Really struggling making a high quality MPG from dvd on hard drive

[Yarko1967]

Hi all,

I am new to video ripping and I am having the hardest time. I have spent about 2 weeks now evaluating the glut of dvd ripper/converter software on the internet and I cannot, to save my life, find one that allows me to make an MPG (MPEG-2) file on my hard drive that, when I play it, looks exactly like how my DVD looks when I play it. I either get weird blocky pixelation or just blotchy gray areas where there ought to be black, if I can even get the thing to be widescreen at all. I don't know what I am doing wrong or if all of these programs just don't do a perfect copy from a DVD to an MPG.

I have the DVD files on my hard drive.

Can anyone help me find a program that will rip from DVD files on my hard drive to a MPG (MPEG-2) file with NO loss of video quality? I have tried them all and I just can't fricking figure this out. It's absolutely making me crazy.

[Baldrick]

Rip with the free dvdfab decrypter(ripping is free). Play the DVD Folder(VIDEO_TS) with VLC or MPCHC. Or if you really want a mpg file use then vob2mpg on the dvd folder.

[yoda313]

Why do you need the mpg? If you are trying to make another dvd with a different authoring program virtually all of them should be able to import the vob files in the video_ts folder directly with no need to do anything else.

If you must absolutely have a mpg from your original vob use:

vob2mpg

For ripping use dvdfabdecrypter or if its homemade dvdshrink - though it may not like some dvd recorders - you can always use dvdfabdecrypter and shrink later if you need to. - I got double the number of titles on the disc from my liteon settop dvd recorder - I could still rip it but I had to play each clip to ensure which one was which since there was a double count shown.

But also if you are just playing on the computer you can leave it as a vob and virtually all media players will be able to play it off the harddrive. Use mpchc if your particular player is having issues.

One other thing most if not all external harddrive media players like the wdtv media player SHOULD be able to play the original vob as it is.

if you need to cut segments out of the original dvd folder use mpg2cut2 for that (after its on the harddrive though - it'll take forever doing it off the disc).

[Yarko1967]

I want the MPG because I want to import it into Sony Vegas for editing and I have had success with MPGs in Vegas in the past.

VOB2MPG does give me a high quality video, however, when I import it into Sony Vegas, it plays too fast. It's really weird. The video gets out of sync with the audio files I have already extracted from the same dvd. I don't understand why this happens.

The other problem I had with VOB2MPG which isn't important to me but seems like a bug is that if I select a specific audio stream, all the audio streams are included in the output file. The FAQ for VOB2MPG says that selecting a specific audio stream will keep the others from being included, but this is definitely not what happens. This audio problem isn't important for me though because I already have the audio files separated out. I just need the video stream in some format that Vegas will use and that will match up with the audio.

If I could figure out why the file that VOB2MPG creates doesn't play at the proper speed in Vegas, I might be able to solve my problems.

Thanks.

[yoda313]

I would look closer into vegas. I can't believe it doesn't have a video_ts dvd import feature.

[Nelson37]

So your problem does not at all involve playback, as you originally stated. Your actual issue is that a particular EDITOR displays the video incorrectly.

First, knowing exactly how you ripped the video might be helpful. Second, testing for valid playback using a program designed for the purpose will verify whether something is wrong with the original rip, or if you just have a minor problem with playback, WITHIN AN EDITOR.

You should first test using the original VOB files, the converted MPG files would be a secondary test.

[classfour]

Is the settings in VOB2MPG for framerate correct? 24 or 29.97 depending on your locale.

I've seen this on format factory conversions of flv and mkv files, just not on DVD.

[Yarko1967]

Thank you all for the responses!

@yoda313: I tried its video import and it's very limited. I am able to get it to bring in video from the dvd files, but it breaks it into chapters and brings in all the video from the dvd and not just the movie. Also, it crashes soon after import for some reason. I would really like the video stream to be in one piece for editing. It seems easier to me to juggle a few pieces that I break up myself than to have to deal with all the chapters. I am disappointed that I don't have more control over the Vegas dvd import feature.

@Nelson37: Yes. I had forgotten that one of the programs I had tested did seem to play back properly in VLC and/or WMP but was problematic in Vegas. Amazingly, VOB2MPG is the only program I tested that let me get that far! My problem now, of course is how to get the MPG produced by this program to work in Vegas. You mention testing with another program to validate the original rip. Which program might that be? I would hope that playback should be enough. As for how I ripped it, I used DVDFab 8 which I had seen recommended somewhere and which seemed to work as described. It basically created a video_ts on my hard drive and put VOBs in there. That is the set of files I have been trying to extract the MPG from.

