Just want to make the simplest edits to .vob files

[Chancellor Todd]

I have looked through the literature here and still have trouble understanding whether or not directly editing .vob files is possible.

I have a device that converts VHS to DVD.

When I'm done, I would like to just be able to cut out small segments of the video, without any loss of quality, then reburn to DVD. I can already use DVD Decrypter to get the vob files out, now I'm just wondering how to edit them.

(and then reburn, I guess? I have both roxio and Nero.)

Thanks for your time and attention.

[yoda313]

I would suggest mpg2cut2 as a start.

Also many dvd authoring programs allow editing of vob files before making the final dvd. Tmpgenc Dvd Author comes to mind. Load the vob and then edit it while you setup your menu.

[Chancellor Todd]

I would suggest mpg2cut2 as a start.

Also many dvd authoring programs allow editing of vob files before making the final dvd. Tmpgenc Dvd Author comes to mind. Load the vob and then edit it while you setup your menu.

Thanks! The Tmpgenc program sounds more all encompassing, but did you recommend mpg2cut first because it's free?

And do any of these methods (including the buring portion) involve loss of quality? I am paranoid about that. (Since it's already in .vob format, the burning software won't try to reencode it or anything, right?)

[noemi7]

Tmpgenc will re-encode whole video. Tmpgenc Dvd Author does terrible job with cuts: in most cases video is visibly blocky. Also it doesn't flag cut points as 'seamless' hence a standalone player may slightly pause.

I don't know mpg2cut2 but there are many excellent free tools you can use for simple cuts and demuxing: ProjectX, DGIndex, Cuttermaran, and Mpeg2Schnitt both require demuxed stream.

If you want precise frame level editor then VideoReDo is the best choice.

[Chancellor Todd]

Tmpgenc will re-encode whole video. Tmpgenc Dvd Author does terrible job with cuts: in most cases video is visibly blocky. Also it doesn't flag cut points as 'seamless' hence a standalone player may slightly pause.

I don't know mpg2cut2 but there are many excellent free tools you can use for simple cuts and demuxing: ProjectX, DGIndex, Cuttermaran, and Mpeg2Schnitt both require demuxed stream.

If you want precise frame level editor then VideoReDo is the best choice.

Thanks Noemi,

After going through some trials and research today, the two programs that came to the fore were Video ReDo and Womble's MPG Wizard DVD. Am I correct to think these both will allow editing without recoding?

However, neither were as simple as I'd like. And after experimenting with my DVD recorder and seeing how precise the cuts were just by hitting the pause button, I may even go old school and edit that way.)

[redwudz]

The recorder may do the cuts before encoding. With most compressed formats, you would need to cut on a keyframe or 'I' frame. These are spaced differently depending on the codec used. From our glossary:

I Frame
An I frame is encoded as a single image, with no reference to any past or future frames. Often video editing programs can only cut MPEG-1 or MPEG-2 encoded video on an I frame since B frames and P frames depend on other frames for encoding information.

Divx/Xvid is worse. The keyframe spacing is about every 300 frames by default. That makes frame accurate editing very difficult without some re-encoding, at least at the cut point. DV has every frame as a 'I' frame and that makes it very easy to edit.

But Womble and ReDo do a good job of cutting, as do several other simple editors. I usually just extract the whole MPEG from the VIDEO_TS folder with VOB2MPG and edit the MPEG. Then re-author and burn.