Is there any GOOD software for VOB-to-DV conversion yet?

[HawkBoy]

I've been converting VOBs to DV (and other formats) for over two years now, using all the rinky-dink little programs like Flask, VirtualDub, ImTOO, etc. I've used at least 20 different things. Usually they don't have the codec I need, or they crash, or they can't get the deinterlacing right. (Usually the docs are horrible too...I've used computers since 1981, but some of these things are unnecessarily confusing.)

It was fine to mess around with all this before, but now I'm working at an editing company so now I need something that actually does a good job. We just got a master video on DVD (*rolls eyes*) and I can convert it to DV using Flask and others, but the deinterlacing never works quite right. (I've tried changing the lacing threshold, changing to blend, etc.) And it's not just the DV compression, since I've also tried uncompressed video and other formats (and two DV codecs).

In the past two years, has anyone actually made a product I can buy in a store that can convert a VOB to DV AND make it look good? Everytime I find something, I get excited then see it's for Mac.

(I'm now wondering if maybe the best way to do this is to convert the original video to an uncompressed AVI, so that Premiere will open it, and then let Premiere deinterlace it to DV....)

Thanks for any help

[lordsmurf]

Why on earth are you deinterlacing?

And what's wrong with DVD Decrypter to extract the VOB as videos (IFO mode), and then using VirtualDub to dump it back into an uncompressed or lesser compressed format?

And you work at an editing company and neither you nor others know how to convert simple video?

Sorry, but nothing here makes any sense.

[HawkBoy]

Well DVD Decrypter is out because this disc barely reads, so it was all I could do to just copy the data to the hard drive.

I demuxed the VOB file so it actually opens in Premiere, but I'd rather change it to a DV file so I can edit in real time. It makes me nervous NOT to deinterlace, because I'm not sure whether the final version will be viewed on a computer or on a DVD player. If it's on a DVD player then the interlacing will be corrected, but if it's on a computer then they're going to think there's something wrong with it with interlacing problems everywhere.

Usually we get things on Beta or DigiBeta and don't have to mess around with DVDs, so now I've forgotten how to do some of this. I've used countless conversion programs, but by the time I have to do it again I forget what combinations of things actually looked good. Sorry hope I didn't sound bitchy - just having a bad day

I'm thinking maybe I'll just edit a laced DV video on Premiere, then I can deinterlace it later if I need to. Also I guess later I could replace the DV video in Premiere with the demuxed VOB file and "trick" Premiere in rerendering the whole thing directly from the VOB file.