vidding | Results of the 2015 Vidding Source Import Tools Census (Reply)

These are the results of the 2015 Vidding Tools census! There a large range of useful info here, from a diverse range of vidders.

Some items are listed under more than one section -- that's not an error, many tools are flexible and different vidders use them in different ways.

Ripping DVDs

Handbrake

"Handbrake is great, I've stopped using anything else." -Anonymous

MacTheRipper

"To use Mac the Ripper I can't upgrade the [Mac] OS on my desktop b/c it doesn't work with newer versions." -ghost lingering

DVD Fab

"Defeated all DRM DVDs tested and has an excellent option for ignoring bad sectors where other programs just fail (i.e. on scratched disks). Price is a little exorbitant." -Anonymous

Gordian Knot

"Good but the quality probably isn't the best these days. I have yet to find a decent free alternative." -Anonymous

DvDecrypter

"Usually reliable -- occasionally have run into trouble with particular disks that have 'bad sectors', and even more occasionally because of their file encryption (as DVD Decrypter is OLD). Thankfully no-one bothers to come up with new DVD encryption methods any more." -genusshrike

MagicRipper

"Works for Marvel/Disney and new DVDs." -Anonymous

DVD Decrypter
AnyDVD
SmartRipper

"Okay, but sometimes doesn't want to unlock dvds" -dkwilliams

K9Copy
Avidemux
DVD Shrink
SmartRipper
Note: Lots of folks have trouble with Marvel DVDs and newer Disney DVDs. -echan

Ripping Blu-Rays

DVD Fab Bluray Ripper

"DVD Fab again defeated all DRM, regardless of region. Only had one disc fail (one of a box set so probably faulty in some way). Love passthrough mode for getting the best quality. I use it exclusively and find it to be fast and reliable." -Anonymous

DVDFab 8 (free HD Decrypter option)

genusshrike

MakeMKV
Note: Most vidders who took the survey do not rip Blu-Rays. Blu-ray ripping capabilities do exist for Windows, Mac, and Linux, but there are far fewer options than there are for DVD ripping. -echan

Downloading YouTube videos

Video DownloadHelper (browser extension)
clipconverter.cc website

I've used this for every YouTube video I've downloaded for the past year, and it has been perfect. It always offers a full range of video sizes / codecs, never craps out or has blocked acccess. It has downsides (like infrequent pop-up ads), but I have never used any other site or download plugin that was so reliable. -echan
"I don't actually find the clipconverter.cc site to be that intuitive, but I feel confident that I can get the highest quality possible out of it. And it comes up high when I search for a YouTube downloader." -genusshrike

Easy YouTube Video Downloader extension for Firefox

"I like that you can choose what format to download in, including a range of definitions. I believe the 1080p option is currently disabled on this tool. I've had to change extensions a couple of times because they tend to stop working." -Anonymous

iSkysoft Free Video Downloader app

"iSkysoft works great on everything it can do, and it also has a paid version that I haven't got which looks like it can rip damn near any web video." -Anonymous

JDownloader

"Most tools, browser extensions or website services would work for a while, then youtube would change something and they'd stop working. JDownloader is under active development and always works. The interface is a nightmare, but the functionality is awesome." -Anonymous

Video Download Helper

"Used to be more straightforward than it is now, but it's fine." -Anonymous

keepvid.com website
SaveFrom.net website and browser extension
General comments:

"I use TunnelBear as proxy, because in most cases the video will be blocked in my country without it." -Anonymous
"Using multiple sites simultaneously can be helpful if you have a ton of HD videos to download (they will sometimes throttle you or limit you to downloading one video at a time)" -Anonymous
"I used to use software [instead of a website] but I would have to keep updating it and it never felt like a trustworthy program to have on my computer." -genusshrike

Capturing Streaming Video or Game Footage

Camtasia

"Works great for screen capture, and there is a full range of options for bitrate, framesize and framerate, but I've never tried Hulu or Netflix. There are both PC and Mac versions which is helpful." -Anonymous

