YouTube downloading, conversion to disc, clean up picture?

[JoRodd]

I am interested in downloading and saving YouTube video downloads.

I collect sports broadcasts and YouTube has a good amount of uploads that are either rare or of greater quality than what I currently possess. In either case, I do not have access to the original sources.

What would be my best bet?

I have tried downloading videos using 3D YouTube Uploader. After downloading, I have experimented with using TMPGEnc Video Mastering Works to do color correction and crop (to minimize/eliminate the tape noise when present).

I have tried converting the result to DVD using ConvertXToDVD - The result was okay (full screen - no letterbox) but fast action sequences (like a football in flight) get lost.

I have tried saving as an MP4 and watching from a USB thumb drive. This looked better.

I take it that I can do some editing, create a menu and burn onto a Blu-ray disc.

I'd like to know if there is a "tried and true" or best method. I look forward to your replies.

[lordsmurf]

For this task, download Youtube videos, I use Firefox.
And since Firefox Quantum came out last Nov, I've used "Easy Youtube Video Downloader Express"
Available at: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/fir...ideo-download/
It's almost identical to a pre-Quantum that I'd used for years.

Now, as far as the post-processing goes, it fully depends on the source, not unlike VHS tape restoration. And it's generally the same tools for that: VirtualDub, Avisynth. But since it's not already lossless, you can use VirtualDub2 (formerly VirtualDub FilterMod) to open it, then re0save it as the lossless Lagarith you'll want to process from.

And after all is done, if you want to go back to H.264/x264, you can use either Hybrid or Avidemux.
Or for MPEG, either MainConcept or Avidemux.

ConvertXtoDVD works really nicely, for what it is (all-in-one no-frills authoring to DVD), but only if the source is already quality.

For Blu-ray authoring, TMPGEnc Master Works works (no pun intended!), but I've never been fond of TMPGEnc menu options and quality. Most of my BD work is menu-less or using very basic options. I've not yet made a Blu-ray with a menu quality that rivals what I did with DVD (using Ulead DVDWS2), and I'd need something like Sony Architect or Adobe Encore, neither of which have user-friendly interfaces for authoring. (I could make a DVD in probably 5-10 minutes, but the Sony/Adobe way is needlessly complex, too many options, and easily takes 20-30 minutes of setup per disc. And that excludes the time to make menu images and other visual assets.)

But honestly, these days, who uses disc anymore? Even I have a 15tb home network for streaming the ISOs or AVI/MKV/MP4 files. Only 1 TV actually has a disc player anymore, and it's for viewing the DVDs and Blu-rays that I author for others (the ones that haven't yet joined the disc-less world). I do miss menus, and DVD cases, for the artwork, but I don't necessarily miss the workload required for it. I can still do my art/design elsewhere, and can still watch the shows. And I was never fond of continuous re-encoding and degrading of content when your source wasn't actually a source (distribution format like H.264, from often lower quality places like Youtube or downloads/torrents).

So did that answer some or all of what you were looking for?

Any clarifications needed, follow-ups, something wasn't answered?

[ehbowen]

You know, I'm a fan of Corel's VideoStudio, which is only $80 for an outright purchase (no ongoing license fee). Actually, as of this writing it's on sale for $55 (limited time, of course). It authors DVDs out of the box and the Blu-ray authoring add-on is only another $8. While I'm sure it doesn't have the features of professional-level packages (which I've never personally used), I've been able to put together Blu-rays with multi-level menus with only a minimum of effort using it. My customers (admittedly, most of whom are family!) have never complained yet.

Edit To Add: One caveat you need to be aware of: While you can put multiple videos on one Blu-ray, you cannot render multiple independent projects to the same disc at the same time. Corel knows this and will tell you this if you ask them, but it really ought to be in their documentation. If you have multiple video projects to put on one disc, the thing to do is to render each project to an MPEG-2 digital file independently (at the appropriate resolution and bit rate), then to include the separate MPEG-2 files on the Blu-ray disc. You'll have to enter the chapter points manually as the MPEG-2 files don't preserve the chapter points from the project (at least, I haven't found a way to do so yet). Once that's all done you can burn the separate MPEG-2 files to the disc, including menus, without difficulty.

[JoRodd]

Thanks for the reply.

I cannot locate VirtualDub2. I have 1.9.11 installed.

[JPMedia]

The download for VirtualDub2 can be found here https://sourceforge.net/projects/vdfiltermod/

[lordsmurf]

And for posterity, the current version is also attached to this thread.

[JoRodd]

What do I "Save As"? I saved as .avi. It resulted in audio with no video. I made sure to set the compression to Lagarith Lossless Codec.

VDub2 has several options - Save As, Save Old Format AVI, Save Segmented AVI

I am experimenting with getting this onto DVD media - either standard or DL.

[lordsmurf]

What are you saving in?
- the Firefox plugin download on the Youtube page?
- VirtualDub2?
- Avisynth?
- something else?

[JoRodd]

After downloading from the Firefox plugin and adding some minor filters (hue, saturation levels), I am saving in VDub2 for later processing.

[lordsmurf]

And your question is what to save in VirtualDub2?
In that case, it depends on what you want to do. What comes next for you videos? x264 is available as an option if you're done, and just want to save a better viewing copy.

[JoRodd]

Downloaded YT video, selected File > Save As to save as an .avi file, selected Lagarith Lossless Codec under video compression. Audio but no video. What am I missing?

[lordsmurf]

VirtualDub can only open it with the correct plugins, which is part of the download from this site.
VirtualDub2 needs no plugin, already part of the program.

Unsure why it would give you blank video.

[JoRodd]

Update: It worked. I think I VDub2 had an older version of Lagarith. Downloaded the most recent (2011) version and it worked.

[JoRodd]

Question about resizing the screen output. Using VDub2, what is the best method and what should the measurements be? Remember, this is an MP4 downloaded from YT I am working with and trying to get onto a DVD.

[JoRodd]

Nevermind. Got it.