@classfour: As far as I can see, in the trial version of VOB2MPG, I cannot determine or change the framerate of the output file. The settings are very minimal (which is fine with me if I get a good MPG!). Any help on how I can check which framerate will be output from VOB2MPG would be appreciated. Hopefully I don't have to pay money to get to this setting. I'd like to make sure that I can use the output from this program before I pay for it. I do see a setting for something about recalculating timecodes. Might the problem be something to do with that? I would think that the framerate should default to the source framerate.

Thanks all for your help. I hate being at this point in learning where I know enough to frustrate myself but not enough to be able to solve the problem.

I wish I could find a program that would just pull out the video from a DVD as it exists in the source, resolution, width, framerate, bitrate, etc. exactly the same that would work in vegas. Man this is headache city!

[hech54]

As for how I ripped it, I used DVDFab 8 which I had seen recommended somewhere and which seemed to work as described. It basically created a video_ts on my hard drive and put VOBs in there. That is the set of files I have been trying to extract the MPG from.

If you want a sure-fire way of getting only ONE audio stream....and if DVDFab's interface is too quirky for you....open the VIDEO_TS folder that DVDFab gave you in DVDShrink and remove the unwanted stuff, leaving you with exactly what you want....output that UNCOMPRESED to a new folder....then run VOB2MPG on that. That's it. Any other problems you may have(IE audio sync) is the fault of the editing program.

[Yarko1967]

@hech54: Interesting idea. I went ahead and used DVDShrink on the DVDFab folders and then used VOB2MPG on the results. I got a playable, high quality mpg, but it still runs too fast in Sony Vegas. I guess I will have to deal with Sony with this problem. I have never seen it do this with mpgs before.

I liked the framerate idea as the cause of this problem. Anyone know how I can verify the framerate of the output of VOB2MPG?

[poisondeathray]

what does sony think the frame rate is ?

does it play fine in other media players

what does gspot say about the video ?

this can happen if improperly decrypted

you can change framerate with restream , but if the problem is sony, then you will screw it up for everything else

[Yarko1967]

Oh! I forgot about Gspot!

Gspot says the frame rate is 29.970, which is what I guess it ought to be. Seems like the MPG should be ok. However, when I use the codec solutions and tests buttons at the bottom, I get pin connection failures on both codec propsed solutions. I don't know if that means anything. I'm not really sure what all that codec pin connection stuff is all about.

I have a thread at the Vegas forums. Hopefully they can help me figure out why this MPG is not playing nicely with Vegas.

I'll post here if I get help there. If anyone else who see this thread has experience with Vegas, please chime in!

[poisondeathray]

I use sony vegas

again, what does vegas think the file is? look in the file properties

how do you have vegas set up? project settings ?

exactly what you do you mean by "plays too fast" ? audio to fast? video too fast ? skipping frames ? or did you mean audio delay (e.g. audio comes before video, sync issues) ?

is the file interlaced? progressive or telecined ?

The pin failure just means you don't have a directshow decoder system for MPEG2 set up properly on your computer, but this doesn't affect vegas, it uses a different subsystem. That would only affect directshow players like MPC, WMP

[Yarko1967]

Sony Vegas says:

General
Name: VTS_01.mpg
Folder: E:\OutputFolder\Superman
Type: MainConcept MPEG-2
Size: 6.64 GB (6,794,293,248 bytes)
Created: Sunday, April 10, 2011, 12:39:39 PM
Modified: Sunday, April 10, 2011, 12:43:37 PM
Accessed: Sunday, April 10, 2011, 12:39:39 PM
Attributes: Archive

Streams
Video: 02:31:26.411, 29.970 fps interlaced, 720x480x32, MPEG-2

Project settings are default. When I created the project, I used the video file I am trying to import as the basis for the default project settings. See attached image.



When I say it plays too fast, I mean that when I play the edited work I have done, for example, after i have played around with the audio as I have, the audio plays at the right speed, but in the preview window at the top of the display, the video looks like it is sped up. I suppose it could be that it is skipping frames in playback. Or it's showing all the frames but at a higher frame rate than it ought.

I don't know how to answer the question about the file being interlaced or otherwise, other than the vegas properties window says "29.970 fps interlaced". Does that answer the question? I guess I am in a bit over my head.

[poisondeathray]

I still don't have a good idea of what you're talking about

Does it do that before you do any edits ? Just drop the video on the timeline and push play ?

What are your computer specs ? If you drop the preview quality in the preview window to draft or something lower than "best", does that improve the playback ?

[Yarko1967]

I just stepped through the video frame by frame in vegas and noticed something else. Small sections seem to repeat themselves. In one scene a few frames from a few seconds earlier appear suddenly, or a few frames will suddenly repeat and the video will go on. So weird.

