DVD to GIF: Convert Video from DVD(Digital Versatile Disk) to GIF(Animated GIF) with River Past Video Cleaner, DVD2GIF converter, conversion

What is DVD?

DVD (also known as "Digital Versatile Disc" or "Digital Video Disc") is a popular optical disc storage media format. Its main uses are video and data storage. Most DVDs are of the same dimensions as compact discs (CDs) but store more than six times as much data.

DVD-Video discs respectively refer to properly formatted and structured video content. It uses MPEG-2 for video compression, with AC-3, DTS or MPEG audio for multi-channel audio support.

To decode DVD, you will need both GPL MPEG-2 Decoder, and AC-3 Decoder.

What is GIF?

Animated GIF is not really a video format. It is a sequence of GIF frames stringed together. Due to the 256-color limitation of GIF, the color is dithered. The compression is not that great, so the file size tend to be large given the frame rate and resolution.

However, since GIF is supported by all web browsers without any add-on, it is a great way to create small video thumbnails. Generally, the resolution should be kept small (80x60, for example), the frame rate should be kept low (4 fps, for example), and the duration should be kept under a few seconds.

Animated GIF is not really a video format. It uses 256-color GIF compression, with low quality and relatively large files. It is not suitable for video playback. However, since it is supported by all web browsers without any add-on's, it is a great format for video thumbnails and should be used for this purpose only.

To encode a video to an animated GIF, you need to have River Past Animated GIF Booster Pack in addition to the video software.

Additional Requirements

To convert from DVD(Digital Versatile Disk) to GIF(Animated GIF) video with River Past Video Cleaner, you must have River Past Animated GIF Booster Pack installed.

Launch River Past Video Cleaner

Once River Past Video Cleaner is installed properly, launch Video Cleaner.

Open DVD

Click on the "Add DVD" button on the tool bar. The standard directory open dialog appears. Select your DVD drive or select the "VIDEO_TS" directory.

Select the drive and click "OK". Video Cleaner will parse the directory and add all the video chapters on the disc.

Handling of encrypted DVD's

Most commercial DVD's are copy protected. Our software cannot convert from encrypted DVD's. You can use a third party software to rip the DVD to hard drive first, then browse to the VIDEO_TS directory in our software.

Difference between "Add DVD" and "Add Files"

Do not use "Add Files" to select the VOB files on the DVD disc. A DVD contains many video clips, which are then divided into cells/chapters. All of the video clips are then streamed together in one big block. The VOB files on the disc is just a way to divide the block into 1GB files to be compatible with older operation systems like Windows 95, who has a file size limit.

Each VOB file on the DVD may contain multiple videos. Each video may span over multiple VOB files. If you use "Add Files", only the first clip in that particular VOB file will be parsed and added.

This picture below makes it easier to understand.

In this example, VTS_01_1.VOB contains a still menu, chapter 2, and then the beginning of chapter 3. VTS_01_2.VOB contains the end of chapter 3, and beginning of chapter 4. VTS_01_3.VOB contains the middle of chapter 4. VTS_01_4.VOB contains the end of chapter 4 and beginning of chapter 5, and VTS_01_5.VOB contains the end of chapter 5.

If you use "Add Files" to add VTS_01_1.VOB, you will only get the still menu. If you use "Add Files" to add VTS_01_2.VOB, you will get the end of chapter 3... This is how file based decoding works.

That's why you should use "Add DVD". We will parse the DVD information and find all the cell breaks. You will get to select which cell to convert, from 2 to 5. Still menus are ignored.

If you encounter an error when adding the DVD, please make sure you have GPL MPEG-2 Decoder filter and AC-3 Decoder filter installed.

River Past Video Cleaner

Select output format

Use the setting panel on the bottom of the window to control the output format. Click on the toggle to the left of the "Output Format" label to expand the panel. Select "Animated GIF" as the "File Type".

Note: To convert to animated GIF files, you must have River Past GIF/FLC Animation Booster Pack installed.

Change Video Settings

Click on the toggle to the left of the "Video Settings" label to expand the panel.

Select "Specify" under "Size" and/or "Frame rate" to enter the video resolution and/or frame rate.

You can change the size, and frame rate of the video.

Animated GIF is NOT a video format and is not designed for video playback. It is limited to 256 colors, so the video will be dithered. GIF compression is designed for solid color graphics, so it is not very efficient for video. The resulted animated GIF files are normally much larger than the original video file, given the same resolution and frame rate.

For the above reasons, it is not a good idea to use animated GIF to share your video on the web. Instead, it is an excellent way to display a small moving thumbnail for the link to your video. For this purpose, you should specify the size to around 80 x 60, and frame rate to 2 frames per second for the best result.