VOB to AVI back to VOB

[fatla00]

I have a DVD that has a watermark on it that I want to remove. I was trying to use virtualdubmod but it won't accept the VOB files so I figured I have to convert it to an AVI file and then back to a DVD but I want to keep the menu's for the subtitles and what not so is there some way to just convert the 5 main VOB files into 1 AVI file and then convert that back into VOB files that I can just put back into the VIDEO_TS folder?

[t0nee1]

Use VOB2MPG then open new MPG in VDM ,or VirtualDub-Mpeg2...

[fatla00]

I tried that, and it worked well. Thanks.

[lrfowler]

So...........I.....have this DVD.............and I changed the VOB's..etc.......to AVI syth with MEGUi...........then spliced into Adobe Premiere........and made several AVIs..............THEN I assembled the AVIs together in Premiere...........My plan is to to get them back to a dvd..........making VOBs first.............BUT.......I was hoping I could bring the subtitles with this whole process....................I haven't made the new DVD to check whether the subtitles might still be there.............AND..........the PROPOSED one big AVI is now ....like 27 gig ...uncompressed!!!!....what is my next step???..........I'm thinking to make one big AVI......WITH COMPRESSION IN pREMIERE and then........use ProCoder to make VOB files AGAIN............any other better ideas ?..............

so it's like VOBs to AVIs (27 gig) to one big AVI (??gig) then to VOBs.........(does the captioning come with this whole process?)

thanks very much!!!

[manono]

any other better ideas ?..............

So, what was the point of this whole timewasting exercise? The OP said he was trying to remove a watermark, but nowhere do you say that's what you're doing. The impression I get is that you just want to shrink your DVD down to DVD5 size, but I could easily be wrong. Kind of hard to be sure unless you clue us in a little bit.

I don't see the point of this whole convert to AVI stuff. Make an AviSynth script and open it in Procoder and encode for MPEG-2. Of course the subs don't get carried along with the video. You add them back in when you author this thing for DVD. And if you don't know how to encode, author with the subtitles, and fit the whole thing back into the original DVD so you can keep the menus, then let DVD Rebuilder do it all for you.

And where did you learn to write like that. It looks just plain stupid on the page.

[lrfowler]

OK.....I started with two DVDs. I wanted to get bits and pieces from both DVDs. I used AVIsynth to change the Vobs to AVIs, so I could edit in Premiere.
I edited in Premiere and created several Microsoft AVIs (non-compressed?). My plans are now to create one big AVI, so I can use ProCoder to create the VObs. Do the subtitles come along for the ride?

??.....I'm learning all this as I progress. A better way to do this would be greatly appreciated!!!

[t0nee1]

It is still a little bit confusing as to what you want to achieve, your end result.... Two DVD's to 1 avi? Do you want to merge/combine 2 DVD's?.....
You can use DVDShrink in re-author mode to get bits and pieces( your words), and merge both dvd's w/o converting to avi......
http://www.dvdshrink.info/compilation.php

[manono]

It's a little clearer now. I'm not sure why you piggybacked onto this thread, though, as what you're doing is completely different.

What you're doing does make some sense. I don't know what a Microsoft uncompressed AVI is. People usually use some sort of lossless AVI codec when editing, such as Lagarith or HuffYUV. They'll have a much smaller size than uncompressed.

And depending on the kind of editing you're doing, you may not have needed to convert at all. For example, if just grabbing pieces of VOBs to join, that can be done without converting to AVI. Maybe you're making fades and dissolves and other kinds of transitions.

You're going to have problems with the subs, though - big problems. No, they don't come along for the ride. If you're chopping up VOBs, I guess your best bet is to OCR the subs and put the pieces you need together into one larger subtitle and then author it when making the DVD. Not only will you have to grab the dialog for the different pieces you use, but all the timings will have to be adjusted as well. I've done similar things before, it's no fun, and I know what I'm doing. The format you use for the subs kind of depends on the authoring program you use, as some accept some sub formats, while others support other sub formats. It's fairly easy to convert between subtitle formats, but again, it kind of helps if you know what you're doing, or you may quickly find you're in over your head. Sorry not to be more encouraging. Perhaps others have better ideas.

Edit: t0nee1 beat me to it. And if you're doing what he suggests you're doing, then his solution is real easy. Do you keep the subs, t0nee1, if using Shrink to grab pieces here and there and then join them up in Reauthor Mode?

[lrfowler]

Here's what I'm doing.........there are two DVDs out..........Jimi Hendrix at Woodstock part one and part two.........Part one is the colored beautiful version.........disk 2 is mostly black and white...kinda grainy.......BUT...disk 2 includes the whole Jimi concert.......I've used avisynth to change (or whatever avisyth does) the VOBs so that Premiere could see the AVIs.....I then did a split screen setup in Premiere. On one side is the grainy version, the other side of the screen shows the colored version...........

Also, to align the colored and black and white versions to the soundtracks, I have had to cut out bits and pieces of either version. I've also had to realign the versions to the soundtrack.

