VideoHelp Forum
+ Reply to Thread
Results 1 to 11 of 11
Thread
  1. Member Namrepus221's Avatar
    Join Date
    Aug 2002
    Location
    Pittsburgh PA
    Search Comp PM
    I'm working on a "mashup" type video. For some reason anything I convert from DVD to try to use in it doesn't work properly.

    VOB to MPEG via TMPGe [sic] - No video, only shows up as Audio, and even then doesnt' play cause it's AC3 format.

    VOB to M2V/AC3 via DVD Decrypter - All formats unsupported by Adobe.

    VOB to MPEG to DivX AVI - Works... but quality is incredibly low.

    And I have several clips in MP4 which aren't even supported by Premier as well but I'm afraid if I convert them to anything else I'll have the same problems.

    I want to be able to have a semi-high quality video. How can I get my DVD files into Premier without a ton of quality loss.

    Please help. I really wanna start work on this project, and given my attention span, if I stall any more I'll lose my muse and it will fall by the way side for another 6 to 8 months.
    It's not the fall that hurts it's the sudden stop
    Quote Quote  
  2. Member
    Join Date
    Jan 2007
    Location
    Republic of Texas
    Search Comp PM
    Premiere 6 works best with DV-AVI files. (I still have version 6.02 on one of my home PCs). You must first convert your VOB files to DV-AVI using VirtualDub MPEG-2. It is freeware. You must also install the Panasonic DV codec. (There are other DV codecs around, but Panny works well with older versions of Premiere.) If your VOB files have AC3 audio, you must also install AC3ACM (also free) under the VirtualDub folder on your PC. Then, open your VOB file in VirtualDub, select Video > Compression > Panasonic DV Codec. Under Video, you must also select Full Processing Mode. If your audio is AC3, you must select Audio > Compression > AC3ACM. Also select Full Processing Mode under Audio. Then save everything as an AVI file. After the conversion is made, import the AVI in Premiere. If you use Divx, Xvid, Mpeg4 or any AVI of the like, you will have countless headaches with Premiere. After you edit your footage, come back here for advice in turning the finished project back into a DVD.
    Quote Quote  
  3. Member
    Join Date
    Oct 2006
    Location
    Canada
    Search Comp PM
    If you have VOB files from DVD (mpeg2/AC3 audio), you can edit those in Mpeg Video Wizard DVD.
    Mpeg4 files will have to be converted to mpeg2 first, than you can import and edit and mix them in Wizard also, together with others.
    Quote Quote  
  4. Member Namrepus221's Avatar
    Join Date
    Aug 2002
    Location
    Pittsburgh PA
    Search Comp PM
    YIkes. I'm doing the convert to DV-AVI as instructed... and it's going from a 4 gig MPG/VOB set of files to a 36 Gig AVI file... Is this normal!? That is over half of the hard drive space I have left (I have alot of crap and even after backing up a good deal of it to another drive, I'm still struggling for space)


    Edit:
    Alright I'm getting a new Error when I attempt to save it as an AVI using AC3ACM

    it says

    "Error Initializing audio stream compression:
    The Audio Codec cannot compress the source audio to the desired format

    Check the Sampling Rate and number of channels of the source is compatible with the selected compressed audio format"
    It's not the fall that hurts it's the sudden stop
    Quote Quote  
  5. Member
    Join Date
    Jan 2007
    Location
    Republic of Texas
    Search Comp PM
    DV-AVI is far less compressed than MPEG-2 VOB files. For frame-accurate editing, with non-lossy transitions and effects, DV is necessary. The MPEG-2 video in your VOB is a highly compressed format designed specifically for playback and archiving to smaller storage spaces than DV. (Divx, Xvid, and MPEG-4 are even more compressed and are terrible for editing.) You can do cuts-only edits on VOB files without decompressing and recompressing the video, but your edit point will be to the closest I-frame, and not necessarily the frame you choose. Whatever the case, Premiere won't do VOBs.

    And so, with DV-AVI, you get higher-quality video that is great for editing (especially in Premiere), but it takes up a lot of disc space. With MPEG-2 VOBs, Divx AVIs, etc., you get potentially nice looking playback video (depending on bitrate), taking up less disc space, but very difficult to edit.

    That is why there is no one-size-fits-all format.
    Quote Quote  
  6. Member
    Join Date
    Jan 2007
    Location
    Republic of Texas
    Search Comp PM
    Also, about AC3ACM. Under VirtualDub, you must select the codec under Audio > Compression, and then, also under the Audio pull-down menu, select Full Processing Mode. You will get errors with Direct Stream Processing.
    Quote Quote  
  7. Member Namrepus221's Avatar
    Join Date
    Aug 2002
    Location
    Pittsburgh PA
    Search Comp PM
    The thing is the Mash up video I'm making is using a DVD for one half of the footage...and a XviD AVI for the other half.

    I really want both of the videos to be in somewhat similar quality as well. Is this even possible?
    It's not the fall that hurts it's the sudden stop
    Quote Quote  
  8. Member edDV's Avatar
    Join Date
    Mar 2004
    Location
    Northern California, USA
    Search Comp PM
    Originally Posted by Namrepus221
    The thing is the Mash up video I'm making is using a DVD for one half of the footage...and a XviD AVI for the other half.

    I really want both of the videos to be in somewhat similar quality as well. Is this even possible?
    Premiere 6 dates back to ~Y2k and had no support for those more modern formats. Premiere assumed high quality video input. Hence you need to convert everything to a format that Premiere 6 understands. That will require huge disk drives for decompression.
    Recommends: Kiva.org - Loans that change lives.
    http://www.kiva.org/about
    Quote Quote  
  9. Member Namrepus221's Avatar
    Join Date
    Aug 2002
    Location
    Pittsburgh PA
    Search Comp PM
    Crap....

    What about Avid Free DV? Will that be any easier or am I stuck?
    It's not the fall that hurts it's the sudden stop
    Quote Quote  
  10. Member
    Join Date
    Jan 2007
    Location
    Republic of Texas
    Search Comp PM
    After you edit, there are plenty of ways to convert the finished DV-AVI back down to DVD-compliant MPEG-2 or XviD AVI. You can still edit with Premiere, as long as you find the disc space for the large DV-AVI files. Avid is still going to look for DV-AVIs, the same as Premiere. The quality of the final DVD and XviD videos can look to the eye about as good as the DV-AVI footage, as long as the conversions are at a sufficient data rate. Your other option was mentioned by Tinker. You can directly edit the VOBs (with the limitations I mentioned earlier) with a program like MPEG Video Wizard DVD, or mpg2cut2.
    Quote Quote  
  11. Member Namrepus221's Avatar
    Join Date
    Aug 2002
    Location
    Pittsburgh PA
    Search Comp PM
    OK I got the "XviD" video set up to work with premier, I didn't really look at it before I sent it through the "ringer" as it were

    and I noticed it's in 16:9 format.

    In Premier how do I crop it to 4:3? I don't want it to be stretched, but cropped to 4:3
    It's not the fall that hurts it's the sudden stop
    Quote Quote  



Similar Threads

Visit our sponsor! Try DVDFab and backup Blu-rays!