DVD to avi or anything editiable?

[Jeff Harper]

I have a series of DVDs a customer wants me to re-edit. different cams on each DVD, to be multicammed.

What do I use to convert a dvd program to say and avi or mp4? any thoughts?

[Garrett Low]

Put the DVD into your computer, start Vegas, go to File/Import/DVD camcorder disc.

That will pull the files into Vegas and you can render it to any format normally available.

I'm assuming the discs are not of copyright material.

[Woody Sanford]

I've used Amersoft blu-ray ripper for about a year. I convert all my super hero DVD's to a smaller MP4 to put on my phone and tablet for my 3 1/2 year old son. It will convert from full HD on down to some small stuff and Its pretty fast as well. I think it was like around 50 bucks but it's paid for itself with the kids. The files drop into a timeline no problem.

[David Stoneburner]

Handbrake is another option. I use Premiere at work and it does not have the import DVD option, so another trick is to copy the VOB files directly from the DVD and change the extension to mpg. They are just mpeg2 files.

[Juris Lielpeteris]

I have a series of DVDs a customer wants me to re-edit. different cams on each DVD, to be multicammed.

Copy entire DVD on the HDD, chose in the Vegas explorer "View all files" and drag a corresponding IFO to the timeline.

[Mike Kujbida]

To expand on what Juris said, drag the VTS_01_0.IFO file to the timeline and you'll get the entire DVD without any breaks like you would if you used the import DVD option.
Editing it it this way saves you a conversion step which means keeping quality.

[Jeff Harper]

Thanks everyone! Mike, in the past I have dragged files straight from the dvd only to find the audio to not sync properly. That was a long time ago, however.

At any rate the options here are great. Had no idea Vegas could import a DVD! That is awesome.

[Mike Kujbida]

Jeff, I've had no choice some times and grabbed a two hour DVD using the method I described and had no sync problems.

[Garrett Low]

Jeff, I've had that problem to as well as some issues with certain VOB segments not pulling in correctly. That's why I go with the built in function that Vegas provides. Using the import feature you end up with a separate mpgs file for each VOB but they drop on the timeline seamlessly. I don't believe there are any generational losses as VOB's are simply rewrapped mpg2 files that have been separated into smaller files. The opposite of concatenating your 2 hour mpg2 file when you author your DVD.

I'm running Vegas Pro 11 so maybe it's improved on 12.

[Mike Kujbida]

The problem using the built in Vegas tool is that there will always be an audio dropout (1/2 sec. to 1 sec. as I recall) at the VOB break points.
Doing it the way that has been suggested overcomes this problem.

[Juris Lielpeteris]

A few times I have had problems with DVD import in Vegas, if the original disc has a very complex structure. In such cases I have helped by reauthoring DVD using TMPGEnc Authoring Works.

[Garrett Low]

Originally Posted by Mike Kujbida

The problem using the built in Vegas tool is that there will always be an audio dropout (1/2 sec. to 1 sec. as I recall) at the VOB break points.
Doing it the way that has been suggested overcomes this problem.

That's interesting Mike. I've never had a problem with dropouts when using the import tool. It was created to import from the Mini Disc cameras that came and went. It's when I try to drag and drop directly on to the timeline that I get a lot of problems.

[Bruce Phung]

I find it best to copy the ts video file to hard drive and then import that into Vegas and edit it away.

[Gerald Webb]

Thanks Leslie for this tip.
This small program-
MPEG editor and DVD editor- Womble Multimedia, Inc.
is a very good tool for doing just this.
It will import, edit, add simple FX, titles etc.
Vegas does this too.... but,
Womble goes out of its way to SMART render the whole project, only recompressing your new titles, crossfades etc.
To do the same in Vegas is painful unless you know the exact parameters of the original mpg render and have a fair bit of luck. MediaInfo helps but isn't foolproof.

Of course if you need to CC the whole job the point is mute.
In which case you could do this, YMMV depending on quality of original footage,

Import footage to 32bit comp,
convert to Lagarith, Cineform etc
Re import,
Add in this order-
Neat video- Unsharpen mask- sharpen- noise (just a bit)
Render back to your intermediate again.

This cleans and actually improves your mpg original footage.
Can do this in Vegas, but if you have AFX it does it faster.
:)

[Mike Kujbida]

Originally Posted by Garrett Low

That's interesting Mike. I've never had a problem with dropouts when using the import tool. It was created to import from the Mini Disc cameras that came and went. It's when I try to drag and drop directly on to the timeline that I get a lot of problems.

Garrett, I did a test today with a DVD that I had done a timecode burn on for a client. I know that the DVD was exactly 90 min. long (SMPTE non-drop). The DVD had 9 chapters on it and 9 segments got imported using the DVD import option. As suspected, there was a 2 frame dropout at every segment change with accompanying audio dropout as well. Also, the resulting program length was exactly 18 frames short of 90 minutes.
Importing it using the method that was described earlier in this thread (dragging the VTS_01_0.IFO to the timeline) resulted in a single file that was exactly 90 minutes long, just like the original file.