Hello all I am very new to video editing. I have a Panasonic VDR-M50 DVD camcorder that I have been using. Now I want to start taking my videos and making them into movies. They first problem that I have is that my camcorder does not have a IEEE1394 (firewire) port! [Relly wish I would have researched it more before buying]. Well anyway, I have to x-fer the movies to my computer via the USB. I guess. I was told that I could take the recorded, finalized disk and play it and read/view/copy the clips via my DVD-RW or Rom drive. however, neither drive will read the disk. The files, once I finalize the disk, are in .vob format. Also there are only 2 total .vob files and there are about 25 - 30 clips. (Like when I review the disk contents directly on the camcorder). My questions are how can I x-fer these .vob files to be edited. I did try to use one program to convert them to DIVx, but the divx file from the 30 min disk turned out to be 40 GIGS!!! I know it should not be that big. What do I need to do to x-fer these clips to my computer. I was able to get Adobe Premiere Pro, and would like to capture and edit them in here. Then burn them onto DVDs using my DVD-RW. HELP!!
Well You are going to have to transfer the Video to your PC either useing your DVD Drive or through your USB Port but you will have to do this seperately from premier because I do not Believe that it can Transfer Mpeg-2 Video from a DVD Camcorder through a USB Port as it is used mainly to Transfer DV AVI files from DV Camcorders Via Firewire.. and seeing as you know how many VOB files are on the DVD you must be able to access the Disk and the Files on the DVD.... I actually do not think you are Going to be able to edit these VOB files in Adobe Premier anyways because Most DVD Camcorders Record the audio in Dolby Digital AC3 format and Adobe Premier does not Support this audio format and even if you could get Premier to read the Audio you would not want to use it to edit because it will have to re-encode the Files to Output them which takes a Long time and Greatly degrades the Quality.... What you need to edit these VOB files is a Native Mpeg-2 editor (VOB and Mpeg-2 are the same Format) Like "Womble Mpeg2VCR" or "Womble Mpeg Video Wizard 2005" which will be able to edit the Vob files with the AC3 audio without affecting the quality and the rendering only takes Minutes as opposed to hours with Premier.... These Editors will output your edited Files as Mpeg-2 files with AC3 audio, so to Put these Files Back onto DVD you will need to use a "DVD Authoring Program" like "MediaChance DVDLab Pro" which will allow you to add Menu"s and Chapters to your Movie and author them to DVD for you so you can Watch them in your DVD Player/TV Set..... The Mpeg editors are not free programs but you can use "MediaChance DVDLab Pro" for 30 days before Buying it..... Cheers
