DVD file conversion and burning help

[Rad17]

My new digital video camera creates Windows Media Audio/Video files when the video clips are downloaded to my hard drive. I am *trying* to use Nero 6 to burn a DVD (have also tried Sonic's MyDVD, same type of problem pops up).

The problem is: Both of these burning programs require me to convert the Windows Media files to files with the ".vob" extension before burning to a DVD. So, I convert them (for instance, originally the file is named "clip001.wmv"; after conversion, it's named "clip001.vob".)

HOWEVER, when I try to import these new ".vob" files into either of these burning programs, I get an error message saying that the files are not in the correct format, and that they need to be in the "xxx.vob" format.

They ARE in that format!! They've been converted to that format as shown by the extension!!

I've tried both the Nero converter, and another one called "Easy AVI/VCD/DVD/MPG Converter".

I'm kinda new at this, so can someone please explain if I am missing some subtle, simple procedure when converting these files? (Although the conversion programs are automatic, so I can't change much in the way of program variables). I wouldn't think this would be such an ordeal!

ANY help appreciated!!!! Thanks.......

[reboot]

First, you do NOT have to use Windows Movie Maker to get the movies from your cam.
You also do not have to use the .wmv format.
Second, have you tried getting the movies from the cam in any other software?
Third, you don't just convert a movie to a .vob
This is "authoring". Look in the guides.
There are lots, for capturing, encoding, and authoring.

[daamon]

Changing the extension of a file from .wmv to .vob does not convert it to a file that is in VOB format.

That's like saying you can convert an Excel spreadsheet file.xls to a Word document by renaming it file.doc.

You need to encode the WMV file to MPEG2 - the format used by DVDs and, as reboot says, then author these to create the VOBs.

Authoring is the process of "bundling up" the audio, video and any subtitles, along with any menus etc. all into a single "container" - the VOB file.

[Rad17]

Jim, thanks for the info. As for using Windows Movie Maker, the camera and computer are defaulting to this when I download the video clips from the camera. I will try to set it so that another program "grabs" the movie clips when they're downloaded, & use a different format.

Also, I didn't explain properly on the file extensions. I am not renaming the files with a different extension; the conversion program is doing that. It apparently is converting a ".wmv" file to a ".vob" file, but the ".vob" file it's producing isn't compatible for some reason with any of the burning programs.

Anyway, let me give it another try.....

Thanks.....

First, you do NOT have to use Windows Movie Maker to get the movies from your cam.
You also do not have to use the .wmv format.
Second, have you tried getting the movies from the cam in any other software?
Third, you don't just convert a movie to a .vob
This is "authoring". Look in the guides.
There are lots, for capturing, encoding, and authoring.

[daamon]

Does your digital video camera have a firewire port? (Also known as 1394 or iLink). If so, hook it up to the firewire port in your PC and use WinDV.

This will give you DV AVI at approx. 13.5Gb per hour of footage. See how you go with that...

Sorry for my misunderstanding on the changing of the file extensions...

[reboot]

You have Nero, try Nerovision Express to capture (if WinDV fails).