Hi, I'd like to create a little video that consists of some scenes filmed by myself and some scenes from various DVDs. I've managed to rip the selected scenes to my computer with DVDshrink. But Pinnacle Edition 4.5 doesn't work with those .vob files. So I've tried for a couple of days to convert those .vob files into .avi but with little success. The program that is the least bad one is DVDflask but it compresses 16:9 into 4:3 even if I enable "Keep aspect ratio", sometimes it looses the audio, sometimes it creates bumpy videos or a greenish tint. I'm pretty desperate here and am still searching for a reliable way to get those DVD clips into Pinnacle Edition. Can anybody help?
Pinnacle Edition will Load Mpeg2 Files but your VOB file Probably have AC3 dolby Digital Audio which No editors support for editing so it will Not Work..You Can easilly convert your Vob files to AVI useing "Virtual-Dub-Mpeg2" and the "AC3 ACM Decompressor" which I will Post at the End...First you Install the AC3 ACM Decompressor then you Load your VOB file into "Virtual-Dub-Mpeg2" then after it has Finnished Loading the VOB file go to "Video" and set it to "Full Proscessing Mode" then go to "Audio" and set it to "Full Proscessing Mode" then under "Video" go to "Compression" and Choose the Codec you want to use, I would Personally use the HuffYUV Codec because it is Lossless ,Then go to "Audio" to "Compression" and set it to the Audio codec you want to use But I would Leave it as NONE or Uncompressed for Best Quality and Compatibility, Then all you need to do is go to "File" to "Save AVI" and give the File a Name and it will then encode your VOB with AC3 to an AVI file with Audio..You can now use Pinnacle Edition if you wish to edit your Files together or even Virtual Dub if your files are all the Same Resolution Frame Rate and compression..well Good Luck and here are the Links to the Software......Cheers Virtual-Dub-Mpeg2 http://fcchandler.home.comcast.net/stable/VirtualDub-MPEG2.zip AC3 ACM Decompressor... http://fcchandler.home.comcast.net/AC3ACM/AC3ACM.zip
*sigh* It still doesn't work. I've printed your directions and followed them exactly. I got an avi file that looks and sounds absolutely fine with Media Player Classic. But when I load it into Pinnacle, you can see the first image for a very, very short time (only a flash) and then you get a black screen with an exclamation mark. The sound is playing fine. What's happening? I'm desperate. :-( PS: When I drag the clip to the timeline, there's a black icon with an "x" instead of the exclamation mark.
Well I don"t Know what to tell you accept that maybe the codec you chose to compress the file with is a codec that Pinnacle doesn"t like...I have pinnacle edition 4.5 and 5.0 and it will Load most AVI files But I"m usually useing either the HuffyUV Codec or a DV Codec or Uncompressed AVI...Try one of these Formats and see if it works....
An interesting problem here... It so happens I'm busy with almost exactly the same thing. First of all: I've got Edition DV500 version 5 or Edition 5 for the DV500 if you like. I managed to import an .m2v file with no sound in it without any problem. The exlamation mark appears, but this a sign Edition is grinding on it's rendering (the Sigma sign in the screen below is throbbing like a sportsman's heart). After a while you get your clip: may take (very) long depending on processor and length of .m2v file of course... You can get such an .m2v by ripping your DVD with DVDdecrypt or smartripper and choosing ENABLE STREAM PROCESSING, and DEMUX for BOTH Video AND Audio (click on the videostream: choose demux, click on the Audiostream, choose demux). Declick all of the chapters and start with one chapter, in this way you can import a not so big file, for testing. Be warned again though: Edition takes enormous time in rendering the clips! Now the audio may very well be an AC3-file. This must be converted in a normal WAV or MP3 file. HOW? I don't know yet! Then you must synchronise this file in Edition on the time line. (In the AC3-file name there is sometimes a delay mentioned, a minus 250 msec being a normal value. This is the amount you must shift your audio to the left in Edition. How? I don't know yet! Does this work in Edition [bold]4.5[/bold]? I don.. etc. Did you ask Pinnacle's forums? Does it all sound complicated? IT IS! Many luck and if I/You know more - let's hear! It's a pity there isn't a plugin for Edition to read Avisynth scriptfiles yet.... Read here: http://www.animemusicvideos.org/guides/avtech/videogetb.html#2 Much success and greetings, Gerard Visser, Almelo Holland
