Waka Technologies

In my previous article, I covered the basics of media re-encoding, using VLC to re-encode video from YouTube for viewing in Second Life.

Perhaps, in addition to viewing your favorite YouTube videos in the comfort of your virtual home, you would also like to enjoy parts of your DVD collection. In this installment I will show you the process for re-encoding a DVD for viewing in Second Life.

First a note: The act of extracting the content of a DVD and re-encoding it may not be legal in all jurisdictions. In addition, the idea of home and personal use may not translate to Second Life due to the need to host the re-encoded videos on a server where (even though you may not share the URL) they will be publicly available. There are methods for protecting the URLs from being read by malicious users but you should be aware that you may be liable for publishing a copyright work in a public location. Even if the concept of home and personal use applies in Second Life, this still means you should not be recoding your personal DVD collection for large group showings or commercial use.

The only tool required for recoding DVDs is the same one used for recoding YouTube videos: VLC. Information on VLC can be found in my previous article at http://www.wakatech.com/articles/video-in-second-life/tools-required-to-recode-video/.

Start by placing the DVD you wish to recode in your DVD drive and cancelling any auto-play or auto-browse windows. Start VLC and choose File > Open Disc…

Select the DVD radio button and click OK. If the main feature begins to play then we’re ready to setup the recode. If the main feature does not play, open the dialog again and increment the Title number. Eventually you will find the appropriate title number.

Choose File > Wizard… and select Transcode / Save to file and click Next >:

Click Choose… and switch to the Disc tab in the Open… dialog. Select the DVD radio button set the appropriate Title value if needed, then click OK and Next >:

Check the Transcode video and Transcode audio boxes. Select H 264 as the video codec with a 384 kb/s bitrate for the video encode and MPEG 4 Audio with a 32 kb/s bitrate for the audio encode. Click Next >:

Select MP4 as te encapsulation format and click Next >:

Click the Choose button and specify a target filename with an .mp4 extension and click Finish to begin encoding.

Progress in transcoding will be displayed through a slider and also through the time position of the transcoder relative to the end of the video clip (0:24 out of 4:59 in our case).

Once the transcode is finished you are ready to upload your newly recoded video to a web server and show it on your land. We’ll cover both of these steps in a future installment. In the meantime you can view your newly recoded video by browsing to it and double-clicking on it.