Best Way to Edit Out Curse Words From a DVD Clip?

[Peaceful]

I know this sounds like a strange request, but can anyone tell me the best way to edit out curse words from a section of a DVD?

I teach from the Bible at a Christian young adult gathering and I use a lot of movie clips as stories that go along with whatever I'm teaching. Normally, I wouldn't care if there were curse words in the movie clips I use, but I've been invited to teach at a church that is on the conservative side so I have to start editting out curse words in movies like "Fight Club".

I'm basically looking for information on the best way to end up with a 2 to 10 minute clip of a DVD movie from which I can edit any curse words, then burn it to DVD with Authoring Software.

It took me about 40 hours of working on it (I'm a complete n00b at this...), but after going through the guides hereI finally found a crude method of doing so...

I used AutoGordian knot (The one for dummies, I can't seem to get the regular version to spit out an AVI.) to convert the DVD to AVI. I then Cut out the section of the AVI that I want using VirtualDub. I then import the AVI into Goldwave and edit out the curse words by dropping the volume to zero on the timeline for the duration of the word being spoken. Then I use VirtualDub to spit out another avi using the new *.wav file. Finally, I use TMPGEnc to change the AVI to a m2v and corresponding wav file that I can import into TMPGEnc DVD Author to author the DVD. This method is a pain in the ass and I seem to lose a little bit of video quality.

Is there a better/more efficient/easier way to do this? If so, I'd love for someone to help me out...Like I said, it's taken me 40 hours to get this far. I'd love it if someone could recommend a faster method.

Another question as well...What's the best way to edit video clips from a DVD when you have more than one clip? Specifically, I'm wondering how to get multiple clips from different DVD movies and put them together using transitions so they look professional when played in succession. I tried using someone's Adobe 7.0 but ran into problems because Adobe is so picky about file formats.

Seriously, any help would be greatly appreciated. If you've read this far, thank you already.

Peaceful (plat@eml.cc)

[lordsmurf]

I tend to avoid people that say "curse words"
... there's no curse at all involved
... but you redeemed yourself by saying "pain in the ass"

You'd need to decompile to clip back to basic video/audio. (VOBEDIT)
Take the audio in an editor and then mute that part of it. (SOUDNFORGE)

Easy.

[Tommyknocker]

Normally, I would rip the DVD in question with DVD Shrink. Then use Virtual Dub mod to load and edit the VOBs to get each sequence I wanted. Save out the wave file, edit it Gold Wave like before. Save the new wave file. Load the new wave file back into Virtual dub and save the entire video under a new file name.

Repeat this procedure with all your clips. Load each clip into Video Studio 7, add the transitions, and have it burn a new DVD.

[DiablosuX102]

yeah, try dvdshrink for ripping the dvd, remember shrink can crop the the part of the film u want also. its a real easy start/end feature.

http://www.dvdshrink.info/ <--step by step guides

josh

[sacajaweeda]

You could try splicing different clips with an AVS script....trim the parts for the main movie and use another clip to dub in the substituted audio from. You'd have to flip through it to get the exact number of frames you want to filter out and replace and do something like this...

AVISource("clip1.avi").Trim(0,5000)+AVISource("clip2.avi").Trim(0,25)+AVISource("clip1.avi").Trim(5025,10000) ...etc, etc..

Then load the script into VDub & save the new WAV file and encode that to use with your video. As long as the frame count matches the original you shouldn't have any sync issues either.

Or not.

MY $.02

[Peaceful]

Thank you so much for your replies. I appreciate all the advice.

I tried 2 of the methods proposed here (I couldn't try your method sacajaweeda - I'm afraid I'm way too N00b for that.). Both methods worked, except that the sound is not in sync with the video when I use either method.

Method 1: As instructed, I demuxed the clip (Which I extracted using DVDShrink) back to video/audio using VOBEDIT. I tried using soundforge to edit the resulting AC3 file, but it wouldn't open an AC3 file. So, I used a program called AC3tool to convert it to a wav file and editted it in Goldwave. I then used the m2v file and the new editted wav file to author the DVD. All this resulted in a video/audio sync problem.

