Re:Source
So I've been offline for a while. Too busy...sorry...
I literally spent two days (about 8 hours one day and about 10 the next) trying to rip video from a DVD to insert it into a powerpoint program for our cluster worship service. Now, understand, I have all kinds of tools to do this - but I couldn't get the quality that I wanted. It would be blocky or the lines refreshing would be obvious. It was unbelievably frustrating.
So I kept downloading new tools, trying out new demos. One program promised to give me full DVD quality video - but it was slow. In fact, after an hour it was still at .4% complete (yep, 4/10ths of ONE percent). So, well, you do the math as to how many days it would take to rip that file (it wasn't even the whole DVD - a 3:48 short film....ARGH).
So, we pressed on with what I felt was one subpar video clip in the presentation (the other one was just fine) and I came in late last night to polish it up for our District Superintendent and captured the video directly from the DVD with our Video Editing equipment. This 3:48 video translated to an over 850 MB file. Completely uncompressed. I used this file to create an avi file and an mpeg1 and an mpeg2 and even a Quicktime file (though Powerpoint doesn't handle Quicktime...well, not well anyway...). STILL the quality was terrible. I went home and downloaded YET ANOTHER tool, looking for the DVD ripping holy grail and found it. Ripped the file, watched it...and the quality was still not very good. So it's almost 1 AM, I'm frustrated and angry - and then I think to myself, "I wonder how the clip looks on the DVD itself."
Guess what. The SOURCE FILE IS LOW QUALITY VIDEO. ARGH.
Why did it take me so long to go back to the source?
Because that's what I do. Especially in areas where I think I think I know something. I mean, I'm no video expert - but I've ripped files from plenty of DVDs in the past and I know what I'm doing. That was, perhaps, the most frustrating part of the whole thing. It SHOULD work - why DIDN'T it work?
And more to the point, why did it take me so long to come to the simplest of answers?
Because I get pretty full of myself, I guess.
So - sometimes I do that with God. You know, "when all else fails, try prayer..." Why not go right to the source? Because I think I know more than I really know. I think I can do more than I really can do on my own.
Elie used to want to do the things her big sister was doing. When Rachel started taking violin lessons, Elie said she wanted to, too. I told her that she would have to wait until she was older to take lessons. Elie said, "I am big and older!" with her hands on her hips.
So, God, I'm sorry that I stand with my hands on my hips and tell you, "I'm big and older!" and expect you to just let me do whatever I want to do because I think I can do it.
And when I fall - thanks for picking me up.
Back to the source.
I literally spent two days (about 8 hours one day and about 10 the next) trying to rip video from a DVD to insert it into a powerpoint program for our cluster worship service. Now, understand, I have all kinds of tools to do this - but I couldn't get the quality that I wanted. It would be blocky or the lines refreshing would be obvious. It was unbelievably frustrating.
So I kept downloading new tools, trying out new demos. One program promised to give me full DVD quality video - but it was slow. In fact, after an hour it was still at .4% complete (yep, 4/10ths of ONE percent). So, well, you do the math as to how many days it would take to rip that file (it wasn't even the whole DVD - a 3:48 short film....ARGH).
So, we pressed on with what I felt was one subpar video clip in the presentation (the other one was just fine) and I came in late last night to polish it up for our District Superintendent and captured the video directly from the DVD with our Video Editing equipment. This 3:48 video translated to an over 850 MB file. Completely uncompressed. I used this file to create an avi file and an mpeg1 and an mpeg2 and even a Quicktime file (though Powerpoint doesn't handle Quicktime...well, not well anyway...). STILL the quality was terrible. I went home and downloaded YET ANOTHER tool, looking for the DVD ripping holy grail and found it. Ripped the file, watched it...and the quality was still not very good. So it's almost 1 AM, I'm frustrated and angry - and then I think to myself, "I wonder how the clip looks on the DVD itself."
Guess what. The SOURCE FILE IS LOW QUALITY VIDEO. ARGH.
Why did it take me so long to go back to the source?
Because that's what I do. Especially in areas where I think I think I know something. I mean, I'm no video expert - but I've ripped files from plenty of DVDs in the past and I know what I'm doing. That was, perhaps, the most frustrating part of the whole thing. It SHOULD work - why DIDN'T it work?
And more to the point, why did it take me so long to come to the simplest of answers?
Because I get pretty full of myself, I guess.
So - sometimes I do that with God. You know, "when all else fails, try prayer..." Why not go right to the source? Because I think I know more than I really know. I think I can do more than I really can do on my own.
Elie used to want to do the things her big sister was doing. When Rachel started taking violin lessons, Elie said she wanted to, too. I told her that she would have to wait until she was older to take lessons. Elie said, "I am big and older!" with her hands on her hips.
So, God, I'm sorry that I stand with my hands on my hips and tell you, "I'm big and older!" and expect you to just let me do whatever I want to do because I think I can do it.
And when I fall - thanks for picking me up.
Back to the source.
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