I can't edit my dvd's (former vhs)

[RoddyN]

Hey guys, I just joined the forum and I've tried the search function but I need a little direction.

I'm a very novice computer user who pulls wrenches for a living, and is trying to edit some old vhs movies of my band from the 90's so I can give the guys in the band copies.

Here's what I've done so far:

1) I borrowed a friends vhs to dvd recording machine and copied the old tapes to disc.

2) I put the disc in my wifes new little HP computer and media player opens up and plays it! woo-hoo!!!

3) I open the windows movie maker to edit it and realize the only thing I can do with the disc in drive E is watch it! (%#$**!)

4) I google a little and figure that I should download dvdFab to convert this disc onto my computer.

5) I copy it with dvdFab and when I try to open it I realize I'm still a dumbass....movie maker still won't open it.


Sooo..... can anyone point me in the right direction. Should I give up on this or is there an easy way, final video quality isn't too big of a deal. I just want to cut out the crappy parts between songs.

Thanks for any help.

[guns1inger]

You don't need DVDFab DVD Decrypter in this case because you have a home made DVD that has no copy protection.

I would start with VOB2MPG, and use this to extract the video and audio from the VOBs on the DVD to your HDD as an MPG file. You may find that Windows Movie Maker will be happier to open this.

That said, Windows Movie Maker is really designed as a lowest common denominator freebie option, so it can be difficult to get it to edit anything other than WMV and DV AVI files.

Also not, it will re-encode everything if you don't start with WMV or DV AVI files, and because it is not a high quality tool, this will cost you quality. You may be happy with this, or you may not.

If you aren't you might consider alternative editors, such as VideoStudio X2 (corel) or Womble Mpeg Video Wizard, which will edit Mpeg-2 video with minimal re-encoding.

[RoddyN]

Thanks guns1inger, with a little use of the glossary I think I can figure out what your saying!

I'll download VOB2MPG and then use moviemaker (cause it's free ) to half-ass edit these for the boys.

Thanks again!

[guns1inger]

If you are going to use Movie Maker, I strongly recommend you read and bookmark Pap John's site : http://www.papajohn.org/

Also, download and install his output templates, as they can increase output quality substantially.

[RoddyN]

Thanks for that link, seems like a great site for novices.