Changing file extension vs. converting to .avi

[hold-onhope.livejournal.com]

Hey vidders,

I'm very new to this process, so of course the information out there is pretty overwhelming. I'm hoping you can help me decide my best choice as far as which program to use, how to go about ripping DVD files, codecs, etc.

I have both Adobe Premiere Pro CS4 and Sony Vegas Movie Studio HD. As far as making/editing clips, I really like Premiere (although it's possible that Vegas' trimmer is just as easy to use and I just can't figure it out...). I'm confused about ripping DVDs. Apparently Premiere doesn't like XviD/DivX, so I've been trying to avoid that.

What I've done is ripped a disc of episodes (S1 of Supernatural, not that it matters much) using CloneDVD5, which of course gave me .vob files. I looked around the internet a bit, and learned that Premiere will accept .vob files if you change the extension to .mpg, and it worked. I was able to import a .vob file and played around with editing it as well. The only problem I ran into is that the episodes were split into more than one .vob file - is that something my DVD ripper did, and if so, how can I fix it?

The big problem is that it seems too easy. Will I have trouble exporting/getting my finished vid onto the internet if the clips used were edited as .vob/.mpg files?

Basically I'm wondering if I should stick with Premiere, and if so, keep editing as .mpg or try to convert my .vob files into something else. Or, should I just convert them into DivX files and learn how to use Vegas? I realize that what program you use is just a preference issue, but I don't want further complications down the line.

Thanks!

Comments

[nestra.livejournal.com]

The only problem I ran into is that the episodes were split into more than one .vob file - is that something my DVD ripper did, and if so, how can I fix it?

That's the way they rip.

I'm sure someone will come along who can answer your technical questions, but you might find it helpful to check out this guide (http://www.animemusicvideos.org/guides/avtech3/), if you haven't already.

Deleted and reposted for HTML fail.

[hold-onhope.livejournal.com]

Ah, thank you so much for the link! It looks to be invaluable.

[(Anonymous)]

I have both Adobe Premiere Pro & Vegas Pro and personally, I find Vegas easier to use on all counts. It's not near as finicky as Premiere in terms of file formats that it will accept, but it's just much more user friendly in general. It's well worth the the investment spent in learning to use it imo. Especially if you follow that website. Just my two cents.

[hold-onhope.livejournal.com]

Thanks for your advice! I know there are a ton of tutorials I can look at, so maybe with some more tinkering around I'll get the hang of Vegas.

[mranderson71.livejournal.com]

If you rip with DVD Shrink 3.2 there is an option to rip the entire thing as 1 VOB. It might be more of an option when doing single episodes - though it could cause you problems as your system might have a heart attack trying to import a single 2 gig-ish file.

http://www.dvdshrink.org/

When ripping you uncheck the option of splitting into 1 GB chunks.

[hold-onhope.livejournal.com]

I'll give it a try; thanks!

[littlesammy.livejournal.com]

I found that BitRipper (http://www.bitripper.com/) is perfect for episodes - it's freeware, and it rips single episodes and even converts them into single files, using the codec you want. It's like, it gives you a track list, you choose the track you want, you choose the output directory, a file name, and that's basically it. You can rip them as high-quality avi files, too, which will work with a lot more programs.

[littleheaven70.livejournal.com]

I've always edited raw .vob files in Sony Vegas, even though it's supposed not to work with them. I rip my shows by chapter so each file is not too massive (I use SmartRipper). You can also set that particular program to rip files in chunks of 50MB or 100MB or whatever you prefer, but you do run the risk of cutting the scene you want in half. At least ripping by chapter you normally get it broken on a cut between scenes. When you import the files into Vegas, just browse to the folder your .vob files are stored in and change the file type to "all files" and hey presto, your vobs will show up and should work just fine.

This is the cheating way to do it and I do need to warn you that at some stage Vegas may decide not to work with .vob files. This is because .vob is not a truly editable format. The "proper" way to do things is to use something like VirtualDub to convert the .vob files into lossless .avi files with the HuffyUv or Lagarith codecs. So far I've managed to get away with it, though, and I've made about 14 vids over the years, with many different versions of Vegas, so I've never bothered to go that extra step :o)

[hold-onhope.livejournal.com]

From what I understand it's mostly about preference - quality of the video and such. I was more worried that I would spend all the time & care to edit a vid, and then try to export it only to find it wouldn't play.

I might end up just ripping in chunks - I just have to decide how I'm going to archive everything. I'm really organized so it bugs me that the DVDs don't just have each episode under the same title!

[littleheaven70.livejournal.com]

Well, that's not strictly true, because .vob is not really an editable format. I don't understand the technicalities of it all, but it's got something to do with it not having individual frames (?). Anyway, my point is that you can do it but don't be surprised if out of the blue it starts giving you issues, in which case you will then need to start converting your source to lossless .avi instead (if you're going for best quality).

DVD files are compressed, which is why the .vobs are not recommended for editing with. That said, unless you've got hi-def source, they're the best quality files you're going to get, because things like DivX are compressed even further.

Here's how I've been doing it for ages now, and it's always worked fine:

Rip DVD with SmartRipper by chapter. In the process of doing this, name the file with the season, episode and chapter name. Because I started out vidding BTVS/Angel, which is divided up into 15 chapters per ep, that gave me nice small chunks of a couple of minutes each. So I'd get a file like S01E01-WelcomeToTheHellmouth01 (chapter 1 of the first ep of season 1). When I did my clip research, I'd make notes by episode name and chapter, so then I'd know exactly which file my desired scene was in.

When editing, make sure you match your Vegas project settings to the source. If you go into the project properties, there's a wee folder at the top right of the dialogue box - click on that and browse to one of your files, and select it. Vegas will read your file and make your project properties match. This will ensure your preview displays in the correct aspect ratio and such.

When you're exporting your file, render it to the closest possible format to your original source, or to uncompressed .avi if you have the hard drive space. For example, if I am using PAL DVD which is in widescreen, I'd render to PAL Widescreen. That'll give you a vid of almost a gig. Uncompressed .avi will give you a vid of almost 10 gig. The reason I do this is that the transitions and effects render much more cleanly if Vegas isn't trying to compress them to another format (like .wmv) at the same time.

Then I close my project file, import the finished vid, and use that file to make my smaller versions. Because everything is already rendered, now you're just compressing. I actually got my best results importing my big vid files into Windows Movie Maker to make smaller .wmv versions, because WMM has loads more bitrate options than Vegas for a bigger range of resultant file sizes. And for some reason, it always came out really crisp.

Anyway, hope that helps somewhat!

[hold-onhope.livejournal.com]

Thank you SO much, for the play-by-play, that is a tremendous help. When I first started this I thought that ripping the DVDs would be easy, just getting the episodes off there and working with them - I knew next to nothing about compression, file type, frame rate, making clips... yeah, complete newbie. But lots of tutorial reading and info like what you gave me help a ton.

I like to be super organized about things, so ripping by chapter might work really well for me. I don't think my current ripper does it by chapter, so I never thought of it as an option before. Thanks!

[littleheaven70.livejournal.com]

You are welcome. I think most vidders agree that clipping and preparing the source is the most tedious and arduous part of vidding.

SmartRipper is freeware and rips by chapter or you can specify file size, but won't rip copy protected DVD's. To solve that issue, I also run a programme called AnyDVD which isn't free, but is a total necessity so worth obtaining. I originally got it because hubby accidentally region-locked his DVD drive to Region 1 (we're in Region 4) and found it had many other benefits :o)