no audio when ripping vob files

[Redheadskater]

Hello-

I have a friend of mine who was featured on a local TV station regarding some awards she had won and a friend captured it on their DVR. The DVD that I have is in .vob format.

What I would like to do is convert this over to .avi so I can load it into Pinnacle Studio 8 so that I can edit it down to a reasonable size (it's 509MB right now!) and put it in .mpg file format.

I have ripped it successfully using SmartRipper and then I used Auto Gordian Knot to convert it to .avi. When I view the .avi video, all is well except there is no audio at all.

Can someone please offer some guidance on where I might be going wrong? I've been searching the forums and I did find one other post that had the same problem as I, but no one responded.

Any help is greatly appreciated.

Lisa

[ammck55]

Welcome to the Forum, Lisa:

Take a look at the AutoGK FAQ (http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?t=72679), specifically, point 2.12. Everything under the "2's" in that FAQ deals with audio issues. This problem may be as simple as downloading and installing the AC3 Filter.

When you used AGK to convert your file, you also compressed it, either with the XviD, or DivX codec, depending on which selection you made. I'm not sure if Pinnacle Studio 8 will accept either of these codecs, but you can import your original .vob files, simply change the file extension/s to *mpg*, or *mpeg*. Yes, it will work. ;) For instance;

*yourmovie.vob* (change to) *yourmovie.mpg* (minus the asterisks, of course)

Every time you re-encode, you'll lose a little quality. If you use the files you've got in hand and complete this cycle, you'll have gone from MPEG-2 to AVI back to MPEG-2. Try the file extension change first.

500+ MB files really aren't that big unless you've got Web delivery in mind; do you have other compression criteria that you've not made us aware of, yet?

ammck55

[Redheadskater]

Thanks for suggesting the AC3 filter. I've got it and I'm going to start from scratch again to see if this works. When I tried to change the file extension to .mpg, it does work, however, the sound quality is terrible - it's like a playing a record with a bunch of scratches. If you're old enough to remembers records, you'll know what I'm talking about. :p




When you used AGK to convert your file, you also compressed it, either with the XviD, or DivX codec, depending on which selection you made. I'm not sure if Pinnacle Studio 8 will accept either of these codecs,


I didn't even realize that it could be a codec problem with Pinnacle. I'll have to search their site to see if they have any info on what they do accept.



500+ MB files really aren't that big unless you've got Web delivery in mind; do you have other compression criteria that you've not made us aware of, yet?



Web delivery is exactly what I had in mind. She has a web site and wanted to display the news report on the site.

I'm going to give this another whirl and I'll post back with the results.

Thanks for the pointers!
Lisa

[ammck55]

Here's a link to the Pinnacle Studio 8 Discussion Forum (http://webboard.pinnaclesys.com/read_forums.asp?WebboardID=1&ForumID=681&SectionID=143&lng=1). I just surfed through a thread in one of the sub-fora that said they'd closed down the Studio 8 site as far as new posts, but there will be tons of info you can view as "read-only". Seems that most of the guys over there have moved on to v.9, or v.10.

I've not used any of the Pinnacle products, but for your job, get into the help files; anything you want to know will be in there if you only look for the right terms. You already have a file you want to work with (your original files--captured/burned to disc), so the first thing I'd look for is entries under "Import" in the search index. After you successfully import your file/s and iron out your audio problems and finish the editing end of the project, look next to the "Export" section where the documentation will either fully explain, or at the very least, point you to your destination format options. You might even be able to dig up a screenshot tutorial on the Pinnacle site, or from a global internet-wide search.

I've read recently that Firefox is coming out with a DivX/XviD plug in for their browser, but since Firefox currently has around 7-8% of the market browser share, I'd not encode to these formats as your sole offering. Manono recently commented that XviD loses a good bit of resolution under the low bitrates that you'll end up encoding to for Web delivery, but I just haven't had time to do the testing it takes to speak anywhere nearly authoritatively on the topic. Additionally, take a good look at encoding your audio to VBR 128k, this will give you an even smaller filesize at what is acceptable quality for the Web. After you become familiar with the encoding GUI, you'll be able to find all of these options blindfolded.

For Web delivery, the Windows Media Video (.WMV) format is the big screaming bird for the fact that so many PC's come with it (and a MS OS) installed. Apple's Quicktime (.MOV) format is next, along with Real. Remember, whichever destination format you choose, the majority of your "target" audience has to have the codec installed on their machines, or they'll be unalbe to render the file in their media players. Starting out with .WMV and .MOV files will cover your bases. It's a common practice to encode to multiple formats and offer your Web visitors options viable clickable links to download the format they're most familiar with. Do some reading on Web delivery, there's plenty of food for thought out there. ;)

You should be able to squeeze this file down to 10-15 MB's, but only your own eyes and ears will tell you what the acceptable quality limitations are. On dial-up, this is still a big file, so you might end up creating multiple clips in your editor and encoding a series of smaller, separate clips. Before you turn this project loose on the public, I'd suggest you create a testing site and check out the download speeds/quality, it might keep you from getting any nasty surprises/scathing feedback.

