DVD Editing Help

[taffy1967]

I don't know if anyone here can help what to me is a very complex issue.



Anyway first of all my problem does not concern any copyright protected DVD or video material.



No I've been sent a DVDr disc from a friend that has old motoring news clips and clips from motoring programmes copied to it from old VHS video's.



I believe he used a DVD/VHS combi/recorder to transfer the programmes from VHS to DVDr and there was a very basic menu.



The DVDr disc consists of several files and a few are VOB files, but from what I can tell they've been compressed. So my first thought is I guess I need to un-compress them if it's at all possible?



Any help would be greatly appreciated because I'm still very wet behind the ears when it comes to Video/DVD editing on a PC and my main aim is to edit the programmes on that DVDr disc and upload some of them to YouTube.



(I generally use 'Windows Movie Maker' to edit the video files created from the programmes I've copied/transferred from my old VHS video tapes to my PC (I connect my VCR to my daughters laptop via an 'EZGrabber video capture' device). I then use 'Windows DVD Maker' to create professional looking menus and then that burns the projects (copied/converted videos) to a DVDr.)



(Apart from that I also occasionally use 'DVD Shrink 3.2' to effectively make back-up copies of my DVDs and DVDr discs. But even this doesn't seem to help as I can't find a way of un-compressing the VOB files?)

[GoggleboxUK]

Firstly Use DVDShrink but click the Reauthor button rather than the BackItUp. In the window on the right you'll see all the disc contents listed. Grab everything apart from the menus and drag it to the window on the left. Click BackItUp and select a folder on your hard drive to burn it to rather than disc.



You'll be left with VTS files listed as VTS 1, VTS 2 etc. Each of these is a separate segment (chapter) from your original DVD. These can now be renamed to suit before dropping them into your authoring software and creating your new, more professional looking, DVD.



I'm not sure what you mean by uncompressing VOB as VOB files don't compress they merely reduce the quality settings to fit more video footage on a single layer disc *DVDShrink does this) but if you'd like to make the file size of each segment better you could use MainConcept H.264 encoder which will allow you to change the format, pixel depth, aapect ratio and encodong format (PAL/NTSC) to suit your needs.



If I've missed anything, or if you need further help, just let me know and i'll be happy to help.

[Tony Pendrey]

You could also consider using a video editing package like "Womble Video Edior".



You can import vob files straight from the disk and edit them very simply. What you can't do is save them as vobs. But you simply export your edited file as an avi. That is what I do when I want to upload a clip to you tube.

[rjd0309]

name='Tony Pendrey']You could also consider using a video editing package like "Womble Video Edior".



What you can't do is save them as vobs.

Incorrect, Tony. Sorry.



If you edit the VOB with "Womble MPEG Video Wizard DVD", using their "Input Monitor", you can right-click and select "Trim" from the context menu. This will save your selected clip (between the Mark-In and Mark-Out) as a VOB file.



YouTube accepts these VOB files as uploads.



Cheers,

Robert

[taffy1967]

name='GoggleboxUK']Firstly Use DVDShrink but click the Reauthor button rather than the BackItUp. In the window on the right you'll see all the disc contents listed. Grab everything apart from the menus and drag it to the window on the left. Click BackItUp and select a folder on your hard drive to burn it to rather than disc.



You'll be left with VTS files listed as VTS 1, VTS 2 etc. Each of these is a separate segment (chapter) from your original DVD. These can now be renamed to suit before dropping them into your authoring software and creating your new, more professional looking, DVD.



I'm not sure what you mean by uncompressing VOB as VOB files don't compress they merely reduce the quality settings to fit more video footage on a single layer disc *DVDShrink does this) but if you'd like to make the file size of each segment better you could use MainConcept H.264 encoder which will allow you to change the format, pixel depth, aapect ratio and encodong format (PAL/NTSC) to suit your needs.



If I've missed anything, or if you need further help, just let me know and i'll be happy to help.

Thanks for the replies everyone and I did try editing the files in many ways and one was to use the Re-Author setting on 'DVD Shrink'.



I'm pretty sure I did what you've suggested but I believe I was left with one large file called something like 'VTS01'. That had several files within it, but the only files that would load up on Windows Movie Maker were the ones with the VOB extensions.



But I could only get around 20 seconds of playing time from them, which was the very start of the programme itself.



It's difficult to explain, but I assume they were compressed in some way due to the fact that when I dragged the viewing slider bar back and forth there was then lots of programmes showing up on the little video screen and so there should have been several minutes of video footage to view.



But I was still only getting around 20 seconds when I let the VOB files run and that was that. I also tried viewing them on Windows Window Media (after changing the file extensions from VOB to MPV) and it was just the same with only 20 seconds.