Now, that I've done all this.....I have one big AVI.......no beginning menu, no subtitles, no chapter assignments.
I'm thinking now I would like the initial menu to point out the songs, and a selection for subtitltes or not...,I can't even imagine how different sound formats are selected....

What program do I use for this?
Thanks very much!!!

[lrfowler]

So I downloaded Lagarith, thinking I can export my AVI via Premiere, but Premiere doesn't recognize the codec...

[t0nee1]

manono wrote" Do you keep the subs, t0nee1, if using Shrink to grab pieces here and there and then join them up in Reauthor Mode?

I mainly use Shrinks re-author mode for main movie only backups, and sometimes I'll keep the previews.....But I hardly use Shrink these days, but keep it around as it is still a great tool/proggy to have IMO!.....

[manono]

I have one big AVI.......no beginning menu, no subtitles, no chapter assignments. 
I'm thinking now I would like the initial menu to point out the songs, and a selection for subtitltes or not...,I can't even imagine how different sound formats are selected....

An authoring app will make the menus. It can be as simple as you want (screen grabs from the movie, posters with added text, a picture of a DVD cover with added text), or as complex as you want (video from the concert, each scenes menu with the chapters marked with a small box with a part of the song inside it). That's up to you and the skills you have. Or you can maybe use some authoring app template as an easy copout. Chapters will also be created during authoring. That's easy. I don't understand why the audio would be a problem unless different songs have different audios (DD 2.0, DD 5.1, PCM WAV, etc.). I still don't know how you'll get subtitles for the songs easily. Skip them, the songs are in English, as well as any dialog you may have kept. Isn't English your first language?

You ever authored anything before? You can go freeware. If you want menus, then GUI4DVDAuthor or DVDAuthorGUI are the 2 main freeware authoring programs. Or you can go commercial with TMPGEnc DVD Author (which has a full featured trial, I believe) or DVDLab (Pro). If this is the first time you've done this, couldn't you have started with an easier project?

You still have to encode your AVI. If you already have it the way you want it, then there's no need to switch over to a lossless codec at this point. Assuming it's in DVD resolution already, make a simple AviSynth script:

AVISource("C:\Path\To\Hendrix.avi")
ConvertToYUY2()# for Procoder

and open it in your encoder. I don't believe Procoder is going to make VOBs for you, but an M2V. It's an encoder and not an authoring program (if I'm not mistaken). There are lots of people here that know much more about creating menus when authoring, and how to handle different audios. But if you have one big uncompressed AVI at this point, I hope you also have one big AC3 audio already synched up with the video.

[lrfowler]

Thanks for replying Manono..........yea i'm in way over my head.............there were subtitles (for the hard of hearing?) in the Hendrix DVDs,,,,,,which made it kinda cool...........if you didn't know the words to the song.........
I'd like to import the subtitles into my creation (Frankenstein?)........not have the subtitles on all the time, but allowing the user to turn them on in the MENU area.
At what point do I bring the subtitles in? Should I be using Premiere or something else?....
Like I said I used AviSynth to create a placeholder for Premiere, then I outputted the file to a Microsoft AVI, because the Microsoft DV AVI didn't work. Which created an AVI. I then assembled the AVIs in Premiere and crated a really big AVI of the smaller AVIs.
I guess ideally, if I could edit the VOBs, that would be great.
On a second tangent I've noticed motion blur lines in the AVIs I created. Why is it doing this?

Thanks very much for your help!!

[manono]

The subs are brought in during authoring time. Doing what you're doing, there's just no easy way to get the subs. I'm doing a similar but easier project with subs at the moment. I have a DVD of a movie with subs for everything but the songs. I have another DVD of the same movie but it has worse video and is a different length, but the songs are subbed. My job is to transfer the song subs from the DVD with subbed songs into the better quality DVD with no subs for the songs. This involves OCRing both sets of subs (converting the subs from both DVDs into text format subs). I have to import the subs for the 6 songs, do the timing for them, and then convert the subs into a format my authoring program can use.

There are several programs that can perform the OCR (Optical Character Recognition). I prefer to use SubRip. Here's a guide:

http://www.doom9.org/subrip.htm

I OCR into SSA format, and then use SubStation Alpha to edit. After I get the subs from the original DVDs, I have to import the bits from the various songs and get them all timed correctly. What you're doing though, is exponentially harder. SSA makes it a bit easier by allowing you to synch the subs with the audio. You have to make an 8-bit 11,025HZ Mono WAV file for it to work. There are other subtitle programs that have other ways to help you synch up subtitles. Here's the Videohelp.com page of subtitle guides:


https://www.videohelp.com/tools/sections/subtitle

Premiere is a video editing program. The more recent versions of Premiere Pro have authoring capabilities. I think.

On a second tangent I've noticed motion blur lines in the AVIs I created.

Probably interlacing. I haven't seen the footage, but I believe the official color stuff should be progressive (no interlacing), but the black and white stuff may have been shot on video (interlacing). I'd have to see samples from the source DVD to be sure.

[lrfowler]

thanks for the info!!!..........now I have to do some more homework!!!....

can the interlacing problem be fixed?..I tried to do a screenshot, but I can't for some damn reason......

thanks!

