Playing a DVD?

[Urb]

We have a Client
that wants to know if we can use the catalyst to play a DVD for a demo

We curently have a Blackmagic Decklink plus capture card
It has SDI input, but I don't have DVD player with SDI Out

What are some work arounds?

Should I get a different capture card?

Is there any type of converter I can purchase?

Should I buy a DVD Player with SDI Out?

Thanks,
Keith

[samsc]

what exactly does your client mean?

can catalyst play a dvd?

does he mean can the mac play a dvd?

or does he want control of a dvd from some external device?

and sdi?

what is sdi requred for?

what are you displaying your dvd on?

or does he want to display the dvd image through catalyst?

---

is this a commercial dvd - or one that the client created?

you can use MacTheRipper to convert the dvd to a quicktime movie?
which you can then play in catalyst?

[Urb]

The client is providing the DVD and has created its content

They want to know if the catalyst can take a DVD from an external or the internal DVD player and use the movie recorded on the DVD as a layer in the Catalyst.

I know we could potentialy just take the movie off the DVD and upload it into a library folder, but that isn't what they are asking.

They want to see if the catalyst can use an external source like a DVD player to supply a layer of content to a presentation using the catalyst and DL-1

Currently our Catalyst only has a SDI Capture card

and the only DVD players I have are Firewire or Composite out

I have tried to use the Firewire input to play the DVD through an external DVD player but catalyst only recognized the Blackmagic Decklink capture card as the video input and would not let me use the firewire

[samsc]

I have tried to use the Firewire input to play the DVD through an external DVD player but catalyst only recognized the Blackmagic Decklink capture card as the video input and would not let me use the firewire

if you really really need to use the firewire input-
You need to make sure you have the dvd deck outputting firewire, and plugged in.

Then restart the mac.

there have been reports of firewire inputs only being recognised if they are plugged and operational in at restart time....
there is always the additional possibility that the 'firewire' output on your dvd deck is not dv firewire - but something else- AND thus not recognised.

you will need to make sure you turn on the deinterlace function in catalyst video input.

which decklink capture card do you have?

[samsc]

internal DVD player and use the movie recorded on the DVD as a layer in the Catalyst.

For reasons of copy protection of dvd's - applications are given no access at all to any image data from a dvd - as this would make circumventing the copy protection totally trivial...

even if this were not the case - the data access times, and seek times, and the use of MPEG2 - make dvd footage a dreadful choice for manipulating video.

You can use MacTheRipper ( and other programs ) to extract a usable file in a non-MPEG format.

MPEG movies are horrible.
You have no random frame access. and decode times are far too long for a multilayer program like catalyst.

[Urb]

The capture card is a Blackmagic Decklink plus

What other solutions can you think of?

Do they sell DVD players with SDI Output?

Should I buy some type of scaler and switcher system so I can play multiple sources?

The question about playing a DVD has been asked a few times now.

And I would like to either say the only way it can be done is to transfer the movie to quicktime and upload it to a folder or no problem our system is setup to take DVD, Live Video, and a multitude of other external inputs.

[samsc]

you can get composite to sdi convertors?

or you can get a miglia composite input video card?

you really really cant get access to any movies off a dvd without converting them to a better format for playback.

if you need to switch between different video input sources, companies like extron make a huge range of switches at different price points with different functionality.
these are controllable from rs232 and from catalyst.

[Urb]

Thank You

[emilianomorgia]

I'm using this thing to grab DVDs http://handbrake.m0k.org/ ( off course you can grab dvd if you own the right )

[samsc]

mactheripper works as well.

dont use mpeg4 or mpeg2 to playback movies.