editing vob files

[newtie]

Hi all-

I'm trying to do something unique. I want to be able to edit an existing DVD with frames that contain questions. I'm a teacher and want to be able to press 'pause' and be able to discuss what we've just seen in a DVD by adding a set of questions. This is easy with footage that I've shot myself that's in .avi format that comes out of my camera (I use MovieMaker). Is there a program that will allow me to do this within the existing structure (vob) or is this getting a little more complicated than I want to get into?

Thanks!
Mark

[holland11]

There are many tools you can use to convert .vob files into .avi and then edit, then you can use a different tool to convert the avi back into vob. Of course there is probably an easier way and im a noob at this kind of stuff so good luck with it and this way is most likely fool proof.

PS the tool i use to convert the avi back to vob is dvd flick and i find it very good

[tinker]

If I understand , you want to edit existing DVD. That is quite possible using Mpeg Video Wizard DVD. It will import VOB files for edit (cut, transitions ,etc).
If you want to add short clip with text, you will have to produce it somewhere and import into software as VOB or Mpeg2 file. Than you can use your clip to insert into existing footage.
Good think about Video Wizard is that you can make your text as a .bmp file in editor like Paintshop or any software capable of producing BMP file and import it into Wizard. Than add one BMP file after other to make it last as long as you want. You can make different text clips and place them in different places of your movie.
At the end produce final DVD.

[blutach]

Maybe use a non-seamless branching approach.

Split the cells where the pauses are to be (this is easily achieved using VobBlanker). Author the questions in the menu domain and then author the DVD to go there (and when question time is over, a button press will execute a "Resume", which will resume playback of the material at the cell where you "broke"). This will require quite a bit of VM command know-how but a real good example of how it's done is on the Rome Series 1 DVDs.

In terms of making the menus, BMPs of the questions that are converted to a series of cells via Muxman will do the trick. Then add the (invisible) RSM buttons and merge the menus in with PgcEdit, for example.

Not the easiest task for an inexperienced person but it can be done with freeware.

Regards

[daamon]

I second tinker: MPEG Video Wizard DVD sprang to mind as the tool to use.

* Encode your AVI questions to DVD compliant MPEG-2. Do each set of questions seperately, so you end up with an MPEG-2 file for each set of questions.

* Open the VOB file in MPEG Vide Wizard DVD. Then import your MPEG-2 files.

* Cut at the points where you want to place each set of questions.

* Shift the cut segments (of the original VOB) to the right, making room for each set of questions.

* Repeat for each set of cut segments, and set of questions.

* Export as MPEG-2 and re-author using something like guifordvdauthor, or dvdauthorgui. If you do it with no menu, you'll just get the original film in a VOB plus your questions.

An alternative would be to adopt a similar approach, but using the fully functional 30-day trial of TMPGEnc DVD Author.

[newtie]

I'm using the free trial of TMPGEnc DVD Author and have found it to be quite limited for what I want to do. It seems you can pretty much cut things from a DVD vob. I think I'm used to MovieMaker which is a different deal. You can fade in/fade out and so forth. I wish I could get the vob into MM as I could then do what I want to do-add a slide title with a question, for example.

I'll check out some of the other recommendations and see if their a better choice.

Thanks for all the help,
Mark

[daamon]

I'm using the free trial of TMPGEnc DVD Author and have found it to be quite limited for what I want to do. It seems you can pretty much cut things from a DVD vob.

TMPGEnc DVD Author, and every other authoring tool I know, will only do cuts and won't do anything else like fades etc. Those tasks are done in an editing tool.

I think I'm used to MovieMaker which is a different deal. You can fade in/fade out and so forth. I wish I could get the vob into MM as I could then do what I want to do-add a slide title with a question, for example.

WMM is just such an editing tool, hence being able to do fades etc.

To get a VOB into WWM:

* If you haven't got it already, download and install the Panasonic DV Codec.
* Open the required VOB up in VirtualDubMod.
* Click: Video -> Full Processing Mode
* Click: Video -> Compression -> Panasonic DV Codec. OK all the way out.
* Click: File -> Save As Avi...

This will give you a DV AVI of the VOB, perfect for editing in WMM.

When done, you'll need to re-encode to MPEG, and author everything together.

An alternative would be to encode the slide to MPEG and have it last for as long as you need it to, and then use TMPGEnc DVD Author to slot it in where needed.

[newtie]

Thanks, daamon-

That's going to be my project for today! I'll let you know how things work out.

Mark