Mister Nifty

I’ve had several people ask me how to transfer sermon DVD’s to the web and more frequently to mobile devices.  For smaller churches it’s not a reality to stream your services live, let alone archive them on a computer.  It takes expensive equipment, streaming server bandwidth and trained volunteer staff that most churches just cannot afford.  However, a lot of churches record their services to DVD instead.  The problem with DVD is that it is not easily transferred or manipulated for viewing on the web, video podcasting sermons, or downloading to mobile devices.

Enter Handbrake.  This intense free software allows you to easily RIP your DVD’s to iPod and iTouch formats.  You can also create a file worthy of uploading to a streaming site to embed on your site. (Vimeo is one of my favorites).  Handbrake is a one stop shop to RIP any unprotected DVD to a format that will fit your needs.

Once you’re done encoding your new iPhone/iPod sermon, upload it to a site like FileFactory which allows you to upload 300MB files and gives you 100GB of storage space.  Instead of hosting these files on your server, grab some free bandwidth on a file sharing server.

If you do have media files that you want to convert to iPod or iPhone format, download the ever cool, but sometimes slow Videora iPod converter.  It produces a nice quality mp4 file that looks great!  For those wishing for some reason to rip a protected DVD (this is illegal for the most part) you can use the DVD Decrypter and then convert the VOB file it outputs in Videora.  Use this instruction guide to help you through the process.

Everyone has a mobile device now.  Are you creating media that will migrate across all device types?  You can do it for free.  Why not start now?  It won’t cost you a dime!

If you are looking for a professional grade video software and don’t have a budget to buy big name products, look no further! A sister (or brother) program to the last posting of Wink is Wax. Wax allows you to do all the cool things big time video producers do. You can lay down unlimited audio and video tracks, add video effects, overlay text, create 3d video effects, and much more. The interface is not as pleasant as some of the expensive programs, but the end result is just as good.

One of the coolest features for me is the ability to export to Flash video. Most hosted church websites have the ability to embed Flash video without any techy knowledge. It’s usually an embed button on the WYSIWYG editor and viola your video appears on your website. So, get a decent capture card from your local computer retailer or on the internet. I use a firewire/analog box that connects to my firewire port. That way I can connect a firewire connection or hook up a DVD player with RCA connections. With Wax, I would just import my capture, edit the clips down to a shorter version and then create a Flash video to post on my site. There are wonderful possibilities for the little guys with this software! Have fun….it’s free!

Click here for a complete tutorial. This is very cool!