How to Rip, Edit, and Burn Home Movies

[Ophiiii]

Hello,
Let me preface this by saying that I'm not very computer savvy at all. I have old home videos on DVD-R that I want to edit down to one dvd. It seems to me that I need to rip the dvds to my computer, use some software to edit them, and then burn a new dvd. The videos are already not very high quality, so a very high quality rip is a must. I have tried WinX DVD Ripper and was not impressed with the quality. Then, I edited the movies in Windows Live Movie Maker and tried to make a DVD with Windows DVD Maker, which I have concluded cannot work with 4:3 movies because the final dvd had black bars on the side and stretched everything vertically. I'm running Windows 7. If anyone knows what software is good for this type of project, I would appreciate any help.

[MOVIEGEEK]

If these are home movies you don't need to decrypt them, just use drag and drop or "send to". Windows Live Movie Maker does work on 4:3 content, the black bars on the side are normal when viewing on a 16:9 screen. You should just use DVDShrink to edit and install DVDDecrypter to burn. The old adage applies: garbage in...garbage out, if the source is poor quality then so will the output.

[Ophiiii]

The problem is that my tv is 4:3, not 16:9, and I still see the black bars. Also, the rip wasn't good enough quality anyway.

[Cornucopia]

Don't be like the other newbies who continue to confuse Ripping with Ripping+Converting.

When you RIP from a disc, it is just transferring the data to your Hard Drive. With un-encrypted discs such as those used for home movies, you could even simply do it by File Copying in Windows Explorer.
As such, Ripping is a lossless process, so NO change in the quality takes place. GIGO or BIBO (beautiful in = beautiful out).

If you use a "ripper" that is really a ripper+converter, you WILL ALWAYS lose quality (at least some)! WinX DVD ripper is just one such as those.

Since you are going from DVD->edit->DVD, you don't really need (or WANT) to change your ALREADY ENCODED MPEG2 files. That would take additional time, use up space, lose quality, etc.
Use an editor that allows for I-frame edits ("Direct Stream copy" style), or uses "Smart Rendering" of MPEG2 assets (where the only thing re-compressed would be non-Iframe cuts, or transitions, effects, etc.).

Windows Live (or Dead) Movie Maker CANNOT do this. Use a different (read BETTER) editor for the job.

Scott

[Ophiiii]

Sorry, didn't see the rest of your post. I know the quality isn't going to be better than the original, but with WinX it was far worse than the original. Does DVD Shrink rip DVD's as well?

[Cornucopia]

If your original movies were from VHS, they SHOULD have been 4:3. As such, when viewed CORRECTLY with a DVD player + HDTV (16:9 screen), you SHOULD see pillarboxing (black bars on the left + right). If not, you're not doing something right.

Scott

[Ophiiii]

To use file copying in internet explorer, don't I have to already have the files on my machine?

[Cornucopia]

Sorry, didn't see the rest of your post. I know the quality isn't going to be better than the original, but with WinX it was far worse than the original. Does DVD Shrink rip DVD's as well?

Yes (DVD Shrink can, DVD Decrypter can). And ANY ripper could be used, but MOST should NOT be used because so many of them being billed as rippers really are ripper+converters, and that's what is getting you into quality trouble.
Like I said, you don't even need a dedicated ripper software for this kind of job, since your discs aren't encrypted. All you have to do is drag+drop the IFO/VOB files in Explorer.

Scott

[Cornucopia]

To use file copying in internet explorer, don't I have to already have the files on my machine?

"Internet Explorer" is a web browser (don't use)
"Windows Explorer" is a File Manager (use it).

Just like you would be copying files from your USB flash drive to your PC, you are this time copying the files from CD/DVD/BD to your PC's hard drive.
No, they don't "already need to be there". If they did, what would be the point of copying them again?

Scott

[Ophiiii]

I don't have IFO or VOB files, though, all I have is DVDs. Or will I see those files when I put the DVD in my machine?

