Reading VOB files in Ulead Video Studio 7 ?

[steviebails]

Hi guru’s

I’m hoping somebody will be able to help me. I having some problems being able to load my video from DVD into my trial version of Ulead’s Video Studio 7 software in order to edit some video clips to add to my project…let me explain :-

I am trying to put together a pic and video slideshow of my wedding day to burn to DVD and distribute to friends and family. We were given a VHS video tape of the wedding and also a DVD. Both work fine. Up to now I have loaded some of the digital pics and video into the Ulead software and have edited clips of the ‘avi’ digital movies off my camera. All has gone well up to now with my Ulead ‘project’ having pics, video clips, cool transitions all playing to some great tunes. However my main source of video content is the wedding DVD and Ulead VideoStudio is not able to read the ‘VOB’ files under the VIDEO_TS directory on the DVD. My questions are :-

1. Do I need to convert these VOB files to another format ( ‘avi’ perhaps like the ones I am already using ) ?
2. If so what program ( freeware hopefully ) will enable me to convert the VOB files ?
3. Will converting these VOB files to another format reduce the quality of either the video or audio ?

I am also having a problem dragging my hi res pics into the timeline and keepingthem high res. I select 'keep aspect ratio' and when I check the properties of the pics it shows them as being high res. However when I play the project or test burn it to DVD and then play it on full screen the pics show low res ( they have obviously been reduced to low res by the software ). How do I stop this and keep high res pictures ?

Thanks in advance

[rkr1958]

https://www.videohelp.com/tools?tool=DGMPGDec

Haven't personally tried it but DGMPGDec is a freeware tool that converts vob files to avi.

If that doesn't fit your bill you may want to check out these:
https://www.videohelp.com/tools?toolsearch=&s=&orderby=Name&hits=50&convert=VOB+to+AVI&...+or+List+tools

I'm not sure about still picture resolution. You might do a search of the ulead website or do a google seach. There's probably some setting or preference somewhere that "ups" the resolution.

3. Will converting these VOB files to another format reduce the quality of either the video or audio ?

Yes, some. By converting your vobs to avi and then re-encoding them you will lose some quality.

Another option, but more complicated would be to encode those new portions you want. Use TMPGEnc DVDAuthor to import these new portions and your wedding DVD, trim out (i.e., edit out) what you don't want to keep and author. In that case your already authored wedding dvd is just re-authored and not reencoded and thus, no loss of quality. However, this option is more complicated and requires some learning. But for me it's well worth it. And many here, myself included, would be happy to help guide you through this learning process if you wish. By the way, TMPGEnc DVDAuthor comes with a 30-day free trial.

[tigerman8u]

Rename the file extension from .vob to .mpg
I do this with Ulead Videostudio 8. The file loads and plays in UVS with no problem. If you don't change the file extension to .mpg Uvs comes up with "unsupported file format"