Editing VOBs (homemade DVDs) with lossless quality

[lukearndt]

I used a stand-alone DVD recorder to copy a home video to a DVD+RW disc, and now I have the DVD+RW in my computer, and I can see the several different .VOB files on the disc. What I am trying to do is find a way to convert the VOB files to something that I can work with when editing, such as AVI.

I'm not all to knowledgeable on this, but I'm essentially wanting to convert the VOB to some other format, edit the video, then be able to re-burn it onto a DVD without losing any quality.

Is this possible? If so, could somebody please point me in the right direction? I use MovieStudio 3.0 for editing, and I have MyDVD as the software that came with the DVD burner.

Thanks!

[racer-x]

You can convert it to an avi, edit it all you want, then covert it back to mpeg-2 and burn to DVD. You will loose quality, it's unavoidable. Mpeg-2 is a lossy format just like mp3 and jpg. When ever you edit and resave, you loose quality.

[lukearndt]

Oh okay... well, could you tell me what the best way or the least lossy way to edit it could be? What's the best way to either convert the VOB or import it into video-editing software?

[racer-x]

The least lossy way would be to convert it to uncompressed RGB. But you'll need a huge HDD. 30 sec of video = 800 MB. You could also Huffy YUV codec, it is supposed to be lossless. But it will still take a lot of space, though not as much as uncompressed RGB.

Go to the Tools section and download VirtualDub Mod. It will open the Vob and let you save selection of the video to an AVI format. If you have limitted space on your HDD, you might want to install a DV-AVI codec and save to it. It is a little more lossy however.

Good luck!

[lukearndt]

Thanks for the suggestion! I was trying that, and I realized that for whatever reason, VirtualDub-Mod was outputting the files at a 352x480 resolution instead of 720x480. Any clue how I can change this? I'm not too handy with the software yet!

I appreciate all the help!

[duhmez]

use dvdshrink to reauthor a new disk, you can keep only the sections you want. then run the vobs through dvd2avi and demux the raw mpeg2 and audio stream. This will give you no loss whatsoever. You only need to lose quality if you want to add effects or tranitions, for straight cuts you need not lose any quality.

If virtualdubmod says its 352,480, then that is what the res actually is. DVD supports 352,480 (ntsc) natively.

[lukearndt]

What's weird about the resolution, though, is when I play the DVD in PowerDVD, then it's 720x480 (and it looks just fine); but it's 352x480 if I open it in VirtualDub-Mod. Any idea what causes this? Thanks again.

[duhmez]

The aspect ratio flag set in the mpeg file is 4:3 . Your directshow decoder knows this and resizes it for playback. Vdubmod ignores this and works with the raw pixels.

[lukearndt]

Is there a way to go from 352x480 to 720x480? I'm still not quite sure I understand it, because the playback looks fine in PowerDVD at that resolution. So I'm just wondering if there's a way to rip it or convert it at that resolution.

[bugster]

Standalone DVD recorders tend to use 352 * 480 when you select the longer recording modes. If the DVD you have is recorded at that resolution, keep it. It will be perfectly compatible with any DVD player you put it in and will be played with the correct Aspect Ratio.

How much editing do you want to do to this video. If it is just simple cuts and plices you can achieve this without re-encoding with TmpGenc DVD author. If you want to add transitions, fades or other effects, take racer-x's suggestion and convert it to an avi, use huffy or Mjpeg as the codec for minimum quality loss. Do your edits and save as avi with the saem codec, then re-encode to mpeg-2 with a good encoder such as Tmpgenc. Whatever you do, try and avoid changing the resolution, it only introduces further loss of quality, especially upsizing.

[lukearndt]

Oh, okay, I understand now! This DVD was recorded in the four-hour mode from the recorder. So basically is what you're saying is that though it might look a little weird on the computer in 352x480 (for instance, look horizontally squished), that I should just leave it at that and it will still look fine in a standalone player?

Thanks for the help. This is starting to make sense!

[bugster]

Play it with a proper software DVD player and it will look correct. play it with WMP and it will probably look wierd.