Debut

"I have mostly used it for things other than streaming video/gaming -- basically all of my last Festivid was made with screen capture video from Debut, but very little of it was on-line streaming content. I was looking for a program that would capture everything happening on my screen in whole, without omitting anything. I like it as a screen capture tool, super easy to use, free. It does sometimes slow down your computer, but other than that it works well." -ghost lingering

wget / direct download

"With easier streaming video [not Hulu or Netflix], I usually sniff out the streaming url (Chrome developer tools or Wireshark) and then download it with wget on the command line." -Anonymous

Torrent trackers or other download sites

Torrent sites

KickassTorrents

"KAT is just the best and safest torrent site I've used. You've got to be pretty savvy about advertising to avoid the fake download buttons, and you need to familiarise yourself with the site so you can find the ratings etc for quality, but once you've done that everything's easy and trustworthy." -vamp

Isohunt

"Popular torrent sites like isohunt, piratebay, etc have obvious risks, so I'd only use them if you've also got something like PeerBlock running" -Anonymous

ThePirateBay
Speed.cd

"Great source of Olympics footage, but only for about a year after the actual event. The tv shows it has, it has a bunch of different high-quality torrents. Lots of movies, both old and new." -echan

LimeTorrents

"I use lime to search for torrents I can't find elsewhere. The results are a grabbag, enough good ones to make it worth trying, but not reliable enough for a first choice." -echan

EZTV or rartv

"I prefer these for recent episodes" -Anonymous

General comments about torrents:

"I found that torrented quality was too low and often had subtitles or incorrect aspect ratios." -Anonymous
"Because of the legal ramifications I try to avoid Torrents as much as I can." -Anonymous

Usenet

UseNext usenet service provider

"I use UseNext for access to UseNet files. This is a direct download system. UseNet is pretty comprehensive in what is available, although some of the more popular shows aren't on there. Older material can be intermittently available as files drop off their servers after a period of time." -Anonymous

Astraweb usenet service provider
nzbclub.com usenet search engine

"A lot of the things I'm downloading haven't been ranked on there, but if they're unusual enough not to be ranked they're generally not a problem anyway! Anything in English I can probably find on here." -genusshrike

GrabIt and QuickPar

"I use GrabIt for actually use downloading and joining up the files from Usenet, and QuickPar for repairing the files GrabIt can't do automatically. Occasionally I'll try and download something and there won't be enough there to repair, but that's unusual." -genusshrike

General comment about Usenet: "I like Usenet even though I'm paying because it's general reliable, good range, easy to search, and no-one expects me to upload anything back up in return! I pay for a certain amount of bandwidth rather than by subscription." -genusshrike
Note: Usenet access is not provided anymore by most ISPs (ie, those providing website & email access). Here's a good overview of usenet basics. -echan

I ♥ TV Shows and I ♥ Cinema LJ communities

"iheart communities are safer but older links will often be dead and it can be hard to find working downloads for full seasons. Great for recent releases though." -Anonymous

Transcoding Video to Different Formats / Codecs

Handbrake

"Handbrake is awesome. Great compression without huge loss of quality." -Anonymous

MPEG Streamclip

"It does what I want it to do pretty well!" -Anonymous
"Mpegstreamclip is very customisable - good for converting to lossless formats if you have the correct codecs installed." -Anonymous

ffmpegx

"I find that ffmpegx allows for more manual control and fine tuning, but is less easy-to-use and intuitive than MPEG-Streamclip." -Anonymous

ffmpeg

"ffmpeg is extremely powerful, assuming you can figure out how to tell it to do what you want. It is widely used, so a google search returns copious tips and examples for using it." -echan
"ffmpeg, I do it all on the command line. All software I have tried had horrible UI or didn't offer what I wanted to do. When I do it with ffmpeg on the command line I have full control." -Anonymous

AviDemux

"Avidemux took a bit to figure out, but now that I've found settings I'm happy with, I'd be scared to try to figure something else out. I wish queuing worked better when I want to transcode a bunch of clips at once." -seekingferret

