Cinematize 1 FAQ

1. About Cinematize 1 - What is Cinematize?

	Q: What is the big deal about extracting segments off of a DVD? I thought I could do this with the tools I already have.
	A: Many people believe that they can easily extract segments off of a DVD until the day they actually have to do it. Then they realize it is not so easy. This is because DVD discs use special file formats (VOB, BUP, IFO) which none of the standard video/audio editing software can handle. Cinematize fills this void. Cinematize takes these specialized DVD formats and converts them into formats such as MOV, M2V, and AIFF which can be easily recognized by all the main video/audio editing software packages like QuickTime, iMovie, and Final Cut.
	Q: Can I copy an entire DVD using Cinematize?
	A: You can extract all the chapters at once by selecting the first chapter as the starting chapter and the last chapter as the ending chapter. However, using Cinematize, you will not get the menus and you will be limited to one of the soundtracks at a time. There are better tools than Cinematize if making the entire copy of DVD is your main goal. Those tools will reduce the video/audio quality to squeeze down and copy the data onto a DVD-R. Cinematize, on the other hand, preserves the full original quality, since its purpose is really to enable you to use segments off of a DVD to create something new.
	Q: Can Cinematize change the quality of the video/audio?
	A: The answer is No for Cinematize 1, but Yes for Cinematize 2. Cinematize 1 is designed to extract segments off of a DVD while preserving the full original quality. You can then go on to adjust the video/audio codec, change the bit rate, etc. using your favorite editing tools once the data are extracted. Cinematize 2, on the other hand, allows you to decode the video into any of the codecs supported by QuickTime. Using the decoding options provided by Cinematize 2, you can control the trade-off between file size and video quality. You can also extract the video data with the full original quality. For audio tracks, Cinematize 2 will always preserve the full original quality. You may choose to decode to AIFF/WAV/MOV or to save the audio undecoded.
	Q: How is Cinematize different from DVD authoring tools such as DVD Studio Pro and iDVD?
	A: Cinematize is NOT a DVD authoring tool. Cinematize in fact complements authoring tools by offering exactly the opposite functionality. DVD authoring tools retrieve your video information and put it onto a DVD, but do not let you take the information off of the DVD. Cinematize lets you extract a segment or clip back off of the DVD so you can edit it again.
	Q: How is Cinematize different from video editing tools such as Final Cut, iMovie, and Quick Time?
	A: Cinematize is NOT a video editing tool. Usually, people use video editing tools to edit their home videos. Then they might choose to create a DVD using a DVD authoring tool. Cinematize becomes useful after this stage. Cinematize lets you extract a segment or clip back off of the DVD so you can edit it again with a video editing tool.
	Q: You say Cinematize can handle a DVD with multiple angles. What is an angle? How is it used?
	A: An "angle" on a DVD originally referred to a different camera "angle" and the use of multiple angles was originally confined to the adult film industry. Recently, however, it has become quite common on complex mainstream commercial discs to use angles as a means of localizing movies into different languages. Each angle will display credits, text, or other localized material according to the language soundtrack selected. Cinematize allows you to specify an angle and take videos/audios associated with the specific angle you selected. Back to Top

2. Cinematize 1 features - Can Cinematize do this?

	Q: How fast is the extraction? How long does it take to extract for example a 30 minute segment?
	A: One of the best features of Cinematize is its high-speed extraction. If your DVD is already copied onto your hard drive, then extraction usually takes around 1/8 of the play time. So it will take just over 3 minutes to extract a 30 minute segment. If you are directly extracting from a DVD disc, it is slower. In this case, the extraction speed will be limited by the read speed of your DVD drive, which can be 2x, 4x, or 8x. If your drive supports reading at 4x, it will typically take just over 7 minutes to extract a 30 minute segment. If you have an 8x DVD drive it will be even faster, taking just a few minutes to extract a 30 minute segment.
	Q: How is quality of the audio and video after extraction?
	A: Because the main purpose of Cinematize is to enable you to reuse the content of a DVD to create something new, Cinematize is designed to preserve the full original quality of the audio and video after extraction. You will not lose any audio or video quality in the extraction process.
	Q: I have DVD files stored on my hard drive. Do I need to have the actual DVD disc to use Cinematize, or will it work with the data on my hard drive?
	A: No, you don't need the actual DVD disc to use Cinematize. Cinematize will work fine with DVD data stored on your hard drive.
	Q: Can I extract songs or soundtracks off of a DVD and play them using iTunes? How do I do that?
	A: Yes, you can extract songs or sound tracks off of a DVD and play them using iTunes. To do this, make sure your preferences are set to extract audio into either AIFF or WAV file formats. Choose to extract audio only, choose “Separate Streams”, and extract the songs or soundtracks you want. Then, just drag the extracted files onto the main window of iTunes and they will be automatically added to your music library.
	Q: Can Cinematize help me get a still picture out of a movie? How do I do that?
	A: Yes, Cinematize can help you get a still picture out of a movie. Here is how you do it in QuickTime Pro, although you can also use iMovie, Final Cut, etc. Using Cinematize, extract the portion of the movie containing the still you want. Select QuickTime format. Open the extracted movie in QuickTime Pro. Play the movie until you reach the scene you want and press pause (or simply slide the slider to the right spot). Choose Export, then Movie to Picture. Press the Options button to select the picture format. Click Save to save the picture. Back to Top

