DVD Re-edit

dlh0310 wrote on 5/7/2011, 9:54 PM
I'm re-editing a coworker's DVD of his home videos, and have just purchased the Movie Studio HD Suite. I am fairly new at video editing. Unfortunately, his original video is no longer available, so I must work with the VOB files on his DVD. I've read that it is not recommended to use compressed files for editing. Will I get noticeably better quality converting the VOBs to avi, or converting them to mpeg-2 (for editing), then reauthoring to DVD with DVD Architect? Space for file sizes or time aren't issues for me - I have plenty of both. I'd just like to keep as much of the original quality as possible.

Comments

laz wrote on 5/8/2011, 1:37 AM
If it was me I'd use a converter like Any Video Converter to convert them to avi. I've found this file type the quickest and easiest to work with. You can always play with the bells and whistles in editing to counter any loss in quality.
Richard Jones wrote on 5/8/2011, 1:51 AM
Why not capture the DVDs to Vegas direct (File - Import - Discs)? It may refer to camera discs but seems to work for DVDs as well.

Richard
dlh0310 wrote on 5/8/2011, 10:38 AM
I have an older version of TMPGEnc Express that I'm familiar with, so I'd probably use that for the VOB - avi conversion. It's always seemed to preserve quality well in the past. Thanks.
musicvid10 wrote on 5/8/2011, 10:43 AM
DVD Shrink will combine your dvd files to one large VOB, without any generational loss, that will import into Vegas.

So will VideoRedo and Womble, although they are not free.
dlh0310 wrote on 5/8/2011, 10:45 AM
Thanks - I hadn't thought of that. This would capture the VOB files as separate avi clips then?
musicvid10 wrote on 5/8/2011, 10:52 AM
No, as I stated, it will join the files into one large VOB (or MPG) that will import directly into Vegas. These utilities do not transcode to AVI or anything else. Best of luck.
dlh0310 wrote on 5/8/2011, 11:08 AM
Sorry musicvid, - my reply was to Richard Jones, re importing the disc directly into Vegas. I didn't know "replying" does not carry a quote of the previous message.

I haven't used DVD Shrink in years, but I'm sure I still have a copy. I'll try this approach as well. Thanks very much.
TOG62 wrote on 5/8/2011, 11:55 AM
Direct import, as advised by Richard, will create an mpg file.
musicvid10 wrote on 5/8/2011, 11:58 AM
OK, got it.
BTW, transcoding to another format introduces losses. If you can reindex and concatenate using DVD Shrink or another utility, it completely avoids generational loss, thus it is the preferred approach. 'Import Camcorder Disc" in Vegas performs nearly the same function, but doesn't always seamlessly butt the files.
dlh0310 wrote on 5/8/2011, 4:25 PM
Understood. The 'Import Camcorder Disc" function brings in each VOB as a separate mpeg file, so I am concerned that the parts are joined seemlessly. Perhaps the DVD Shrink method is the way to go if it butts the files correctly.

The advice given to me elsewhere that all editing should be done using uncompressed files seems that it may not give the best quality if I have to transcode from mpeg to avi, then back to mpeg again, losing some quality with each step. Perhaps that "avi editing only" advice applies best when starting with original avi source files.

I'm also assuming it's practical to implement new transitions and effects using my newly imported mpegs, then reauthoring to DVD, correct?

TOG62 wrote on 5/8/2011, 10:04 PM
The 'Import Camcorder Disc" function brings in each VOB as a separate mpeg file

Actually, you get one mpeg.
Chienworks wrote on 5/9/2011, 2:01 AM
TOG, i want *YOUR* copy of Vegas!!!!!!

For everyone else in the world, Vegas produces a separate .mpg file for each .vob file.

It's easy enough to fix though. Once you have the .mpeg files you can combine them into one file without any gaps using a binary copy. In a DOS window type in:

copy /b file1.mpg + file2.mpg +file3.mpg combined.mpg

This will produce one large output file from all the pieces.
TOG62 wrote on 5/9/2011, 5:37 AM
Oops!! I must have imported only short DVDs with only one VOB. Other editors I've used (Pinnacle, Cyberlink) do produce a single mpg.

Congratulations on the thoroughness of your research, though. I don't know all those people. :-)