Convert unprotected DVD to AVI (for editing purposes)

[foochuck]

I'd like to convert an unprotected DVD I was given to AVI format for editing in Adobe Premiere Pro. What program can I use to convert the DVDs to AVI?

Thanks

[Krispy Kritter]

There are many. Look under HOW TO - CONVERT in the section to the left.

[redwudz]

Many ways. I have used VirtualDub Mod, with the addition of the Panasonic DV codec, and encoded each VOB to DV format. DV is nice for editing, all keyframes.

Higher compression codecs like Xvid generally only have keyframes every 300 frames by default. This makes for difficult frame accurate editing.

Or you can extract the whole DVD with VOB2MPG to one large MPEG-2 file, then encode it to DV or another format. I prefer the VDM method, as the file sizes are easier to deal with. Even then, you may have a 25GB total file size. Not a problem if you have plenty of hard drive space.

[foochuck]

Yeah I'd like to encode it to DV with the Canopus DV codec (I have on my system). Would VirtualDub Mod work with that? If so, do I need VirtualDub and the mod to do this?

[redwudz]

It should, if it's an encoder codec. Open VD Mod and go to 'Video>Compression' and it should be listed there already if you have it installed on the computer.

[foochuck]

Okay the codec was listed. I've opened the "VTS_01_1.VOB" file I copied from my DVD. Now what format AVI do I save it as if I want audio and video from the original DVD?

Thanks

[foochuck]

I tried Save As... and I got this error:

Cannot start video compression: The source image format is not acceptable. (error code -2)

I was able to scrub through the VTS_01_1.VOB file after I opened and see all of the frames.

[redwudz]

You would have to use a valid DV resolution/size to save as DV. 720x480 NTSC or 720x576 PAL. If not you will have to resize it first.

For the audio, it depends on what you want to do with the audio and what formats your video editor accepts. VDM should show you the different audio streams. You can save the audio out as a WAV file (Using full audio processing) as another option.

[foochuck]

Where do I choose the DV resolution/size in VirtualDubMod?

What option to I use to save video? And what option do I choose for audio?

[greymalkin]

foo,

before you go through the hassle, what type of editing are you wanting to do?

If you are just wanting to trim parts out you don't need to re-encode.

[foochuck]

I need the whole clips from the DVDs edited in with other footage I have already captured. My final product will be on DVD - edited and exported to mpeg2 with Adobe Premiere Pro.

[kschang]

Then the question becomes... What KIND of footage do you already have? Are they MPEG2 DVD quality? If so, and if they're already in MPEG2, then it may be better to just dump everything into Premiere and don't recode anything.

[foochuck]

I don't have the original footage from the DVD. I only have the footage in DVD format and I need to get it into Premiere as an AVI for editing.