So I'm either doing something wrong, or I need to do something get access to the video files in full?

[GoggleboxUK]

It would seem that the files you're talking about are the little bits of data the menu uses. Make sure you only drag across the "chapters" and not the menu when re-authoring.



The only other thing I can think of that is causing a problem is if the clips on your original have already been merged into one single file (ie: Not accessible by using the Next Chapter feature on your player during playback) in which case you'll need to individually cut the segments out of the big file and save them as separate files before adding again to your professional-looking DVD.

[taffy1967]

I've just loaded the disc and this is the menu that first appears: -







So I don't know if that helps?

[taffy1967]

name='GoggleboxUK']It would seem that the files you're talking about are the little bits of data the menu uses. Make sure you only drag across the "chapters" and not the menu when re-authoring.



The only other thing I can think of that is causing a problem is if the clips on your original have already been merged into one single file (ie: Not accessible by using the Next Chapter feature on your player during playback) in which case you'll need to individually cut the segments out of the big file and save them as separate files before adding again to your professional-looking DVD.

Thanks and I've just checked and the first title consists of 10 chapters. The other four only have 1 chapter each and the DVD freezes right at the end so I then have to press the play button which takes me back to the main menu above.

[JohnB_Toronto]

For something with several subjects like this I'd first use TMPGenc to crack it into an MPG file. If you then put that file into a favourite editor like Womble (TMPGenc is an editor but I just prefer using Womble) it's then very easy to chop it up into its chapters, inserts blackouts, fades etc, lose any old menus and create a new menu. The problem I've had in the past with multiple titles within a single DVD is that it produces multiple VOB files and the sound frequently goes out of sync when they're re-edited. Turning the disc first into one large continuous mpg by using TMPGenc eliminates that problem. I find I can slice and dice it any way I want, add a new menu or title cards and everything stays perfectly in sync. It appears to lock the soundtrack into the video part so no matter where the cuts are made everything holds together.

[GoggleboxUK]

In that case you shouldn't have a problem when Re-authoring. The files should come up in your Hard Drive folder as VTS_01, VTS_02, VTS_03, VTS_04, VTS_05.



If there are durther file extensions such a VTS_01_1, , VTS_01_2 etc then these are the chapters within the chapters.



For example:



DVD has 5 different sections accessible from the main menu and section 1 (L£..... MINI VIDEOS) has 10 chapters within it. The first of these would be labelled VTS_01_1 and the fourth would be VTS_01_4.



The section called Prog 0 on your main menu would be labelled VTS_03

[GoggleboxUK]

name='JohnB_Toronto']For something with several subjects like this I'd first use TMPGenc to crack it into an MPG file. If you then put that file into a favourite editor like Womble (TMPGenc is an editor but I just prefer using Womble) it's then very easy to chop it up into its chapters, inserts blackouts, fades etc, lose any old menus and create a new menu. The problem I've had in the past with multiple titles within a single DVD is that it produces multiple VOB files and the sound frequently goes out of sync when they're re-edited. Turning the disc first into one large continuous mpg by using TMPGenc eliminates that problem. I find I can slice and dice it any way I want, add a new menu or title cards and everything stays perfectly in sync. It appears to lock the soundtrack into the video part so no matter where the cuts are made everything holds together.

If you're having sound sync issues then you're missing a codec somewhere. Try using CodecInstaller, it's freeware and does a great job at identifying exactly which codecs you need.

[JohnB_Toronto]

name='GoggleboxUK']If you're having sound sync issues then you're missing a codec somewhere. Try using CodecInstaller, it's freeware and does a great job at identifying exactly which codecs you need.

Only rarely do I have sync problems and then it's only when I have multiple VOBs from different sources. Still - this sounds like a good tip and well worth following through. Many thanks!

[taffy1967]

I've just used 'DVD Shrink' again and I assume I'm selecting the correct files?: -







After Re-authoring I then have two folders. One titled 'AUDIO-TS' contains nothing, where as the other 'VIDEO_TS' contains these files: -







So is this correct so far?

[GoggleboxUK]

Yes. Now you need to delete everything that has a .bup or .ifo extension, they are completely unnecessary for what you want to do.



With the exception of the first title on your original, everything has been listed as VTS2-1, 3-1, 4-1 and 5-1. You can rename these files to more suitably reflect their content.



The first, presumably longest, title has been split into 2 parts labelled VTS1-1 and 1-2, you'll have to join (merge) these 2 files before relabelling them. After that you'll have to manually add chapters for each of the 10 segments that make up the title (The first won't need one as it's the start of the whole thing but the other 9 will.