Heck, you might find yourself in possession of a ton of skills in editing/authoring/Web delivery; if so, come back and share the wealth. :) Hang in there and don't give up!

ammck55

[ammck55]

Here's a link to the Pinnacle Studio 8 Discussion Forum (http://webboard.pinnaclesys.com/read_forums.asp?WebboardID=1&ForumID=681&SectionID=143&lng=1). I just surfed through a thread in one of the sub-fora that said they'd closed down the Studio 8 site as far as new posts, but there will be tons of info you can view as "read-only". Seems that most of the guys over there have moved on to v.9, or v.10.

I've not used any of the Pinnacle products, but for your job, get into the help files; anything you want to know will be in there if you only look for the right terms. You already have a file you want to work with (your original files--captured/burned to disc), so the first thing I'd look for is entries under "Import" in the search index. After you successfully import your file/s and iron out your audio problems and finish the editing end of the project, look next to the "Export" section where the documentation will either fully explain, or at the very least, point you to your destination format options. You might even be able to dig up a screenshot tutorial on the Pinnacle site, or from a global internet-wide search.

I've read recently that Firefox is coming out with a DivX/XviD plug in for their browser, but since Firefox currently has around 7-8% of the market browser share, I'd not encode to these formats as your sole offering. Manono recently commented that XviD loses a good bit of resolution under the low bitrates that you'll end up encoding to for Web delivery, but I just haven't had time to do the testing it takes to speak anywhere nearly authoritatively on the topic. Additionally, take a good look at encoding your audio to VBR 128k, this will give you an even smaller filesize at what is acceptable quality for the Web. After you become familiar with the encoding GUI, you'll be able to find all of these options blindfolded.

For Web delivery, the Windows Media Video (.WMV) format is the big screaming bird for the fact that so many PC's come with it (and a MS OS) installed. Apple's Quicktime (.MOV) format is next, along with Real. Remember, whichever destination format you choose, the majority of your "target" audience has to have the codec installed on their machines, or they'll be unalbe to render the file in their media players. Starting out with .WMV and .MOV files will cover your bases. It's a common practice to encode to multiple formats and offer your Web visitors options via clickable links to download the format they're most familiar with. Do some reading on Web delivery, there's plenty of food for thought out there. ;)

You should be able to squeeze this file down to 10-15 MB's, but only your own eyes and ears will tell you what the acceptable quality limitations are. On dial-up, this is still a big file, so you might end up creating multiple clips in your editor and encoding a series of smaller, separate clips. Before you turn this project loose on the public, I'd suggest you create a testing site and check out the download speeds/quality, it might keep you from getting any nasty surprises/scathing feedback.

Heck, you might find yourself in possession of a ton of skills in editing/authoring/Web delivery; if so, come back and share the wealth. :) Hang in there and don't give up!

ammck55

[Redheadskater]

Here's a link to the Pinnacle Studio 8 Discussion Forum (http://webboard.pinnaclesys.com/read_forums.asp?WebboardID=1&ForumID=681&SectionID=143&lng=1). I just surfed through a thread in one of the sub-fora that said they'd closed down the Studio 8 site as far as new posts, but there will be tons of info you can view as "read-only". Seems that most of the guys over there have moved on to v.9, or v.10.

Thanks for that link. When I did some research I found out that the Pinnacle v.9 or v. 10 accepted more file formats, I was tempted to go ahead and upgrade but then I remembered I'm flat broke due to Christmas!


Do some reading on Web delivery, there's plenty of food for thought out there. ;)

This is actually the one area that I am familiar with! The my ultimate goal was to create a .wmv and .mov file for downloading.


Heck, you might find yourself in possession of a ton of skills in editing/authoring/Web delivery; if so, come back and share the wealth. :) Hang in there and don't give up!

ammck55

I'm not ready to give up yet. I've been working on this for about 3 weeks now. I'm so green to all of this - codecs, GUI's, bitrates, etc - very confusing to figure it all out for a newbie. And yes, I did read the stuff under the Guides -> Newbie section but unless you're an engineering major in college, this stuff is hard to follow.

I'll be back later with more reports...

[ammck55]

You can find an upgrade for v.10.1 for as little as $40 US, so if you're familiar and comfortable with the Pinnacle Studio GUI, tighten up on some of your recreational activities and bite the bullet. ;)

I've never dealt with (or had reason to) television studios, but you might want to pick up the phone and call those guys. If you could get lucky enough to pipeline straight in to the guy that edited the shoot for primetime production, you might get really lucky. At the very least, even talking to those guys will give you clues you hadn't even thought of.

Cheer for the year....ammck55