VOB -> AVI/MPG questions

[d!abolic]

I just ripped the Robin Williams Live on Broadway DVD and i want to share a few scenes with a friend over the net. So what i need to do here is convert the VOBs into AVI or MPG, and then find a way to cut out a few segments. How would i go about doing this? First off, how do i convert VOB into MPG/AVI? I tried DVDx, but it doesn't seems to be CD-only, and i need this stuff on my hard disk. And then, how do i cut them up? Though i've never used it before, i think i can cut video segments out in Premiere, right? But what about the audio?

[ArdenDag]

First, welcome.

Second, start off by using Gordian Knot to prepate your .vob files into .d2v project file(s), via the internal DVD2AVI program GUI (you can do this otherwise, too, but it's easier through Gordian Knot). Please read the FAQs for Gordian Knot on how to do this CORRECTLY.

You can select different parts of the presentation by using the [ and ] buttons and only make project files out of those segments. For more information on this, read up on the Gordian Knot and DVD2AVI faqs that are available on www.doom9.org .

Once the .d2v files are created, you can use Gordian Knot (again) to create a script file for encoding. Open the file in Gordian Knot (there should be a small horizontal box near the borrom of Gordian Knot's Interface with DVD2AVI written near it, press open there, select the D2V file, then MINIMIZE it, don't close the window.

In Gordian Knot, you have a lot of options, first, to select the type of media you wish to output to (VCD/SVCD/.AVI), resolution, bitrate, etc etc. All these are dependant on one another (i.e. if you want high quality, you'll get a higher file-size, but the lower the resolution you have, the less necessary higher bitrates are, etc etc, please read the FAQs for Gordian Knot).

Once you select your settings, restore the minized window that you opened, and click 'save and encode'.

Once again follow the directions in the Gordian Knot FAQ on what settings do what, and what to do to correctly assure encoding begins correctly.

I'm sorry if this all sounds too confusing, but after about 30 minutes you get the hang of everything and you no longer need any FAQ sheets in front of you to encode again.

Once you feel secure about encoding, you can use other programs at your leisure, but starting with Gordian Knot will help you get a basic grasp of encoding.

Hope this helps!

[d!abolic]

Thanks for the info, it was very helpful! Now i made the two-hour DVD into a 550MB AVI and the quality is excellent! One problem though, the AVI doesn't appear to have sound. Instead, it created a separate, 350MB AC3 file in the same directory. So how do i combine the two? Of course, i will first need to compress the AC3 into 128kbit MP3, or something similar.

[ArdenDag]

And you get to step 2.

Inside Gordian Knot you will notice there is an option for Audio 1 and Audio 2. This will tell you what percentage of your video file will be audio, and what percentage will be video.

In any case, you need a program to transcode the .ac3 to an .mp3. Easiest for this is BeSweet, but it is a COMMAND LINE UTILITY, so... unless you want to do a lot of typing...

A BeSweet script utility is built into Gordian Knot, go to the encoding tab and click 'add job'.

Now, click on the Audio 1 tab, select the .ac3 file you need to encode. Select MP3, custom parameters. You will see some parameters to the left added. Under Lame you will notice the bitrate is probably at 128, that is normally good enough for the quality of file you're producing (.avi for 1 CD) but you can always increase that to 160 if you wish something a little higher quality.

Add the audio encoding job to your queue, and it will create an .MP3 in that directory with the same name.

Once that is finished, you will need to Multiplex (Mux) or in layman's terms combine the audio and video.

For this you can use Nandub (which is included with Gordian Knot's full installation, check under the start menu, Gordian Knot, Apps)

Run Nandub, open the video file you wish to combine with audio.

Select under Video --> DIRECT STREAM COPY <---

Then under Audio select --> DIRECT STREAM COPY <-- if it is not already selected.

Now check VBR (MP3) Input, also under the Audio menu.

Select the MP3 file which BeSweet made.

Under file, select --> SAVE AVI <--

Save it under a different name than your original file.

Voila.


All together this should take anywhere from 20 minutes to 2 hours depending on the speed of your computer. Transcoding the audio takes a while, but combining the audio and video only takes a few minutes.



So you know, almost all of this is available on FAQs and GUIDES on the www.doom9.org website...

So you should check there more often :)

BTW, you might want to read up on VirtualDub's features, and tidbits here: http://www.doom9.org/index.html?/virtualdub_procedures.htm

A good read

[d!abolic]

Awesome, thanks for all the info!!

[ArdenDag]

No problem :)

[d!abolic]

I followed your instructions, but something went wrong. The MP3 encoded just fine - it's 85MB, sounds great and has two audio channels. But when i combined it with the video stream, the result only seems to have one channel. When i loaded the audio/video up in Nandub before multiplexing, i could hear both channels, but the avi that was created has but one. What did i do wrong?

[ArdenDag]

Hmm, I've not had this problem before, so I don't know.

Hopefully someone here can answer this! :)