Method 2: As instructed, I used DVD Shrink to pull out the clip I wanted. I then used Virtual Dub Mod to convert the clip to AVI (I couldn't figure out how to extract the audio in Virtual Dub Mod without first converting it to an AVI). I loaded the AVI into Goldwave and editted the sound, then saved it to a wav file. I then rebuilt the AVI in Virtual Dub and saved it under a new file name. Unfortunately, the video and audio were out of sync using this method as well.

Since both methods caused sync problems, I assumed the problem might be found in DVDShrink's extracted VOB file. I renamed the VOB file into an MPG and played in in Windows Media Player. It played perfectly with no syncing problems, so I don't think that's the problem.

Any ideas what is causing the video and audio to be out of sync? I'm lost...

Thanks again for all the help,

Peaceful

[lordsmurf]

Use BESWEET to convert the AC3 to WAV ... the other program (or the authoring program you used) probably caused your sync problem

I decompile discs on a regular basis ... never a sync error

[indolikaa]

When I do voice-overs (which is often, since you cannot fully appreciate any production without the viewpoint of Indolikaa to guide your way! ) I use SoundForge.

I don't 'cut' or 'delete' the area in question, I either mute the original wave and dub in my thoughts or overdub (paste directly over an existing wave using Paste Special). This keeps the audio in sync for me.

[Peaceful]

I used BeSweet to convert the AC3 file to WAVE. I then used SoundForge to edit the AC3 file (I just muted the sections I needed to mute, I didn't cut them out - That would definitely cause a problem if I did it that way.). I then plugged the M2V and the new wav file into TMPGenc DVD Author and the result is still video and audio out of sync. Any other ideas?

I have access to another computer with Adobe Encore 1.0. I was going to try and use it instead of TMPGenc to Author the DVD, however I can't figure out how to get it to recognize the wav file with the M2V file (There doesn't seem to be a place to plug it in.). Is there a way to do this?

The VOB I get from DVDShrink seems to be fine (As I mentioned earlier, I played it as an MPG and it is perfectly in sync.) so it's happenning after that point I think.

Any other ideas are appreciated. Thanks again for all your help. This is a great forum!

Peaceful

[Perro Grande]

If you're actually deleting part of the wav file to eliminate the words you don't want, sync problems are basically inevitable -- the video and audio are no longer the same length.

Here's one way of doing this kind of thing. It may be a few extra steps but it seems to be reliable. This isn't too different from what you described -- just a few different tools involved.

1) Rip the clip you want using a ripper of your choice. I generally use SmartRipper, but any decent one should work.

2) Use DVD2AVI to produce a WAV file from the VOB you have ripped. For basic stuff where you don't care about preserving 5.1, etc, you can just let it decode dolby digital down to a wav file.

3) Use Goldwave or an audio editor of your choice and open the wave file.

4) Find the words that you don't like, and reduce the amplitude of that section of the clip to zero. You will end up with silence without changing the length of the clip.

5) If you need to have AC3 sound, you can use BeSweet, SoftEncode, whatever, to convert the wav back to AC3. For short clips, you can just leave the wav file intact and forget re-encoding.

6) Author what you need using TMPG. When you select a source file, TMPG will accept a valid VOB file. You can then select YOUR wav/AC3 file as the sound source instead of the VOB file.

If TMPG-Author doesn't like the vob file, I've found that demuxing the file using TMPGEnc will make it happy. Just point author to your M2V file.

I've used this general technique to do fairly complex audio fixes, replacement, edits, etc, and it has worked and been free of sync issues.

Hope this helps!

[dphirschler]

I forget if it is Monster Garage or American Chopper, but one of those shows used to stick a 'clang' (as if somebody dropped a tool) sound effect in place of the curse word. Took me a while to pick up on it, it was so well done.


Darryl

[wallmg]

Somebody mentioned Video Studio 7. I dont' know if that program has this feature, but some video production programs I've worked with will automatically separate out the video and audio and allow vector editing of the audio. You can also record your voiceover on a second line of audio and blend the two. You could put all your clips together this way and add transitions, etc. and accomplish everything in one program. The program I've worked with before that allows this is Ulead Media Studio.

Mark

[lordsmurf]

This must be a homemade DVD source to have sync errors. Never, ever seen a pro disc with errors.

[massbit]

I'm using #1 DVD Audio Ripper,it's pretty good,it can rip to mp3,wav,ogg,wma,support to edit start time and end time.