Well, to keep high the spirits of visitors here: I managed to import a piece of DVD! How? Ripped piece of DVD to .vob with DVDdecrypt Demuxed .vob to .d2v & .wav with AVI2DVD Turned .d2v &.wav to .avi with VIRTUALDUB through AVISYNTH Imported .avi in EDITION (and from there I want... to make a DVD!) It seems a simple course, but for newbies: bringing the Ring to Mount Doom would seem a walk in the park compared to this one, with a fellowship of strange programs from the worlds of mpeg and codec, (who bring no wizard with them !) I will write down the details as soon as I have experimented a bit more. For now, to those who will follow I say: may your processor equal your nerves in strength and your memory as large as your patience! GV
Well Instead of Converting the Vob to an AVI file you Could have takes the D2V file and Loaded it into the "VFAPI Converter" and it will Instantly turn the D2V file into a psudo AVI file without actually encodeing the File and the Quality is exactly the same as the Original Vob files...This is a Form of Frameserveing that works will allmost every program..You also Could have Just demuxed the AC3 audio and Converted to Wav and Loaded the Wav File and the M2V file into Edition and that also would have worked...Cheers
Well! Thank you for quick responding, I will certanly try your way too and tell what happened. I also got an idea of how to compensate the audiodelay: just paste a short peace of "movie" (for example: a few stills) in front or at the back of the video on the timeline and then "magneting" the audiotrack's front- or backline to the video's front- or backline. You can quite easy approximate the msec delay buy calculating: 25 frs/sec, so 1 frame = 40 msec right? So for (example) a minus 256 msec delay I would paste 6 or 7 frames to the front of the video.... One thing: it takes Edition gruwelsome time to rerender the imported avi's. Wouldn't it be possible to bring the AVI in some form that Edition need not render? (Remember, I'm quite green on the front of codec's)
Thanks gvisser for all that info! For my current project I've given up to try it at home. Tonight I'll carry the DVDs to the TV studio and ask the guys to record the clips on tape. From tape there's no problem to import it directly into Pinnacle. That MUST work... But I haven't given up for good. I'll try it again at home... when I have a new project and much time. I still can't believe that it is so complicated. After all, usually you can convert everything into everything else without problems. *sigh*
I hope you know that you can not Record retail DVD"s to Beta or DV Tape because of the Macrovision protection in Retail DVD"s...Trust me I have Tried it because I work as a Video editor and we have Beta Tape Machines and Retail DVD"s will not Record to them...I don"t see what the Problem is with Importing your Vob files into Edition, You simply just have to demux the Vob files and then decode the AC3 audio to wav and import the M2v and wav file seperately.....Cheers
It's alive! Really a great tip, Minion, this VFAPI, another mysterious member of the conversion group. I can indeed pull the "Mpeg wrapped as AVI" easily in Edition in perfect quality. One sad thing remains however and is probably not to be solved: Edition only works and thus renders in DV AVI so there is a horrifying render time involved as soon as you want to use the imported clip. I think that's because Edition is meant to be a Footage editor, while the thing I was in this context aiming at was making a collection DVD from BBC programbits I recorded on separate DVD's. You can use DVDshrink to a good extent for that but you have no menu etc, and THAT's exactly the thing Edition does good. :/ So I hope Pinnacle will someday add native mpeg2 (or4 ?) editing to Edition because, if you make a DVD that's your material? It's frustrating to see how well Virtualdub handels with VFAPI. Maybe it's best to do the rough trimming in that program and then.. yet save it as DV AVI? Is that possible? Thnx again for the tip's, still having much fun with all this puzzling!
