lime]

Okay, since this has to do with a DVD feature I am posting it here, but if you Mod/Admins feel it should be somewhere else just move it.


Is there any way to isolate a commentary track from a DVD and store it separately on a computer, say as an MP3 or something?


My ultimate goal is to be able to listen to the commentary on my IPOD.

[SilentBob]

No idea if you can do this or not. I don't know if some directors have taken anything from what Kevin Smith did Clerks II. He released a commentary trck for the film while it was still in theaters ti listen too while watching it on screen with your IPOD. So maybe its worth seeing if some studios or director blogs might have a link to download their commentary work.

[MooglePorn]

That would be really cool actually... I drive a half hour to school and then another half back home, so it would be pretty useful.

[papibear]

What's an IPOP?

[sub780lime]

Originally Posted by papibear

What's an IPOP?

You're not funny anymore because I fixed it.

[papibear]

Originally Posted by sub780lime

You're not funny anymore because I fixed it.

You know, not every letter in the name is capitalized. Only the P.

[Chris Knight]

Are you looking at just getting the audio (not the video)?

I usually just play the movie using whatever DVD program I have (some pre-installed Dell thingy) and record the audio using GoldWave. Then I save it as an MP3.

If you want the movie and the audio, can't help you there.

[sub780lime]

Originally Posted by Chris Knight

Are you looking at just getting the audio (not the video)?

I usually just play the movie using whatever DVD program I have (some pre-installed Dell thingy) and record the audio using GoldWave. Then I save it as an MP3.

If you want the movie and the audio, can't help you there.

I just want the audio track. I could try it that way. Good idea Chris. Its going to take the length of the movie but thats okay. So whats your setup to record the audio using Goldwav. Is it directly linked?

[sub780lime]

Originally Posted by papibear

You know, not every letter in the name is capitalized. Only the P.

I imported mine from Belgium so its an IPOD

[Chris Knight]

Originally Posted by sub780lime

I just want the audio track. I could try it that way. Good idea Chris. Its going to take the length of the movie but thats okay. So whats your setup to record the audio using Goldwav. Is it directly linked?

Yeah, it will take the entire length of the movie, but I haven't figured out how to "rip" from a DVD yet (any suggestions would be appreciated).

I play the DVD on the computer and use the input on GoldWave as WAV (it is "STEREO MIX" on my other computer). I believe. You have to create the blank soundwave first by clicking "new" and selecting the length. You also selct the quality settings as well. I usually make it a few minutes long than the movie and just trim the beginning and end after it is recorded. This could take a few minutes due to the size/length of the file. After you have recorded the audio, you have to save the file. This could take a few minutes as well.

[From a Buick 8]

You can rip from the DVD, you must break the copy protection first though.

[Chris Knight]

Originally Posted by From a Buick 8

You can rip from the DVD, you must break the copy protection first though.

Cool. I usually use DVDShrink for that.

Then what?

[From a Buick 8]

I use a Mac, so i use MTR to rip the AC3 or PCM file i want then you can convert those to a file format you can use.

Again for Mac I use mAC3Dec to convert them to MP3 or AAC. For PCM, get PCM2AIFF, or AIFF from PCM and convert them to AIFF format. You can also use ImTOO Audio Maker v3.0

For a PC i am not sure but look at your options on DVDShrink and see if you can rip just the AC3 or PCM.

[sub780lime]

Originally Posted by Chris Knight

Cool. I usually use DVDShrink for that.

Then what?

So if the copyright was broken, is the commentary track an isolated file on the disc that you/I could possible extract and then convert?

[Chris Knight]

I need to look into a way to convert the video and audio files into something that I can edit on my notebook PC. I want to make some compilation videos (like horror movie scenes for Halloween). Right now, I just go from a stand alone DVD player into a D to A convertor (usually a Dazzle DV Bridge) and then to the PC via firewire. This set-up is kind of clunky since I need several external components and I ocassioanally run into copy protection problems as well. I'd like to do it all internally if possible so I can just my laptop.

Sorry to derail this thread, sub780lime.

[Chris Knight]

Originally Posted by sub780lime

So if the copyright was broken, is the commentary track an isolated file on the disc that you/I could possible extract and then convert?

Oops. We must have been typing at the same time.

Although my question was asking for a bit more, the answer would include being able to converet from the video/audio files to an editible format(such as AVI or WAV). I'm sure there's software out there... I just haven't discovered it yet.

[From a Buick 8]

On the mac side of things i know how i would do what each of you want to do, for a PC i am not sure. I do know of a great website that can answer all of those questions for PC user. Not sure if the folks here in this forum frown on posting links to other web sites so send me a PM for the link.

[sub780lime]

Depends the nature of the link I guess. Ill send you a PM.

Can you describe how you would do it on a Mac though, I do have access to a Mac with a plethora of software.

[From a Buick 8]

On a Mac download MTR (Mac The Ripper).

Change MTR to Title Only (if you want the entire title to be a single audio file) or Title - Chapter (if you want one chapter per audio file), select the "D" button, then hit the "Streams" button. In the stream selection drawer, select only the AC3 track you want (or PCM if that's all there is). Then, extract the title or chapters you want. In the current version of MTR, you'll need to extract one chapter at a time if you want them to be separate, but in version 3.0, there is a MUCH better interface for chapter selection.

This will output the audio from the selected chapters of the DVD, typically as AC3 files.

Once you have the AC3 or PCM files extracted, you'll need to convert them to a usable format. For AC3, get the freeware app mAC3Dec to convert them to MP3 or AAC. For PCM, get PCM2AIFF, or AIFF from PCM and convert them to AIFF format, which you can import into iTunes and convert to MP3.

[DVDdetective]

Hook a portable DVD player to your car stereo?

The DVD player can lay on the passenger seat and be powered by the cigarrette dashboard lighter thingie.

Keep in mind to "close" the player whn driving since it's illegal to watch an isolated TV screen and drive at the same time.

DVDD

[Nicholas S. Folsom]

This has come up when some people, I think from these forums, asked if I could make an mp3 file of Scorsese and Schrader's commentary from Criterion's Taxi Driver laserdisc and make it available for everyone who wanted it. (I thought about it but never did.)

I would simply hook up the DVD player(or LD player), perhaps a portable DVD player, as to make the menus easier to navigate if need be and things like that since the screen is attached.

Then simply use the audio out to the computer and record the audio with something like Soundforge.

As an aside, would anyone here be interested in Criterion's Taxi Driver LD commentary?

[esc]

I just google'd DVD to MP3 and got a dozen results that should work. There may be some shareware progs you have to muddle through to get one that will convert a whole film's audio track, but one of these should work.

I have a friend that converts commentaries and DVD audio to MP3 for listening on his 'Pod. I think he uses a program that came with the unit.