I'm trying to convert from a vob file to an avi file for input into a NLE (premiere pro) using the free SUPER converter from erightsoft.com.

can anyone tell me what avi codec I should use - and what a good, default bitrate should be? the software I'm using doesn't have any help files that address this.

Thanks

You should export to DV AVI Type2. If that is not available, list your choices and we can assist.

Steven is right; you should use a lossless (or near lossless) codec, and DV fits the bill. However, you may find that Premiere Pro can edit your VOB files (http://www.adobe.com/cfusion/knowledgebase/index.cfm?id=331978) if you merely rename the extension to MPG.

The video codec choices in SUPER converter are DivX, DV Digital Video (which only allows resolution of 720 x576 and 5:4 asect ratio(!?), H263, H263+, H264/AVC, HuffYUV, M-JPG, MPG I, MPG II, MPG 4, sorenson video, WMV7, WMV8, XviD

Audio codec choices are WAV–pcm16, WAV-pcmU8

I analyzed the avi video on my computer that I captured from my mini DV camera and it uses the DVSD = Sony Digital Video Codec, but that's not an option. Unless maybe I download the codec onto my computer?? I'll try that.

But in a perfect world - if I could choose the best codedc, which would it be?

I tried to rename the VOBs "MPG" and import into PPRO2 and the result was terrible. Adobe doesn't recommend editing MPGs - convert to AVI first.

a question about codecs - can you play a file with a codec similar to the codec it was compressed with, or does it have to match exactly?

Thanks again.

The DV digital ideo at 720X576 is the version people should use outside of the USA. You should have DV digital video at 720X480 for inside the USA - I can't see why you would have one and not the other.

By the way, 720X576 is a 4:3 aspect ratio after accounting for the 1.067 pixel aspect ratio. Or it could be 16:9 with a different PAR. That's normal.

The NTSC version is 720X480 with a 0.9 PAR.

I am downloading the app now to see what it can really do.

I checked it out. They are pretty strange in that they have PAL but not NTSC. I suggest you find a different program to do your conversion.

Thanks for your input.

Now the million dollar question - does anyone know of a free program like this that will convert a VOB directly into an editable AVI file??

I've been looking online and found some very complicated proceedures - using Gordian Knot, etc - but SUPER was the only one I found that did it directly.

sorry I don't have the $1M answer to your question but let me ask a different one, which is how much editing are you going to do on it? The reason I ask is that in your VOB file which I assume you ripped from a DVD is an MPEG file, which isn't ideal for editing (as you may know).

Are you just looking to take a short clip from it and include it in a project or are you doing heave duty editing? If it's just a short clip, does PP edit mpeg? I have never tried this but some claim to rename the VOB file as .mpg and some apps can read it (I'd be surprised but ...). Also Nero may be able to read a VOB file and they started to add some small editing features to it - you could download a trial of nero, edit, then output to a format you could use in PP (perhaps).

If you just need a clip, you could convert the vob file to an mpeg file and use a free or paid tool mpeg cutter to give you what you need.

A different approach would be just to burn the VOB file back to a disk (do you still have all the other content from that DVD) and then do an analog capture to an AVI file and edit at will.

Anyway, food for thought - not the direct answer you are asking (b/c I don't have that one), but some ideas.

The project is a concert and interviews that were burned onto a dvd. The original footage no longer exists.

my job is to clean up all the problems - audio levels, awkward pauses, color differences, outright mistakes.

I've found the program STOIK which is a free converter that seems to be working ok.

actually, I'd be willing to pay for a program that would convert directly from VOB to AVI with top quality.

thanks for all your help!

Hi Robert,

As already touched on I think the best way is to recapture the footage. If you can get hold of an anologue capture card/ Analogue to DV convertor peferably with component and a DVD player that has component then you will get the best quality.

There are plenty of apps on the internet that will convert dvd files to AVI. try www.videohelp.com search under there tool section.

