putting dvd files (VOB) from dvd and using in windows live movie maker

[emmawharmby]

hi

i'm having a lot of trouble using windows live movie maker.
basically i had some old camcorder tapes that were out on to dvd- rw discs. they work perfectly fine in dvd players and also when just playing the video on VLC media player however when i try and put them into movie maker they are only 7 seconds long and the box has an exclamation mark on it and nothing plays.
i have researched and found that the file is currently a VOB file and so i have read threads that i need to convert these in order for them to work with windows live movie maker. i have therefore used a program called any video converter and converted the files several times to WMV, MPG, MPGII and a couple more - none of which have made any difference!

the reason why i am doing this as they are home videos from a camcorder that i wish to put into movie maker and edit them (putting titles in and cropping some videos) and then copy the edited version onto another DVD.

any help would be much appreciated as i am not very technical minded on this front (as i have found out through trying to do this!)
is there another program i could use without having to convert the file that would allow me to edit similar to movie maker?

Thanks in advance

a very confused emma!

[KBeee]

VOB's that play on a normal DVD player contain MPEG2 files. Copy the VOB's from your DVD onto your hard disk, then use VOB2MPEG to convert them to pure MPEG2 files. Then you can use an MPEG editor to cut, paste whatever you want.

[Baldrick]

You can try vob2mpg. Select the VIDEO_TS folder on the dvd and it will create a mpg that might work better in movie maker.

But I guess not...because wmvs should work fine in movie maker so it might be something else that is wrong.

You could also try convert the mpg to an avi with any video converter and see if it works any better.

[KBeee]

The wanted end result is DVD, so keeping it MPEG2 all the way is the best bet.

[Baldrick]

Putting titles in requires more than just a basic mpeg editor. Maybe is Mpeg video wizard dvd a good solution, but it's not that easy to start with and not free.

[emmawharmby]

Thanks for the fast replies!!

The strange thing that I have come across is that some of the files (that are still VOB...or so they say) do work in windows movie maker...others dont. these are files all coming from the same disc so this is confusing me even more!

i am going to try and convert using the below suggestions though and see what happens!

[emmawharmby]

hi again

i am still struggling with editing my videos and am in need of yet some more help please!!

basically i am now able to convert my video files etc and they now work in windows movie maker...sometimes...other times the suddenly have an exclamation mark over the file and wont work! also i have had problems with movie maker itself freezing and stops responding and closes down!

i have tried several more video editing programs (avidemux - was working however the sync for audio was completely out!, nero vision express 3 SE - wouldnt let me cut parts of my video out) and some more i cant remember the name of!

Basically, all i need is a program that allows me to cut parts of videos out (they are home videos where some bits are where its recorded by accident so i want to cut it out). i did want to do this for free however i am now tearing my hair out so would pay for a program if i know it works!!

Any help would be much appreciated!

Emma

[Baldrick]

You can try mpg2cut2. Not the easiest interface though.

Some other good mpeg2/dvd editors are videoredo, tmpgenc mpeg editor. But they aren't free.

[OldMan64]

VideoReDo and MPEG Video Wizard DVD

Both offer a trial period and either will do the editing and usefulness to make a DVD as a final product. I have not used the Live Windows Movie Maker, so cannot help with that. Give one of the above mentioned programs a go.