[poisondeathray]

Frames out of order? That can happen when improperly decrypted

if this is new dvd release, you might have to wait for updates on the decryption software

It says "superman" - if this is hollywood dvd from a film source, then likely it will be telecined. You will see every 5th frame repeated. Vegas cannot handle this properly (inverse telecine)

[Yarko1967]

Yes, it does this if I just create a new project, add the mpg file, and drop it into the editing area. When I set the play position at a given point and play it, the video starts a bit early from the audio, and then gets more out of sync as it plays, the video rushing ahead of the audio. This is with the audio from the file itself or compared to any other audio files I import.

As the video rushes, I can also see some strange looping of groups of frames and stuttering as i described after I did a frame by frame examination. It's almost like the video is trying to play right but keeps getting ahead of itself. The weird thing is I never saw this problem with other MPG files i have tried from this same dvd file set (or other file formats). The problem with those mpgs though was that I could never get them to be dvd quality.

It's actually a pretty old dvd, released in 2001, I think. If the problem is a bad decryption, would the file still play properly in video players? It does.

[poisondeathray]

Not sure what's going on then....

What version of vegas ?

This is another issue , but if it's hard telecined, vegas will "see" it as 29.97 , not 23.976 (for soft telecined content) , and you will have every 5th frame repeated. This sounds like something different than "looping groups of frames"

If you cut a sample stream and upload it here, I can have a look at it. You could use avidemux for example

[Yarko1967]

Sony Vegas Movie Studio 10.

OK I just downloaded another video converter (leawo DVD to MP4 converter) and created an MP4 file from the same dvd file set. I got a watermark and not quite dvd quality (and only 3 minutes). This file imports into Vegas and plays just fine. The video syncs right up with my wav files. (I'm considering trying another file format. I just figured that MPEG-2 would be the best to use since it ought to be the simplest to get from a dvd.)

So, it seems like Vegas is having problems specifically with the mpg that VOB2MPG produces. So annoying.

I used avidemux to create a small mpg containing a section of the mpg I got from VOB2MPG, but it won't open in vegas. How do I make avidemux give me the same format that I started with?

[poisondeathray]

in avidemux,

mark in / mark out a section using the "A" "B" button at the bottom near the slider. Make sure you're on a keyframe by using the "<<" and ">>" buttons before you mark the in/out points

video=>copy
audio=>copy
format=> mpeg PS (A+V)

Control+S to bring up save dialog , enter filename with extension e.g. "myvideo.mpg"

Does the frame order look ok in avidemux ?



In general, you don't want to convert to another lossy format (lower quality). If you do convert, use a lossless format (huge filesizes, but no quality loss) . This really sounds like problem on vegas movie studio's part

[Yarko1967]

The video looks fine in avidemux. The clipped file also plays incorrectly in Vegas. Trying to upload the video segment.

[poisondeathray]

I don't know if that will help with anything, except to indicate something is wrong with your version of vegas

since avidemux decodes it fine, you can use avidemux to make a lossless intermediate of your full mpeg to import into vegas

video=>huffyuv instead of copy

you might need to install huffyuv to get it working in vegas

try it on a short sample first

[Yarko1967]

Well, I was hoping you could try importing the file into vegas and see if you have the same problem. I know it's kind of big.

http://www.templeoflegos.com/temp/test.mpg

I tried your huffyuv suggestion but I got an error from avidemux: Incompatible output format.

[poisondeathray]

yes, vegas pro has issues with that stream too

avidemux has problems too, maybe it's just the version I'm using . For huffyuv you need to select format to "AVI" instead of mpeg PS

you can do it with avisynth properly with IVTC and frameserve to vegas without large intermediate files , but learning curve is a bit steep

[Yarko1967]

Wow. I can't believe that I can't use the file from VOB2MPG! It seemed like the perfect solution. Well, back to the seemingly never ending process of trying to find a way to get a usable high quality DVD conversion.

Maybe I will hear back from sony.

[Nelson37]

What exactly is your desired goal here?

The rip to hard drive and Vob2MPG steps should not alter the video in any way. This should be checked with a playback program, not an editor. In general, many editors cannot be counted on to correctly display video. This may, or may not, be related to their ability to cut such videos.

If you just want to make cuts, try MPG2CUT2.

[yoda313]

also the playback in an editor shouldn't be your main test. You should process the video and see if the processed video still has this issue.

[poisondeathray]

I think his goal is to be able to edit it in vegas

But vegas barfs on that stream. It's not normal. Run it through projectx or pvastrumento for example, it's chalk full of errors. You can demux , rewrap, even try videoredo quickstream fix, and vegas still barfs

A media player check isn't sufficient , because you need a higher level of resilience and frame accuracy for editing. Media players have error correction and can drop frames to keep in sync and keep timing

But premiere pro seems to handle it fine

[Yarko1967]

Must just be a limitation in Vegas. I finally converted the video to a lossless AVI format using VirtualDubMod and that works in Vegas.

Thanks everyone for the help.