Converting Sony Video 8 film

[GRussell31]

Hi,

I need some help converting some movies made on a Sony Video 8 film to my computer so that I can edit them. I'm new to all of these, so please bare with me.

The files (I think) are in a standard DVD style as they are .Vob files but most programs don't accept these. For the time being I have been using Microsoft Movie Maker as it was on my machine, but this will not accept the .Vob files, so I guess I need to convert these first.

Can anyone please suggest an easy way to convert the files to a suitable format, and which app should I really be using to edit the files?

Many thanks in advance,

-Graham

[edDV]

Refine the question.

Sony doesn't make "film" but they have 3 8mm videotape formats (named 8mm, Hi8, Digital8).

You have files? How did the material get from tape to files?

VOB files usually come from a DVD authoring project. VOB files contain MPeg2 material. MS Movie Maker will not edit VOB files.

Answers to these questions will help steer an overall answer.

[Richard_G]

If you are using Movie Maker 2, you can rename the .vob files to .mpg and it will accept them as standard mpeg2 files. For WMM to be able to cope with mpeg2 files you must have a software DVD player installed too.

[edDV]

If you are using Movie Maker 2, you can rename the .vob files to .mpg and it will accept them as standard mpeg2 files. For WMM to be able to cope with mpeg2 files you must have a software DVD player installed too.

But it won't edit and output as MPeg2 (for DVD) WMM will only output as WMV or DV-AVI.

[GRussell31]

Sorry, let me explain...

It's not actually me doing this, it is my uncle and as he although he is fairly computer literate, there are a few gaps in his knowledge. )

He got the files off of his camcorder using some software called Pinnacle (version 9). I haven't seen this, so I'm not 100% sure what it does but I guess it created a DVD from the files.

Does that help?

-Graham

[edDV]

Sorry, let me explain...

It's not actually me doing this, it is my uncle and as he although he is fairly computer literate, there are a few gaps in his knowledge. )

He got the files off of his camcorder using some software called Pinnacle (version 9). I haven't seen this, so I'm not 100% sure what it does but I guess it created a DVD from the files.

Does that help?

-Graham

If I understand, you don't have the camcorder or the tape. You have only a DVD with VOB files. It would be easier if your uncle sent the original captured MPeg files on a data DVDR.

Now we need to know what you want to do with the edited files. If a DVD is the goal, then you need a program or set of programs that will do these steps.

1. Demultiplex (or extract) MPeg video and audio from the VOB file. If the audio is AC-3 then you need a program that will decode that.

2. Edit the resulting MPeg video and audio.

3. Re-encode the edited video into DVD compatible MPeg2.

4. Author the DVD (menu creation, remake VOB, BUP, IFO files)

5. Burn the DVD

Many options exist (see tools). You could use a product like Pinnacle Studio or ULead Video Studio 9 to do all of the above. ULead has an optional decoder for AC3 audio.