dvd editing

[lfd42068]

I am interested in editing dvd's I have created off the TV. I have recorded two, one hour shows off the tv on a sony dvd recorder RDRGXD455. Some of the shows did not record well. I want to be able to rip the good one hour show off two different dvd's, then edit out the commercials, then burn two good one hour shows back to a new dvd. which free software is available that will allow me to rip to the hard drive, then edit out the unwanted material, and then burn to a new dvd? also since I am very new at this, where do you have step -by-step instructions on how to accomplish all I have indicated above.

Also what is the differece between editing and authoring?

Thanks

[redwudz]

Editing is modifying the content of the video by cuts, pastes, or filtering. Authoring is creating the DVD structure. It doesn't change the MPEG video file, just re-arranges it. See "WHAT IS' DVD to the upper left on this page for more about the DVD structure, format and specifications.

Lots of way to edit DVDs. What I do is use VOB2MPG to extract the MPEGs from the DVDs, then you can use a MPEG editor to remove the commercials. Some programs can do that at VOB level, but if you are doing this with two DVDs and plan to combine them, extracting might be easier.

AVIDemux, MPEG StreamClip, Mpg2Cut2 are freeware MPEG editors. Or for payware, maybe VideoReDo or MPEG-VCR are popular.

After editing you would have to reauthor the MPEG to make it DVD compliant. GUI for dvdauthor or DVDAuthorgui.

There are guides available for most any of those programs at the bottom of their tool pages.

And welcome to our forums.

[lfd42068]

The files on the original recorded dvd's are vob not mpeg. Does that make a difference in what free programs I use for editing?

[redwudz]

VOBs are just a wrapper for the MPEG contained inside. VOBs can also contain subtitles, menus, alternate languages and a bit more. VOB2MPG will extract the MPEGs, then you can use almost any MPEG editor. Some editors can edit VOBs directly, but I don't recall which ones at present.

[lfd42068]

Do I really need four differnt programs to accomplish this task? On the DVD their are two folders video-RM and Video_ts. which folder and what files whithin do I actually rip/import to my hard drive?

1) Once I have identified which folder /files to rip to the hard drive, which program do I use to do the ripping?

2) Now that the files are on the hard drive which program do I use to view the contents of the file so I can delete commercials or other unwanted material.

3) Which progam do I use to do the actual editing/deleting?

4) Then I guess I need to author the edited material (not sure how to do that), but which program will do that?

5) Finally I will need to burn the final product to a new dvd, and which program do I need for that? And can I burn one show today and then burn another show later to the same dvd?

KIndly give me your best recommdation on which free products will accomplish each of these tasks. If a program can do more than one of the tasks above, please identify that program?

Is there any one program (free or not) that will do everything above, soup to nuts?

Sorry if I appear confused, becasue I am. I am a novice at this.
Thanks for your time and info.

[JimmyS]

If you want them for free, that is about your only option. The ones redwudz mentioned will do the job well. They are free to use, but the price is the learning curve; you must invest the time and effort. What you learn though will be worth it, as much of it will apply to future video tasks. The two payware apps. (VideoReDo and MPEG Video Wizard DVD) are both excellent and ~$50 each. Both have a 30 day free trial. Try them out and see if one suits your needs. Again, there will still be a learning curve here as well. My preference is MVW-DVD as it has a nonlinear editor style interface in which you can drop all of your VOBs into, do any edits, then click open the DVD author window.

The VIDEO_TS folder will be the one with your captured video. The actual video files are usually consecutively numbered such as VTS_01_1.VOB, VTS_01_2.VOB etc, and are usually broken into 1,048,574 KB chunks. Import or Copy those to your editor, cut the commercials, then author as a new VIDEO_TS folder, which will be ready to burn to a blank DVD. ImgBurn is what you want to use to burn with. It's also free and excellent (VideoReDo may have an internal burning app. MVW-DVD use ImgBurn).

To help the quicken learning process, start with just one of the VOB files. Trim it down to 5 or 6 minutes and practice with it. Each practice trial will only take a few minutes that way. Get a couple of DVD-RWs, that way you are not making a bunch of coasters while learning. When you have your process working, do it with the whole set of VOBs from you capture.