[Ophiiii]

Please excuse my ignorance. So can you recommend any editing software other than Windows Movie Maker?

[Ophiiii]

So put the DVD in my machine, use Windows Explorer to drag the file into DVD Shrink to edit it, and then use DVD Decrypter to burn the new DVD?

[Cornucopia]

1. Put DVD in PC
2. "Open" disc in Explorer, see the VIDEO_TS folder. Open it, see the VOB/IFO files
3. Drag them from there to a folder on your PC's hard drive.
4. Use an editing software (try any of the "Video Editors (MPG/DVD)" listed in the tools section) - I recommend Cuttermaran, VideoReDo, Mpeg2Cut2, maybe AVIDemux (as long as it smart-renders)
5. Author in Muxman, GuiForDVDAuthor, DVDFlick or similar freeware DVD-Authoring app
6. Burn in ImgBurn

Scott

[Ophiiii]

Thanks a lot for the comprehensive instructions and for being so patient with me. That was exactly what I wanted.

[obrady]

Thanks, this thread has been really helpful. I'm in the process of just copying home video's from VHS to DVD, then from DVD to DVD copies for family members. Thought I could save tons of time by figuring out how to do this on the computer, but from what I'm reading, the
quality won't be the same. So, back to doing it the old fashioned way. Thanks again

[sanlyn]

Thanks, this thread has been really helpful. I'm in the process of just copying home video's from VHS to DVD, then from DVD to DVD copies for family members. Thought I could save tons of time by figuring out how to do this on the computer, but from what I'm reading, the
quality won't be the same. So, back to doing it the old fashioned way. Thanks again

OK, you're getting the idea but you need some help with terminology to help others avoid confusion. You can't "copy" VHS to DVD. You capture (or record) analog source to digital media. In this case you can just copy files from a DVD disc to a PC's hard drive (or to any other drive). The term rip involves more than just copying; usually it's a decrypting/decoding/encoding process of some kind, which is more than just a straight copy. To copy is to make no change in the source. To rip is to make changes that usually degrade quality in some way.

BTW, a VOB on standard DVD is really MPEG in disguise.

I would not recommend Windows Movie Maker for anything. Period.

[obrady]

Thank you for the info! I'm new to this Forum & also lingo - really appreciate learning here

[Cornucopia]

Thanks, this thread has been really helpful. I'm in the process of just copying home video's from VHS to DVD, then from DVD to DVD copies for family members. Thought I could save tons of time by figuring out how to do this on the computer, but from what I'm reading, the
quality won't be the same. So, back to doing it the old fashioned way. Thanks again

OK, you're getting the idea but you need some help with terminology to help others avoid confusion. You can't "copy" VHS to DVD. You capture (or record) analog source to digital media. In this case you can just copy files from a DVD disc to a PC's hard drive (or to any other drive). The term rip involves more than just copying; usually it's a decrypting/decoding/encoding process of some kind, which is more than just a straight copy. To copy is to make no change in the source. To rip is to make changes that usually degrade quality in some way.

BTW, a VOB on standard DVD is really MPEG in disguise.

I would not recommend Windows Movie Maker for anything. Period.

Sanlyn I agree with you mainly, except you are also misusing RIP. To rip is to extract data off (usually) optical media onto a hard drive. It is often accompanied by decryption when necessary. The name got started originally from AudioCDs, where one could not DO a simple "file copy" because audio cds don't keep their data as FILES. An additional understanding of disc sectors and which data is the user data is required. Thus RIP. DVD/BDs don't have that much of a problem because they DO have a filesystem, but the name for the process has stuck, mainly because a true ripping app has much better technique WRT extracting error-prone data than does plain copying. Specifically, though: Ripping DOES NOT include any type of conversion! If it does, it's not just ripping, it's ripping+conversion whether it is admitted or not.

Scott

[sanlyn]

I'll think that over, while I go and rip myself a cup of coffee .

[Cornucopia]

I'm heading to the bathroom to rip an aspirin out of its packet as well...

Scott