Joining DVD files?

[Travis F]

Hey all,

Let me start by saying I have no experience with dvd editing. With that in mind, I have been requested to join two dvd files from a "handy cam" that burnt directly to mini-dvd. I have no idea how to do this. I have successfully ripped the discs to my HD.

I am totally lost, so any help or links down the right path are greatly appreciated!

BTW - This is a wedding video that had to be split due to the mini-dvd capacity. The Videographer was a friend of the Bride and has given all permission to edit the video as they wish. Unfortunatey I was given the task of doing this.

Any and all help is appreciated!
Travis

[Stealthy Ninja]

You need a video editing program.

If you have a PC you can use windows movie maker
If you have a Mac you can use imovie

Both will let you join files together pretty easy.

What format did you rip the DVDs to?

[osv]

the best way is to join the files on the disks together without re-encoding to another format, because you'll take a hit on picture quality.

http://womble.com/

mpeg video wizard is what i use, there is a 30-day trial to check it out, the editor is kinda clumsy, but you can't beat the quality.

[Stealthy Ninja]

the best way is to join the files on the disks together without re-encoding to another format, because you'll take a hit on picture quality.

Which is why DVD video cams suck badly. They record to a compressed format. Dumb.

There are ways you can rip a DVD without much loss in quality (none you can see anyway).

http://www.autogk.me.uk/ <-- this program is very good at ripping DVDs (on PC).

[Travis F]

You need a video editing program.

If you have a PC you can use windows movie maker
If you have a Mac you can use imovie

Both will let you join files together pretty easy.

What format did you rip the DVDs to?

I think they came off as VTS and VOB files. I deleted them since I didn't have any luck joining them. I'll rip them again tomorrow and find out the file types.

Thanks for the info,
Travis

[Stealthy Ninja]

You'll need to rip them to AVI or MOV files (AVI for PC and MOV for mac).

[overclock]

http://www.videohelp.com/guides

[osv]

Which is why DVD video cams suck badly. They record to a compressed format. Dumb.

There are ways you can rip a DVD without much loss in quality (none you can see anyway).

http://www.autogk.me.uk/ <-- this program is very good at ripping DVDs (on PC).

dvd video cams record in the same mpeg2 format that all dvds use... which does make it tough to edit without losing quality, i see your point there.

the key is to rip the video files losslessly, and womble does just that... it's an exact copy of what is on the dvd disc, and it will join those dvd video files together without any quality loss at all, because it does not re-encode the footage.

[osv]

I think they came off as VTS and VOB files. I deleted them since I didn't have any luck joining them. I'll rip them again tomorrow and find out the file types.

Thanks for the info,
Travis

look at the file sizes, the vobs are the video files.

vob is an mpeg2 file type.

[Stealthy Ninja]

dvd video cams record in the same mpeg2 format that all dvds use... which does make it tough to edit without losing quality, i see your point there.

the key is to rip the video files losslessly, and womble does just that... it's an exact copy of what is on the dvd disc, and it will join those dvd video files together without any quality loss at all, because it does not re-encode the footage.

Sounds cool. I've done a LOT of DVD ripping in my work (clients like to give me trouble I think ;) ). I found AGK (Auto Gordian Knot) is the best on PC for retaining quality (never tried womble though). On the mac, I use Handbrake or 4Media DVD ripper. Depending on what I need to do.

[Zepher]

Which is why DVD video cams suck badly. They record to a compressed format. Dumb.

Link to a digital camcorder that shoots and records uncompressed video.

[Stealthy Ninja]

Link to a digital camcorder that shoots and records uncompressed video.

Granted they compress. But DVD compression is much worse.

This one records at 21 Mbit/s (1920x1080)

http://catalog2.panasonic.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ModelDetail?displayTab=O&storeId=11201&catalogId=13051&itemId=274232&catGroupId=112502&surfModel=AG-HMC150

HDV 1080i uses a recording data rate of 25 Mbit/s.

