Not sure you need this software to do what you want to do, Ralph. In fact, I think trying to use this or any editing software is going to bring you lots more challenges than rewards. Those DVD cams are made for shooting home movies and then dropping them in your DVD player for playback, not for editing.

But I suppose you could just copy the files from each disk onto your hard drive, change each files name (so you don't overwrite one with another) and then just copy them onto a normal DVD using any DVD burning software. You won't have pretty DVD menus or anything like that, but you will have 3 mini-DVDs on each DVD, if that's what you're trying to accomplish.

If you'd rather run your files through editing software, you'll need to find a way to turn the VOB files (or are they MPEGs?) on your camcorder into an editable format, like an AVI. You might be able to do this by patching your camcorder through an analog-to-digital bridge so that what goes into your computer is an AVI. Or you can copy your files from your mini-DVDs into the computer and use one of the many pieces of software available out on the internet to convert your MPEGs into AVIs. I can't recommend any since I have almost no experience in this area, but you can do a Google search on MPEG to AVI conversion software and see what comes up.

If it's any consolation, you're not the first person who's wanted to do what you're doing, Ralph, so it's not impossible. On the other hand, I wish there were more sales people out there making people aware of the limitations of DVD cams -- especially because DV cams can now be had for about half the price!

Regardless, please let us know how it turns out so we'll know what to recommend to the next person who asks. Good luck!

There are a few ponters in

There are a few pointers in

grisetti,

Thanks very much for all your replies you are starting to turn the lights on for me but just a little unclear on what to do. I don’t want to edit the mini disc just want to get 3 mini discs on one 4.7gig dvd with chapters, exactly the way they were created in the cam.

The discs I am making are home videos birthday parties, family holidays ect. Record format of the camcorder is vob with other files VIDEO_TS.BUP, VIDEO_TS.IFO, VIDEO_TS.VOB, VTS_01_0.BUP, VTS_01_0.IFO, VTS_01_1.VOB, VTS_02_0.BUP, VTS_02_0.IFO, VTS_02_1.VOB.

Exactly what do you mean by changing the file names and from what I mention above is this the best solution for me?


Regards,
Ralph

I don't think you can make a DVD that will do this by simply copying files. You could try renaming the subsequent files from the additional discs to the next higher numbers, but there aren't any numbers on some of the files, so i have no idea what you would do with those.

You *could* create a DATA DVD with three directories such as DISC1, DISC2, DISC3, and then copy the respective contents of the VIDEO_TS folders from each small disc into these directories. Do not include a VIDEO_TS folder on this new disc. If your DVD player is smart enough then it should show you a menu of the three folders. You could click on a folder name and then click on the files it contains to play them. I don't think you would be able to get a useful menu this way though. VTS_01_1.VOB contains the first section of the recorded video, but no menu. It would play to the end of that file and then return to the menu, or it might go on to VTS_01_2.VOB if you're lucky. Playing the menu file itself would rapidly show you all the menu pages but you wouldn't be able to click on them.

*shrug*

Unless you reduce all the files to new source files, render them to one new large file with new chapter points, and author a new DVD from scratch with it's own menues, i don't think you'll be able to do what you want. If you find the salesman who told you it was possible, please either have him post instructions in here or give him about 50,000 lashes with a not-so-wet noodle!

Sorry, Ralph. I've got to hand this off to someone else. As I said, I've had to real life experience with the mini-DVD format.

I'd always assumed only the VOB files (which are actually MPEG-2 files with a different suffix) were your actual video -- but I can't account for the rest of the files.

Anybody else have any ideas?

VOB's actually can contain more than what you would typically expect to find in an MPEG stream (and in fact usually do).

VOB - video object; contain both the MPEG-2 video stream but also contain a multiplexed audio stream (and may contain multiple audio streams), amoungst other things (for example, you can have information that's specific to DVD playback like alternate scene angles and such).

IFO - Information objects - these files describe the actual structure of the DVD, they contain information on how the VOB's are linked together, ghow the menu's work, where the menus are located, what happens when you press a button, etc.

It's not enough to simply copy and rename VOB files, you have to create a new structure that describes the DVD.

A couple of options - using something like DVD2AVI to extract the video and audio from the VOB files into a DV AVI and WAV files. Then use MovieStudio to edit things together.

Another option might be Nero - disclaimer: I've only played just a little bit with this aspect of Nero, it may not do everything you need/want. Nero does have a utility that will let you create a new DVD from the components of multiple DVD's and it creates a rudimentary menu that lets you access the individual DVD's. Basically you pull the VIDEO_TS folder off the source DVD's and then drag/drop these into Nero which can then generate a composite. I've only played with this once though, so before anyone runs out to buy Nero, if they have a trial version you should try this out first.

--Scott