I'm looking for the best software to edit out the commercials in my recorded dvd's. Currently, I'm using DVD Shrink Re-Author..but it's slow and clumby. I thought about using VirtualDubMod...but do you loose quality when Parsing the Vob's?..and then you have to save as .avi? I tried Nero recode but it didn't want to open anything but the dummy Menu on the disc. Looking for the best (frame accurate) wih the cleanest cut and then join the vob back without loss of picture quality. Any other suggestions?
What you want is an MPEG editor. VideoReDo, Womble MPEG2VCR, and Womble Video Wizard are all good commercial programs for doing this. You'll need to author the new DVD with other software afterwards. Womble also has some fairly new software called MPEG Video Wizard DVD that I believe will author for you when you're done. If you need free software I'd recommend trying out Cutterman. It's not nearly as easy to use as the commercial editors, but AFAIK it's the only decent free MPEG editor.
Hmmm, so will these Mpeg editors allow cutting .vob without demuxing? I have TMPEGenc plus 2.5...I've found I can use the mpeg tool Merge & Cut tool to join the VTS01_01+02 etc After DVD Shrink has REauthored the VoB's(i.e. cut out the unwanted commercials) but then I'm left with Vob segments that need joining. And DVD_Lab Pro( option window to join these segments doesn't always pop up) Leaving me with demuxed movie segments which can't be used in a single Movie and TMPGenc doesn't support .ac3 which I need trimmed exactly in same location to match. I know how to use these mpeg encoders for cutting .avi & elemental .m2v streams, but they usually don't support .vob You have to Parse the .vob first I'm trying to avoid extra Encoding & recoding. Dvd_LAb_Pro allows the import of .vob directly ..I'm just looking for a software & procedure which will edit/cut/join a .vob and cut out the extra encoding & recoding.
VideoReDo and the Womble products will all edit without demuxing. Here's the workflow I'd use. 1. Rip the DVD to a single VOB with DVD Shrink (go into the Output Files tab in Preferences and uncheck Split VOB Files) 2. Open the VOB file in an MPEG editor 3. Cut out the commercials 4. Save to separate audio and video files 5. Author a DVD from the new files I use DVD Lab Pro and in my experience you're less likely to have problems if you start with separate audio and video files and let it mux them.
thank U..I was hunting around my DVD_Shrink for that feature( I knew i had ripped to a single vob once upon a time... Now for more imput on these Mpeg encoders you've suggested. (1) Do they support .ac3 audio(cause I need to trim audio to match..else end up with a sync problem later) Do these encoders allow you to work with the mpeg linear (like a video editing prog..like Adobe Premiere Pro? Or Liquid? Btw, is there a plug-in for Premiere that would support for Importing .AC3(6channel)? So, u use Dvd Lab Pro too....why does mine only occassionally pop-up the option window that asks if you want to join the VTS_01_01,01_02, etc ...Usually, It always demuxes my .mpg's and vob's but I couldn't find any control that would invoke that joining feature...Like a grimlin n there. I thought I had it made after cutting out the commercials with Shrink..thinking I could simply import the segments into DVDLP and it would be kind enough to Join/demux for me....but it decided to just import the segments seperate and demux all.
All the ones I mentioned support AC3. I have no idea about Premiere since I don't use it. Good question. I don't use that feature of DLP so I can't say why it doesn't always work. I can say that I've heard of a lot of problems when importing muxed video and audio of any kind so your best bet is to save them separately and let DLP mux them to create VOBs.
Ok, thanks for the suggestion of VideoReDo...I got it..love it...cuts fast, and the ad detective and all that..really cut the re-production time to a breeze..made the workflow..really flow..thanks!