Very Mixed Requirements

[juliam]

Hello Everyone, great site

I've begun a huge project and I'm stuck. That is mostly due to my lack of experience and understanding of working with pre-recorded DVD's so as to "recreate" from recorded DVD's a compilation of selected music video tracks.

I have absolutely no problem making up my own personal music compilations (CD's). I now want to make my own music video compilations. I can see a wealth of excellent tutorials here to do certain aspects of my project and having spent over a week searching, downloading, installing and trying out various programs, but I cannot discern what will do what I am trying to achieve because my requirements do not fit into a normal category (besides realising I'm clueless haha - gotta keep smiling )

These are my requirements:

1 - To be able to load a DVD into a program with a reasonable sized viewer (my eyes are not as young as they used to be) so that I can easily select a start and stop point (cut points/frames of a single song) and save it in the original format and repeat the process quickly and easily.

The reason I would like to keep the original format is so that I do not lose any quality. Perhaps my thinking here is wrong and I would welcome any one's comments on this. It is for me like comparing a FLAC to a 128kbs MP3. I want the FLAC type of quality of both the video and music/audio - sorry I don't know how else to explain in DVD terms, that I want the highest "lossless" quality as opposed to converting to "lossy" MP4 or xVid etc. To me that means an Exact Copy (like EAC).

The reason for this is the finished compilation will be replayed on large flat screen TV's and through professional pa systems. I have to be able to output the finished compilation in the highest quality.

I have got DVDShrink and was happy to be able to create a new TS/VOB file/folder of a single song off a DVD. But the choosing of the start and end points (frames) was more guesswork and luck because the viewer part of the program to do this in is so small. I found I had to play the DVD in a player to get a rough idea of the start and end "time" of the song. But this method is not exact since I need the frame numbers. Hence, is there a DVDShrink lookalike (since it is so easy to use for a novice like me and fast) that is just as simple to use, outputs the input quality but has a bigger editing/selection window?

I opened Premiere Pro CS4 and found that I have to convert the IFO/VOB file. That worries me that I will lose the original quality and that also, it will take additional time to convert etc. This is a big project and I will be working with more than a 1000 full DVD's.

2 - If my theory is correct on maintaining the lossless quality which in turn means creating individual song IFO & VOB files, the next step is to have a program that will allow me to insert each individual IFO/VOB file in the order I want without a final compilation file size "restriction".

I do not want to create compilations for then burning to DVD. The finished compilation file will remain on a hard drive. The compilation may run up to 18 hours (it may) and I don't know if this can be done???? I don't want to split the file up into smaller ones. The O/S the file will run on will be win2k3 Server Edition (I have to use this for specific functionality that other O/S's cannot give me). The hard drive format will be NTFS. And the file will be controlled by a scheduling program. Having more than one file will cause scheduling problems and will create blank spaces of playback between them when playback needs to be constant for the entire duration and seamless. Creating the compilation will be done through Win XP Pro SP3 also on NTFS hard drives.

As well as the "recompiling" of individual IFO/VOB songs into a very large and long compilation, the program must also be able to allow for:-
a) transitions between songs (fades/twists/envelope transitions etc) and possible to do transition styles by batch and not just individually (to save a lot of time).
b) (and this is important) adding still images between the transitions. For example, a still image may consist of a photo or powerpoint type slide image. The image of whatever would be visible for between 3 to 5 seconds. This “image” could be incorporated as the transition – is that possible?
c) include a watermark (like a company logo) (perhaps the DVDShrink lookalike has the ability to do this)
d) include adding text to each single video (perhaps the DVDShrink lookalike has the ability to do this) such as the song details, easily (copy/paste???)

By creating one (and I know it will be huge) music video compilation file, I do not have to master creating a music/video playlist, where the PC needs to continually search in various folders for the next video/song to play. I cannot find any information on any program that allows me to construct a music video playlist. Is there such a program?

By creating one music video compilation file, the scheduler only needs to find one file to open, that auto opens the player.

By creating one music video compilation file, I can include and set the transitions and images and time spans I need to.

So just to recap, I need to extract video and audio of individual songs from DVD's (including Blue-Ray) as exact copies for highest quality result reasons, in a program that has a large window to select the start and end frames to extract. I then need a program to join all the individual music videos in the same lossless format together in a single IFO/VOB file with the capacity of size to allow for up to 18 hours of play and to be able to add transitions, images, watermarks and text. And all of this in a simple and efficient manner, time-wise.

Since I am not familiar with the technical side of setting up the programs (varying frame rates etc), they need to be able to perform and give very good output quality on auto while I am learning. I am sure I may come into problems with possibly different audio and video qualities from one DVD to another but I’ll cross that bridge when I meet such problems.

As I have said, I’ve looked all over and tried various programs but the information I’ve found up to now doesn’t cover all my requirements and so there are holes to be filled in.

If I am mistaken in any area of my thinking, please correct me and help direct me to the right info (in laymans terms if you can haha).

If you know of alternatives that will give me what I want – I’m open to all suggestions and will follow them up.

Thank you all in advance.

PS: forgot to mention I do not need to include a menu. I just need to schedule to open the VOB file for the entire compilation to begin to play. Can anyone help direct me to a scheduler that is able to open a IFO/VOB file please - have tried some and none can deal with either. Clicking on either auto opens my player now. But I need to automate the opening. Thanks again.

[aedipuss]

for cutting you might try mpg2cut2, if you're looking for a free tool. paid - mpeg video wizard, or a pro editor like vegas. vegas and womble can cut and join mpeg-2(the format inside a vob) without re-encoding and losing quality. you would end up with all the pieces off the dvd in a single dvd quality mpeg-2 or you could re-author it into a new dvd.

with a pro editor you would probably want a second monitor to move the cutting/editing onto it's own screen

[juliam]

Hi aedipuss, thanks for the help and advice.

I got mpg2cut2 and selected a precut vob and a full dvd vob file and there's a huge delay between the video stream and the audio. Don't know if it's my system or what. Doesn't happen with DVDShrink etc.

So going to take a trial look at Womble and Vegas.

Can anyone help please advise me of a scheduler that can open an IFO or VOB file that is associated with the file types of the player so that in opening the video file, the player will auto open and play the video? Or, can anyone say what type of high quality video file can be scheduled to run/open and so auto open the player to run please?

[aedipuss]

mpeg-2 is a long gop format. some cutters/joiners can only successfully work on the I-frame of a gop, usually the first frame of every 30 or so.

https://forum.videohelp.com/threads/254546-Looking-for-software-to-play-videos-from-har...-on-a-schedule

[juliam]

That's really useful and helpful to know aedipuss - thank you

Womble looks good in that you have the 2 screens (in/out) that each can be made full screen. Now I get what you meant by having the second monitor. Again, really useful advice.

[manono]

If you're cutting songs out of music DVDs, in almost all cases 1 song = 1 chapter. Programs such as DVD Decrypter have the ability to let you choose to extract a chapter already in DVD format with VOB/IFO/BUP files.

As for all that crap about transitions, adding pictures and the rest, if you want to keep your sources untouched, you can forget about all that. If some of your sources are from Blu-Ray discs, you can forget about leaving them untouched if the ultimate goal is DVD. Since authored DVDs have a max size of 8 (I think) VOBs, and since you don't want anything degraded by reencoding, you can also forget about your 18 hours in a single authored DVD. A playlist might work, but nothing remotely along the lines you've outlined.

[juliam]

So any advice on how I can get what I want please?

[juliam]

I think I have solved the scheduler app thanks