Edit out material from dvd's/Need advice please

[Canon GL-2 Guy]

Editing material out of dvd’s: What is the best way?


I was informed by my local cable station that the program I was submitting to them via dvd was out of compliance with their rules and regulations because it contained free offers for materials and as they termed it “calls to action. Accordingly, until I can rectify the situation the program was pulled from being broadcast hence my dilemma and appeal for help.

Of course that make things considerably more difficult which will now require editing with the right tools. Since dvd’s contain vobs which can be converted into an MPEG file that’s the formats I will have to deal with.

My concerns and objectives are these:

1) I want to retain the highest possible quality to the extent possible considering the choices available.
2) My goal is to edit out the offers and then resave the file without transcoding or encoding again and compressing it further which of course impacts on quality!

So, does Premiere Pro CS3.2 offer any solution? Can I import an MPEG, slice n’ dice as needed and resave the results as a modified MPEG, i.e. already compressed?

Alternatively, are there any options for editing vobs which I have no experience with?

Preferably, I could convert to MPEG-2 and edit with a suitable application. If so what would that be?

In conclusion, what’s the best workflow which will satisfy the cable stations demands, reinstate the program and preserve quality?

Please keep in mind the “source” file/material from the dvd is already highly compressed. All I have access to is the dvd, not the original files that were used to make that dvd.

What would you do if you were in my shoes?

Thanks for joining in the discussion!

[hech54]

are there any options for editing vobs which I have no experience with?

Preferably, I could convert to MPEG-2 and edit with a suitable application. If so what would that be?

Forget about doing anything with VOBs.....they are an integral part of the DVD are were never meant to be messed with alone.
There are plenty of apps that edit MPEG2 (your DVD is MPEG2) without quality loss.
Transform your DVD to MPEG2 with VOB2MPG then edit with something like MPEGVCR or similar....there are also free editors that do very similar things.

[Baldrick]

Videoredo, tmpgenc authoring works or mpeg video wizard dvd. They wont reconvert, or mpeg video wizard will reconvert the transitions if you use any such.

[Denvers Dawgs]

TMPGEnc DVD Author Can do that. Import dvd, edit out what you don't want, output as dvd

[Canon GL-2 Guy]

Thanks all for your suggestions and recomendations to date.

To start, as far as the free or lower cost options go, what's the most intuitive and easiest to accomplish mpeg frame level editing?

Assume I know nothing about these applications & never used them before (which is the case).

Which one would you start with to explore and learn this task? Need to get off the ground and flying fast!

[usually_quiet]

Cuttermaran is the only free frame-accurate editor I've seen. In "Encoding Mode" it will re-encode only a few frames adjacent to cuts, and may not re-encode at all if the clips start on an I-Frame and end on a P-Frame. Unfortunately, it requires demultiplexed audio and video files, so it will require more of your time for editing than the paid solutions. I use ReJig in either IFO mode or File mode to de-multiplex video and audio from DVDs.

MPEG VCR costs $19, so it is probably the least expensive paid program, and is not hard to learn. It has a free trial too, so if you don't like it, you haven't lost anything but your time.

[usually_quiet]

Double posted somehow.