I have an app called Trex that came bundled with my Pinnacle DV500 capture card I brought many moons ago, I can simply rename any vob files to .mpg and it will convert them to DV AVIs to edit.

hope this helps,

thanks - I'll check out TREX.

I know I can transfer the video manually, but there's about 6 hours of footage, so I'd rather just be able to convert it.

should be same quality either way, yes?

you should get pretty decent results if you capture it. for 6 hours of material if you don't have more tapes, you may be spending that long just on fooling w/ the tools to convert it.

also, for just 1 tape (or 3), I can capture it for you if you like (am in NJ) just let me know. just an option if you don't feel like fooling w/ it.

do you have all the original DVD files, or just the VOB files but not the IFO files? if you have all the DVD files, I could rip those into mpegs for you (the sw I use is no longer available, but if you have the rights to the content it's not a big deal).

just other options...post back if you have any luck w/ trex

Thanks for your offers, Dave.

But I've just found another method that looks promising - and relatively quick.

It involves ripping the DVD to hard drive with DVDecrypter, creating an avs file with DGIndex, and then opening and saving as an AVI with VIRTUAL DUB.

Does anyone know, since I'm not working with encrypted files, can I just drag the video_ts file from dvd drive to my desktop to save instead of using dvdcrypter?

I think I can - just want to make sure there's no quality difference.

it's not really an 'encryption' thing..I don't know DGIndex, but reading it's quick start online, it looks like it is frameserving the VOB file to VD as an AVI file. In that case, the VOB file would be the same on your hard drive as it would be on the disk (except for the speed of the drive if that makes any difference, which it may). E.g. no quality difference, it's the same file.

The use of dvddecrypter in this case would help you if you had a lot of VOB files that you wanted to be one file, as it will combine them as it rips, but when I've done that, the purpose has been to create one mpeg file, not a VOB file (which as you say, you can just copy from the disk to your hard drive, e.g. there's nothing really to be 'ripped').

What mode are you using dvddecrypter in, and what type of files is it giving you on your hard drive?

I used DVDecrypter in File mode - which yielded the VOB files. seems to work.

I was actually wondering whether an analog transfer thru a dvd device would be same or better quality then a file conversion?

I'll give you my opinion, and others may have some as well.

strictly speaking, an analog capture can't be better than the original or the file conversion. By definition, you would be taking the mpeg file on the disk, converting it to analog, then converting it back to digital. the resuling file almost cannot be the same as the mpeg because you've taken it through 2 A/D processes.

that said, practically speaking, it may be just as good, or, call it more suitable (if not 'better'). Examples of this could include noise reduction, hardware color correction, etc. things that could be done in the D/A/D processes that would clean up your video (all things that could be done with software too, on the file). Sometimes, though, it's just easier to do them in hardware when you are capturing or converting the file, and you'd be hard pressed to actually see any differences between the analog captured file and the converted file, esp. with SD material.

The other thing to consider would be the source of the original material vs. your intended display. If there's a big difference in resolution (e.g. VHS was somewhere in the mix in the original and you are using a HD monitor for display, just to make the difference extreme, 240 lines vs. 1080), you'd probably want to keep as close to the source of the material as possible (and potentially not do D/A/D etc conversions). If the two are more similar, such as DV for the original and a SD display, for example, you've got a little more wiggle room available to make changes without them being obvious in a practical way.

All of this is assuming that the best you have is the mpeg (compressed) files of the original and that using that in your project is acceptable (which it seems to be, given your current undertaking).

If you have any more specifics for your project re the above feel free to post or perhaps the above is close to what you were looking for. Enjoy!

Another vote for VirtualDub with a note: not the original VDub, but it's MPEG version (VirtualDub-MPEG2). In addition to decompressing, it will do clean-up as well, all at once.

The codec to use is Microsoft Video 1 as this is the native codec used by Windows-based computers for DV editing.

Also, before running VDub, you can use MPEG Streamclip to fix broken timecode or select a specific audio stream (in case you have multiple audio streams).

As they say, "the best things in life are free"... both of these programs are free.

thanks again for all your responses.