Converting video from DVD to use on a website?

[Punkrulz]

Hey guys,

I am currently running the website that my fire department uses. Our chief recently implemented the same technology police departments use in their vehicles for recording incidents. He has already taken the process of converting a video from VHS to DVD for me, but now I need to take it to the next step.

1) How would I convert the video from it's state on the DVD to a usable state I could implement onto the website? We're definitely going to shrink it down to about a 5 minute video so space shouldn't be an issue, especially after compression. A free application would be nice here.

2) How would I be able to place the video on the website? Would hosting it on youtube.com be easier then direct linking? Or is there an easier way for us to do this?

Thanks guys!

 

[falconguard]

Format Factory. http://www.formatoz.com/

 

[Punkrulz]

Thanks Falcon, Format Factory seemed to be easier than some of the other recommendations I have seen. My next question:

Is there any application out there (free) that will allow me to manipulate an FLV file, allowing me to crop, add transitions, etc? Or should I convert the DVD to AVI and use Windows Movie Maker, then convert the AVI to FLV?

Thanks!

 

[falconguard]

You might be on to something there. As I know of no application that works with FLV files.

 

[Punkrulz]

Unfortunately my plan failed. I used Format Factory to import the video as an AVI, however for some reason Windows Movie Maker will not play the video at all. I can hear the audio but no video, and the AVI Decompressor is checked (and fails when not checked as well). *Sigh*!