3. Cinematize 1 troubleshooting - Why is this?

	Q: When I extract a video/movie clip using Cinematize, the frame size is different from what I want. How can I change this?
	A: Video on a DVD is stored in certain permitted sizes, such as 720x480 (NTSC) or 720x576 (PAL). The video is expected to be played back with an aspect ratio of either 4:3 or 16:9. Since the permitted video sizes do not match either of those aspect ratios, the DVD player is expected to resize the video to fit upon playback. When you extract a clip with Cinematize, QuickTime picks one of the two ratios for playback and sets the track display frame size accordingly. The video data do not change, just the QuickTime playback. You can change the movie playback frame size to be different (or back to the DVD native size) if you like by simply changing the track frame size to that value. For example, in QuickTime Pro, here is what to do: Choose Movie > Get Movie Properties. Change the left popup menu to select MPEG2 Video Track. Change the right popup menu to select Size. Click on adjust, then drag the red lower right corner of the movie to adjust. Click Done and close the properties window. Choose File > Save As and save the movie to a new file. Note that Cinematize 2 offers a new feature that allows you to control the output frame size to get just what you want. For more information, see the Cinematize 2 FAQ discussion of aspect ratio control.
	Q: iMovie is giving me a message that my segment is too long to import. What should I do?
	A: iMovie seems to have trouble importing longer MPEG-2 movies, even though you can play those movies just fine in QuickTime. This import limitation is not present in other Apple video programs such as Final Cut Express or Pro. To get your segment into iMovie, you have several choices. Extract as several smaller chunks, then import those one by one into iMovie. With Cinematize 1, this is only possible if your original segment spanned multiple chapters. With Cinematize 2, however, this can be easily done even if the segment consists of only one long chapter, since it allows you to select any points within a chapter as start and end points. See Cinematize 2 FAQ as well as Cinematize 2 what's new for more details. Use QuickTime Pro to export the segment into a format iMovie likes better, such as one of the DV formats or "None". Chop the exported MPEG-2 video into smaller pieces using a shareware program such as JAW MPEG2Splitter. You will most likely lose some frames around the chop points, but this may be all right. Import the video pieces into iMovie, string them together, then import the full audio track.
	Q: My editing program will not import my MPEG audio track. What should I do?
	A: You can decode one or two channel MPEG audio into AIFF or WAV format using iTunes. The resulting files should import correctly into editing programs. Here is the process to create AIFF files using iTunes. Open iTunes and choose iTunes>Preferences Click on the Importing tab Next to "Import Using" choose "AIFF Encoder" from the pop-up menu Close the preferences window Drag the MPEG audio file produced by Cinematize onto iTunes Highlight the file and choose Advanced>Convert to AIFF to encode it into AIFF Import this audio file into your editing program
	Q: I am having trouble importing the movie (.mov file) I extracted with Cinematize into iMovie 4. Somehow iMovie 4 imports only the audio, but not the video. Why is this?
	A: While iMovie 4 seems to have many improvements over iMovie 3, it seems to have introduced some bugs related to importing QuickTime MPEG movies. We expect Apple will fix these bugs soon. In the meantime, the workaround for the problem is to import your extracted video file (extension m2v or m1v) and audio file (extension aif, wav, etc.) into iMovie 4 one by one. Simply align the video and audio manually to start at the same time.
	Q: I get a QuickTime error when I try to preview. Why is this? Q: I get a QuickTime error when I try to play an extracted file. Why is this? Q: When I extract in QuickTime format, I am not getting any .MOV file. Why is this?
	A: (For all 3 questions above) Apple's QuickTime MPEG-2 Playback component is needed to allow QuickTime to play or process any file containing MPEG-2 data, whether it is a movie (MOV), a video (MPG/M2V), or an MPEG-2 audio (M2A) file. As a result, you will need this component installed to create QuickTime movies with Cinematize, to use the preview function in Cinematize, or even to to play any extracted MPEG-2 files using the QuickTime Player. In order for the component to work, it must also be up-to-date with your installed version of QuickTime. The component comes bundled with Final Cut Pro and DVD Studio Pro, but make sure to update the version. Usually you can update the component with Software Update, but sometimes you may need to do it manually from Apple's web site. If you don't have Final Cut Pro or DVD Studio Pro, you will need to get the component separately from the Apple Store. Note that Cinematize 2 comes with its own powerful video decoder. Therefore, there is no need for this QuickTime MPEG-2 Playback component, and you will never encounter the above problems.
	Q: When I click the preview button, I can view the picture but not hear the sound. What’s wrong?
	A: When you click the preview button, you are viewing the video using the QuickTime MPEG-2 Playback component, and this only works with video, not with audio. Once you extract the segment, you will get both the video and the audio.
