Captured VHS to DVD file on PC, next step eludes me

[Bogie]

Hello folks I am new here so sorry for any stupid questions.

I have been trying to move a 3 HR. 9 minute taped athletic event from VHS to a DVD without much luck.

I have a Winfast 2000XP card and used a studio quality VCR to play the tape. I "captured" the file by choosing the DVD Good setting which produced a 6.5 gig file which plays just fine on my WinDVD SW. Excellent quality.

I thought I could use a prog like DVD shrink to compress the file to fit on a DVD-R which I would burn using Nero on my Pioneer AO4.

I can't open the file as every prog I try looks for something to work on in one of my DVD drives, there appears to be no provision for choosing a file already on your computer.

I then decided to try a smaller file and see if Nero would burn it so I captured a 1HR, 20 min. video this time using the MPeg II Good setting. This gave me a roughly 2.5 gig file which also played on WinDVD but Nero would not open nor would anything else I tried such as, TMPGEnc, DVD Decrypter or Ulead Visual Studio 6.

It appears to me that I must somehow split the DVD file into Video and Audio parts before most progs will work. Would this be the process known as "De-Muxing" ?

Or is it as simple as just burning the file to a DVD as a Data File in which case I can Re-Capture the 3 Hr. tape using a smaller bit rate? ( I have the calc).

I'm thinking I am missing something stupid but at this point have lost all pride anyway so I would appreciate any help.

Thanks

Bogie

BTW I own DVDXpress and DVDXCopy and have installed all the other helper progs I can think of. I have a lot of HD to play with and lots of horsepower as well.

[housepig]

What DVD Authoring software are you using? I don't see anything listed in your post, all I see is video editing or dvd ripping / copying software.

[kab01nk]

Did it save it as an MPEG file? Or an AVI?

What I do is reencode it using TMPGEnc to an apporpriate size and make sure it meets DVD compliance. Then use a DVD app to burn it. I don't think DVDSHrink and the like will work on an MPG file, tho I'm prolly wrong.

[grunteled]

Nope, your not wrong. DVD Shrink is designed to operate on VOBs not straight MPEG files.

Boogie, your a step away from a video that you can burn onto DVD and play in a standalone player. You need to take that MPEG and use a program like DVD-lab, or ULEAD Movie Factory to compile a DVD style folder layout with VOB files and then you will be able to burn that to DVD. ULEAD is probably the simplest to use. Look in the tools section under "authoring", ULEAD can be downloaded and used as a trial for 30 days. It can also burn the DVD from inside the program.

I use DVD-Lab but it's a little more complex (and flexable) than ULEAD MF

Kyle

[kenmo]

I like Tmpgenc DVD Author myself.

[Bogie]

OK, it seems like the step I was missing was not realising that there was a separate "Authoring DVD" application required. I do a lot of music burning and thought that if I encoded as a DVD (Mpeg) I could just burn the file to a disc and that the standalone players would pick it up just like WinDVD does. Somewhat like we do with MP3.

Thank you all for your replies. I will try those suggestions you all made especially yours grunteled and see if I can make it work on the smaller file first. I assume I can use something like DVD Shrink on the larger file once I "Author" it.

Kabo1nk, it saved to an Mpeg file but TMP.. would not open it to allow anything like reencoding, unless by that you mean to re-capture the file in another format?

Thanks for the suggestions, I will get right on it.

Cheers

Bogie

[housepig]

one more suggestion -

get a couple of re-writable discs, and burn to them while you're testing out authoring and burning options - that way you aren't wasting discs on trial runs.

[Bogie]

one more suggestion -

get a couple of re-writable discs, and burn to them while you're testing out authoring and burning options - that way you aren't wasting discs on trial runs.

Thanks Housepig, that is a great suggestion, I have installed TMpgenc DVD Author and am going to try it out now.



Bogie

[rhegedus]

Try this:

In TMPGEnc go to File->MPEG Tools and click De-multiplex. Then click browse to add your mpeg2 file (the DVD capture file).

Double click the video_stream 0x00 and save the video part (of your mpeg2) to whatever you want to call it, making sure it has a .m2v extension. It will now save the video stream do disk.

Do the same for the audio_stream 0x00, but when you save it, manualy change it to save it as a .mpa extension.