[manono]

can the interlacing problem be fixed?

That assumes it shouldn't be there. Maybe it shouldn't, but maybe it should. Like I said, I'd have to see some of the source - 5-10 seconds worth. And not a screenshot.

[lrfowler]

well ..how can I send you a snippet?

[manono]

You don't send it to me. You upload it somewhere and then post a link here. That way anyone else that wants to get into the action can as well.

To cut a vob, open it in DGIndex, scroll to a place with movement, and use the [ and ] buttons to isolate a small section. Then File->Save Project and Demux Video. If the resulting M2V is small enough, then send it somewhere. There are many places where you can upload stuff. I use Mediafire:

http://www.mediafire.com/

And when all done uploading, post the link it gives you.

[lrfowler]

so...I've uploaded to mediafire..............
Manono.........for this project.....was changing to AVIs, editing in Premiere, maqking a big AVI in Premiere, encoding in ProCoder to make VOBs, the right way to do this project?

the link for the motion blurred vob is http://www.mediafire.com/?3kymgw5jlmc


thanks very much!!

[manono]

As you step through it frame by frame, you'll notice that only 2 of every 5 frames (of the color portions) have ghosts/blends/double images. That says the source was film and it was telecined. Also, something - either Premiere or Procoder, Premiere, I think - deinterlaced it. That was probably the worst possible thing you could have done. Keeping it interlaced would have been much better.

The black and white portion was, as I suspected, shot on video. You'll notice that all the frames of the B+W part are "blend" deinterlaced. Because you're mixing Video and Film, the whole thing has to be done at interlaced 29.97fps, but not deinterlaced. Keep it interlaced. You encoded it as interlaced, but it got deinterlaced somewhere along the line, probably Premiere.

Also, you might notice the "stripes", kind of, in the blurry deinterlaced parts. This tells me that it was resized improperly. You don't take interlaced footage and blindly resize it. You'll mess up the field structure. Look closely in something where you can advance a frame at a time (I was using VDubMod) and you'll see the black "stripes"
Also, why did you make this thing 4:3? Don't you notice all the space wasted in black bars? More video, and better quality video, would result from editing it as and encoding it for 16:9.

To sum up, do it again, this time resizing it properly for the split screen effect, taking into account the interlacing. Keep it interlaced. Personally, I'd do it for 16:9. And I wouldn't use CBR encoding, but if there's little enough video (less than an hour, maybe), it'll be OK.

was changing to AVIs, editing in Premiere, maqking a big AVI in Premiere, encoding in ProCoder to make VOBs, the right way to do this project?

I don't use Premiere, so if you need tips, someone else will have to provide them. I suppose your workflow is OK, as long as you do it right. Me, I'd use AviSynth for the job, as I haven't seen anything in that short clip that's very complex or hard to do in AviSynth.

[lrfowler]

thanks so much for replying..!
what software would u use ?..I am a total novice...I had to learn the basic basics of Premiere....thinking that would be the ideal tool. In AviSynth r u able to work on VOBs and see in a timeline the audio differentated from the video?
I used the soundtrack from the B & W rough Jimi DVD and matched the color Jimi to the rough soundtrack. So, I had to go frame by frame, in some instances.
Ideally, since my source are VOBs, I would like to work directly on VOBs and not change to another format, maybe twice, and then back to VOB. And then somewhere down the line, if I got real ambitious and thorough I could add the subtitles and a beginning Menu.

In my homework for this project, I came up with Megui & DGIndex to translate the VOBs into a script that Premiere uses. In Megui, a person is able to create an AviSynth script. Right now, I just looked at the AviSynth web page and the GUI for AviSynth doesn't look very Larry friendly.
Thanks again for your help!!! Larry

[manono]

Except for the way you resized it, and except for deinterlacing it, what you did is fine. There are just a couple of changes you have to make and it'll be OK. The 16:9 change and the VBR suggestion was how I'd do it, but what you did there isn't really wrong.

So I don't think that starting from scratch with AviSynth at this point is the way to go. But to answer your questions, by using AviSynth you keep it as MPEG-2, do all the filtering in the script (interlaced resizing, putting of the 2 videos side-by-side, etc.) before sending to the encoder, and you keep the audio in synch as well. No timeline, though. All it is is letters in a text file. You can test it out before the encoding by playing it as you would any other video in a player that supports AviSynth script files. A lot of them do, and I use Media Player Classic for the purpose.

[lrfowler]

Can I ask?....How do I bring the subtitles in?.........some of the DVDs have subtitles......One of them has subtitles embedded. I guess you switch them on via a remote selection to the TV, rather than selecting to turn the subtitles on in the initial menu..

What do you use if you want to edit via a timeline?

[manono]

Can I ask?....How do I bring the subtitles in?.........

Haven't we been through this before? You don't have any subtitles. You create the subs, perhaps using the original subs from the 2 discs you have, grabbing what you need from each video, or creating them from scratch. I use SubStation Alpha and the audio from the DVD you created to synch them up. Other people use other programs.

What do you use if you want to edit via a timeline?

Then you continue doing it the way you've been doing it.