If you choose to burn your new project using Nero you can add a sub-menu page where your chapters will display individually and can be renamed to display their content on that menu page. Joining the 2 files is also very simple to do in Nero.



If you don't have Nero then send me a PM and I'll help you out with that.

[Tony Pendrey]

name='rjd0309']Incorrect, Tony. Sorry.



If you edit the VOB with "Womble MPEG Video Wizard DVD", using their "Input Monitor", you can right-click and select "Trim" from the context menu. This will save your selected clip (between the Mark-In and Mark-Out) as a VOB file.



YouTube accepts these VOB files as uploads.



Cheers,

Robert

Oh Well - I have only been using it for a few years -



It's a case of RTFM

[rjd0309]

In your VIDEO_TS folder, your dvd's first movie, or "title" as its technically referred to, is stored in the first two video object (VO files, VTS_01_1.VOB and VTS_01_2.VOB



The fact that this single title has been split into two files is a standard feature of dvds. Files are generally split at the 1 gigabyte boundary. However, this makes it inconvenient to edit, because you tend to want each title to be stored in a single (large) VOB file.



To get DVD Shrink to do this, go to the EDIT menu. EDIT -> PREFERENCES -> OUTPUT FILES, and uncheck the option "Split VOB files into 1GB size chunks (recommended)". DVD Shrink will then save each of your titles in separate, single VOB files, some of which my be larger than 1 gigabyte, which is what you want.



This makes it much easier to edit with a tool such as Womble MPEG Video Wizard, or TMPGenc.



Robert

[autolycus]

VOB2MPG is another useful free app. for joining 1 mb VOBs in sets.



It outputs - as the name suggests - in MPEG2 format.

[taffy1967]

Thanks for the help guys, I'll keep you posted on if I sort it out.

[taffy1967]

Result because I was recommended free software called 'Free Studio Manger' from DVDVideo.Soft.Com' and so far I've successfully extracted several clips from the DVDr disks I got sent and here's two archive clips that I recently uploaded to YouTube: -



[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F8D0qqxl3ZA"]YouTube- Mini 25th Birthday ITN News Feature (1984)[/ame]



[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OVLjl5LT3dQ"]YouTube- Mini Chelsea LE ITN News Feature (1986)[/ame]



So that software did the trick effectively, although I've had some anti-virus issues since it was installed. Or at least I believe it to be the cause?



I'm using 'AVG Free 9.0' (AVG Version: - 9.0.733) and all has been well for months and I never seem to get any viruses, because I'm careful and I'm using Firefox.



Anyway I've set AVG to run a scheduled scan every Monday and this Monday it picked up a problem which it highlighted as 'Information'.



The problem it recorded relates to a broken digital signature. i.e. '

The file is signed with a broken digital signature, issued by: Microsoft Corporation.'

The file in question is: -

'C:\Acer\Empowering Technology\eRecovery\Autorun\APP\CDMAKER\WMFDist.e xe'

I've tried using AVG to only scan that particular file and it instantly comes back with the same result.



So is it anything to worry about and can I fix it? Perhaps un-installing Free Studio Manger will solve it?

[Edward G]

Can someone who has knowledge of Pinnacle Studio Plus video editing software please help me with a wee problem ...

I had Pinnacle Studio Plus 9 on my PC (windows XP professional, with SP3) with the extra features (unlock code) purchased. My PC recently crashed (blue screen) but I recovered the data and re-loaded the Studio plus program from the disc.

I noticed that although the program was returned as it was before crashing (including the extra features I released by purchasing an activation key) it wouldn't open my most recent projects that were created after I purchased the activation key. The earlier (completed) projects, done before the extra features were activated would open fine.

The error message just reads "Studio plus cannot open file" with no reason given in true pinnacle style!

I then downloaded the trial version of Pinncle Studio 14 Ultimate edition to see if it could open the projects and it does - but without the ability to edit the sound! It won't even allow you to mute the video soundtrack or the added music soundtrack line as you work on the project. It recognises where I have altered the sound levels on my recovered project (and faded in or out etc on the timeline view) but ignores the fades or variations on audio playback and mixes any added music with the orginal video audio. It did this on my laptop, so it's not a PC glitch.And the same thing happenes with Studio 12 when I trialled that as a test.

Does the Studio 14 trial version block access to the sound editing until you buy it? I am afraid that if I buy the full version I may see the same problem.

I have looked around all the forums and threads but no one seems to have had the same perblem.

Any assistance would be greatly appreciated as I spent hours and hours on these projects!

Thanks,

Edward G