Basic editing of a DVD video without converting it first

[RonnyGo]

Hi,

I am a total newbie, interested in video editing.

My first question on this forum is: in order to do some basic editing of a DVD video, is it necessary to convert it to another format first? Or is it possible to do some editing directly on the original .VOB files, after copying them to the hard disk?

The basic editing that I need to do is: cutting out some scenes and moving a video segment to another place in the video.

Thanks,

RonnyGo

[usually_quiet]

VOBblanker can be used to remove unwanted scenes from a DVD without re-encoding/re-authoring. See: http://forums.afterdawn.com/threads/how-can-i-edit-a-dvd-remove-parts-scenes.524749/#post-3548460

"moving a video segment to another place in the video" without re-encoding/re-authoring would likely be far be more difficult. Someone with a good understanding of DVD structure and navigation commands might be able do it, but it is not a newbie friendly task.

[RonnyGo]

Thanks.
Two questions:
1) to which editable format would recommend me to convert the DVD, to ensure that the original quality is preserved as much as possible?
2) which ripper do you recommend for a newbie like me? I was thinking of Handbrake, but perhaps you can recommend a better one?

[manono]

Thanks.
1) to which editable format would recommend me to convert the DVD, to ensure that the original quality is preserved as much as possible?

For highest quality results don't convert it at all. As usually_quiet mentioned, VobBlanker is the go-to tool for cutting.

If worse comes to worst, you can reencode it to a lossless AVI format such as Lagarith or UT Video Codec and edit that. But even the moving around of scenes can be done without reencoding to anything. If I had to do that (why?), I'd probably open all the VOBs at once in MPEG2Cut2, isolate the part I want to move and save it followed by removing it and splitting the rest at the place you want to add in your cut piece. That will leave you with 3 pieces - before the new join, the middle piece to be inserted, and the part after the join. Then you can use MPEG2Cut2 to append them all.

You can make a DVD of your edited version and if you need the menus back, use VobBlanker again to replace the original cut version with your new edited version. Your menu might be screwed up and in need some major revisions. But maybe you don't care about a menu and intend to leave it as an MPG or perhaps then convert it using Handbrake or similar. I also agree with usually_quiet about that procedure - that while in principle it's not too difficult, for a beginner it might prove to be nearly impossible.