Hi,

I am producing a DVD for a colleague. It will include a photoslideshow
(motion pictures and background music), individual photos (to be used like
an old fashioned projector show) and a number of video clips. Using Encore,
ProShow Gold and Photoshop, I have successfully created the menus and all
the picture elements of the project and am now starting work on the video
elements.

I though this would be the easy bit - just import the clips, do any
necessary editing in Premier, link them into the Project in Encore and burn
the project to disc. I was very wrong!

The clips have been given to me on a DVD, which plays fine on my home DVD
player. But ripping them to my hard-drive to work on them and import them
into the project is proving impossible. None of the programmes I know of
will rip them to any format - avi or mpeg2. Sometime I can get a rip of one
of the files, but the audio is way out of sync. The rest of the time, I just
get error after error. I have ripped DVD files to avi many time before, but
for some reason I cannot get these files to rip.

I've decided the only way forward is to find a way of recording the DVD onto
a MiniDV disc and then use my camcorder to play them into my computer (in
the same way I would for normal footage that I have shot.) Is this possible
to achieve (is there any/much quality loss)? And how would I go about it -
I've never tried to do this before!

Any help would be very much appreciated.

In message , Mike
writes
Hi,

I am producing a DVD for a colleague. It will include a photoslideshow
(motion pictures and background music), individual photos (to be used like
an old fashioned projector show) and a number of video clips. Using Encore,
ProShow Gold and Photoshop, I have successfully created the menus and all
the picture elements of the project and am now starting work on the video
elements.

I though this would be the easy bit - just import the clips, do any
necessary editing in Premier, link them into the Project in Encore and burn
the project to disc. I was very wrong!

The clips have been given to me on a DVD, which plays fine on my home DVD
player. But ripping them to my hard-drive to work on them and import them
into the project is proving impossible. None of the programmes I know of
will rip them to any format - avi or mpeg2. Sometime I can get a rip of one
of the files, but the audio is way out of sync. The rest of the time, I just
get error after error. I have ripped DVD files to avi many time before, but
for some reason I cannot get these files to rip.

I've decided the only way forward is to find a way of recording the DVD onto
a MiniDV disc and then use my camcorder to play them into my computer (in
the same way I would for normal footage that I have shot.) Is this possible
to achieve (is there any/much quality loss)? And how would I go about it -
I've never tried to do this before!

I've had similar problems. Though I use Vegas, here's what I've done:

1. Create a folder for working in.
2. Copy the VOB files from the DVD into the working folder.
3. Change the file extensions from VOB to MPG. You can
discard VIDEO_TS, VTS_01_0 and VTS_01_1. The
remainder of the files contain your video (MPEG-2 with AV3
audio) though it is possible that the VTS_02_X files may
not be of use to you. You'll see when you import them if
they contain anything useful.
4. Move the files in order into the timeline. You'll notice that you
have a video layer, but no audio layer (the AC3 is muxed with
the video). I haven't yet found a way of breaking out the audio
from
a VOB file.
5. As you've suggested, use a minidisk recorder to capture
the audio. Use LP (not LP2 or LP4) and import it (typically as
WAV).
Some video editors allow you to directly import into the editor,
then
move the audio into the timeline in new L + R layers. Vegas allows
this.
6. At this point, you'll have to juggle the audio to sync it with the
video. Concentrate on the start of the video segments, but if
necessary split and jiggle the audio segments. You're likely not
to have to do this, except perhaps at the start. Vegas has a nice
incremental mechanism for doing this using the direction keys.

I'm unfamiliar with the slide show software that you use (I use
Pinnacle), but I'd suggest that you lift out the video sections that you
want to use, render as MPEG-2, so that you can drop them into your slide
show program.

You'll have to be careful with audio levels, avoiding clipping but
giving
enough amplitude for the sound to be audible. I use SoundForge which
gives good control in this area.

A friend has suggested an alternative method, but neither he nor I have
got around to trying it. Most camcorders allow audio dubbing, and if you
have DV-in you can write your video onto the miniDV tape, then use the
audio dub facility to complete the job. The advantage here is the
camcorder's automatic gain control. Then it becomes just a normal
capture/edit procedure. It's something I've meant to try for some time,
but until I have a need, I probably won't try it myself.

--
Tony Morgan
http://www.camcord.info

Tony Morgan wrote:

3. Change the file extensions from VOB to MPG. You can
discard VIDEO_TS, VTS_01_0 and VTS_01_1. The
remainder of the files contain your video (MPEG-2 with AV3
audio) though it is possible that the VTS_02_X files may
not be of use to you. You'll see when you import them if
they contain anything useful.

I believe that Pinnacle Studio 9.X will import the AC3 audio along with the
picture.
I don't have it, so perhaps someone can confirm this.

The friend who has it is on holiday at the mo'

In message , News Will
writes
Tony Morgan wrote:

3. Change the file extensions from VOB to MPG. You can
discard VIDEO_TS, VTS_01_0 and VTS_01_1. The
remainder of the files contain your video (MPEG-2 with AV3
audio) though it is possible that the VTS_02_X files may
not be of use to you. You'll see when you import them if
they contain anything useful.

I believe that Pinnacle Studio 9.X will import the AC3 audio along with the
picture.

I never suggested that it did. In fact Vegas 6 doesn't. Nor any Video
editor that I am aware of. Perhaps because Dolby Labs charge only a
nominal license fee for an AC3 encoder, but a lot more for an AC3
decoder license fee.

However, you seem to have missed (all) the bits about using minidisk to
re-apply audio.

--
Tony Morgan
http://www.camcorder.info

"News Will" wrote in message
.uk...
Tony Morgan wrote:

3. Change the file extensions from VOB to MPG. You can
discard VIDEO_TS, VTS_01_0 and VTS_01_1. The
remainder of the files contain your video (MPEG-2 with AV3
audio) though it is possible that the VTS_02_X files may
not be of use to you. You'll see when you import them if
they contain anything useful.

I believe that Pinnacle Studio 9.X will import the AC3 audio along with
the
picture.
I don't have it, so perhaps someone can confirm this.

The friend who has it is on holiday at the mo'

It does