what order to perform these video editing steps?

[Special K]

Hello everyone,

I recently had a VHS tape transferred to DVD (actually it spans 2 DVDs) by a company that does it as a service. It is just a home movie and the only audio is people talking. I would like to perform the following actions on the DVD footage:

1. Convert the DVD video to XVID or some other common compressed format
2. Cut the video into separate video files
3. One section of the video spans across the 2 DVDs, so I may need to join 2 video segments after they have been cut from adjacent footage in step 2.
4. Boost the level of audio found in the video
5. Eliminate/reduce background hiss from audio (this may not be possible if the frequencies of the hiss overlap too much with the rest of the tape's audio)

What would be the proper order to perform these steps to ensure the final output was as good as possible? I realize that starting from a VHS home movie the quality isn't all that great to begin with, but if there is a specific order to perform the above steps to ensure as little additional degradation as possible, I'd like to know what it is.

[enim]

I recently had a VHS tape transferred to DVD (actually it spans 2 DVDs) by a company that does it as a service. It is just a home movie and the only audio is people talking. I would like to perform the following actions on the DVD footage:

1. Convert the DVD video to XVID or some other common compressed format
2. Cut the video into separate video files
3. One section of the video spans across the 2 DVDs, so I may need to join 2 video segments after they have been cut from adjacent footage in step 2.
4. Boost the level of audio found in the video
5. Eliminate/reduce background hiss from audio (this may not be possible if the frequencies of the hiss overlap too much with the rest of the tape's audio)

What would be the proper order to perform these steps to ensure the final output was as good as possible? I realize that starting from a VHS home movie the quality isn't all that great to begin with, but if there is a specific order to perform the above steps to ensure as little additional degradation as possible, I'd like to know what it is.

I interpreted VHS tape transferred to DVD as properly authored mpeg-2 DVDs.

1. Convert the DVD video to XVID or some other common compressed format

You can rip both DVDs (VOBs) to HDD

2. Cut the video into separate video files

Convert VOBs to valid mpeg-2 files.

3. One section of the video spans across the 2 DVDs, so I may need to join 2 video segments after they have been cut from adjacent footage in step 2.

You can edit cut-n-join mpeg-2 files in any mpeg-2 editor. Demux video and audio stream.

4. Boost the level of audio found in the video
5. Eliminate/reduce background hiss from audio (this may not be possible if the frequencies of the hiss overlap too much with the rest of the tape's audio)

Process audio according to your taste, and re-mux video and audio stream.

What would be the proper order to perform these steps to ensure the final output was as good as possible? I realize that starting from a VHS home movie the quality isn't all that great to begin with, but if there is a specific order to perform the above steps to ensure as little additional degradation as possible, I'd like to know what it is.

You have multiple choices with properly edited and processed mpeg-2 files.
1. Author DVD9 and burn DVD9
2. Shrink DVD9 to DVD5 and burn on DVD5.
3. Compress per your choice.

[hech54]

1. Convert the DVD video to XVID or some other common compressed format

Sorry....this is a DUMB idea. As Enim said.....DVD is MPEG2....work with the original MPEG2 video.

[Special K]

1. Convert the DVD video to XVID or some other common compressed format

Sorry....this is a DUMB idea. As Enim said.....DVD is MPEG2....work with the original MPEG2 video.

Well, the point of my original question was to clarify the correct order of the above operations. I only meant to say that as some point I would want to convert to XVID. I guess that would be the last step.

[hech54]

1. Convert the DVD video to XVID or some other common compressed format

Sorry....this is a DUMB idea. As Enim said.....DVD is MPEG2....work with the original MPEG2 video.

Well, the point of my original question was to clarify the correct order of the above operations. I only meant to say that as some point I would want to convert to XVID. I guess that would be the last step.

You can do all of the editing you want to do completely losslessly, and probably with free tools too. VOB2MPEG is a good place to start.

[Special K]

1. Convert the DVD video to XVID or some other common compressed format

Sorry....this is a DUMB idea. As Enim said.....DVD is MPEG2....work with the original MPEG2 video.

Well, the point of my original question was to clarify the correct order of the above operations. I only meant to say that as some point I would want to convert to XVID. I guess that would be the last step.

You can do all of the editing you want to do completely losslessly, and probably with free tools too. VOB2MPEG is a good place to start.

Right. The conversion to XVID would only be to shrink the filesize and make the file easier to send to others.

[hello_hello]

MakeMKV can be used to extract the contents of a DVD to a single MKV file.

MKVMergeGUI will join and split MKVs. It doesn't have a preview, so it's not suitable for lots of editing, but if you only want to split in a few places and rejoin etc it's fine. You just need to open the MKVs in a player first to work out where you want to split.

MKVCleaver can extract the audio from MKVs.

Audacity has a noise removal filter, an EQ and a low pass filter. One, or a combination of those, will no doubt help.


If I was converting and editing:
MeGUI has a bit of a learning curve, but you can set up an encoding job while specifying multiple start and end points for encoding, effectively editing as you encode. It can extract the audio and split/rejoin it to match the video. Once it's split and rejoined you could run it through Audacity to remove some of the noise, then remux the de-noised version with the encoded video. You can re-encode the video using Xvid or x264.
As I said.... MeGUI would take more time to get to know than the average encoder GUI, but you'll no doubt find people willing to help you as you go.

[jagabo]

1. Convert the DVD video to XVID or some other common compressed format
2. Cut the video into separate video files
3. One section of the video spans across the 2 DVDs, so I may need to join 2 video segments after they have been cut from adjacent footage in step 2.
4. Boost the level of audio found in the video
5. Eliminate/reduce background hiss from audio (this may not be possible if the frequencies of the hiss overlap too much with the rest of the tape's audio)

1: Cut/paste MPG/VOB can be done losslessly with keyframe accuracy (about every half second with DVD MPEG 2) with free editors like Mpg2Cut2. If you need more accurate cuts you can use a smart editor (only cut GOPs are reencoded) like VideoRedo, Sony Vegas, etc.

2) Audio normalization and hiss reduction can be done with Audacity (Normalize and Noise Reduction filters). If you install the ffmpeg filter you can import directly from MPG files and export as AC3. You'll need an MPG remuxing tool to join the original MPG with the new audio.

3) Convert to Xvid as the last step.

Steps 1 and 2 can be done in either order. 1 then 2 might be easier (fewer clips). 2 then 1 might give better audio results (each clip normalized, different noise filtering for each).