VOBs from Panasonic recorder

[EOrozco]

I'm trying to work (some edition) with VOB files from DVDs made with a Panasonic home recorder. This is something I've done in the past with files from other DVDs (including ones made on PC burners) without problems, but then with the Panasonic made discs, the VOBs doesn't "match" their real time duration on my NLE (altough, it can be played fine on a player) so I cannot edit them the way I want.

Somebody told me that maybe the "discs" were not "finalized" (or session "closed") and that affects the VOBs duration when I try to use them on my NLE.

Does anybody have an idea how to overcome this ?
Is it possible to "re-close" the discs? (I've tried with Nero and I couldn't).
Do I need to "recapture" (firewire) the DVDs playing them on a player?
How can I work with these kind of VOBs on my NLE ?

[EricS]

If the disk was not finalized, you can probably only finalize it on the panasonic recorder. Stick it back in the recorder, if it shows as "DVD-R" on the displayed it is not finalized. "DVD-V" is finalized. Also, if you stick it in a normal set top DVD player and it plays, this should indicate it has been finalized (an Excel looking menu will display).

[EOrozco]

..it seems that the discs are finalized...
why the VOBs aren't acting as expected on my NLE ?
why "appears" on my timelines (NLE) with just a fraction of their real duration ? (just seconds instead of minutes..)
again, I've worked many times with other DVDs and it's my first time I found this behavior....

What can I do ?
If I "recapture" the disc (as a DV AVI by firewire), will I have some type of degradation on the video when I make a "re-render" to DVD ?

[peco]

I never used a standalone recorder, but... did u try to use a dvd ripper to copy those vobs to your hd?

[EOrozco]

my problem is when you try to work with the VOBs already "ripped" on the HD... I used DVD decrypter.... I'm trying to edit the VOBs as I did before, but with these files (the Panasonic ones) I found a very strange behavior from the files (very short duration times) when I "dropped" them on my timelines.... (as VOB or even MPG).

[peco]

Which NLE software r u using? Did u try to re-author your DVD to see what happens?
(by the way... I'm interested in this question because I'm buying a Panasonic E80 recorder and will try it too with DVD-RAM disks...)

[EOrozco]

I'm using Vegas 4... what tool do you recommend to "re-author"... is it possible with DVDshrink (reauthor mode) ?

[peco]

I don't know how to import VOBs inside Vegas4, maybe requires the Mpeg-2 plugins. (I don't have them)

I sugest that you open your DVD title with DVDshrink and just click backup, I think it will rebuild your DVD (using automatic settings for each VOB) without quality degradation and then you can open them in Vegas4.

1. If the above works tell me, ok?
2. how can you open VOBs in Vegas4?

I'll keep trying here too.

[EOrozco]

Vegas 4 can import many video files directly to the timeline for editing. mpeg2 codecs are included. Just m2v files (among a few others) are not recognized. Usually (until I found these strange DVDs) I first ripped the DVD and Vegas can "open" the video files as VOB or MPG. If I have AC3 audio, I must rip these files "demuxed" and then converted to WAV (I use besweet) to be able to import it on Vegas (and put it with their corresponding video file on the Vegas' timeline for editing). When you finish your editing/post issues you just make a render to mpeg2 and even AC3 (audio) again to author your "new" DVD.

I just "backup" one DVD with Shrink but is the same as in Decrypter... I couldn't open it again correctly on Vegas (the audio file, once converted to WAV, opens without problem).... I'm sure it has to be with the Panasonic recorder because all others DVDs (commercial & recorded on PCs) I've tried can be "ripped" and edited as I describe without any problems.

I guess I'll have to "recapture" (firewire) these discs playing them on a DVD player (connected to my PC) as DV-AVI files.

[peco]

I opened some vobs in vegas4, without audio sync (w/ AC3 audio), I think the m2v (w/o audio) can be opened too by simply rename it as .mpg (I don’t know with vegas4, but it usually works in other apps).

Well, I’m interested to do things as close to real-time (or even faster) as I can. But, if time is not a problem for you, you can open all vobs in DVD2AVI, save it as a .d2v project (it takes few minutes). This .d2v file is simply a description of your vobs and allows you to do a “frame-serve” of the original VOB frames that you can open in TMPGEnc and then rebuild those vobs re-encoding them to mpeg-2 (that will take hours) and than open it in Vegas4 (remember to load a DVD video template, or set it to close GOPs of 18 pics each).

I don’t know what you want to do, but if you need to do some complex editing, I suggest you to save as an AVI file in DivX format. (If you capture in DV, every hour of video will consume about 12 GB of disk space). As a Divx avi it will be smaller than the original vobs and you can edit them easily in Vegas or Premiere.

There are also some mpeg/vob frame servers that allow you to write fake avi files, that is only a description of where the real frames are in your vobs. It will allow you to open it inside vegas as well, but you’ll have to find which tools create this fake avi files because I did it a long time ago... I do it now with a perception capture card, as it creates fake avis by default.

Well, this is not the most clever way to edit your video, but I hope you’ll find a better way to deal with this Panasonic “bad VOBs”

After I buy my Panasonic E80 I’ll do some tests with it, and I'll be posting here my coclusions too.

I hope it all helps you for now.

-- If you find better answers to your "PannyVOBs" questions please let me know, ok?

I found the fake avi maker from .d2v files: http://www.doom9.org/Soft21/SupportUtils/VFAPIConv-1.05-EN.zip

I found a lot of ways to work with vobs and edit/rebuild them... Is just a matter of what exactly you want to do.

peco.vgfx