Adding Audio to DVD family movies - more complex issues than it looks?

[steve8443]

After about 12 hours online of research I was hoping someone could help me with a problem.

- My family has 6 DVD's of converted old family cine movies (about 18 hours total)
- I want a workable procedure to allow my father to add a voice-over track to all 18 hours (then I would reburn to new DVDs)
- We would use a digital voice recorder to get WAV audio files onto the PC.
- The DVD's look standard (VOB files under 1GB each with IPO's)

- I have tried Ulead DVD Workshop 2 and Ulead Videostudio 6
- In DVD-Workshop it splits the imported DVD MPGs into 6 minute files. You can only add 1 audio file per one 6 minute file (I have 18 hours!!).
- We're trying to record multiple voiceover files for the clips that show up on the computer (this is the main problem).
- Don't see a way to combine these MPG clips in Ulead DVD WS2.

- whats the best way to do this? I am looking for a procedure that makes it easy for my father to plough through so many voiceovers. Also a easy procedure for me to add the appropriate voice file to each DVD after the fact.

- am very concerned about the processing time and how long this will take to crunch - unless I get the right approach upfront.

- eg. each of the 6 DVDs has about 5x 800MB VOBs. Each VOB has about 5 MPGs.

- should I ask my father to produce one voice file for a) the entire DVD b) for each 6 minute chunk? c) for each MPG file?
- should I be combining the VOBs per DVD (how?)
- should I be combining the MPGs per VOB or per DVD (how?)

All of this seems very complex. Thanks for your guidance.

Steve

[Baldrick]

I guess Ulead DVD Workshop are separating the dvds into tracks/titles or maybe by chapters. I would try use VOB2MPG on a dvd and see how many ttracks/titles there are. You can then import those mpgs in Ulead DVD Workshop. You could also test another tool like Tmpgenc dvd author to import the dvds and add a extra sound track.

[gadgetguy]

I don't have much in the way of answers (yet) but I have several questions you need to ask yourself (and providing answers will help us help you). Does the original footage have audio and is it your intention to maintain that audio and add the voiceover on top? Are you going to want to be able to switch the commentary on and off? I guess your main concern right now is what will make it easiest for your Dad to make the recordings. Is he tech savvy or not? (In other words, can you leave the equipment for him to do at his leisure, or will you need to be there all the time?) Is the commentary scripted or will he be making it up as he goes? Are you planning on trying to do the recording in 1 or 2 sessions or would it be better for him to do a little at a time spread over several sessions?

[steve8443]

I guess Ulead DVD Workshop are separating the dvds into tracks/titles or maybe by chapters. I would try use VOB2MPG on a dvd and see how many ttracks/titles there are. You can then import those mpgs in Ulead DVD Workshop. You could also test another tool like Tmpgenc dvd author to import the dvds and add a extra sound track.

========
Ulead seems to be splitting the DVD into 6 minutes chunks (30 of them). Its also set each as chapters. Also, I have been able to decompose the VOB into MPGs and get them into the Ulead program. However once there I can't find any way to combine them into one big MPG. (more important I am wanting opinions as to whether that's the right approach anyway). If I can manage this I can add one audio track onto the big MPG (rather than needing 30 audio files to add to 30 x 6 minute chapters).

[stars]

Hi... some hints

Strange format you have on your VOBs they should be approx 1G except for VTS1_5 if you are using DVD5.

I would demux the DVD with projectx and join all the clips (which are on the same DVD) with mpeg2schnitt.

Then I would play the m2v file with VLC (use a small picture) and record the comments in realtime.

The video file and the recording audiofile must be on differnt harddrives...

The recording could be done with Cool edit pro and finaly the comment audio track can be joined together with
the original audio track....

Not an easy task but it can be done...

The final audio file should be a 48kHz 2 channel .wav file which you can convert to mp2 or ac3 using Quenc.

If the original audio is in mp2 or mpa format you can convert it to wav using cdex... for ac3 I dont know ATM.

stars...

[steve8443]

I don't have much in the way of answers (yet) but I have several questions you need to ask yourself (and providing answers will help us help you). Does the original footage have audio and is it your intention to maintain that audio and add the voiceover on top? Are you going to want to be able to switch the commentary on and off? I guess your main concern right now is what will make it easiest for your Dad to make the recordings. Is he tech savvy or not? (In other words, can you leave the equipment for him to do at his leisure, or will you need to be there all the time?) Is the commentary scripted or will he be making it up as he goes? Are you planning on trying to do the recording in 1 or 2 sessions or would it be better for him to do a little at a time spread over several sessions?

