Prog to trim vob to mpeg2 like tmpgenc xpress but w/ audio?

[jaxt]

Am I missing something here? It seems like it would be the most plentiful/obvious program around but I can't seem to find anything that allows me to select a short clip from a DVD and save it directly as a mpeg2. There are loads and loads out there but they never support audio (dts/dolby/ac3/whatever). So I continue to get a video clip without sound.

Tmpgenc Xpress is a gem: simply select the start and stop, choose bit rate/size and off you go. But, I never get any audio because it doesn't support ac3 - even with the ac3 plug-in (for 2 channel only) I get jack audio.

I want to be able to grab a few-minute clip here and there quickly with audio so I can then take the handful of clips and throw them into Encore to make a compilation disc. So avi are no use - as nice as dvd2avi is, what's the point in converting them BACK to mpeg2 again when that's what they were in the vobs originally? I'm looking for a simple, one step, presto-chango, clip extracted WITH audio in mpeg2 (don't care what audio is). Does it exist?

Any help would be appreciated.

[gshelley61]

You don't have to re-encode or convert the video file contained in a VOB. It is already MPEG2. Womble MPEG Video Wizard or MPEG-VCR will accept VOB's directly (after you decrypt them with DVDShrink, etc.) Handles AC3 just fine, and will allow frame accurate clipping and joining without re-encoding (no quality loss).

[Capmaster]

Moving this to DVD Authoring ....

[jaxt]

Thanks gshelley61, I'll give that a try.

BTW, Capmaster, I don't care about the DVD Authoring. I only want answers to how to extract mpeg2 clips from vobs and retain the audio.

[borax]

Depending on what you like to do with the clips (reencode, use for animated menus...) you may try my chaptereditor ChapEditGFD. Is is part of my GUI for DVDauthor, but may be used also as a stand alone application. The resulting clips are not 100% DVD compatible, but usual players or encoders have no problems with it...
Link: http://www.boraxsoft.de/ChapEditGFD_eng.shtml

[gshelley61]

If you don't need frame accurate clipping and joining, cuttermaran and MPEG2Schnitt are free. You have to demux the VOB's first, though. You can use VOBedit for that (also free).

[jaxt]

Thanks for all the choices borax and gshelley61. I'll be trying these things out tonight. I started playing with Womble and it might be fine, but it seems I can only access one vob at a time rather than being able to open the files using the ifo, thus accessing it as one movie to choose clips from instead of individual vobs.

I'll let you know how things work.

[gshelley61]

You do have to load each VOB one at a time off of the disc, but that is not a big deal. If you like, you can extract all the VOB's and save them to your hard drive first as one large file with DVD Decrypter or SmartRipper.

[jaxt]

Project complete! Womble Mpeg VCR was what I finally settled on. I love all the choices it gives when I copy the clip out and it's fast as hell searching through through the frames! One vob at a time was a huge pain though, especially when I eventually went through about 30 of them for about 8 movies! There were a couple of times when the clip I wanted spanned two vobs. Womble seems to have a problem giving a clean break at the end of the vob and joining the two later gave gruesome results. Hence my desire to find a prog like xpress that would give me the whole movie to pick apart (but unfortunately it doesn't have the full ac3 support). Beggers can't be choosers I guess? Thanks again.

[KevMull]

I'm after similar software buth ave several ripped clips with ac3 5.1 audio bit want to add a video and audio fade at the end of each and then join the processed clips into one. The 5.1 audi omust be retained throughout.
I don't even think Womble can do this. Video fade but not audio or it converts it to mpeg 2 audio.

Am I looking VERY expensive software like Vegas (not even sure if that re-encodes 5.1!) or is there a cheaper option possibly with a combo of different progs to handle the video and audio seperatley?

Cheers