I am using version 5.
(It does what I need it to do and our church isn't likely to buy HD cameras and projectors in the near future.)

Make sure you rip slightly over what you need as Vegas leaves out the last few frames of sound. If you rip the end of the vst file your out of luck. If you have one vst file then the last few frames of sound will be left out but not the video.

MPEG Streamclip works pretty well, but you need Quicktime loaded to use it. Both are free downloads.

Dave T2

1) *IF* you're just doing cuts, try pgcdemix to get your audio, video, and subs if you use them. Then use project x or cuttermaran or similar freeware, or buy one of the womble products, and avoid re-rendering loss of quality.

2) *IF* just trimming, use DVD Shrink or Nero Recode with quality at 100%. Then pgcdemux to get your source files, or, VobBlanker, PgcEdit etc. to reuse old menus.

3) If you want it in Vegas, DGIndex using the original VOBs (on disc or hdd), then VFAPI, importing the results. For audio I recommend one of the many other methods of ac3 -> wav, but DGIndex will convert it for you if you want.

This is functionally identical to converting mpg2 to avi & importing into Vegas. [this might appear uneeded, but v7 is the 1st good luck I've had with actual mpg2 on the Vegas timeline]

4) If you want to physically create avi files, use DGIndex as above, then VFAPI & render in Vegas, or Avisynth, & render in Virtual Dub.

If looking into any of that you find it confusing, there are also several free programs to automate files conversion - check videohelp.com. Super might be the easiest of all.

DVD Shrink is ur best option IMPO... but turn off "split files larger than 1gb" and turn off the recompression options ( u DONT want to
compress it for another disc, which is what this app is designed to do.. )

Grab Be Sweet.. with your rip, open BeSweet (another free app) and run the AC3 gui.. now import your VOB movie file... rip the audio from the VOB file... you want 6 mono channels as outputs...

now you have the video, as well as 6 audio tracks <if th eoriginal was 5.1>

go nuts and have fun

The price of Upgrading to V7 sounds like the best bet to me.
Or... you can pay for all these other mentioned softwares that are Useless if you have V7.

Believe me... you'll notice a humongous difference between V5 & V7.
You'll get more value out of V7 than you will from buying a ripping program.

I recently took some content off a DVD. Indeed I just dragged and dropped into the Vegas 7.0d timeline and away I went. It was only an 8 minute cut but it worked beautifully and rendered with no problems.

"Or... you can pay for all these other mentioned softwares that are Useless if you have V7. "

HAAHAAHAAHAAHAAHAAAHAAAAHAAA...... sorry....

Software is written to fill a need... As there is no demi-god blessing anyone with the ultimate application -- the one that does everything ever imagined -- we're all going to be stuck with mere mortal coders, ones often chained to bean counters no less. They cannot create ultimate software -- they are not demi-gods.

If you're trolling I got a laugh - thanks. If you're not, I'm laughing with you, not at you, this being the nice, flame-proof forum that it is, & suggest in a friendly manner you either do a bit of research before making such claims in the future, or remove any reference to your website from your profile -- you'll hurt yourself.

dvd shrink and besweet are free applications and if u cant afrod to upgrade to v7, theyre good alternatives

Higly recommend DVD Shrink for only one reason.
At times on no money jobs I just couldn't be bothered to recapture hours of tape from a shoot just to make one minor change, much quicker to rip my original DVD.
Only problem, at least with V6 is where the VOBs join you get a couple of frames munged. Use DVD Shrink to join all the VOBs into one VOB and drop that on the T/L.

FWIW and all...

Long time ago a very large number of print folk got into trouble because they ignored newer, often cheaper, software, & the folks using it. Lots of pre/post print houses went under, Adobe got hurt, stopped development on their flagship Pagemaker [later coming out with InDesign] and for many it was a sobering experience.

In some ways today's similar... You've got a very large number of video folks, especially re: DVD & upcoming HD DVDs, who have been and are coming up the ranks so-to-speak. Ignoring them and the large number of specialized & Linux tools they use may not be entirely wise. Upsetting a crowd that could impact your online reputation [as I mentioned to sync2rythum] can have immediate effects. They're not stupid by any means, and many have a very extensive knowledge gained by disassembling DVDs, writing specialized video apps etc. The guy who wrote Shrink is now on staff at Nero doing their video apps.

Personally I use Shrink most often to get a DVD right at max size -- if anyone has another *efficient* way to do that please let me know. But Shrink is only one of dozens of very useful, often specialized programs that do a better job faster than most any NLE, and can often enable you to do things otherwise impossible. Use them or not, but be aware your competition probably is.

