DVD to AVI: Best quality method?

[super-G]

I am capturing VHS to a standalone DVD recorder. I am then going to edit in Premiere and author with Encore. Because of Premiere, I need to convert my .vobs to AVI, and while the quality already isn't great because of the source, I'd rather not degrade it more. I have plenty of drive space so size is not a concern. I wonder if someone could comment on the best quality method for doing this? I've been experimenting with the following:

1. Frameserving the .vobs to Premiere using DGMPEGDec/AviSynth

2. Saving the .vobs to .AVI using VirtualDubMod

3. Ripping the DVD to .AVI using DVDx/HuffyUV

4. Another method I haven't come across yet?

Any comments appreciated!

[Baldrick]

Frameserving or converting to uncompressed avi for "best" quality.

Or get mainconcept mpeg pro....if you have premiere pro then.

[rwmol]

You might try my guide. Skip the tuturial for TMPGenc DVD Author and go straight to the SimpleDivX section (Freeware):

https://www.videohelp.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=259841

[super-G]

I just wish mainconcept wasn't $250...

Looks like I'll frameserve then. Thanks!

[super-G]

I might give that SimpleDivx a try, but I already know that Premiere can't work with Divx encoded AVIs. From your guide it looks like there might be the possibility of selecting a different codec though (like HuffyUV).

Thanks!

[rwmol]

After viewing this Adobe Knowledge Base article: http://www.adobe.com/support/techdocs/330733.html, it appears SimpleDivX won't work for you. Premiere is limited as to supported file formats.
Good Luck

[maetel99]

You can try Cinematize. It supports creating AVIs with DV, or even uncompressed 4:2:2 video if you want the highest quality possible. You can also save out QuickTime files, which I think are also compatible with Premiere.

[Radixmind]

super-G, why are you converting you vobs to avi, then compressing them to vobs again? why not:

demux vobs with ifoedit (free)

edit resulting mpg's with cuttermaran (free)

author new asset files with DVDauthorgui (free)

this works a treat if all you want is to take out adverts etc and add in a simple menu. it's not as fancy as Encore, but who needs it really?

[Radixmind]

sorry, that should be Vobedit not Ifoedit

[super-G]

Well, I already have Premiere/Encore for authoring DVDs from DV footage (I film bands at a local nightclub) so when this project came up I was looking for a way to do it with what I already have. I'm familiar with Premiere so that seemed to be the right direction.

But really all I need to do with the vobs is trim the beginning and end, which it looks like I could probably do with VobEdit, add music (no sound on the source tapes), chapters, and a menu (I can do all of this with Encore, which will usually import a vob directly).

Mainly I was proceeding with Premiere because I hadn't found anything that would directly edit a .vob without transcoding it into a different format on save.

Anyway, I'll check out VobEdit.