[lukearndt]

Thanks bugster. I've been using the Huffy codec in VirtualDub-Mod, but unfortunately my hard drive is filling up pretty quickly since, like you said, those files are rather large. Is there a better way to do this? I'd like to be able to put my DVD videos into MovieStudio 3.0 to edit them. I have tried putting the .mpg videos in there, but as I read before, it makes editing very difficult and tedious! Can I, for instance, convert the VOB files into DV AVI? Or is there some better method to put the video on my computer in an easy-to-work with format to not lose too much quality or take up a massive amount of hard drive space?

[duhmez]

You can read the frameserving guides here, look for them on the left. Either the vfapi method or even better, the avisynth method. Frameserv the video, no quality loss, and your editor,/encoder will think the video is lossless compressed avi file, but eh frameserver file is only a few K.

[lukearndt]

Thanks for the help. Unfortunately, MovieStudio (the editing software I use), doesn't like the "dummy" AVI file and thus won't load it. How about this... is there a way to convert from DVD or VOB to AVI DV format, just as if I was capturing from a digital video camera or something? If so, what kind of software or codecs would I need to accomplish that task? Thanks again!

[mazinz]

but you could also use womble mpeg2vcr to edit which does not lose quality either.

[bugster]

Thanks for the help. Unfortunately, MovieStudio (the editing software I use), doesn't like the "dummy" AVI file and thus won't load it. How about this... is there a way to convert from DVD or VOB to AVI DV format, just as if I was capturing from a digital video camera or something? If so, what kind of software or codecs would I need to accomplish that task? Thanks again!

Any software that will convert to avi will allow you to convert to DV, or any other avi type, as long as you have the appropriate codec installed.

[lukearndt]

I appreciate the help! Unfortunately, I haven't found a reliable way to put VOBs onto the computer so I can edit them. I tried using the Huffy codec, as well as renaming .VOB to .MPG and then turning the audio into a WAV. Unfortunately, that's really difficult to edit with! Is there any solid way to convert to AVI and then back to DVD without losing a bunch of quality?

All the mentioning of different software and different terms has really kind of lost me! Is there any simple way to do this or any "all-in-one" program? Thanks again!

[duhmez]

Did you try avisynth for frameserving? OR just vfapi convert your d2v? I highly suggest you try both, it's not common for both to fail 9although they can)

If these both fail, try this. Use vfapi or avisynth for framserving 9whichever is your favorite) , load te frameserve into vdub. From within vdib, frameserv out to your encoder. (vdubs frameserver it .vdr file)
Then load the vdr file into your encoder.

Additional: if you are a registered user of this applicaiton I suggest get ahold of them in email, and ask about avisynth and vfapi frameserving support. a program that won't open with these methods is behind the times and needs a kick in the arse. (At least an option to choose the file open type, avisynth uses the standard aviopen api (not sure what it's called) so it is really unn ecessary that a program won't use it.

[macleod]

whoa!!!!! DO NOT CONVERT YOUR VIDEO TO AVI!!!!!!

I have been doing this for a little while (you gotta do a search every once in awhile....

Take your dvdr(w) and put in your computer. Open DVDDECRYPTER. In one of the settings, you can change it to rip as one big file instead of chunking it into the 1 gig files. After that, you use an application like TMPGENC DVD author or Movie Factory 2 to edit to your hearts content. Then burn it.

THERE IS NO NEED TO CONVERT ANYTHING!!!!!!!

If you cannot find the option in dvddecypter just reply back and I will find it for you.

[macleod]

actaully, to go one better. Leave the damn thing on your dvd drive without ripping it at all. You should be able to use tmpgenc dvdauthor to do it all from your rw. The final output will then be on your hard drive. Then just burn.

Oh, yea. NO quality loss.

[presto]

Do yourself a favor and follow macleod's directions. As he said in his second post you only need Tmpgenc DVD Author. Get the free trial and use the "Add DVD Video" button which is located under the "Add Video" button. Don't worry if it seems to stall for a bit a minute. When the next window comes up highlight the chapter you want and also put a check mark in the box to tell it to copy the files to your hard drive.