Editing VOB file from DVD

[Mattaut]

I need to change the text on one still screen on a DVD. What would be the best way to edit the VOB file without losing quality? I need to burn the DVD again after I'm finished editing and maintain the original picture quality. I was reading about DVDxDV before and that looks like a good option to convert it to a format that a movie editing software will accept. I have iMovie right now and I'm thinking the quality will decrease when I export it from there. Does anybody know a way to maintain the quality if I use iMovie? Is DVDxDV the best conversion software to use? Is it worth the extra $55 to get DVDxDV Pro? Will I need to invest in better editing software to maintain the quality? What software should I get?

Or does somebody know a completely different route to take to do the minor editing I need done and maintain the quality?

Thanks

 

[slu]

You will not be able to do this without losing quality if you convert the video to another format and then re-compress the video to burn back to DVD. If you convert, you will lose quality. No way around it.

The only way not to lose quality would be to edit the uncompressed source video before it was compressed to MPEG2 for DVD.

MPEG Streamclip might be of service here, but you will have to buy a plug in from Apple for about $20 in order to work with VOB files. I forget what it is called, but the program will tell you what you need.

When I need to edit something on a DVD, I use MPEG Streamclip to convert the VOB to DV, then I edit in FCE, then I export to a QuickTime movie and burn back to DVD with iDVD. This looks pretty good, but you do lose quality.

 

[Exman]

Or does somebody know a completely different route to take to do the minor editing I need done and maintain the quality?

Thanks

The best method in this situation is to edit and re-encode only the part you want, leaving the rest of the DVD untouched so they retain full original quality, i.e you only lose quality on the sections that are edited.

DVDxDV can help you achieve this, but you also need a editor like Final Cut or Adobe Premier. Say your DVD movie is 3hours long, and you only want to edit a small segment, maybe from the 37min - 45min mark.

Load your DVD into DVDxDV, chose the title with the longest duration, it will be the main movie. Then on the timeline, you mark the area of that title you wish to rip/extract onto the HDD for editing.

Here, I illustrate an example with The Greenmile DVD, on the timeline, I marked from the 37min - 43min, this is the area I want re-editing, so I will extract it by going "Extract>to VOB file", like the picture below. Save and give it a meaningful name like 'segment2.vob'

You must extract it to VOB because this is a lossless method, the other options will re-encode that segment, which means you'll lose quality right away.

Now you'll have to extract the two other areas to the left and right of that segment, this effectively splits your DVD into three sections.

In this second reference image, the segment extracted above is highlighted in blue, the green and red segments ajoining blue must also be extracted to VOB files, call them 'segment2.vob' and 'segment3.vob'. All you're doing is mark the DVD and splitting it into three parts, in lossless format. Just be sure you mark them right, so nothing overlaps.

The next part is re-editing 'segment2.vob'. Rename this to *.mpg and Adobe Premier will happily edit it. Once you're done with the re-editing, re-encoding a new .mpg file. Call it segment2.mpg. When you are re-encoding this segment, be sure to use the same bitrate and settings as the original (e.g PAL, NTSC, 4:3, 16:9 etc).

Rename segment1.vob and segment3.vob into *.mpg. Merge them all into one big mpg file, and then re-author the DVD.

 

[Mattaut]

Using a DVD player+Camcorder

Thanks Exman. Only issue I had with your method was that I can't edit .mpg files in iMovie and I can't afford Premiere. I can afford FCE, but that doesn't edit .mpg either.

I was thinking of another way to accomplish this, doesn't really comply with the thread title though. I'm going to try to hook up my DCR-VX2000 miniDV camera to a DVD player and record the DVD onto DV tape, then feed the DV directly into iMovie and edit it there. This way the only way I might lose quality is when I'm exporting it from iMovie, though hopefully I can get the settings right so any quality loss is practically unoticeable.

When I hook up the camera to the DVD player and play the DVD, the A/V will feed into the camera right? I'm not going to have access to the DVD player until next week so just want to make sure everything will work. If anybody sees a flaw in my plan, or you have any suggestions please post. Thanks.