Edit VOB files and save to dvd

[NickyJ]

Hi, am new to this and will try not to ramble, here goes.....

My son recently took a trip overseas and this was captured on video by his school. I have borrowed the three discs (dvd's?) from school, about 12 hours in total and would like to edit them down down a reasonable size (obviously the bits containing my son!) and then copy this edited file to a dvd to distribute to family members.

I've copied the files to my pc from the discs and these are now in folders called VIDEO_TS 1, VIDEO_TS2 and VIDEO_TS3. Each of these folders then contains several files as follows: VTS_01_1.VOB and other files with BUP and IFO extensions.

Each of vob files will play using windows media player (good quality picture and sound) but only 3 of them will import into windows movie maker although only playing the sound with no pictures. I get the following message when trying to import the other 8 files: The file C:\Documents and Settings\Home User\My Documents\My Videos\VIDEO_TS 1\VTS_01_2.VOB is not a supported file type, and it cannot be imported into Windows Movie Maker.

I have 'googled' this to death and am finally admitting defeat and wonder if anyone here can PLEASE assist me with this.

I don't know what i'll do with the files if I ever do get them into movie maker, because I've never done that either!!!

I know this is a BIG task for anyone out there to help me with, but I can usually follow instructions well. I would be greatful for any help.

As with a lot of other folk here, I'm working to a budget, so very expensive software is not an option.

Kind regards,

Nicky

[guns1inger]

WMM is not the best choice for editing DVD based footage. You will have to convert it to another format in order to get any stability, which will take time and use a lot of disc space. DV would be the best format for quality for editing in WMM, however it will require 13 GB per hour of footage once converted, plus space for output and temporary files.

Another alternative would be to edit in an mpeg-2 native editor such as Womble Mpeg Wizard. This isn't expensive, es editors go, and will happily allow you to edit all this footage without the need to re-encode. You can then author with this footage in a separate authoring tool. Of you can get the DVD version of Mpeg Wizard, and output a DVD after editing.

[NickyJ]

Thanks very much Gunslinger, will start putting some pennies aside!

[miggeth]

It depends how accurate you want the cuts to be. I've edited mpeg-2 footage using TMpeg DVD Author, but you can only cut every 15 frames or so, then you just author a fresh DVD using the same program. You don't even need to re-encode, similar to gunslingers suggestion, but you can do it all in one application.

It's ideal for what you need, you'll just end up with a collection of clips containing what you want.

[jonas more]

DVDShrink is all you need and it's free.

Using DvDShrink rip each of the DVDs to seperate folders.

Then use DVDShrink in re-author mode to select the scenes containing video of your son and it will create the folders you need to burn to DVDr.

[LJB]

Don't forget to download imgburn to burn the dvd +/-r or dvd+r dl.

[NickyJ]

Thanks everyone, a few things for me to try here............ will let you know.

Regards, Nicky

[NickyJ]

To everyone who kindly helped with my query regarding editing VOB files........

Thanks very much once again for your suggestions. I downloaded the trial version of Womble and it worked a treat. For a novice like myself who isn't really interested about what goes on behind all the buttons (sorry, hope I've not insulted anyone!) it was absolutely just what I was after.

I managed to load the original files into the programme, edit out all the unnecessary bits (including several shots of teachers filming their feet!) and I even managed to add transitions.... who ever would have believed it!

Anyway, the family are well impressed with their copies - there's even talk of my filming my nephews wedding next year.... eeekkk, what have I started!

So thanks once again from one happy mum and an even happier son!

Cheers, Nicky

[PuzZLeR]

Hi Nicky. Just a note. Womble is the only thing you need from what I see, and if you don't have other projects and/or can afford its registration fee if you do accept other projects, then read no further.

But if the budget is too tight, as you mention, you can try something a bit cheaper like TMPGEnc MPEG Editor. The Premium version does transitions. This too is lossless easy editing.

VideoReDo is excellent too, and cheaper, but I don't know how to do transitions. But it does cuts beautifully and losslessly.

If you want a free cutter, just to cut out the clips of your son, you can try Cuttermaran - best free MPEG cutter in my opinion. But no transitions, and will only accept streams that are demuxed (video and audio separately) which can be demuxed by Project X (also free).

I guess the most important thing to note here, is whatever you use, don't use an editor that insists on re-encoding your video. This is time consuming and kills quality - which is unacceptable to precious unrecoverable moments. All apps mentioned in this post don't re-encode (except a few frames around cuts and transitions).

Have fun. Now you're hooked. :P

[NickyJ]

Thanks PuzZLeR and you're right, I am hooked!

I've just had a quick look at some of the products you mentioned and some of them look a little harder to grasp than others (for someone just starting out). But the cost savings could just push me to concentrate a bit harder!

Thanks once again for taking the time to make some great suggestions.

Regards,

Nicky