DVD is 10.5Mbits/s (fastest it can write/record) and is SD anyway.

So I see your point. But it's all about the AMOUNT of compression. ;)

[gsenthil]

try DVDShrink 3.2 Free download from mrbass.org Very easy to use and it wont re-encode unless you ask it to

[seohadczy]

You need a video editing program.

If you have a PC you can use windows movie maker
If you have a Mac you can use imovie

Both will let you join files together pretty easy.

[Stealthy Ninja]

You need a video editing program.

If you have a PC you can use windows movie maker
If you have a Mac you can use imovie

Both will let you join files together pretty easy.

Dude, that sounded pretty familiar...


You need a video editing program.

If you have a PC you can use windows movie maker
If you have a Mac you can use imovie

Both will let you join files together pretty easy.

What format did you rip the DVDs to?

[Travis F]

You'll need to rip them to AVI or MOV files (AVI for PC and MOV for mac).

Thanks for all the help so far. I am just getting back to this, sorry for the long delay in my response to all the help.

I have no idea how to rip them to AVI format. Any suggestions there? I used a free program the first time, DVD shrink. I don't know the version number though.

Thanks,
Travis

[osv]

you do NOT want to rip them to avi format, you'll lose picture quality if you do that.

please re-read the entire thread.

[Stealthy Ninja]

you do NOT want to rip them to avi format, you'll lose picture quality if you do that.

please re-read the entire thread.

Not nessarily:

An AVI file may carry audio/visual data inside the chunks in virtually any compression scheme, including Full Frame (Uncompressed), Intel Real Time (Indeo), Cinepak, Motion JPEG, Editable MPEG, VDOWave, ClearVideo / RealVideo, QPEG, and MPEG-4 Video.


It's a container, not the compression scheme itself.

[Travis F]

Ok, to follow up with this, I finally got something figured out. I ended using DVD shrink to rip the files frm both disks. I then went to reauthor mode and imported the files from both disks. Shrink then reencoded the files and burnt the disk. It may not have been the best way to do it but, it worked for what I needed to do.

If I ever have to do this again I'll research the other options a little more. I just see this as being a one time task so I didn't put too much into.

I appreciate all the input everyone has given.

Thanks,
Travis

[osv]

Not nessarily:

An AVI file may carry audio/visual data inside the chunks in virtually any compression scheme, including Full Frame (Uncompressed), Intel Real Time (Indeo), Cinepak, Motion JPEG, Editable MPEG, VDOWave, ClearVideo / RealVideo, QPEG, and MPEG-4 Video.


It's a container, not the compression scheme itself.

avi is a great format, but unfortunately, there is no software or workflow that i know of for going from vob mpeg2 on a dvd to avi, and back again to dvd, without re-rendering... when picture quality is paramount for dvd editing, avi is not an option.

when workflow is more important than picture quality, i guess that dvdshrink is an option.

[Stealthy Ninja]

avi is a great format, but unfortunately, there is no software or workflow that i know of for going from vob mpeg2 on a dvd to avi, and back again to dvd, without re-rendering... when picture quality is paramount for dvd editing, avi is not an option.

when workflow is more important than picture quality, i guess that dvdshrink is an option.

Yeah. That's right.

Nothing as bad as using video tapes though. :)

[osv]

i've heard of people shooting the tv screen with a camcorder, and then using that to "edit" the dvd with, lol!!

sometimes i get too hung up on picture quality :-/

[Stealthy Ninja]

I did a project that netted me about $2500 USD (though practically you could say it was more like $4000 AUS... ??? ).

For that I needed to get some footage off a video (of China in the past, historical stuff).

Unfortunately the videos were in NTSC (in HK it's PAL). Since my equipment wouldn't allow me to digitise it straight from the VCR. I had to shoot the screen of my TV. :shock:

Didn't matter though. The lack of quality just gave it a genuine "old" look. :)