XMedia Recode

"I like XMedia Recode for creating SD XviD files. Lots of settings but it'll take some experimentation to get what you want." -Anonymous

AnyVideoConverter

"AnyVideoConverter almost always works but isn't great when it comes to compression. I only use it to convert source files." -Anonymous

Total Video Converter

"Overall very happy, have had very few problems" -Anonymous

VirtualDub
VdubMod
DGindex (indexing VOBs to transcode)
AVISynth

"AVISynth is best used for limited source because the more scripts you include in a project, the slower it runs. If you have to use AS for something like a TV show, combine multiple episodes into single scripts and split the vid into multiple projects that you can export separately and recombine later." -Anonymous
I basically followed the AMV guide instructions to set things up. [I use] Avisynth and the FFmpegSource plugin for loading m2ts, mkvs, mp4s etc. Initially it was a chore to set up (installing the codecs I wanted to use, the plugins so I could load m2ts and other file types via Avisynth, etc), but since then I find it easy to use, and especially for making tweaks like cropping out the bars from letterboxing. (Although I have a background with other scripting languages which probably makes things easier!)" -genusshrike

TMpegEnc

"Very easy to use, but [I use a] reasonably old version now. Good for outputting multiple different formats at once, and very flexible with file parameters like bitrate, framerate etc. Latest version may have better support for MP4." -Anonymous

LlamaEnc3
Sony Vegas

"I figured out how to export decent mp4s straight from Vegas so I usually just do that now." -genusshrike

Premiere

"I encode HD MP4's straight from Premiere" -Anonymous

Kdenlive

"I use kdenlive for everything. I'm new to vidding, so still figuring out how stuff works, and because I run Linux there's limited (up to date) info from more experienced vidders online. Kdenlive has a learning curve, but I'm slowly figuring stuff out." -vamp

General comment on codecs: "I like the Avid codecs -- that's what I tend to use now, though [Apple] ProRes is still the codec of my heart." -ghost lingering

Other / Misc Tools

AfterEffects

"AfterEffects is the program I taught myself Adobe on, and I still have barely scratched the surface of what it can do, but the upside is there are a million videos online showing you how to do exactly the thing you're envisioning." -Anonymous
"I hate audio in AfterEffects and also how easy it is to get to a point where you have a fuckton of layers to manage or a fuckton of comps-inside-comps to manage or both." -ghost lingering

Motion (from Apple)

"Easier to get started with than After Effects. Some nice templates available." -Anonymous

Photoshop
Processing
Illustrator
Audacity

"I do all my song edits with this. I can cut more precisely than on frame boundaries, and the envelope tool gives more control on the transition than a standard crossfade." -echan
"I know it drives audiophiles up the wall but Audacity has a fairly intuitive UI and does what I want it to do reliably. It also has fairly robust online documentation." -Anonymous

Audio editing in your video editing program

"I edit my audio in my video program - Sony Vegas Movie Studio Platinum 12. I find that by seeing the wave form it makes it easy to match up the similar parts of the chorus (or wherever the cut/join occurs) so that the edit is undetectable."-Anonymous

Clip Creator

"I used to use this old freeware program for editing footage into shorter clips before importing to my timeline, but it stopped being updated. I'd love to find a tool like that again that works well on Macs." -Anonymous

AvsPmod for avisynth script editing

"AvsPmod is mostly useful because it opens up every script I seem to have ever written, so I don't have to remember how to load particular file types. Also useful because it lets me select a file and puts in the filepath for it. I'm not a very sophisticated user." -genusshrike

Boris FX NLE plugins

"Some good particle effects, filters and titling but did massively slow [Sony Vegas] performance overall, so I ended up uninstalling." -Anonymous

Soundbooth (audio)
PhotoBooth

"[I've used this] to record video of myself." -ghost lingering

Spreadsheets - Excel, OpenOffice, GoogleDocs

Results of the 2015 Vidding Source Import Tools Census