Now open IfoEdit and click the DVD Author tab at the top. Add the m2v and mpa files to Video and Audio by clicking the square boxes to the right of the dialogue box. Have a VIDEO_TS folder ready for the Output stream destination. Click OK.

When it's finished, the files in the VIDEO_TS folder will be the ones you'll need when you go to burn with Nero (just drag them into the red VIDEO_TS folder in the Nero wizard for a video DVD disk). IF it is bigger than 4.3GB (4,700,000,000 bytes), then you'll need to compress it (DVDXCopy should do this) the get it to fit onto a DVDR. You can also preview your DVD by opening the VIDEO_TS.IFO file with your DVD playing software.

[Bogie]

Thanks Rob for the suggestion. I did split the DVD file as you suggested using DeMux under TMPGenc but did not get the creation of the separate file.

As I understand your suggestion, I merely need to demux the Mpeg file and then move the two files (Video and Audio) to a new folder named "VIDEO_TS" , which is exactly what my Nero wants.

I understand that IFOEdit is not quite ready for primetime. So I did install TMPGenc DVD Author and I assume it can do the same thing.

I suppose I am a little confused as to just what the authoring prog does other then allow you to add title pages.

I cannot figure out how to open a larger then 4.7 gig file in DVDXcopy to give it a chance to compress it. Unless this is where I should create a Virtual DVD Drive. It seems to me my CloneCD software once created such a disc on my system.

I will stumble around a little more and see what I can do. I am currently re-capturing my smaller VHS file in DVD as the Mpeg format was too small a video size for Author to open. I will then try to create these files.

Thanks for your help.

Bogie

[Bogie]

Still working on this damn thing.

I have re captured the files in DVD Mpeg format with the proper vid size and then De Muxed that file with TMPGenc while renaming the audio to "mpa" as suggested. I also did this with the audio as "mp2".

I then sourced these files in TMPGenc DVD Authour and sent the output to a Volume Folder where it created the Audio_ts and Video_ts ffolders to use in Nero.

However, no matter what I do this Audio_ts folder ir empty. The video folder is properly populated with what I assume are the right files but no audio.

Stumped, tired, time for a nap. I will try it with Ulead MF tomorrow.

Thanks all

Bogie

[Bob W]

I would use NeoDVD Plus to author the mpeg2 files and do the DVD burn.
http://www.mediostream.com/products/neodvdplus/index.html

[rhegedus]

As I understand your suggestion, I merely need to demux the Mpeg file and then move the two files (Video and Audio) to a new folder named "VIDEO_TS" , which is exactly what my Nero wants.

NO!!! You need to put the .m2v and .mpa files through IfoEdit to get you VOBS etc. Without that step, you're nowhere!

[housepig]

However, no matter what I do this Audio_ts folder ir empty

the AUDIO_TS folder will always be empty - don't worry about it, it's a structural thing with dvd's, it needs to be there but it doesn't affect the audio of your disc.

And always make sure that VIDEO_TS and AUDIO_TS are capitalized if you're making your own folders.

but as rhegedus has said, don't try to shortcut the process - don't just drag and drop files because you think they should go somewhere. I mean, unless you're having fun beating your brains out on this...

[rhegedus]

I did split the DVD file as you suggested using DeMux under TMPGenc but did not get the creation of the separate file.

How come, what happenned?

[Bogie]

The Eagle has landed!

Well, after a nap and a cheeseburger the world looks like a better place.

Telling me that the Audio folder was always empty was the key. As it turns out, I followed Rob's suggestion and produced exactly what I needed early this morning but was chasing the empty folder all day.

You guys were a great help, I reallyappreciate it, my first VHS to DVD project went very well.

Now I had better shift over to the Authoring Thread to ask how best to burn the 6.5 gig DVD Mpeg file I have.

I can't figure out if I should just recapture it at a lower bitrate to stay under 4.7 gigs or try to find a way to shrink it after I create the VOB files.

Anyway, thanks again, you guys are very patient and helpful. I will try to pay it forward somehow, sometime.

Colour me happy.

Bogie

[housepig]

I think you may see better results with capturing at a lower bitrate than you will with re-processing the vob files with DVD2one or DVD Shrink.

just a guess, but I would think that a fresh, lower bitrate encode would do better than the reprocessing.

if possible, try it both ways - run your project through DVD Shrink, and then recapture a short segment of it and encode lower, and compare the two. They'll either look the same, or one will look worse, then you'll know.

glad it finally worked.