========
To answer:
-- the DVD does have an audio music track. I would prefer to add a 2nd audio track with my fathers voiceover. Don't want to merge 2 tracks.
-- wnat to switch commentary off if possible. want to retain music as track #2.
-- yes, the ease of use issue is key. Both for my father (non-technical) and for myself (who will have to author the final DVDs of 18 hours in my small amount of spare time.
-- going further on the last point. I need to tell my Dad exactly how to go about doing the voiceovers using the digital recorder (when to end the voice file etc.). Will be done in about 20 sessions at his leisure (I won't be there). ***** should I be asking him to do 1 voiceover (file) per DVD? or one voiceover (file) for each of the 30 chapters per DVD? (there are 6 DVD's)
On that latter point - is there a DVD viewer that will just show a chapter and then "end"? My Dad will egt confused if the chapters just merge together as they are broadcast (as they do in Realplayer and MS Media player). ANy way to show a DVD chapter at a time?

[steve8443]

Hi... some hints

Strange format you have on your VOBs they should be approx 1G except for VTS1_5 if you are using DVD5.

I would demux the DVD with projectx and join all the clips (which are on the same DVD) with mpeg2schnitt.

Then I would play the m2v file with VLC (use a small picture) and record the comments in realtime.

The video file and the recording audiofile must be on differnt harddrives...

The recording could be done with Cool edit pro and finaly the comment audio track can be joined together with
the original audio track....

Not an easy task but it can be done...

The final audio file should be a 48kHz 2 channel .wav file which you can convert to mp2 or ac3 using Quenc.

If the original audio is in mp2 or mpa format you can convert it to wav using cdex... for ac3 I dont know ATM.

stars...

================

Thanks. Here's my plan (slightly modified from your recommendation):

-- demux the video and audio-music files on each DVD
-- join all the MPG's together to produce 1 large MPG per DVD
-- have my Dad do 1 voice-over file while watching the DVD on TV. He can pause both audio recording and DVD at his leisure - (better than real-time / PC editing)
-- I will use Ulead DVD WS2 to import the large MPG file and the audio-recording file - and merge them together. Then I can create chapters, menus etc in that program and burn again.

A few questions:

-- I'd also like to join the original audio music track that comes out of the demux. Is there freeware that will do this? (can then layer on as a 2nd track with Ulead DVD WS2)

DO you have any rough idea how long the following tasks will take ( I have a 1 year old Sony VAIO SZ220 laptop with 1GB RAM and Intel Centrino Duo cpu)? (under 10 mins? / under 1 hour? / overnight etc?) :

-- demuxing the 4 GB of VOB files (5 VOBs) into multiple tracks?
-- joining the resulting MPGs together (3 GB total)
-- burning the final project to USB2 connected disk?
-- burning the final project to DVD?

Thanks
Steve

[stars]

A few questions:

-- I'd also like to join the original audio music track that comes out of the demux. Is there freeware that will do this? (can then layer on as a 2nd track with Ulead DVD WS2)

DO you have any rough idea how long the following tasks will take ( I have a 1 year old Sony VAIO SZ220 laptop with 1GB RAM and Intel Centrino Duo cpu)? (under 10 mins? / under 1 hour? / overnight etc?) :

-- demuxing the 4 GB of VOB files (5 VOBs) into multiple tracks?
-- joining the resulting MPGs together (3 GB total)
-- burning the final project to USB2 connected disk?
-- burning the final project to DVD?

Thanks
Steve

The mixing of audio tracks you could try Audacity. I havnt tried it for that purpose.
I tried to convert a 44.1kHz track to 48kHz with very bad results Virtualdub did that instead.

Speed can vary depending on your hardware, if you use seperate harddrives and different IDE cabels

Demuxing 4GB approx 6-9 min PgcDemux or projectx
Joining mpegs approx 6 min mpeg2schnitt
buring to Harddisk (creating iso image) 6 min Imgburn (USB2 400Mbps)
Buring to dvd (depending on speed) 10-15 min Imgburn

If you wnat a pretty advanced DVD authoring program you can use Gui for dvdauthor


stars...