Some light Well, it's not all that sad.... If you drag the CLIP to the timeline, form the window with the clipstab, (NOT the mediatab) you have no realtime like in Virtualdub, but you CAN edit the clip because if you move the timeline pointer to different points of the clip, VFAPI does it's frameserverjob and you can see just the frame on that position. You could eventually turn of Rendering (click on the Sigmasign below). After your edit, start rendering, go to sleep, get a life and comeback after hours. Then you can see what your movie has become.
Minion, I don't know what the problem is, either. But every time I try to convert the clips *something* goes wrong. I'll see if they can tape it on miniDV. Maybe they have to give up at the very beginning because their drives don't take RC1 DVDs. I'll see. If it doesn't work I'll try again to convert it here but frankly I've lost a good amount of enthusiasm over all those hours of trial and error. :-/
OK, so I understand Edition is extremely slow with non-DV material. How do I turn my DVD Mpeg2 into something Edition accepts as being standard PAL DV material? Do I have to use a certain bitrate etc? PS: You were right, Minion, it wasn't possible to record on tape. :-(
You could encode the VOB files off the DVD to DV Type 2 and then import the DV File into Edition...If you install these 2 Utilities : Virtual-Dub-Mpeg2 http://fcchandler.home.comcast.net/stable/VirtualDub-MPEG2.zip AC3ACM Decompressor http://fcchandler.home.comcast.net/AC3ACM/AC3ACM.zip And have a Type 2 DV Codec installed Like the Main concept DV Codec or the Panasonic DV Codec or the Sony DV Codec or one of many other Type VFW 2 DV Codecs then Loaded your Vob file into Virtual-Dub-Mpeg2 and then Se Both Audio and Video to "Full Proscessing Mode" then went to "Video" to "Compression" and selected the DV Codec and then went to "File" to "Save AVI" and then give the File and name and save it and in a little while you will have a DV AVI file that you should be able to load into Edition...I"m sure if you tried the Vfapi Converter and Made a Psudo AVI out of the Vob it would also work but a lot faster....Cheers
Dear Mosquito and Minion. How to obey forum-rules and tell short and to the point all the fun I've had? Thanks for the VirtualDub-MPEG2.zip and AC3ACM.zip links Minion, loaded these tools, but have had no time for them... yet. 1) To keep clear: Edition is NOT slow, it is a good program (very good I think) for editing your footage in native DV - lossless copying of bits, that's what we want right? 2) Frameserving with VFAPI works very nice: converted the VOB's to .d2v and .wav with DVD2avi (saved as 1.76) and made the pseudo-avi with VFAPIconv. Imported this .avi in Edition and mousedragged the .avi in Edition's source-inlay. Edition starts rendering the DV-file using it's own codec. Rendering time was about 2 minutes for a 1 minute clip, so a 1 hour clip would take 'only' 2 houres... (Pentium 4 2,40 GHz, 512MB, as extra HD 120 GB Maxtor, half-full) Not bad I think (I don't sit waiting for it). It also creates a renderfile of quite normal size. (In experimenting with a method over a Virtualdub created .avi file I ended up with a (playable!) .avi of about 3 GB for 3 minutes [bold]X-([/bold] ??!) Sound: just simply import the .wav that DVD2avi can create and drag it under the videoclip under the timeline and snap it to the frontline of the clip (the audio is short of about a second a the end -?). Now you can edit the clip. [bold][/bold] 3) You can even go further and use Avisynth and VFAPI in seqence (with AVIReader). You can read the .avs script file in VFAPI after you installed the reader's .dll and .reg (a bit tricky, but well explained if you search for AVIReader) and create an .avi as explained. Edition does longer on this one: about 5 minutes for 1 minute clip... I needed this to be able to do a Convert to 768 x 576 , because my Philips DVDrecorder records in the 4hour mode with 320 "pixels" per line. So you get strange tombstone-shaped video out of DVD2AVI. (NOT in WMPlayer and PowerDVD though). At first I thought the rippers were responsible, but I can also mousedrag the VOB's from these DVD's and it happens then too... Well, too many words? Sorry [bold];-)[/bold]
