Question about Vob's & Mepgs, with a FCP twist

[forcelite]

Here is a good question (I believe).

I know that a Vob file is an Mpeg (2 I believe) video, with audio (aac, or similar), with subtitles, all in one file.

So, if I were to Demux the audio and video, theoretically I would end up with Mpeg video, with whatever audio was left over.
This would mean that final cut (and imovie for that matter) should pull in the demuxed vob video no problem, since it is just an mpeg file, and it pulls in mpegs from other sources no problem.

I find the above statement not to be true however, and I dont know why. Is it a special mpeg? does it know it came from a vob? Does it have to be named a special extension, (I have tried many extensions)

Thats about it, PLEASE anyone with any insight please respond,

Thanks alot
Force

[galactica]

im not quite sure what your asking... but a demuxed .vob will give you .m2v (mpeg2 video with no audio)
and .ac3 or some derivative of an audio file.

as for importing into fcp i belive it has to be in .mov format for the video. I dont do FCP work so i dont really know....

iMOVIE it has to be DV

[forcelite]

Thanks for your help.

I have the msv and the ac3 files you speak of. Problem is I cant get them to load in any movie program. I can however get an m2v into dvd studio pro.

But that leaves me with my ac3. I have tried numerous programs to turn it not a wav file. But everytime it has an error, or it says it was done succesuflly, and the resulting wav is loud garbige noise. nothing that resembles the original.

I have tried PC programs, and mac ones too. I know someone here has to have done this. It seems like a common thing ot do.

Basicly I want to get a DvD that has no chapters, title, anything, and put these in it. As a sournce I have the DvD that plays fine in all palyers and on my computer.

Thanks again,
Force

[Frobozz]

Force, although you're trying to explain what you want, it doesn't come across very clear.

You have an existing video DVD and you want to put some of its content on another DVD. You also say you want to open this video segment in an editing application. It sounds like you're a good candidate to buy Miraizon's Cinematize.

By the way, iMovie and FCP do not work with MPEG 2 files; just to confirm what you've already learned.

[galactica]

if all you want is to author it as a DVD just import the .m2v and .ac3 into sizzle and author your disk image.

it can handle both file types and you wont have to do any .ac3 conversion

[DVmadman]

Force,

Explain exactly what you want to do.

Do you want to create a new DVD from pieces (VOBs) of existing DVDs? There are ways to do this without using FCP and without converting any audio or video. If you do it this way you will retasin the full quality of the original material.

If you must use FCP, you can import .m2v video directly into FCP4 if you have the MPEG2 component for QT. It will play directly in the viewer window but will have to be rendered (converted) to be played on the timeline.

Or you can convert the video before importing it into FCP. There are a number of tools that can be used to do this.

You will have to convert ac3 audio before importing it. MacAC3dec works great for this.

You can combine the audio and video in FCP or do it in QT Pro beforehand.

I can explain how to do any/all of this but it would be best to understand exactly what you want to accomplish.