Is there an easier way to do this? (VOB to editable file)

[Dentaku]

From all the info I've found here I've figured out a way to get a wedding video that was burned onto dvd back onto my harddrive so that I can add little bits of it into another video that's gonna be done with Vegas 5 and DVD Architect 2.

Because it's just a homemade DVD I can just drag the .VOB files onto my harddrive and they work. That's easy.

I've found that I can then either use DVDDecrypter to make a .M2V and an .AC3 file out of the .VOBs.
I can also use TMPEGenc to do this. Either way is fine.

Vegas 5 can open .M2V files just fine.
Vegas 5 CANNOT open .AC3 files (but DVD Architect can but that doesn't help me)
SO: I used Clier's AC3Tool to convert the .AC3 to a .WAV file.

Now I have a video and audio file that I can import into Vegas 5 just fine.

QUESTION: Is there an even easier way?
Would TMPGEnc DVD Author with the AC3 plug-in let me do all of this in one step or at least faster?
I just got a 3.2Ghz P4 so it's not like it's taking forever but I still want to be as efficient as possible.

[yoda313]

Hello,
I think I can save you one step. If you use dvddecrypter anyway use the demux raw option and it should strip the video and audio directly off the disc (no need to rip to the drive first). That might save some time. As far as editing programs Tmpgenc dvd author does read .m2v and .ac3 files on there own. That may be a better option. Good luck.
Kevin

[yoda313]

Hello,
It's me again. Actually, if you want to just use tmpgenc dvd author it reads vobs directly, I forgot. Just rip the disc as normal to the harddrive. Then in tda use open dvd video. That would be even simpler.
Kevin

[Dentaku]

Hello,
It's me again. Actually, if you want to just use tmpgenc dvd author it reads vobs directly, I forgot. Just rip the disc as normal to the harddrive. Then in tda use open dvd video. That would be even simpler.
Kevin

I remember seeing RAW in the Demux options in DVDDecrypter.
The only problem with that is that I don't have a DVD drive on this computer. I only have the .VOB files on my external harddrive and DVDDecrypter only reads .VOB files from a DVD, not an HD.

I'll have to try it again on the laptop (not mine) that I read the DVDs with in the first place.

[Dentaku]

Hello,
I think I can save you one step. If you use dvddecrypter anyway use the demux raw option and it should strip the video and audio directly off the disc (no need to rip to the drive first). That might save some time. As far as editing programs Tmpgenc dvd author does read .m2v and .ac3 files on there own. That may be a better option. Good luck.
Kevin

I just tried demuxing with DVDDecrypter using raw and it still doesn't helpe. The audio is just an .AC3 file which is useless for Vegas 5.

I think I'll try TMPEG DVD Author.

[Dentaku]

TMPEGEnc DVD Author is nice but it still doen't help me do what I want to do. I guess I'll have to demux the vobs and then convert yhe .ac3 to .wav if I ever hope to edit this video in Vegas 5.

[Dentaku]

Hello,
It's me again. Actually, if you want to just use tmpgenc dvd author it reads vobs directly, I forgot. Just rip the disc as normal to the harddrive. Then in tda use open dvd video. That would be even simpler.
Kevin

I know this thread is old now but I just wnated to say that I tried out Womble Mpeg VCR today and it does exactly what I wanted to do.
It lets me extract parts from a .VOB file and save them as .mpg files WITHOUT .AC3 audio (I just use standard mpeg audio instead) so I can now open them in Vegas 5.

It's strange that Sony makes DVD Architect which can open .ac3 files but Vegas 5 can't.

[BJ_M]

no pro NLE opens ac3 files

[Dentaku]

no pro NLE opens ac3 files

Is that because of some kind of lisencing/royalty problems?

[BJ_M]

more than anything - it is not a really suitable format for editing ..

[BJ_M]

but -- that being said ..

it is such a requested feature .. rumours are that it will happen in vegas anyway ....

afterall all - they did have an ac3 reader in thier older ac3 encoder ..