	Q: I cannot select my extracted AIFF file to import it into iMovie. Why is this?
	A: iMovie sometimes is picky about file extensions. You may need to change the file extension on your AIFF file from .aif to .aiff.
	Q: When I try to preview or extract a segment off of my commercial DVD, I get an error message saying my VTS is encrypted and cannot be processed. Why is this?
	A: You get this error message when you try to preview or extract from an encrypted DVD. Almost all the commercial DVDs available today are protected with Content Scrambling System (CSS) encryption. The Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) in the US prohibits “circumventing” this encryption. In accordance with this law, Cinematize does not allow previewing or extracting data from encrypted DVD discs and files. Should this law be changed or overturned in the future, Miraizon will most likely upgrade Cinematize to remove these restrictions.
	Q: I am having trouble extracting an entire movie to a QuickTime file. Why is this?
	A: There is a bug in QuickTime, acknowledged by Apple, that prevents Cinematize from saving MPEG-2 movies which are 4GB or longer. Although infrequent, this problem may even occur when the movie length is 2GB or longer. To be on the safe side, Apple recommends you keep your QuickTime MPEG-2 movies under 2 GB and string them together as clips in an editing program to make longer movies.
	Q: The audio and video are out of sync in my extracted QuickTime movie. Why is this?
	A: There is a bug in the QuickTime MPEG-2 Playback component that affects the video timing when decoding certain MPEG-2 video segments. For your information, since Cinematize 2 now includes its own video decoder, eliminating the need for this MPEG-2 Playback component, all problems caused by this component *are now gone. Please see the Cinematize 2 FAQ for more details about the advanced synchronization features of Cinematize 2. On behalf of Cinematize 1 owners, we filed a bug report with Apple in autumn 2003 describing the problem. While there is nothing wrong with the data extracted by Cinematize 1, this bug will affect all of Apple's programs that use the QuickTime MPEG-2 Playback component to decompress MPEG-2 video, including QuickTime Pro, iMovie, and Final Cut. Until Apple fixes this bug int he MPEG-2 Playback component, we suggest one of the following two workaround methods: Method 1 [Preserves full audio/video quality] :* Extract your segment with Cinematize as a normal QuickTime file (with dependencies) or as separate video and audio stream files. Decompress the resulting MPEG-2 video file using a free non-Apple MPEG-2 decoder such as DiVA (see below). Put the decompressed video back together with the audio using QuickTime Pro, iMovie, Final Cut, or your favorite program. Instructions for using DiVA (http://diva.3ivx.com/download.html): Download and install the DiVA video decoder. Run DiVA and choose your video file (.m2v) as the "Source". input file and choose a name for the "Target" output file. Set all the "Crop" values to zero, and set the "Scale" frame size to the values reported by Cinematize. Click on "Video Compression" and choose a format of either "None" (best quality) or one of the DV formats. Set the Motion > Frames Per Second to be "Best". Click OK to close the Video Compression dialog box. Click Start to decompress the video to a QuickTime video file (.mov). Instructions for combining the audio and video with QuickTime Pro: Double click on the audio (AIFF file) to open it as a movie. Double click on the decompressed video file to open it as a movie. Highlight the audio movie and choose Edit > Select All. Choose Edit > Copy. Highlight the video movie and choose Edit > Add. Choose File > Save As and save the combined audio/video movie. Method 2 [Adjusts audio timing to compensate for video using QuickTime Pro] : Extract your segment with Cinematize as a normal QuickTime file (with dependencies) or as separate video and audio stream files. Double click on the audio (AIFF file) to open it as a QuickTime movie Double click on the video (M2V/MPG) file to open it as a QuickTime movie Highlight the audio movie and choose Edit > Select All Choose Edit > Copy Highlight the video movie and choose Edit > Add Scaled Save the combined audio/video movie under a new name
	Q: I am seeing some video distortion in my extracted QuickTime movie. Why is this?
	A: There are bugs in the QuickTime MPEG-2 Playback component that can introduce video distortion when decoding certain MPEG-2 video segments. For your information, since Cinematize 2 now includes its own video decoder, eliminating the need for this MPEG-2 Playback component, all problems caused by this component *are now gone*. On behalf of Cinematize 1 owners, we filed a bug report with Apple in autumn 2003 describing the problem. The distortion often takes the form of either horizontal banding during certain scene transitions or "pixelation" effects in portions of a scene where there is motion. While there is nothing wrong with the data extracted by Cinematize, this bug will affect all of Apple's programs that use the QuickTime MPEG-2 Playback component to decompress MPEG-2 video, including QuickTime Pro, iMovie, and Final Cut. Until Apple fixes these bugs, we suggest you use the same workaround described above as Method 1. Back to Top

