Help with trying to make highlight video with VMS

wings wrote on 6/5/2007, 1:04 PM
I am trying to make a highlight video with Vegas and am running into some problems. The manual doesn't help and I haven't found anything on the forum yet.

I have multiple DVD's that I recorded from my tape off my older 8mm VHS cam. They are now in VOB format.

I am trying to take several 3-10 second segments off each DVD and put them together for about a 15 minute movie. I don't think I am doing it right.

What would the proper technique be?
Do I need to convert the VOB files to something else?
Do I have to load 8 discs containing about 30 minutes each into the hrad drive just to take the 3-10 second segments off?
Can I just use trimmer to save the segments somehow from the DVD in the drive or does the DVD need to be loaded somehow in the harddrive?

An explaination in "novice" terms would be appreciated or else getting pointed to a site or place on this site that would help. Thanks in advance.

Comments

Chienworks wrote on 6/5/2007, 2:53 PM
Working with multiple DVDs will be slow going, now matter how you do it.

Suggestion 1: use the File / Import DVD Camcorder Disc function to import each DVD one at a time. Place the resulting MPEG file on the timeline and trim to the sections you want to keep. Render these sections to new DV .avi files. Delete the MPEG file. Move on to the next DVD. You will now have a set of small .avi files to work from.

pros: probably the simplest and most direct method
cons: very time consuming

Suggestion 2: use an analog->DV video capture device. Play the DVDs in a DVD player and capture just the few seconds you want from each one as DV .avi files.

pros: probably the fastest method
cons: requires a capture device, probably the most quality loss

Suggestion 3: go back to the original video tape (is it 8mm or VHS? these two are different and not interchangable formats) and recapture just the parts you need.

pros: will retain the most quality
cons: requires a capture device, gotta find the old tapes and scan through them
wings wrote on 6/5/2007, 3:38 PM
Chienworks,
Thanks for the quick reply.

A few more questions: (keep in mind I am an amateur as you roll your eyes to these questions):
Re: Suggestion 1: Can I render them as a DVD type file (.vob? or mpeg2 I think?). I heard that going to an .avi or mwav file will lose some of the quality. True or not?

For Suggestion 2&3, I don't have a DV video capture device. I am willing to take the time to preserve the quality. I do have all the tapes since they are only from last winter. I suppose if I going to keep doing this I should invest in a digital video cam.

One more thing, I did try to import the DVD's with the camcorder disc function and got an error message but I will try it again or make a new DVD.

Thanks again.
Chienworks wrote on 6/5/2007, 7:57 PM
If you were going directly to the final output file for the new DVD then rendering directly to MPEG2 would be the best choice for preserving quality. Going from DVD to DV to MPEG2 is two sets of color space changes and that isn't a good thing.

However, in your case, since you want to edit these clips and then produce another file after that, going from DVD to MPEG2 to MPEG2 involves two sets of MPEG decompression and recompression and this is a bad thing. You lose much more quality in MPEG compression than you do in color space conversions. Also, Vegas is very slow when working with MPEG files. It's quite zippy with DV .avi files.