I've got home moviez on DVDR's. The movies are already on DVDRs so I don't need to transfer them from tape to the PC. I want to edit them, add menus, transitions, fades, music, etc. 1) I need software to convert DVDRs to MPEG-2 to enable editing using good/popular video editing software, as most video editing software deals with MPEG-2 encoded movies. 2) I need software that offers nice, easy, simple-to-use editing features. I'm pretty good with software so it doesn't have to be too simple. I don't need anything too fancy, just a touch of the professional look. If I can find one piece of software that can do both number 1 AND 2, then it'll be much better for me. I would appreciate recommendations of the best, or most comfortable, everyone's favourite or the easiest freeware AND commercial software that can be used for the above. Many thanks.
Well Basicly the VOB files that are on the DVD are Just mpeg-2 files so all you need to edit the VOB files off of the DVD is a Native Mpeg-2 editor like "Womble Mpeg2VCR" or "Womble Mpeg Video Wizard 2005"..... You don"t want to edit Mpeg-2 files in Most popular Editors because they will require you to re-encode the Files when rendering them which will Have a Large Negitive Impact on the Quality and will take a Long time to render....If you use a Native Mpeg-2 editor like "Womble Mpeg Video Wizard 2005" it will let you edit and add effects and Trantitions ect all without re-encodeing the whole File over again (It only re-encodes the Parts that have effects or transitions so most is left un-touched).... You will also need a DVD authoring Program that Supports Chapters and menu"s ect and that will not re-encode your Mpeg-2 files when authoring to DVD (Many of the Crappy Cheapo DVD authoring programs will re-encode your Files even if they are allready 100% DVD compliant) so I suggest that you check out "MediaChance DVDLab Pro" as it is one of the best DVD authoring Programs out there.... So what I suggest you do is First rip your Source DVD"s to your Hard Drive as a single Big VOB file (Both Smartripper and DVD decryptor can do this if you set the "File Splitting" to None") and after you have Ripped the DVD to your HD as a Single Big VOB file you can use "Womble Mpeg Video Wizard 2005" to do any editing and add any effects or Transitions and it will then save your project as a DVD compliant Mpeg-2 file (Leave the settings at Default when saveing to Mpeg-2) without re-encodeing and then you just Load the Mpeg-2 file into "DVDLab Pro" and add your Menu"s and Chapters and it will format it all into a "Video_TS" folder which you just Burn to DVD in "DVD Video" mode...... Cheers
I haven't worked with dvdr movies , so I'm not certain if this progy will support your movies without converting. I've tried a fair number of authoring progs for video/slide shows. The one I've found that works the best by far in all aspects is 'proshow gold'/professional. It supports audio/video editing either internally or externally as well as all of the other features you mentioned. It is commercial software however, trial version has that annoying banner across the whole thing but otherwise fully functional. Frequent/free updates for 1 yr. Pal/ntsc dvd/svcd/vcd supported. I haven't tried Mediachance as Minion suggests - but might just to compare for myself out of curiousity. I'd be interested to hear what progy you go with.
Minion I spent a week reading different forums looking for a good MPEG editor. Downloaded about 5 programs and was not impressed with thier MPEG editing. After reading your post about Womble video wizard I downloaded it and was very impressed. The newer version has support for DVD which will let you export a VOB file to HDD or burn it. Thanks for the info. With Womble MPEG video wizard DVD, what is the best way for working with 16:9 and 4:3 on the same timeline. Problem I am having is most of the video is 16:9. As soon as I bring in 4:3 and save as MPG to work on it later the 16:9 was changed to 4:3 but there was no recoding. When I go into any of the templates, it will not let me change 4;3 to 16:9. Only happens when I bring in 4:3 If I export it as VOB to HDD, it keeps the 16:9 and the 4:3 is widen. What I am trying to do is Keep 16:9 in its format and have the 4:3 with black bars at the end so it is not strected.
You can"t mix 4:3 and 16:9 video and export it as 4:3 or 16:9 and have all of the Video look proper....it just can not be done without either Converting the 4:3 to 16:9 or the 16:9 to 4:3 which would entail re-encodeing and resizeing the video.....
Minion, Can you take a home made movie shot on a Dig8 Camcorder, and convert that movie to a 16:9 format from a 4:3 format?
Many capture programs will let you capture in 16:9 Format and you can encode to mpeg in 16:9 with most any encoder.....
