Ask HN: Best ways to extract clips from streaming services

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35478993

1 2 3 years ago

news.ycombinator.com

I need to extract clips from a number of movies on various services as I will be writing articles on these movies and I want to have the relevant clips.

I am on a Mac M1, how do people do this nowadays? Set up a video recorder focused on the screen?

Is there a less primitive solution? IF not are there any things likely to improve quality using the primitive solution (other than buy top of the line gear)?

hrvstr• 3 years ago

I am not sure about the DRM protection from services like Netflix etc. The easiest way would be to somehow obtain a video file and use a tool like losslesscut to extract the clips without re-encoding. 0 quality loss this way.

https://github.com/mifi/lossless-cut

brudgers• 3 years ago

I don't think you need expensive recording gear, just good light management.

Basically, a light tight black box with a screen at one end and a camera at the other like they used to use for Super8 home movies to VHS.

Building one with black foam core and gaffer's tape using an Xacto knife is the simplest thing that might work.

For the lens use a longer focal length to give yourself more working distance.

For the video, 1080p is probably good enough for editorial work so basically any interchangeable lens camera from the past ten years will probably work. Plus your file sizes will be more manageable.

Ask HN: Best ways to extract clips from streaming services

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