Edit a few scenes of commercial DVD movies

[zakman]

I am definitely a newbie here, so bear with me. I think I have fairly unique requirements because I haven't seen anyone post this before. Here is what I want to do: I want to take commerical DVDs that I have purchased, and rip them to my hard drive. Then I want to edit out certain scenes and/or foul language and burn them to a DVD-R so I can share them with my kids. I am surprised that more people don't want to do this, but I haven't seen anything on the this exact subject.

I don't have a DVD writer yet but plan on buying one in the near future. I only have a CD writer, so I am really behind the times. I am waiting to buy my DVD writer after I understand things a little better. I see that most DVD writers come with software, and I was thinking I should make sure I buy one that has at least some of the software I need.

After reading a lot on this web site (thank you all for such thorough descriptions!), I think I understand that I need to use DVD Decrypter, SmartRipper, or equivalent to take out the CSS encryption to get it in a state where I can edit it. Then I am thinking all I need is an authoring tool that lets me do really simple edits. It looks like Ulead DVD MovieFactory 2 will do this for me. I was originally looking at Sonic MyDVD 5 because PC mag had good writeup, but I don't think it will import VOB files.

I would like to keep as much audio/video quality as possible, so I don't mind paying $50 to $100 for some software that will do this and do it well. If I understand it right, this is all I need. Does this sound right or am I missing something?

I really appreciate it if someone could give me some advice. Thanks.

[Ripper2860]

I don't know if any help is provided in this thread, but here goes ...

https://www.videohelp.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=725551&highlight=objectionable+material#725551

I don't think the original poster ever got her answer, but this gives you some idea of the "can-of-worms" this may open up !! Don't get me wrong, I certainly understand your desire to do this and admire the fact that you would put the time and effort in doing it.

Good Luck !!

[AarontheRipper]

I also asked this question a couple of months ago and it also started a flame war. Hypocritically, those who criticize you for your intolerance of violence, swearing, and sex have a really hard time being tolerant of your personal beliefs.

There are plenty of programs where you can edit out scenes, commercials, etc. (TMPGEnc DVD Author is one I have used quite a bit), but I have yet to find a program that would let me edit the audio without some serious tinkering with the audio (changing formats, etc.) It appears that AC3 audio isn't all that edit friendly. Does anyone know of a way that you could either edit the AC3 file as a whole, or split it into it's 6 separate channels and edit them independantly and then put them back together into a valid AC3 file?

[Rookie64]

I want to edit out certain scenes

The perfect tool for doing this is MPEG-VCR V3.14 (MPEG-2)

You can select exactly every frame you want cut, and it doesn't involve any rendering or re-encoding (which saves a lot of time).

Lordsmurf has an excellent guide for this program on his site
www.lordsmurf.com


For editing out audio, you'll have to demux the audio track and convert to WAV, then use a program such as Soundforge, Cool Edit, Goldwave, etc
to edit the audio track.


You can also use Vegas Video to cut scenes out for either VCDs (MPEG-1), SVCDs or DVD (MPEG-2), or even AVI files (not VOB though) but you'll have to render the video track, which takes longer.

Vegas is somewhere in the $500 range - but a very user friendly program and can do many other things as well.


Before doing all the editing yourself, you might want to check into some sites that already sell edited versions of those movies, asuming this stuff is legal -
http://www.cleanfilms.com/join.phtml

There's another thread going on in the Off Topic forum about this subject.

[zakman]

Thanks all. I will check out your suggestions. Since I don't have a DVD writer yet, does anyone know where I can find a (legal) example set of DVD files that I can try out the editing before buying my DVD writer? I just want to make sure I can do what I want before I spend the money.

thanks

[Ripper2860]

You don't actually need a DVD WRITER to test editing and viewing the results. All you need is a DVD READER and sufficient space on your HDD to store the original VOB's and editied VOB's. You will also need software that permits the playback of DVD's and VOB files on your computer, such as WINDVD or PowerDVD, etc.

[zakman]

I don't have a DVD reader or writer yet. I only have a CD reader/writer. That's why I was looking for a simple "sample" DVD fileset.

[zakman]

OK, I've tried Womble's MPEG-VCR and it works great. I load in my VOB file, and cutting out pieces is really simple. But the sound is really really bad (almost blank). Is this because the audio is in AC-3 format? Does MPEG-VCR accept AC-3 format? If not, what should I do? I really like the easy way MPEG-VCR works (it is quick to cut and I don't lose any resolution).