4. Cinematize system requirements and installation

	Q: When I try to install Cinematize or the Cinematize Demo, the Installer seems to always "quit unexpectedly." Why is this?
	A: This problem is related to corrupted fonts installed on your system by some HP printer software. This will affect programs such as Mail and Safari also. Here are some links from Apple and HP describing the problem and how to get around it. Apple article 25725 about Installer problems Apple article 25717 about Mail problems HP document 44592 recommending to trash the offending fonts
	Q: How do I uninstall the demo version of Cinematize?
	A: Here are the steps to remove the demo version. Drag the folder "Cinematize 1.03 Demo" containing the application to the trash. In the Finder, choose Go>Go To Folder and type "/Library/Receipts". Drag "Cinematize Demo Installer.pkg" to the trash. In the Finder, choose Go>Go To Folder and type "~/Library/Preferences". Drag the file "com.miraizon.cinematize.plist" to the trash. Empty the trash.
	Q: How do I upgrade from the demo version to the full version of Cinematize?
	A: The demo version and the full version are two separate programs. There is no actual upgrade procedure, and it is not in fact necessary to delete the demo version to install the full version. You can keep both programs if you wish. If you do want to delete the demo version, follow the steps above to uninstall it. Then proceed to install the full version of Cinematize.
	Q: I do not have the QuickTime MPEG-2 Playback component installed on my machine. Can I still use Cinematize?
	A: Yes, you can still use Cinematize 1 without the QuickTime MPEG-2 Playback component. All the features of Cinematize 1 will work except for the following three: Saving video alone or audio/video together as QuickTime movies Previewing video before extracting Saving MPEG-2 audio in QuickTime format For your information, Cinematize 2 includes its own powerful video decoder. Therefore, all the features (including the above) works without the QuickTime MPEG-2 Playback component.
	Q: How do I buy the QuickTime MPEG-2 Playback component?
	A: You can purchase the QuickTime MPEG-2 Playback component online through the Apple Store. It is also included with DVD Studio Pro and Final Cut Pro.
	Q: I am running Mac OS 9. Will Cinematize work on my machine?
	A: No. Miraizon only offers Cinematize for Macintosh users running Mac OS X 10.1.5 or later. We encourage you to upgrade your Macintosh to run Mac OS X.
	Q: Will Cinematize work on G4- or G5-based machines?
	A: Yes, Cinematize 1 should work fine on G4- and G5-based machines. For your information, Cinematize 2 is optimized to take advantage of the Velocity Engine included in your G4- and G5- machines. So it works even faster on your machine. Back to Top

Cinematize 1 FAQ

1. About Cinematize 1 - What is Cinematize?

2. Cinematize 1 features - Can Cinematize do this?

3. Cinematize 1 trouble shooting - Why is this?

4. Cinematize 1 system requirements and installation