first steps in simple editing: from vro to dvd?

[lightningbit]

Hi,

I'm fairly new at all this, so I thought a little bit of guidance/advise would be nice.
I've looked through this site, and there is a lot of information, a bit overwhelming maybe, so, that is why I'm here...

I got a stack of (and I do mean a big stack) DVD-ram disks, from a friend, he/she has spend filming the performance of someon on various events.
so I got it all on DVD-ram, in VRO format (some in 4:3, some in 16:9, some in normal def, some in HD)

the request:
- from each disk, collect 1 or more clips (got a list of "title/chapter" combinations, I need to extract) (each DVD ram will contain different "subjects")
- replace the sound track from the clips with background music (mp3)
- setup starting and ending credits (so basically a movie title, a few names before start of the movie, and ending credits)
- make it viewable as 1 long movie if just played (so one clip after another), or the ability to select the clips (so chapters again)
- maybe (if it is easy to do), add a menu with a play all, or the ability to select clips to play
- combine them in a DVD, viewable on standard DVD players
- it does not need to be the super high quality, just as good as possible without trying to squeeze out that last extra pixel
- and in this way, I need to create a few different DVD's (a DVD for each "subject")



I guess for the pros and experienced amongst you, this is peanuts

so, the tools I have at my disposal the next weeks to do this are :
- Premiere Pro (CS4) (basically, the whole CS4 suite)
- TPMGenc xpress and authoring works
- Nero 9 (suite)

so my questions are :
- is there a tool which can export from vro to xxx (whatver is best) while creating clips according to the title/chapter information (does TPMGenc this? of does it only create clips according to some sort of smart-detection)
- what tool would be best to create the project with? (assemble the clips, cut some clips, where it is needed, add begin and end credits, replace the audtio track of each clip, export to DVD or ISO for multiple burns)
- are there better tools (or easier) to do this

I much appreciate the guidance and advice you can give


L.

[Baldrick]

I would probably give MPeg VIdeo Wizard DVD a try. It supports most of your requests.

[jagabo]

Mpeg2Cut2 can read the VRO files. You can see from the time stamps where each episode begins and ends. It will produce MPEG program streams as output (simple remuxing, no reencoding).

[lightningbit]

is there a way where mpeg2cut2 can "read" titles and chapters and auto split/cut the clips?
otherwise it will be hard to digg through a stack of dvdrams and 40 to 50 titles/chapters per disk

TDA seems to go half way : clips per title, the chapters are in each clip also separate, but sadly no way to export the chapters as clips, only the titles

[jagabo]

is there a way where mpeg2cut2 can "read" titles and chapters and auto split/cut the clips?

I don't know the program well. My VRO files are from a DVD recorder so there's only a few shows per disc. I just mark-in, mark-out, and save manually. I don't know if there's an automated function to save each clip automatically.

[sambat]

I find that MPEG2Cut2 can only open the first recording (made on a Panasonic DVD Recorder) - it ignores all subsequent items.
Instead I use Dracore VobTools to scan the .VRO file on the DVD-RAM (the disk has to be in the drive - ripping it to the HDD seems to corrupt the files).

Dracore can then save each recorded item as a .vob file.
There is no chapter or title information saved.

http://www.digital-digest.com/software/download.php?sid=258&ssid=0&did=1

[jagabo]

I find that MPEG2Cut2 can only open the first recording (made on a Panasonic DVD Recorder) - it ignores all subsequent items.

It opens them all for me. It looks like one big recording but as you move the seek bar you can see the time stamps drop back to zero at the start of each show.

[sambat]

@jagabo
Thank you for the info.
I found that selecting 'View' > 'PID' > 'All' (instead of 'Auto') enabled seeking through all the recordings.