[rhegedus]

You may well see better results if you re-capture, but it will take 3 hours plus. Just give the re-encode option a chance to see if you like what it produces. DVD2ONE will do it in about 20 minutes. It's worth a go and may save you some time.

Depending on your hard drive space and processor speed, you might want to capture in uncompressed avi and encode to mpeg2 with TMPGEnc. It's probably better than capturing to mpeg2 directly.

[Bogie]

Thanks again HP and Rob for your help. It appears I went off a little bit too soon anyway regarding my success.

When I tried to sit through a test viewing I found that my audio began to de-synch from the video and run slower as the movie wore on until it became unwatchable.

I have gone through my entire original file and no synch problems with the captured file to DVD.

The problem is before the burn so it is not Nero. I can test the delay by opening up one of the files after I create the Video_TS folder with Tmpgenc.

I have used both TMPGenc 2.5 and demuxed and then run those through TMPgenc DVD Author and just running the original file through TM..author alone and the output files have the audio synch problem.

I am spending a lot of time churning through the forums to try and find a solution as this seems to be a fairly common problem.

I also went out this morning and bought some -RW as per housepigs original suggestion. It looks like I will need them before I get this right.

Thanks

Bogie

[rhegedus]

I've noticed a sync issue with TMPGEnc DVD Author once before - I don't know why it happenned, but I saw no logical reason for it. The way I got around it was by adding a couple of seconds of blank footage (black screen, with audio track of silence) to the start of the mpeg and then authoring it. It worked, but was probably a fluke.

Just one question: why are you still putting the demuxed files into TMPGEnc Author? The whole point of demuxing was to use IfoEdit to make VOBS.

[Yirkin]

You probably don't want to start over, but what I do when transferring VHS to DVD is encode to an AVI file using huffy codec then use the Project Wizard in TMPEnc Plus to convert the AVI to MPG2 format. I can adjust the bitrate however I need. the TMPEnc Project Wizard settings should generate a DVD compliant mpg file that can be burned to a DVD. I use DVD-Lab but Ulead Move Factory 2 should do it too.

There are some guides in the capture section of the web site.

Howard

[Bogie]

I've noticed a sync issue with TMPGEnc DVD Author once before - I don't know why it happenned, but I saw no logical reason for it. The way I got around it was by adding a couple of seconds of blank footage (black screen, with audio track of silence) to the start of the mpeg and then authoring it. It worked, but was probably a fluke.

Just one question: why are you still putting the demuxed files into TMPGEnc Author? The whole point of demuxing was to use IfoEdit to make VOBS.

Rob:

I was just going back over the steps that I took to see if the problem was with the demuxing capabilities of tmpgenc 2.5 or in the Authoring progam.

I have downloaded IFOEdit and will try it next. I was unsure if the files were already out of synch after demuxing.

I will try again and get right back.

Bogie

[Bogie]

I have now done the following.

Used TMPGEnc to De-mux captured DVD MPeg file into two files and made sure to rename teh audio extension to 'mpa'.

I then used IFOEdit to take each of these streams and create the necessary files for the VIDEO_TS folder that I created.

When I test the VTS_01 file from within this folder I still am experiencing a large lag in sound synch.

Stumped and feeling stupid.

Bogie

[skittles109]

I have used, my sonic , software came with my ADS capture unit . Bought it based on rec's from this site most value for price quality good no screwing around. You can set chaters and record length, Walks you thru whole process, I did not have to create all the files, "video" audio" excedera. Some software won't let you even try and burn if over the media's limit, say trying to put a 6 gig on a 4.7 disc. I am captureing compac,vhs. to a HD then burn to disc, Had about 18 90 min.,tapes, took me about 4 days after work. This was the easyest way I found. Thats trying just about every tool software listed on this site. Hope this helps you a littles , my learning curve is low , so I to struggled for about three weeks with alot of kethods before I found the fastest best way for me.

[harrymj3]

You can author your large DVD file with TMPGEnc Author and burn your resulting 6.5 mb VIDEO TS file with Pinnacle Instant copy. It will automatically adjust the file size to fit your disc. It works quite well and is not expensive. I've seen it for $19.00 on buy.com from time to time. ....... harrymj3

P.S. I didn't read all of these posts so if someone else has made the same sugestions I apologize................