No loss way to decrypt, edit, and burn DVD from a CSS encrypted DVD?

[fdecker]

I've got all the old tools and some new ones. I have a DVD with short scenes on it and I want to take those and edit them to put only the ones I want in them, add a lot of black screen between them to adjust timing, etc.

1. I can use both DVD Decrypter and DVDFab 9 to decrypt them, I tested that. Is that a straight "copy" or is there some loss in compression going on there?
2. I was either just going to rename the .VOB to .mpeg or use PgcDemux to do the conversionn from VOB to mpeg-2. Should I rip to AVI instead in step 1, or skip step 1 and try something else to just extract the mpeg for editing?
3. I can edit in Windows Movie Maker for Windows 8 or Cyberlink Power Director (or other recommendation). Can these just burn to a DVD without another compression?

Thanks for the help. I haven't needed to do this in a few years now so am rusty and in this case, I was wanting to make sure I didn't miss a simple bit of info that would save adding compression on compression.

[manono]

1. DVD Decrypter can only decrypt and doesn't compress at all. DVDFab HD Decrypter does have the ability to transcode but if you're careful you can have it only decrypt.
2. PGCDemux doesn't have the ability to make MPEGs from VOBs. It demuxes. Maybe you're thinking of VOB2MPG? If you convert to AVI for editing, make sure it's lossless and not some crap XviD or DivX AVI. I make lossless Lagarith AVIs for editing. To get it back to DVD, though, you'll have to reencode.
3. Friends don't let friends use either Windows Movie Maker or Cyberlink Power Director. For burning you should always use ImgBurn and nothing else. For the kind of editing you're describing you might want to investigate editors such as VideoRedo or MPEG Video Wizard DVD. They reencode only around the parts being edited and leave the rest alone.

[fdecker]

Actually, I was thinking I had to use PgcDemux to separate the pure mpeg from the VOB. Was that wrong? Maybe I don't need that step? LOL about the editors. When I was in L.A., I used Avid and Premier. I don't have access to those anymore so was just looking for a simple NLE editor with an interface similar to what I was used to.

FYI, I don't need top quality for this project, though I don't like to cut corners. This is for a home haunt for Halloween and I am going to project the video. Ideally, I would love an HD projector and MPEG-4, but my end result is going to be the MPEG-2 of a DVD and a projector that is only 800x600 max resolution, so the 720x480p is fine.

Do I need to be aware of anything else since this is a 16:9 picture and I have to project it on a 4:3 projector? Maybe it will letterbox it or the DVD Player will know if I set it to 4:3 to crop it? Also, I want to maintain the progressive scan display mode of the file. I will look at the editors you mentioned.

[fdecker]

Oh, and one (hopefully) last question. I have used ImgBurn for simple DVD creation, but I really need something with more authoring features. In particular, I need to create a DVD that does this:

1. Opens with a menu of two choices, "Run Looping File" and "Trigger Scare"
2. Looping file just runs a 15 minute video (the one I want to edit together) and I will set it to loop. I think I have to do this by pressing the repeat button on the DVD player. I tried setting the video parameters to "loop", but that doesn't seem to work on all DVD players?
3. Trigger mode needs to allow me to go to another menu with either a static background image or a looping video of a static image (taken from the first frame or frames of the video I want to play). This would have no buttons or other visible distraction on it. When you press "play", the video would begin (picking up seamlessly since the sill frame and the first frame of the video are the same). When the video is done, it goes right back to the still frame menu.

Any ideas there? Thank you.

[smrpix]

1. Opens with a menu of two choices, "Run Looping File" and "Trigger Scare"
2. Looping file just runs a 15 minute video (the one I want to edit together) and I will set it to loop. I think I have to do this by pressing the repeat button on the DVD player. I tried setting the video parameters to "loop", but that doesn't seem to work on all DVD players?
3. Trigger mode needs to allow me to go to another menu with either a static background image or a looping video of a static image (taken from the first frame or frames of the video I want to play). This would have no buttons or other visible distraction on it. When you press "play", the video would begin (picking up seamlessly since the sill frame and the first frame of the video are the same). When the video is done, it goes right back to the still frame menu.

Your best bet is to go with a commercial authoring program like DVDLab Pro, Encore or DVD Architect. (DVD Architect is probably your best price/learning curve option.) Any of them will allow you to loop your 15 min video without further user input.

However, if I'm reading correctly, once you get into full-screen still "trigger mode," with no other navigational options, there's no way out. You may want to rethink that part.

[fdecker]

Actually, the people that made this DVD use Apple's DVD Studio Pro, so I am just trying to duplicate what they have done on the PC. They created the menu screen with a hidden button. You press play, the short trigger video runs, then it goes back to the backround image. To exit out, you either press one of the arrow keys on the remote or hover over the left corner area and a button appears that you can select to go "back".

[smrpix]

Yes, invisible buttons would work fine. You just have to know they're there.

[_Al_]

trigger mode - in DVDLabPro you load your still into menu, draw rectangular anywhere, any size, set a link and set it invisible by choosing link/invisible all (so called secret button, Easter egg etc),it works by clicking #1 as well (not just play) on remote or in PC (if I'm not wrong here)
software has 1 month functional trial i think