Capture from a DVD...

[Guy Godwin]

I have a home DVD that I need some clips from..
Can I convert a DVD into an .avi with Premire?

[Mike Gunter]

Hi,

You likely can rename the xxx.vob to xxx.mpg and edit those files.

Mike

[Ervin Farkas]

You don't have to convert the files to .avi in order to edit them. Just import them as assets, drop them on the timeline and edit them as usual.

As suggested by Mike, you may need to rename them to .mpg, at least that was the case until version 2, not sure how CS3 handles this.

[Jiri Fiala]

Premiere can NOT handle VOBs with audio. Renaming vobs to mpegs will enable you to import them to Premiere, but you will only be able to work with video. No audio.

Use freeware MPEGStreamclip to convert VOBs to whatever format you want.

[Mike Gunter]

Originally Posted by Jiri Fiala

Premiere can NOT handle VOBs with audio. Renaming vobs to mpegs will enable you to import them to Premiere, but you will only be able to work with video. No audio.

Use freeware MPEGStreamclip to convert VOBs to whatever format you want.

Hi,

Perhaps...

If the audio is AC3, you're right. But if the audio is wav or mp3, it should be ok. The poster said it was a homebrew disc. It's probably a mpeg audio file. It will likely play fine.

Another free converter is Super© ( http://www.erightsoft.com/SUPER.html ) that can convert vobs to editable files, too. Lots of links to the download. ;-)

Mike

[Jon Shohet]

Pretty much hit n' miss thing with vob inside PP. renamed mpgs from Dvds with multiple audio streams or subtitles have never played correctly for me in PP. Simple homebrews sometimes worked sometimes didn't. Usually, I found red frames popping up in the timeline, or audio sync problems. I gave up on the idea while using cs2, maybe things have improved in cs3.
I also use mpegstreamclip. It's worth noting, that while it is freeware, you'll need the mpeg2 plugin for quicktime, (which costs around 20 bucks I think), or be willing to uninstall the official QT and use QT alternative instead.
Another free opensource solution is VirtualDubMod, which can read vob, but unless you are willing to encode to uncompressed/huffyuv/Lagarith, you'll need to fish around for a vfw dv codec, since it cannot use the directshow microsoft dv codec.

Does any body know of other free easy solutions other than mpegstreamclip, super or virtualDubMod/avisynth?

[Graham Hickling]

DGIndex will string multiple VOBs together so that you can output to a single avi. It will also demux AC3 to wav if you ask it to.

[Ervin Farkas]

Originally Posted by Jiri Fiala

Premiere can NOT handle VOBs with audio. Renaming vobs to mpegs will enable you to import them to Premiere, but you will only be able to work with video. No audio.

Dead wrong! PremPro works fine, even with AC3 audio, see attached.

[Jiri Fiala]

I`m glad it works for you Ervin, but I`ve NEVER managed to import any kind of VOBs with audio to Premiere EVER. The same VOBs play with audio in Vegas...

[Ervin Farkas]

That's interesting, Jiri. It always worked for me, in fact the screenshot above is from good ole' PremPro 1.5, works in 2.0 as well, and I see no reason why Adobe would have changed that in CS3. The only time PremPro gets confused (audio looses sync) is when there are timecode breaks; now I can fix those in MPEG Streamclip and it's all fine. And since you like to mess with Adobe, you may want to put in a feature request to accept the VOB files directly, without renaming them.

By the way, MPEG Streamclip can also make one mpeg file out of multiple VOBs off of a DVD, like DGIndex; when you open the first one, it gives you the option to stitch together all of them.

[Mike Gunter]

Originally Posted by Ervin Farkas

Dead wrong! PremPro works fine, even with AC3 audio, see attached.

Hi,

Premiere Pro CS3 exports AC3 audio, but doesn't edit AC3 audio. In your example, the audio isn't necessarily AC3.

Some configurations of Premiere have plug ins that might read and allow for editing of AC3 audio. Yours might be the case. But AC3 editing isn't part of the Premiere Pro specification.

There's a lot of funky things in the vob files that get gnarly and can ruin one's day trying to convert to mpg and throwing on the timeline. Subtitles, alternate tracks, a God knows what else. Plain vanilla MPEG with a MPEG or WAV audio file, however, shouldn't pose much of a problem.

My best,

Mike

[John W. Wilson]

I used my camera. I set the camera (Canon XH-A1) up next to the DVD player, output the audio/video from the player to the camera input (Mine has DV input and the player has DV output but you could use composit video and audio) and hit start on both units. I used the DV tape output re-captured into my computer as .AVI and edited the pieces I needed. Very little loss, actually undetectable.

John

[John Stakes]

Originally Posted by John W. Wilson

I used my camera. I set the camera (Canon XH-A1) up next to the DVD player, output the audio/video from the player to the camera input (Mine has DV input and the player has DV output but you could use composit video and audio) and hit start on both units. I used the DV tape output re-captured into my computer as .AVI and edited the pieces I needed. Very little loss, actually undetectable.

John

you know, that only makes sence. I think I will try this, because as mentioned above, I get red frames upon import into PP.

John, when recording from DVD to tape were you in VCR mode or Camera Mode? I suppose simple trial and error will answer this question.

-JS

[John W. Wilson]

I set the XH-A1 camera to VCR (PlayBack) mode, same as if connected to the computer where the computer will direct the camera to play-back or to record. The firewire was connected from the DVD player to the camera.

I used the buttons on the handle of the camera to start the record. I got the DVD player going and then hit the camera pause, then record, then released pause. I am not sure if the pause did anything but that was the sequence. The red "record" led on the camera front came on and it recorded the entire DVD. The quality was quite good without a hint of loss.

John