VHS capture VOB / IFO problem

[mikewillnot]

I have pretty good experience at backing up DVD's, but this is my first major capture / conversion attempt. Please forgive if I accidentally ask a stupid question.

I'm using an ATI "All-in-Wonder" capture card, and the bundled ATI Multimedia Center software, to capture a 90-minute videotape to a single DVD quality mpeg2 file, with an ultimate goal of burning it to a DVD-R playable on a standalone. The resulting file is about 5 gb, and it's on the wrong machine (one with only a CD burner).

I'm thinking to use IFOedit, make an IFO for it, split it into 650mb chunks in a fake strip operation, burn them to individual CD's so I can transfer them to the machine with the DVD burner. (This in itself may be doing things the hard way; I'm guessing I could just use a split utility (VOBsplit?) and chop it up, transfer it.)

FIRST PROBLEM: I changed the big file from xxx.mp2 to vts_01_1.vob, tried to create IFOs, and got this error: "Could not find any VOB unit in VOB file(s)." Could anyone please help me understand what this means, how to work around it, and whether or not this is a dumb idea in the first place?

QUESTION: If I chop the file using another tool, and move it, won't I still have the same problem?

Any insight or suggestions would be GREATLY appreciated. Thanks.

[aklendathu]

VOB is more than MPEG-2... You need to master the DVD title set (with e.g. SpruceUp) - split your MPEG-2 file into video and audio streams
first to make the processing easier.

[mikewillnot]

I'm not even sure it's the right tool for what I want to do, but I'm experimenting with SpruceUp, and can't get to where I want with the trial version. Anyone have current info on how to get to a full/registered version? Thanks.

[aklendathu]

SpruceUp is no longer sold. You may want to try DVD Lab which seems to be a fairly powerful authoring tool. If all you want is a DVD movie with no menus, then use IFOEdit - it's free.

Cheers,

Pedro.

[mikewillnot]

Thanks, pedro. I experimented w DVDLab a bit, but at the same time I had a trial version of Pinnacle Studio 8 installed, and one or the the other really screwed up my system. I think it was P-8, but in the recovery process I uninstalled both. Maybe I'll try that one again.

What I'm trying to do is combine clips from two different kinds of source material: commercial DVD's, and VHS (captured via analog-DV conversion in a camcorder, -> firewire). The sticking point seems to be that the DVD clips have AC3 audio, which consumer level editing suites apparently can't handle; the captured clips have some other kind of audio, depending on capture settings -- at this point, mp2. The only common denominator I could get to so far is by outputting the captured clips in DVD-Video mode, and combining those VOB's with the ones clipped from the DVD's, on a single new disc.

CORRECTION: 3 different kinds of source: DVD-4:3, DVD-16:9, VHS-4:3