Editing DVD Vob files with Premiere 6.0

[roobarb49]

Hi folks,

I'm relatively new to this, so bear with me.

I've been experimenting with some DVD ripping and converting (ripped some of the Matrix DVDs with DVD Decrypter and made some nice DivX files with SimpleDivX).

However, I would now like to start a bit of experimenting with Premiere 6.0 - making some of my own edits of my favourite DVDs etc. I'm proficient with Premier (once I have the AVI files etc. to work with), but it's getting to that stage that I'm having problems with.

Here's what I would to be able to do:

- rip the VOB files from a DVD (this, I can do)
- convert the VOB files to a format I can open in Premiere 6.0 (this, i don't know how to do)
- edit the files in Premiere (this, I know how to do)
- author the files to a DVD (this, I don't know how to do)

Is anyone able to help me out here?


R

[daamon]

Hi roobarb49,

First post eh? Welcome to the forums and the site...

- convert the VOB files to a format I can open in Premiere 6.0 (this, i don't know how to do)

Check out DVD2AVI...

- author the files to a DVD (this, I don't know how to do)

1. Download and install Debugmode Frameserver.

(If you're not familiar with "frameserving", don't worry - it's not as technical as it sounds. In short, it allows Premiere to send a frame at a time to an encoder - that's what gets your AVIs into a format ready for authoring - i.e. MPEG2 files).

2. Download and install an encoder - I frameserve from Premiere 6.0 to TMPGEnc Plus.

It produces very good results, though isn't the fastest but it's not horrifically slow. TMPGEnc Plus comes as a 30 day fully functional trial.

3. Download and install DVD authoring software.

There are a fair few, but TMPGEnc DVD Author is a good place to start. It, too, comes as a 30 day fully functional trial. Others that are regularly recommended to noobs are (both freeware I believe):

DVDAuthorgui
GUI for dvdauthor

TMPGEnc Plus (the encoder) can be daunting. Take a look at this old post of mine for how I do it. I'm not saying it's the best or the most efficient, but it gives me very good results and seems a logical way of doing things...

Also, you'll find this guide invaluable for setting up TMPGEnc the encoder...

Hope that helps. Good luck...

[roobarb49]

Excellent.

Thanks for this.

Now... a few things I'm a bit hazy on....

I've installed Debugmode Frameserver and I've got DVD2AVI.

I've ripped my DVD, and I've made a .d2v project file using DVD2AVI - which has processed the wav.

However, when I then load the .d2v project in DVD2AVI to save off the AVI, the aspect ratio is all wrong, and there's no-where in the settings to modify it.

Also, I'm not sure what codec/compression I should be using in order to get the material to open in Premiere....

......or have I gone a step too far with DVD2AVI? Should I be doing something else with the .d2v + .wav and the VOBs before I get to Premiere....?

All help is much appreciated.


RB

[daamon]

Hi roobarb49,

No problem.

I'm not that well versed with DVD2AVI (just seen it recommended loads). I have to confess that I assumed you'd get an AVI at the end of it, so not sure what a file.d2v is...

You might need to do a bit of research there. For the same reasons, I have no idea why the aspect ratio is all out - maybe there's a guide for DVD2AVI that covers this?

As for codecs, I can be of more help there. Either uncompressed AVI (though will take of sh1t loads of space), DV AVI using the Panasonic DV Codec or the Canopus DV Codec (there are others, but these are free and good).

There may be other AVI codecs, but I'm not familiar with them so will not comment. What I will stay is don't go for Divx or Xvid as these are quite lossy and designed more for smaller resolution playback (VCDs) - it'd be a shame to ruin a good source.

Definitely stay away from codec packs - only install what you need else you may well get conflicts.

I've only ever captured from my miniDV cam to DV AVI and then used Premiere to edit - so not sure on what other formats it accepts. That said, the more you compress the source, the more quality you'll lose...

Hope that helps some. Good luck...