For farss' example [if I understand it correctly], I don't know the most efficient way to effect a minor edit, but I could point to probably more efficient or at least quicker methods using other software, if only an alternative to Shrink for getting his vid on the timeline. Apps like Besweet aren't just an alternative to Vegas 7, but can still accomplish things 7 simply cannot.

Apologies for sounding a bit too much like a rant here, but I really do think video folks are doing themselves a dis-service if/when they discount the large number of opensource, freeware, and low cost software you'll find available at places like videohelp.com. I keep mentioning V/Dub, which complements Vegas rather than competes, and has a user base in the video world perhaps 2nd only to Windows.

Personally I use Shrink most often to get a DVD right at max size -- if anyone has another *efficient* way to do that please let me know.

It is a great tool to use when your three-day render is 2% too big, but I would NEVER recommend using it on a regular basis. Use a Bitrate Calculator instead.

Shrink is also VERY useful when you need to extract just a small portion of a DVD for use in another DVD. For instance, I often want to take highlights from a few DVDs I've created, and produce another DVD from those highlights. Makes no sense to recapture tapes, re-open in Vegas, etc.. Instead, I just put the DVD in the drive, open Shrink, use the "Re-Author" mode, cut on I frames, and voila. Basically, it is the world's cheapest lossless MPEG cutter. I should also point out that if you want, you can copy several DVDs to your hard drive, and then use the re-author mode to directly create DVDs from a compilation of bits and pieces from all of the DVDs. You don't even need an authoring program (although you won't have a menu).

I can go on, but I agree that Shrink is an amazing program that has utility far beyond it's originally shady (i.e., illegal) purposes.

Hi John
Already feel badly about going off topic -- apologies towards everyone -- & will try to be quick & short [for once :?P ] You're perfectly right that a calculator would probably work better, but it's a *Monkish* quirk with me -- kind of like signing a project. Neither Recode nor Shrink is theoretically the way to go -- just a shortcut -- but when you keep quality at 95 or better, virtually identical to the original... Shrink might in fact improve the results if you like a sharper picture than Vegas encodes.

Sites like Doom9.org, videohelp, etc do have a lot of folks gathered there who are concerned about ripping. There's also a bunch who feel it's OK to backup a DVD you purchased, there are some who get burned [myself included] buying a DVD that WILL NOT play - yet there's no legal recourse including refunds, there are content creators, and a bunch doing plain ol' vid capture. To learn about DVDs these sites can be invaluable, as there is a NDA attached to the large pricetag for the DVD specs. At any rate check out what they offer or don't -- I really am not trying to promote them, but rather point out the potential benefits.

Most all ripping associated software can be used for legal purposes, often with functionality that just can't be found off the shelf. A program like DVDA, while excellent IMHO, is an interface to write code into DVD IFOs, and does so sometimes in ways that are in spec but not common practice that players follow. One example is their highlight/bov/sub track colorset. Other stuff is left out. Sometimes the only way to get the pro-quality result you want is to work on the rendered layout. Again not trying to badmouth DVDA, or promote any software -- just my opinion that if you see something you can't duplicate easily in DVDA, there's a good chance you can get there after the fact.

Thanks

but when you keep quality at 95 or better, virtually identical to the original...

Use a calculator and it is 100% the same as the original, not almost. Also, DVD Shrink takes 10-60 minutes to re-code and compress a project, depending on what settings you use. A calculator takes less than 10 seconds. Kind of a no-brainer, I would think.

Wellll. to use a calculator I'd think you have to create your project, maybe render it if DVDA is going to (re)render menus, see what you've got all told, figure out what your title mpg2 files should be, use the calculator, then hit Vegas to re-render one or more titles, substitute the new video back in the DVDA project, re-render your layout.

Shrink or Recode don't mess with the I frames at all, don't re-encode, just use what the author referred to as shortcuts or tricks. Shrink will by itself often have the visual effect of sharpening the image, and there are additional filter settings some like to use. Recode seems to maintain everything as is.

I can't tell the difference in quality, but consensus of posts I've read seem to agree on virtually identical so I used that. :?} I often monitor encodes to see how the size is running, using a calculator isn't a problem. There are so many times to wait with vid, generally sweat the really small stuff when I'm gonna be at the keyboard -- anything more than a couple minutes & I like to be somewhere else doing something useful, so the few minutes in Shrink don't bother me at all.

But on something like this all I can do is post what I do -- I'm sure there's more than enough folks who think I'm crazy for even worrying about 1/4 of the stuff I try to master. :?P